3 books
I. Do you remember film strips?
I thought they were soooo cool when I was a kid. Sometimes we could view them in the library.
I was reminded of them by this illustration in the donated kids book, Blue Bug Goes to the Library, 1979--no computers!
II. Walk in a Fairy Tale
“I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.”
― The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
I'm always hearing people say, "I can't understand [some political position]". Doesn't it all make more sense if you
see it––and us–– as existing in a fairy tale?
Trump? Doesn't he make sense as an ogre--a stupid, ravenous monster that eats humans and weak members of its own kind?
I unpacked a donated book yesterday:
Lights Out for the Territory: Nine Excursions in the Secret History of London, by Iain Sinclair (Granta 1998). I thought of Steve's London walks, Sarah W's mudlarking on the Thames, and how Linda Sue is heading off to London in a couple months(!).
The book, however, from what I've read about it, is not a travel guide but a view of a political, fairy tale landscape.
I've been thinking in fairy tale terms lately, and I was excited to read in a review that Sinclair sees Margaret Thatcher in those terms:
"[Iain Sinclair] believed quite literally that [Margaret] Thatcher was a witch. He still does.
'You can't understand Thatcher,' says Sinclair, 'except in terms of bad magic. This wicked witch who focuses all the ill will in society.
I can't understand her except as demonically possessed by the evil forces of world politics. Everything else follows from that: oil revenues blown in dubious arms deals, all real values trashed.
She becomes a godhead to those who want to destroy the city's power. But the godhead is created for a system which destroys her, as always happens.
Now she's been banished to a kingdom of whisky and mockery.
But the fact remains that she introduced occultism into British politics and that the role of the writer was to counter that political culture.'"
––"On the Road," The Guardian, April 24, 2004,
www.theguardian.com/books/2004/apr/24/featuresreviews.guardianreview14
III. Speaking of London, here's the funniest dog--on the cover Jack London's Call of the Wild. Its legs! Its expression! Its eye shadow!
i love filmstrips most likely a holdover from when you would walk into a classroom and see the film projector. woo hoo films during class.
ReplyDeletethat book by iain sinclair sounds really cool.
that poor dog. illustrations on old books are so fun.
kirsten
KIRSTEN: oh yeah the joy of seeing the film projector rolled out on a media center cart!
DeleteFilmstrips! I used to love days when we'd get to watch a filmstrip in class. But not as much as actual movie days -- those were even better.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in my response to your comment on my blog, I tried a book by Iain Sinclair several years ago -- "American Smoke" -- and I found it hard going.
I'm astonished by some of the dubious art that winds up on book covers.
STEVE: taking a closer look at Sinclairs book it definitely looks like too much work for me, especially since I don’t know London.
Delete“American Smoke” doesn’t appeal either since I’m not interested in the Beats.
I have a feeling that poor dog's short leg is supposed to be hidden by the snow drift. It looks like something my father would have painted: exactly like something my father would have painted...remember his wolf?
ReplyDelete