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The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 552
A slender book in which our protagonist/author arrives at Castle/Tavern and finds that both he and the other guests are mute. Thus, after dinner, they all tell their stories with a pack of Tarot Cards, the narrator interprets as each guest selects a card and begins to tell their tale...
...Until at last all their fates and destinies are intertwined, and all of the cards spread out upon the table, and the interpretation, the reading, the symbolism of each unique to the narrator, to the position - above, below, left, right, preceding or following, only by choosing the correct entry point you can find where every story begins, ends, where the cards have been arranged to tell those bits of the stories of MacBeth & Hamlet, and onward and so forth, until the Author/Narrator chooses to tell his own story...
Now, an interesting premise which I've considered (not exactly), and recalled reading that Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" was actually based upon a deck of Tarot Cards, and - while on my first reading I did not get this, not at all, maybe with this foreknowledge I'll try it again...
On that note, for a while I was doing a fair bit of reading on the topic, the cards, they are an inspiration, and so maybe it's time to pick them up again...
Heinrich Von Kleist - The Marquise of O- and other stories
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 487
After the unforgiveable introduction by Nigel Reeves & David Luke, whose analysis seems to consist largely of giving away the plot and outcome of every story....
...it proved not bad. Somewhat modern, or approaching, a perfectly good book of short stories very much of the Period, my favorite of which was undoubtedly Michael Kohlhass, a disgruntled horse trader much abused by the law who is forced to take matters in his own hands to seek justice, rounds up a posse of grooms and peasants and leads a seige upon Wittenberg.
How sympathetic - and modern the character is, in his outlawery, in how as he grows in strength he grows in Madness, the theme of an honest man vs the unjust state, how thoroughly modern he is when again he sees the Gypsy who gave him the talisman that would save his life, thoroughly pragmatic when he says to her (essentially) "Why Me?" in response to the incredible events that have befallen him.
So, a relatively thick book, now on to a relatively thin one - Italo Calvinos' "The Castle of Crossed Destinies".
A Serious Man - Coen Brothers
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 498
I'd forgotten why I downloaded this, Coen Brothers was probably reason enough, but then, at the beginning, the dibbuk again, so clearly I was on some mission prompted by Wiki Word Golf.
This was unusual for them, they're typical style but confined to a Jewish Professor who's life is falling apart in every conceivable way.
Well done, but always, interesting characters, scenarios, but - really, as if I weren't thoughtful enough over the holidays I didn't need this.
Anyways, what's next? There are movies to be seen for sure. Only which ones. Although, given the last few I've watched I'm thinking I should go back to books for a bit...
Der Dybuk - 1937
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 436
Don't know what prompted me to watch this, but there go 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. Bloody hell.
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