Skip to main content
There has been little in the way of an update to this meagre blog, mainly due to the fact that not much has been happening. I am reading, of course, an inordinate amount of pages from the 19th century (which should excuse any heights of language to which I here aspire), but that's about it. I hear on the wind that there's to be a bit of a movie night tonight. Even so, that's not much of a change from the usual. For those who might care, and those who don't, I am presently making myself acquainted with the Right Honourable... Sir Walter Scott. His novel Guy Mannering is my present occupation, though I hear it is not one of his most popular. It has held my interest, though, for 320 pages, and I do not think I'm stretching my faith in Scott's authorship when I say that it will probably remain agreeable still for the 200 pages I have left to go. After this, I must blitz through Thomas de Quincey's odd memorandum entitled The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. I make my confession this: that I did not know till now that opium could be eaten. Ah well. There will always be ignorance of something, great or small, to humble us.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Can someone please explain why my Quicktime isn't working? Anyone with prophetic awareness of my little Atlas, none so old but recently behaving so?
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
I just finished Shiver , by Maggie Stiefvater, the other day. From the first few chapters, I had every reason to expect this book to rival the other dark-teen-romance novels recently released (you know which ones I mean). And in a way, it did. There was nothing obnoxious about this book. The characters were mostly believable and endearing. The story was subtle and simple. Maybe a little too simple. At times, maybe a little too subtle. The best chapters were the ones from Sam's point of view, when he's a wolf. That doesn't take up a whole lot of the story, unfortunately. I mean, it would seriously hamper the progression of the plot if he was a wolf for much more of the time, but the writing was still at its best then. Perhaps because it seemed that the poetic, lyrical passages were justified. I like Rilke just fine, and I know plenty of people who compose song lyrics in their heads, but Sam as a human was just maybe a little too emo for me. It could just be that I'm almo...