Brandon > Recent Status Updates

What I meant by Chp. 14’s effect on the arc is really about Tony telling Beatrice to wait for them to be united in in/by death. Sounds horribly dark for her, death being the rest of eternity with the man who murdered her because she stopped loving him.

By “arc,” I mean how a character changes during the story. So Tony arcs from playing for Sinatra to leaving music and Italy to returning and singing for The Nostalgia Biz and waiting to die and be with Beatrice.

Chp. 14: On “One of the most beautiful terraces in the universe” (366), Tonio Paziente and Gegè Raja deliver respective monologues to party guests not unlike Jep’s in La Grande Ballezza. Tony embeds scenes with Antonella Te, his parents and ends addressing Beatrice. Is that fair to her? Life isn’t fair. Why should death be any different?

Chp. 13: Performance for Fabio frames Tony’s inner monologue on economics followed by the band on the beach where Titta the guitarist plays The Big Rest (348).

Fabio seduces Tony back to Italy to sing again, but is his “secret. This little hiding place that nestles inside me like a wound” still nestled (56)?

“…the one I did once love truly and deeply “ (57).

Chp. 11: Is Tony’s apostrophe to murdered Beatrice musical enough to unsettle his “secret” of Beatrice’s name (chp. 4, p. 56)? “spitting out a few paltry notes, stitched together in all the possible combinations….(309-310)” Where is “I’m not lying….I’m asking for…For the fear of no longer being able to love ….(57).

Judge Clayton W. Horn’s verdict in The People of the State of California v. Lawrence Ferlinghetti made Howl a First Amendment case study: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pe...

Ginsberg is a poet of context. The Six Gallery reading of October 7, 1955 furthered “beat,” attributed to Herbert Huncke in 1945, making it a kind of post A-Bomb movement. On June 3, 1957, plainclothes police had the misfortune of arresting Shigeyoshi Murao for selling a copy of the book. The best press for book is press outside the book review.

A national vision like Whitman. An international vision like Jesus. Future work would come back to the ground zero of family.

I’m torn by the simplicity of-isms. Some of the most interesting battles I saw in academia were between people who came from the same protected categories, but I’ll save those. On the plus side, Chavez’ system advocates frequency and the oral element (144, 174). Granting “Permissioned Opinions” (138) might require more compassion than practical efficacy.

When Chavez writes about “the hardships of writing” (172)), she reminds me of Cameron’s “Discovering a Sense of Resiliency” (173-203) in Walking in This World. Comrades who can direct you to the right exercise for specific difficulty are good sources.

Assignment: for restlessness, visit a church, wilderness or Louis Vuitton store. The friction between identity and place may be what “home” in the Odysseus sense is about (187).

“Fear becomes a cue for prayer” (183). As my worst fears become reality, I sent out a poem about it: “Seating Charts.” If a poem is like a prayer because it “confesses” the truth, we surrender to consequences, to justice. As a pine once told me, “we are both blessed/to have made it this far/with anything to lose.”

Page-Turn 17 gives Sabine the last word: she is a muse who takes more than she gives. My first impression is that an artist who creates a muse is powerfully in control.

Much will depend on how a reader responds to the revelation on Page-Turn 16. My concerns about reliability and disembodied narrators turned out warranted. Rather than a fantasy or sci-fi plot to enhance, we have psychological thriller with a mentally ill romance coming into focus.

On Page-Turn 15, Sabine invites Griffin to visit and leave the unhappiness of London behind.

On Page-Turn 14, Griffin describes a tantrum he threw in a restaurant. A challenge of a correspondence story is there is little objectivity. How reliable is Griffin? Are there any cues or clues? And what do we make of his ask for a “photograph” and Sabine’s response on the right-hand page with a painting? An artistic conflict.

On Page-Turn 13, Sabine speaks to Griffin letting his growing darkness “reflect the night.” He responds on the right page with the haunting “The Blind Leading the Blind”; is that a comment on them both? Just on him, who can’t share sight?

On back of “Frankie and Johnny,” Griffin asks for something from the islands to “heal [his] ailing soul.” On the right-hand page, Sabine’s postcard is busy and not island-esque.

Page-Turn 12: Sabine is concerned for Griffin’s unhappiness. Since Shared Sight only shows Griffin’s art, how can she reciprocate?

Page-Turn 11: revelation that Sabine has designed the islands stamps. Also, first mention of erotic drawing by Griffin. Conflict: let’s not question connection and question of why Griffin writes more history than present events.

Page-Turn 10 reveals the title of the previous page is “Man Descending a Staircase.” Textual content: not long-lost twins.

On Page-Turn 9, Sabine responds in particular to Griffin’s misery at Vereker’s death. The tone becomes more intimate with a racing heart and finding one another. For Griffin’s part, the right-hand page is a photo of a man smiling as lies head-first going downstairs.

Page-Turn 8 brings Moss’ typed origin story, which moves from “cartoon” parents killed by a newspaper van to his mother’s stepsister Vereker, a potter.

Page-Turn 7 introduces the first letter: a double-sided origin story of Sabine.

On Page-Turn 6, Moss asks questions about Shared Sight. I am intrigued that he says nothing about “The Alchemist” on what would be Page 11. I marveled at this graphic.

On Page-Turn 5, Sabine reveals the shocker of shared sight. She offers a scene of Moss erasing a bird as evidence. She also confirms she makes her postcards.

On Page-Turn Four, Griffin backs away from “Sabine” to a more cautious “Ms. Strohem,” and asks if she makes her own postcards.

The third Page-Turn reveals a “phenomenon that links” Moss to Sabine. She knows his art but not his history. Thus far the Page-Turns make for a Sabine-text on page-left and a Griffin-graphic on page-right. The Page-Turn maintains the postcard aspect ratio from the previous page.