Ian A Holcomb > Recent Status Updates

Feels good to read again for what feels like the first time in ages.

Episode 6: Hades complete.

Episode 5: Lotus Eaters complete.

Episode 4: Calypso complete.

“Songs of Experience” contains much darker images, violent themes, but uses no less beautiful language than its counterpart. Honestly, I’ll need to re-read poems from both side-by-side to truly appreciate it. Together with “Songs of Innocence” we get this beautiful duality of human nature, both idealism and wizened realism.

“Songs of Innocence” is a collection of such happy, natural beauty. It’s the perfect remedy if you ever need a pick-me-up.

“Songs of Experience” tomorrow!

Episode 3 “Proteus” complete.

Easily one of the most complicated things I’ve ever read in my life. And I can’t wait to read more.

Part I complete!

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlaying our hard hearts.”

I never realized William Blake wrote a play, or, well, scenes for a play. “King Edward III” that said, Blake’s definitely not a playwright. Ah well, “Songs of Innocence” are next!

“My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery had established a great reputation because she had brought me up “by hand.” Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.”

Introduction complete and four poems read “To Spring” Summer, Fall, and Winter make a nice cycle of poems that welcome the first three, while wishing the fourth would end its tyranny.

Finally finished the introductory chapters and read through the notes to Episode 3.

Chapter 3 complete.

“Together and Apart” involves two strangers introduced to one another at a society party, and it so well analyzes that awkward barrier that comes from being of two minds, even when said minds think alike.

“A Summing Up” meanwhile also takes place in the garden outside of a society party where a woman gets some fresh air and seems to yearn to spirit herself away and be in nature.

“The Searchlight” is a heartwarming story about how a woman’s great-grandfather met her great-grandmother.

“The Legacy” is the opposite. A man is left his wife’s diaries after her untimely death. He learns more than he bargained for. This could seriously be an excellent thriller.

Episode 2 - Nestor complete.

“Moments of Being: ‘Slater’s Pins Have No Points’” concerns a woman who has dropped and is searching for a pin. In that time, she reflects on her choice to remain unmarried. She claims independence, but there are signs she prefers women.

“The Man Who Loved His Kind” involves a man at a society party who realizes he doesn’t belong there. He briefly connects with a kindred spirit.