Gus Wood's booth (1912-1962). Punch and Judy. Slapstick, a 16 th century Italian tradition? A doll's house from Nuremberg, 1673. The very word 'Nuremberg' has lost all its innocence, though.
Makes you think just how impoverished an education most children receive; without music, art, history, languages, what is there but the dulling of sensitivities with the an information overload, the darkening of minds with books? The disciplined mind, the imaginative mind, the ethical mind (Gardener). Well, yes, but one needs to ditch the emphasis on 'mind'...intelligence is better than none, but intelligence without innocence or a sense of humour is a frightful thing.
Poussin on at the Dulwich picture gallery but don't think I'll be able to make the trek. Must find/buy Anthony Blunt's book one of these days (or maybe T.J.Clark's, even though he's some sort of Marxist).
JCO on HPL. Next post, promise. Thoroughly depressing, though. Ubo, in his old, non-mystical, pragmatic sort of way said: why are you reading about that 'loser'...tell me a story about a winner, a fighter. He's got a point: someone who lives on 30 cents a day and eats "spoiled food" does sound rather desperate. As the days grow shorter, such gothic/gnostic musings appeal less and less. Or maybe it's because I'm growing older.
After a few chapters of Hans Jonas' book you become convinced that this is just the same old story repeating itself, detail after monotonous detail. The lack of confidence in reason, society, language; alienation from oneself, estrangement from one's family, disillusionment with the times one is living in...all smacks of the most terrible sort of narcissism: 'I am the centre of the world'. De Waal's worldly, easy-going humanism seems a million miles away.
4 comments:
i am in love with leotard!!!
is it because he's french by any chance? :-)
But you're right, those old childhood games are fantastic (merry-go-round, puppets, etc.). And the museum is such a good idea! a mixture of history and learning activities.
thanks for dropping in, roxana.
hope you are well.
Take care,
b.
Glad to see you're enjoying London. Re-visiting old haunts? Had you been to the Museum of childhood before?
On books:Titus Burkhardt: yes. Others you mentioned: to get.
John Gill's book, Andalucia, is the work of a journalist, sure, but nonetheless fascinating for that. Wonderful grasp of the history and culture of the region, clearly, if occasionally a little flippantly expressed. Reading that, I am finally purged of my old ambition to visit the Alhambra, which I now see is just a theme park. The place to visit is Cadiz.
He's music writer as well - chapter on Andalucian music provides hours of innocent pleasure and idleness on YouTube!
Now on to David Hackett Fischer's Champlain's dream - equally fascinating and bettter written!
Garden Open over - thank Whoever. Life resumes.
C
C! hello! :-)
No, hadn't been before, though the dougal had mentioned it a few times and it's quite close to where I live (as is William Morris's house).
before I forget: have you read M. Drabble's jigsaw book? any good?
Alhambra: yes, too many tourists but, still: it's so beautiful! At one stage I was very keen on visiting Fez, but less so now.
Hmm. Andalucian music. Now that is something I would like to check out. Thanks for mentioning him. I'm sure Bob would know a thing or two on that. For Catalan music, there's the wonderful Montserrat and Jordi Savall.
Very tempted to see the Poussin on at the Dulwich (especially since there's supposed to be a short film by Tacita Dean-who I missed last time). And J. Jones thinks she's 'a great', so, so...
I wonder: is it the case that the fewer toys one has as a child the more one is forced to imagine things? A bit like the radio which, curiously, is something one can listen to with more attention than the t.v. And i can't but help think that the old films were stronger on story lines because they didn't have to rely on technology so much (special effects)
DHF? Will check him now (good old google!)
'life resumes'. Great title for a book (memoir)!
Take care,
b.
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