walrus > Recent Status Updates

Reading Mandelbaum

Glad I picked this up, putting the original unedited poems from the newspaper column makes it feel much more of the time, although Mehitabel's role is massively less than the more well-known collected editions that came later. I think I prefer the more high-minded and whimsical literary tone of the collected editions, but it is interesting how significant the editing for those editions was vs how the poems started.

tojour gais cheerio
my deario a dame
has to dance to make a living
archy especially an aristocrat
such as myself, these catacombs
won t suit a former
cleopatra such as myself and
what's that archy julius caesar
question mark
marc antony no i can t say that
i have i have a lot to
remember and some
to forget
nine lives is a mighty long
time for someone
as busy being me
as me

Got a 60s hardcover of this in great condition at a used bookstore a year ago or so, because it had lovely George Herriman drawings all over the dust jacket. Started actually reading it and it's instantly a masterpiece go figure

'Scientists describe how cosmic rays emitted by supernovas ... influence the cloud formations in the sky above us ... [&] impact not only our climate ... The construction of many grand cathedrals in Europe between ... 1000-1300 [is] in part a consequence of favorable climatic changes ... & so exploding stars light years away influence a certain style of architecture, ...& the music written for those august spaces.'

Job mentioned 'Mercedes-Benz' and I feel a little uncomfortable

Much of this is compiled from translations Rosenberg did for other books, The Book of J (Genesis-Deuteronomy, the Torah) being the only one I had read previously. The additional material (Prologue, Epilogue on the Hebrew Bible's creation, and Afterword on Rosenberg's work are all valuable and accessible for someone who has never tried reading the Tanakh or any other religious text from aesthetic/generally neutral PPV

Reading Lattimore

And so, we shall never collect enough daydreams, if we want to understand phenomenologically how a snail makes its house, how this flabbiest of creatures constitutes such a hard shell; how, in this creature that is entirely shut in, the great cosmic rhythm of winter and spring vibrates nonetheless.

'Wolves in shells are crueler than stray ones.'

Reading Wilson

reading Lattimore