Nancy > Recent Status Updates

What a coincidence...reading in Ferrer's book how US tried to take over Cuba at the end of Spanish-American war 1898...now this headline:
US's real aim is to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government and then, by cutting off the flow of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, fulfill the Republican right’s decades-long dream of collapsing the Cuban government. #Déja vu

I'm glad I did not give up ... In chapter 9-10-11-12 I finally understand what Hesse is trying to say. He wrote it in neutral Switzerland in the 1930s...and was concerned with the rise of fascisim all around him. Hesse's plea to leaders was NOT to isolate yourselves in thoughts and theories (...as did the scholars in Castilia) ...but go out into the world of reality and confront the evils at your border!

I managed 2 more chapters today. I want to finish this book asap b/c after that I will start reading a biography about Hesse by Gunnar Decker. There must be a lot to learn about Hesse's books....once I know more about the man.

Ch 1-5
These chapters are 1 hour of listening each with my audio book.
I don't know if I could keep reading the paperback version b/c my mind would wander. Why? Each chapter can be summed up in 3 sentences!
Where is the beauty in his book....where? My poor leisure-reading brain is suffering to this interminable, meandering mess of endless verbiage.

Story is dripping in “gothic”! Love it!

Read ch 1-19...Poirot is about to unravel the complex web of intrigue!

Read 8/18 stories...only 2 were good.
...As for the horror? There isn't much.

Prologue + Ch 1-4
Feels so strange...the main character, the main narrator, the governess in "The Turn of the Screw" is never given a specific name; she remains unnamed throughout the novella!

I've been avoiding this book for years....probably because b/c of images I saw in the trailer for the film version. (never saw the movie). I found many readers still giving this book 5 star reviews. So, I've finally decided to read the book. So far...very good!

Just 3 more lectures to listen to!
Learned about the 3 different types of of rhetoric/oratory today:
Performative
Forensic (in courtroom)
Political

Listened to 29/36 lectures. Listen to explanation of The Frogs by Aristophanes. I knew very little about the play but sounds like fun to read! Today were also 5 selections about the historians Herodotus and Thucydides. A bit boring....much rather listen to info about the tragedies and comedies.

Read 12/22 ghost stories
3 stories were good (...not great) but the rest are "spooky lite" blending everyday situations  with supernatural menace: (lovers meeting in park or churchyard, engagements, marriage proposals, marital arguments, inheritance of a haunted house, implied "love triangle" with a shadow as symbol a of guilt. Victorian and Edwardian era tone...

Listened to lectures 17-18-19-20: Sophecles and Euripides
This is an excellent series of lectures on Audible...worth every penny!
Of all the great plays by Sophecles (Oedipus King a favourite)...I still would have liked to have seen 1994 Broadway production of Medea with Dame Diana Rigg. Powerful play...the character of Medea is on stage from start to finish. Dame Rigg won a Tony Award for Best Actress.

Aeschylusplays are explained in lectures 13-14-15 Persians -Agamennon - Libation Bearers - Eumenides (the furies).

Lectures 9-10-11 close the study of the Archaic period...800 BC to 480 BC, characterized by the emergence of early Greek poetry (Homeric hymns, Solon, Sappho and Alcaeus) and including works attributed to Homer. Why did lyric poetry fade away? This was b/c of the rise of Greek Tragedy/Comedy. We start the Classical period in the next 13 lectures.

Strong point: Fast-paced stories don’t really have time to stop and admire the scenery...the book moves at quantum speed with fast snappy dialogue!
#PageTurner

Ch 1 - We meet Gabriel Bagradian, an Armenian man returning to his family's villa in Yoghonoluk, Syria, after spending many years in Europe..

Lectures: listed to 8/36 lessons
Homer's Iliad
Homer's Odyssey
Hesiod 2 poems

Read 16 chapters so far and am so impressed with Grimaldi's use of pathos! Practically every chapters ends with...sentences that evokes feelings of pity, sadness, or sympathy in the reader, which can create a deep emotional connection to the story. VG is a very talented writer!