Reprint Time--Helena
A comment from the blogkeeper at Underbelly (thank you Buce) inspired me to look this up. I was fairly certain that I had reviewed the book in the recent past, and so I discovered this. a good book is worth appreciation--over and over and over again. Also, while you are appreciating, you might want to take in Underbelly's look at Helena as well. La Belle Hélène on March 18, 2005 8:11 AM In reading Helena last night I stumbled across a large number of passages I would like to share. But I thought the more important thing to share was an observation. Evelyn Waugh liked this best among his books. There are a good many reasons why this might be so: it is splendidly written--both the prose and the coherence are several notches above some of his earlier, more frenetic work. It is tightly done, with just the right strokes and exactly the right selection of detail. But I suspect the reason Waugh prized this above all the other works is that in t...
Perhaps unexpectedly, I rather liked this column -- and agree with the author that homosexuals should NOT go bonkers every time "gay" is used to mean "dweeby" or "lame."
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I find myself fervently wishing that "gay" did not carry its current connotation whenever I read E E Cummings:
may i be gay
like every lark
who lifts his life
from all the dark
who wings his why
beyond because
and sings an if
of day to yes
Oh, holy mackerel -- would you believe that the "word verification" for this comment is "vellygai"?
Dylan,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. The usurpation of the word to a cause is troubling because it makes some things mean so differently because it is so thoroughly embedded.
As you point out with cummings.
shalom,
Steven