Any chance we can get a post on Thomas Traherne? I’ve been making my way through Centuries on your recommendation and am astounded at how beautiful it is. A systematics as poetry! Incredible!
Maybe. The problem with writing about Traherne is that his prose is so beautiful that one feels like a philistine in wrapping one’s own prose around it.
That’s true. I’ve read a few articles that try to unpack it, and I found that I really just wanted to get back to Traherne. Everything suffers in comparison.
Even a brilliant writer writing about TT must write expository passages that seem jejune in comparison to the quoted material. Still, I may yet succumb to the temptation.
My apologies for rudely delaying my reply. I think the film suffered from essentially being one long first act, but I admire Villeneuve for believing in a modern audience to withstand a movie that doesn’t have a payoff or climax. That seems to me almost brave from both a director and a movie studio.
Also, I’m a sucker for genuine awe-inspiring scope and size in a movie, and Dune has that in spades. The sheer size and grandiosity displayed reminds me of being a kid again, and I’m afraid that’s a feeling I’ve got a guilty penchant for. On that alone I found the movie enjoyable, though I wouldn’t say that was a good reason for someone else to like it.
Well, since you ask...remember, I'm going on memories of a book i read over 40 years ago in judging the film.
The spectacle was large, but even then I thought fairly dull. Even on a desert planet, one imagines the great houses would prefer a more opulent approach to interior decor. Nice bas-relief of a worm, but otherwise it looked like they lived in a sparsely-appointed converted warehouse, as designed and decorated by Swedish minimalists, and eerily lacking any chairs.
Rather important plot lines were omitted that, however awkwardly, needed to be explained. The nature of space-travel (a mystical experience, chiefly), the absence of computers and presence of mentats, the pervasive religiosity of the empire (including House Atreides) rather than merely the local religiosity of Arrakis, and so forth. Hard to fit into a script but David Lynch's version did a better job on all of those things, even after the studio butchered it.
Principally, I found the characters rather flat and the pacing at once too slow and too rushed, depending on the scene. I'm glad the PG 13 rating kept them from being too explicit about the baron's murderous and pederastic depravities. My grade would be a C.
Mind you, I think the book a combination of a rip-off of Lawrence of Arabia (with the Harkonnens as the Ottoman Empire and the Landsraad as the great powers), a Rafael Sabatini style adventure novel about a young Duke reclaiming his stolen estate with the help of his loyal peasantry (hence the elaborate devices for eliminating computers and many weapons other than blades, as well as the reversion to feudal houses fighting private wars), a bit of West Coast psychedelic mysticism, a touch of Khartoum, and a touch of pulp sci-fi from the late 1950's. It works brilliantly as a marvelous pastiche, but that's also why it proved unrepeatable.
There. I could have made that a column, but now I've spilled it out in a comment box. Very imprudent of me.
Don’t let me stop you from making it a column! I think all of these points are more than reasonable. The placement isn’t impudent in the least.
Yes, as an alien desert planet goes, even Planet Vulcan appeared more attractive and enjoyable to live in. I also agree that whilst Dune is a very fun novel to read, it’s hardly a truly original work (taking nothing away from Herbert).
But, since you’ve already been so generous with your time (and now that I’ve got you here), allow me the impudence this time to ask: what would DBH’s perfect Sci-Fi novel look like? Would you write an extremely technical Sci-Fi? Would you write a grand intergalactic epic? Would the muses be invoked? Perhaps a space opera? Has Roland ever wanted to go space? Who else will save us from the invasion of zombie/alien squirrel hybrids?
Do you think it’s a genre capable of real literary genius and sublimity? Perhaps though that questions answers itself; as I tend to think all genres are capable of it. Even graphic novels have produced some genuinely good and beautiful stories.
I’m afraid that would be a short list. Not my thing. I read Dune when I was 14 and enjoyed it immensely, but it’s not really sf. If you mean the Denis Villeneuve film, I did see it. I found it rather lifeless, to be honest. But the worms were impressive.
Terribly disappointed that you are foregoing the chance to write instead a series of four lengthy encomiums on the Atlanta Braves' World Series victory.
A team that won 88 regular season games winning it all when there were two teams in the same league with 107 and 106 wins shows how absurd the new post-season format is. And I was hoping Dusty Baker would at last get a ring. I have no more to say.
Is there anything more to say other than the playoff system as it stands is morally deranged? I am not interested in which team is particularly hot in October. I want to see the best teams from the course of the regular season. The more they tinker with the game, the worse it gets.
I look forward to these! If you wanted to read one essay from a school of neurobiology/philosophy that you might find much in agreement with I recommend 'A Palindrome' by Mario Crocco:
Oh come on, I know you. All you want for Christmas, by golly, is a big ol’ plate of flapjacks.
That's pure projection, my dear little carbohydrate machine.
I ask for socks every year. I accept books when people don't take me seriously about the socks.
I like socks made from recycled books and books printed on paper made from recycled socks. It's the great circle of life.
Speaking of exotic suggestions for Christmas presents, I’d still love for Daoist Space Lizards to be the official mascot of A Perennial Digression.
They're all yours.
where can I find this whole series of lectures ''“Mind, Soul, World: Consciousness in Nature”
A Templeton Colloquium at the NDIAS''?
Any chance we can get a post on Thomas Traherne? I’ve been making my way through Centuries on your recommendation and am astounded at how beautiful it is. A systematics as poetry! Incredible!
