tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3080402048547418344.post1740261748683960168..comments2023-08-26T09:03:00.678-06:00Comments on Perpetual Novembers; Spring Eternal in my Mind; Late-Summer Labyrinths: The Name "Shit"; interchange with Natalie, Conversations with a Past Life May 28thRosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03786988308129044558noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3080402048547418344.post-85051098316368499112011-07-24T01:38:49.096-05:002011-07-24T01:38:49.096-05:00The title sounds very familiar. Is it by Henry Ja...The title sounds very familiar. Is it by Henry James? The novel that brought Isabel Allende into the limelight was "The House of the Spirits". She is considered one of the primary writers of Magical Realism. The novel is autobiographical fiction taking place in Chile up to the time of the assassination of Isabel's uncle and president of Chile, Salvador Allende, in 1972 if I'm correct. The character who represents Isabel's grandmother speaks with spirits etc... The book is so entwined with historical political and cultural data that I can't write her off as poetically creative. It seems to me that Pablo Neruda was personally friends with Isabel's family and appears in the novel. It also seems that he died just a few months after the assessination of Salvador Allende, death by natural causes, although he was firmly aware of what Pinochet's government was doing to the people left of center in the prisons. I imagine that if he was ill at the time, the helplessness Neruda felt must have killed him... If I'm correct, the Italian movie, Il Postino (The Postman) is about Pablo Neruda living in Italy during a period of exile...Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786988308129044558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3080402048547418344.post-30836197783504737632011-07-24T00:59:28.723-05:002011-07-24T00:59:28.723-05:00The perfect thing for you to read right now is the...The perfect thing for you to read right now is the novella, "The Turn of the Screw." It is about a governess who thinks she sees ghosts everywhere. It is never revealed whether the ghosts are "real" or whether she is mad, because that either/or question turns out to be the "wrong" question.Jennynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3080402048547418344.post-52163317104010022072011-07-23T15:03:52.439-05:002011-07-23T15:03:52.439-05:00That is absolutely wonderful Jenny. I use to thin...That is absolutely wonderful Jenny. I use to think of Henry James when I passed Gramercy Park on my way to the East Village. The funny thing is, in as much as I wanted to read him, I never did...Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03786988308129044558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3080402048547418344.post-53048059720703974292011-07-23T14:28:43.610-05:002011-07-23T14:28:43.610-05:00Ross, after a decade of literary study in Chapel H...Ross, after a decade of literary study in Chapel Hill, I wrote my 400+ page dissertation on Henry James's The Golden Bowl, specifically in relation to Zen narratives and metaphor. James is well recognized in literature departments as "The Father of Stream-of-Consciousness." He invented psychological realism. I have a connection with James so deep and so personal that when I read him I feel as if we are the closest, longest-duration friends in the universe. His ethics, his view of the world, particularly women, the music and delicate intricacies of his language . . . have frequently brought me to tears or made me pace the floor for 3 hours on end just to "walk off" his effect on me. When I'm in high flow states of writing, he tends to infect or haunt every line, all syntax.Jennynoreply@blogger.com