Morning Read
¶ Boccaccio’s word, translated by McWilliam as “adolescent,” is fanciullesco. “Girlish” would have been better. I wish that we could simply import “fanciullesco” into English. McWilliam notes that III, x — the story of Alibech and Rustico — used to be too hot to handle (translate). And no wonder! “La rissurezion della carne”! How’s that for a euphemism (for an erection). Putting the “devil” back into “hell.” Stelle!…. ¶ In the Aeneid, an archery context. Footnotes might explain what Acestes’s arrow, bursting into flames, portends (not that I’m keen to know)….¶ C K Williams: “rising perhaps out of the fearful demands consciousness makes for linkage, coherence, congruence” — I hope that Steve Laico will have some tips for improving wi-fi service to the bedroom this afternoon…. ¶ Clive James, nominally on Grigory Ordzhonokidze:
The great mystery of the socialist totalitarian regimes has not been how they grew into killing machines — in retrospect, nothing seems more logical — but how the machines were put into reverse.
And he solves the mystery by taking Ordzhonokidze literally: the true victims of totalitarian oppression are the executioners. (A theme of Jonathan Littell’s Les bienveillantes)…. ¶ Debo to Decca, February 1978 (winding up the Peace Talks after the Great Scrapbook War):
I couldn’t sleep that night nor for many a night after; it made me miserable and still haunts after 9 months. I LOATHE a row of any sort, probably much more than you do because I note whenever you give an interview it ends with “I love a scrap” or something like, but I know those scraps are matters of principle or theory or political something and not inter-family — still you are more of a row-er than me I guess.
[…]
I wrotre to you once before to say something of this sort, as we are all getting OLDÂ & will soon be quietly dead so I guess it’s better not to delve into row-making subjects.
How wrong, Your Grace; how wrong!….¶ Today’s Blogging Hero: David Rothman, of TeleRead. Like all the others, I’ve never heard of him, but for once you’d think that I might have done. I thought about getting a Kindle, but on the day when that impulse ran at its hightest, Amazon was so behind in production that sales were halted. Cooler reflection inclines me to watch and wait, as the instrument’s performance will improve as its price drops. (God bless the early adopters.)…. ¶ Is Stendhal making musical jokes?: “Il essaya de la cacher avec le verre vert, mais il lui fut absolument impossible de faire honneur au vin du Rhin.” Verre vert, vin du Rhin? Do admit.