Daily Archives: June 15, 2012

A Year in Books/Day 158: Bloomsbury Recalled

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  • Title: Bloomsbury Recalled
  • Author: Quentin Bell
  • Year Published: 1995 (Columbia University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2002/2003
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: The author was the younger son of Vanessa and Clive Bell, two central figures in the Bloomsbury group (which was really just a loose network of friends, family and acquaintances). His aunt was, of course, novelist Virginia Woolf. Bloomsbury Recalled is his brief but excellently engaging memoir of the fascinating adults who formed his parents’ social and professional circles from WWI to the start of the next  great international conflict at the end of the 1930s. The little boy who grew up in a sticky web of conflicting personalities and crossed goals became an accomplished polymath with a distinctive, intelligent and highly amusing voice. His relaxed nature, probing wit and compelling birthright give this book a sparkle that the average Bloomsbury retrospective sorely lacks.
  • Motivation: Bloomsbury? Check. A relatively unbiased insider’s view? Check. Writers, artists and theorists? Oh my! Seriously, this book covers one of my favourite literary periods. That is reason enough.

    English: Portrait of Clive Bell

    English: Portrait of Clive Bell (Photo credit: Wikipedia). The author’s father.

  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Pages 11 & 12 : “I was not alarmed. I was convinced that I was not really consumptive; also, apart from the cough and high temperature, I did not feel at all ill. I enjoyed some fierce arguments with a clergyman, managed to do a little painting, and embarked upon historical research on the principality of Monaco for which I was totally unqualified.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10

A Year in Books/Day 157: Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson

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  • Title: Selected Poems & Letters of Emily Dickinson
  • Editor: Robert N. Linscott
  • Year Published: First edition:1959/This edition: ???? (An Anchor Book)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: This was a hand-me-down from a long-time friend.
  • About: If Emily Dickinson was alive and writing today, she would probably blog her poetry under a pseudonym. Since she was born in 1830, she composed reams of golden verse and hoarded them away in dark bureau corners. After she confined herself to home-a situation that was gradual, and not a fierce, sudden statement-she kept up with the outside world via the epistolary arts. Letters make the best (auto)biographies. They are a time capsule, a locus for self-mythology and the only genuine source of a person’s thoughts, feelings and actual opinions. For these reasons, I have long loved volumes with the chutzpah and heart (not to mention access to original material) to combine professional output with personal words. This book is a winner all around.
  • Motivation: Emily Dickinson is one of my preferred poets. Neruda is always and ever in the top spot, but she holds a place of honour in the court.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover:2/Random poems: countless
  • Random Excerpt/Page 288: “You wonder why I write so. Because I cannot help. I like to have you know some care-so when your life gets faint for its other life, you can lean on us. We won’t break, Mary. We look very small, but the reed can carry weight.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10+++
    Emily Dickinson

    Ubiquitous Emily Dickinson photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

Daily Diversion #15: Road to Nowhere

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The road to nowhere…..

The Road to Nowhere

We’ll take that ride

[ We’ve walked this quiet path before. Started, only to stop and turn around precisely where the road drops off at the top of this photograph: discouraged by time or weather or the onset of a sudden, strange ennui. This time, encouraged by a chorus of chirping birds, and enveloped in a moving and pervasive sense of calm, we persevered.]

Ends Somewhere

We’re on the road to paradise

….always ends somewhere.