Today I posted a passage from W.G. Sebald that mentions linguistic “regionalisms, redolent of things long fallen into disuse.”
Then, reading Swann’s Way, I found the narrator describing novels “full of expressions that had fallen into disuse and turned figurative again, the sort you no longer find anywhere but in the country.”
Sebald: regionalisms, disuse. Proust: disuse, regionalisms.
Tomorrow I’ll begin posting Proust sentences, one a day.
Related reading
All OCA Proust and Sebald posts (Pinboard)
[Swann’s Way, trans. Lydia Davis (New York: Viking, 2002).]
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Proust–Sebald synchronicity
“Word-eddies and turbulence”
Obama pens
In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani interviews Barack Obama about reading and writing. We know from an excerpt from his first volume of memoir that Obama writes his drafts in longhand on legal pads. In this Times piece, he opens up about pens:
He says he is “very particular” about his pens, always using black Uni-ball Vision Elite rollerball pens with a micro-point, and adds that he tends to do his best writing between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.: “I find that the world narrows, and that is good for my imagination. It’s almost as if there is a darkness all around and there’s a metaphorical beam of light down on the desk, onto the page.”“With a micro-point”: the anti-Sharpie.
Related reading
All OCA Barack Obama posts (Pinboard) : Obama revisions
Steam heat
“Turn-of-the-century faith in ventilation to combat disease pushed engineers to design steam heating systems that still overheat apartments today”: “Your Old Radiator Is a Pandemic-Fighting Weapon” (Bloomberg).
Open windows in winter? A feature, not a bug. With an explanation of why radiators are painted silver.
Naked City at YouTube
Holy cow: the complete run of Naked City is available at YouTube. Here is a taste, twenty (of 138) episodes that I highly recommend. Keep in mind: I set out to make a list of five, then ten. There are too many good ones.
“Sidewalk Fisherman” Based on a New Yorker article by Meyer Berger.
“Bullets Cost Too Much” Detective Adam Flint: villain or hero?
“A Hole in the City” Sylvia Sidney, Robert Duvall, and Yankee Stadium.
“Show Me the Way to Go Home” Lois Nettleton and other wanderers.
“The Face of the Enemy” PTSD.
“One of the Most Important Men in the World” Faustian and Trumpian.
“A Case Study of Two Savages” Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate take Manhattan.
“Today the Man Who Kills Ants Is Coming” A police officer’s breakdown.
“The One Marked Hot Gives Cold” Verges on matters that could never be made explicit in 1962.
“The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish” Crazy, man. And Detective Flint recites Emily Dickinson.
“The Rydecker Case” He said, she said.
“Hold for Gloria Christmas” Poetry and the Village. With Burgess Meredith and Alan Alda as poets.
“Idylls of a Running Back” Who is Sandy Dennis after all?
“A Horse Has a Big Head — Let Him Worry!” A nearly blind boy makes his way through the city.
Beyond This Place There Be Dragons Frank Gorshin on the run. The final scene is heartbreaking.
“Prime of Life” Capital punishment. They were pushing all envelopes as this series moved to its end.
“Bringing Far Places Together” Immigrants in the city.
“Carrier” Sandy Dennis again. Strange viewing in the time of COVID-19.
“Golden Lads and Girls” The class system and alcohol.
“Barefoot on a Bed of Coals” A meta ending to the series. With tossed soup.
If you get hooked, it still makes sense to buy the 29-DVD set — it’s a bargain.
Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)
On Money Jungle
In The Paris Review, Matt Levin writes about Money Jungle, the (killer) 1962 album by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach: “A Masterpiece of Disharmony.”
Masterpiece? Yes. Disharmony? I’m not convinced. Tumult, certainly, and the shift from the tumultuous “Money Jungle” to the serene “Fleurette Africaine” is one of the oddest choices in sequencing I know. But guess what? Those two tracks are both twelve-bar blues. One form, many possibilities.
Thanks, Chris.
[Track three, “Very Special,” is a twelve-bar blues as well, as are other tracks from the session.]
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Proust for two
If I were CNN, this post would begin, “We are now less than ten minutes away from the start of.”
And if I were Rocky and Bullwinkle, this post would continue, “In Search of Lost Time, or That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles.”
The ascent of Mount Proust is the Four Seasons Reading Club’s greatest challenge to date. Wish us well.
Related reading
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)
A storybook house
The house of Emile Verhaeren, poet:
Stefan Zweig, “Memories of Emile Verhaeren.” 1917. Encounters and Destinies: A Farewell to Europe. Trans. Will Stone (London: Pushkin Press, 2020).
I’m keen on Zweig as a writer of fiction and memoir. But the essays in this compilation, all tributes to “great” persons, are little more than empty, overwrought praise. This description, and a brief description of Verhaeren’s work table — “a student’s inkwell, a cheap ashtray, stationery in a cigar box, and that was it” — are my favorite passages in this book.
Related reading
All OCA Stefan Zweig posts (Pinboard)
Mystery actor
[Click for a larger view.]
Recognize her? Leave your answer in the comments. This ID is easy, I think. But I’m surprised to see this actor in black and white.
More mystery actors (Collect them all!)
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?
[Garner’s Modern English Usage notes that “support for actress seems to be eroding.” I use actor.]
Monday, December 7, 2020
Santa Clause
That’s his name, in a genuine headline: “Santa Clause has come to town.”
The elves must be his subordinates.
Elaine suggests that retailers are his dependents.
Related reading
All OCA misspelling posts (Pinboard)
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