Maybe. The problem with writing about Traherne is that his prose is so beautiful that one feels like a philistine in wrapping one’s own prose around it.
That’s true. I’ve read a few articles that try to unpack it, and I found that I really just wanted to get back to Traherne. Everything suffers in comparison.
Even a brilliant writer writing about TT must write expository passages that seem jejune in comparison to the quoted material. Still, I may yet succumb to the temptation.
Good sir,
I am come to request that you give us a review of Dune.
And also, give us a list of your favorite science fiction novels.
What was your opinion of the film?
My apologies for rudely delaying my reply. I think the film suffered from essentially being one long first act, but I admire Villeneuve for believing in a modern audience to withstand a movie that doesn’t have a payoff or climax. That seems to me almost brave from both a director and a movie studio.
Also, I’m a sucker for genuine awe-inspiring scope and size in a movie, and Dune has that in spades. The sheer size and grandiosity displayed reminds me of being a kid again, and I’m afraid that’s a feeling I’ve got a guilty penchant for. On that alone I found the movie enjoyable, though I wouldn’t say that was a good reason for someone else to like it.
Well, since you ask...remember, I'm going on memories of a book i read over 40 years ago in judging the film.
The spectacle was large, but even then I thought fairly dull. Even on a desert planet, one imagines the great houses would prefer a more opulent approach to interior decor. Nice bas-relief of a worm, but otherwise it looked like they lived in a sparsely-appointed converted warehouse, as designed and decorated by Swedish minimalists, and eerily lacking any chairs.
Rather important plot lines were omitted that, however awkwardly, needed to be explained. The nature of space-travel (a mystical experience, chiefly), the absence of computers and presence of mentats, the pervasive religiosity of the empire (including House Atreides) rather than merely the local religiosity of Arrakis, and so forth. Hard to fit into a script but David Lynch's version did a better job on all of those things, even after the studio butchered it.
Principally, I found the characters rather flat and the pacing at once too slow and too rushed, depending on the scene. I'm glad the PG 13 rating kept them from being too explicit about the baron's murderous and pederastic depravities. My grade would be a C.
Mind you, I think the book a combination of a rip-off of Lawrence of Arabia (with the Harkonnens as the Ottoman Empire and the Landsraad as the great powers), a Rafael Sabatini style adventure novel about a young Duke reclaiming his stolen estate with the help of his loyal peasantry (hence the elaborate devices for eliminating computers and many weapons other than blades, as well as the reversion to feudal houses fighting private wars), a bit of West Coast psychedelic mysticism, a touch of Khartoum, and a touch of pulp sci-fi from the late 1950's. It works brilliantly as a marvelous pastiche, but that's also why it proved unrepeatable.
There. I could have made that a column, but now I've spilled it out in a comment box. Very imprudent of me.
Don’t let me stop you from making it a column! I think all of these points are more than reasonable. The placement isn’t impudent in the least.
Yes, as an alien desert planet goes, even Planet Vulcan appeared more attractive and enjoyable to live in. I also agree that whilst Dune is a very fun novel to read, it’s hardly a truly original work (taking nothing away from Herbert).
But, since you’ve already been so generous with your time (and now that I’ve got you here), allow me the impudence this time to ask: what would DBH’s perfect Sci-Fi novel look like? Would you write an extremely technical Sci-Fi? Would you write a grand intergalactic epic? Would the muses be invoked? Perhaps a space opera? Has Roland ever wanted to go space? Who else will save us from the invasion of zombie/alien squirrel hybrids?
It’s really not a genre I have much feel for. I’d probably end up imitating Doris Lessing rather than real sf writers.
Do you think it’s a genre capable of real literary genius and sublimity? Perhaps though that questions answers itself; as I tend to think all genres are capable of it. Even graphic novels have produced some genuinely good and beautiful stories.
I’m afraid that would be a short list. Not my thing. I read Dune when I was 14 and enjoyed it immensely, but it’s not really sf. If you mean the Denis Villeneuve film, I did see it. I found it rather lifeless, to be honest. But the worms were impressive.
No Freddie Jones in this one. Therefore an inferior product.
True. I understand a medium was employed in order to conjure him up for the film, but he was otherwise engaged.
I hope that Κενογαια will also be a Christmas gift option.
Terribly disappointed that you are foregoing the chance to write instead a series of four lengthy encomiums on the Atlanta Braves' World Series victory.
A team that won 88 regular season games winning it all when there were two teams in the same league with 107 and 106 wins shows how absurd the new post-season format is. And I was hoping Dusty Baker would at last get a ring. I have no more to say.
Is there anything more to say other than the playoff system as it stands is morally deranged? I am not interested in which team is particularly hot in October. I want to see the best teams from the course of the regular season. The more they tinker with the game, the worse it gets.
I look forward to these! If you wanted to read one essay from a school of neurobiology/philosophy that you might find much in agreement with I recommend 'A Palindrome' by Mario Crocco:
http://electroneubio.secyt.gov.ar/a_palindrome.htm
道可道也，非恆道也。
Oh please, I’m a purist: 道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。
Mawangui texts ARE the pure texts! 常was just introduced for taboo avoidance, you prude ;-)
But 也?
I suppose you’re right. I mean, purity is a matter of good ritual form, not textual originalism.
The Covid shutdown has delayed some of the research, but within a year I hope.