The number, as they say, is unlucky 13, but it works for me. I'll be reading Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible. I've been meaning to get to it for some time but I keep putting it off, so this will be good for me.
Ah, lucky you. Short and hopefully interesting. At least it will take you out of 6th century Britain and into somewhere more ....... well, I was going to say "sane" but perhaps it will be just as insane, only in a different way? Please let us know! :-)
Yeah, definitely not a noticeably higher sanity level, but should be interesting. :) I expect to disagree with quite a lot, so I'll check up on that, Ruth!
I read this and even did a report on it in high school but I was so ignorant that I didn't realize it had anything to do with the McCarthyist witch-hunts till much later. I should really read it again (or preferably, watch it--I don't see enough plays).
"The Four Ages of Poetry," by Thomas Love Peacock I am becoming fond of Thomas Love Peacock. Besides his unbeatable name, he was a lot of fun. Peacock was a minor literary figure of the early 19th century; he tried his hand at poetry but mainly succeeded in satire. I read his short novel Nightmare Abbey last year, but at the time I didn't know that the young hero of the story, Scythrop, was modeled on Peacock's good friend Percy Shelley. He and Shelley were quite close and Peacock was the executor of Shelley's will. Thomas Love Peacock Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Four Ages of Poetry," a tongue-in-cheek essay on the history and development of poetry, was published in 1820 in a new magazine called Literary Miscellany , which promptly died. It would probably have been completely obscure and unknown--it nearly is anyway--but for Shelley. Peacock sent a copy to his friend, who I guess didn't really have much of a sense of
Good morning! I am not actually awake yet, because it's 5am and I need my sleep, and I will be mostly unable to join in the readathon until this afternoon. But here is the post where I will make updates. I'm supposed to answer these questions: 1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Sunny California! Emphasis on the "sunny"--after a nice cool spring it's in the 90s now. I live in the rural northern part above Sacramento that everyone forgets about--we hold 2% of the total population of California. 2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? It's a smorgasbord of delight! I don't even know. 3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? ...you think I'm well-prepared, don't you? I have a bag of sunflower seeds/Craisins/almond M&Ms, and I'm thinking quite seriously about treating myself to Indian food tonight. That's all I've got. 4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
1986 edition It's Diana Wynne Jones Day! Kristen at We Be Reading, our host, decreed that today we would discuss Howl's Moving Castle. And she has a great think-out on the different kinds of magic found in the story. Throwing several different kinds of magic into a world or a story seems to have been a bit of a DWJ trademark. I can remember quite well where Howl's Moving Castle lived on the shelf in the library where I grew up. It was not the first DWJ book I read (that was Witch's Business ) but it was one of the early ones. I must have found it right after it was published in 1986. As a result, I practically have it memorized -- I could not tell you how many times I've read it. Even so, I enjoy it anew every time, and I still have new realizations about what's going on. (Though possibly I have the same ones over and over, and just forget! My kids tell me so sometimes.) When I first met my husband, he had kind of forgotten reading for fun, a
Great play! I enjoyed it immensely, even though I researched Miller's underlying motive and totally disagreed with him.
ReplyDeleteAh, lucky you. Short and hopefully interesting. At least it will take you out of 6th century Britain and into somewhere more ....... well, I was going to say "sane" but perhaps it will be just as insane, only in a different way? Please let us know! :-)
ReplyDeleteAw, yay! Good choice by the Classics Club! I hope you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely not a noticeably higher sanity level, but should be interesting. :) I expect to disagree with quite a lot, so I'll check up on that, Ruth!
ReplyDeleteI read this and even did a report on it in high school but I was so ignorant that I didn't realize it had anything to do with the McCarthyist witch-hunts till much later. I should really read it again (or preferably, watch it--I don't see enough plays).
ReplyDelete