The art issue
For those who might be wondering what is new with Roz Chast, the amazing artist who did the cover of The Possessed:
While we are looking at beautiful images, I would like to mention another talented reader, Abraham Kelso, who actually gave me some original prints at my reading last month in Brookline. On the train back to New York the next morning, I had the foresight to place these beautifully rolled-up prints in the overhead luggage compartment, so they wouldn’t get smooshed. At that point, with the satisfaction of a job well done, I fell into a deep sleep.
Now here is the thing with the New York – Boston train: you can fall asleep going to Boston and it’s all fun and games, but if you fall asleep going to New York, you end up in our nation’s capital. Luckily, I woke up just as we were pulling into Penn Station, whence I rushed directly to the Times building in order to record a podcast. Unluckily, in my alacrity to disburden myself of some more thoughts and feelings about Russian literature, I forgot the beautiful rolled-up prints in the overhead compartment.
Well, I hope and trust the originals are hard at work right now representing our interests in DC. In the meantime, you can enjoy some simulacra here:
Tags: hats, naps, THE POSSESSED, trains
April 28th, 2010 at 6:23 am
I’m so sorry for your beautiful prints! I know it’s a long-shot, but have you tried contacting Amtrak’s lost-and-found? Maybe some kind soul rescued them! http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Content_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245658009
While I’m at it, if one has “Travels with The Possessed” photos, where might one direct them? (I have not yet seen Up in the Air, but I’m reminded that the garden gnome in Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain also gets to make voyages on behalf of his patron!)
Warm regards!
April 28th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Sorry that this is unrelated, but this comment is in response to your article, “Adventures of a Man of Science,” that was published today in n+1. Another argument against Moretti’s use of the theory of allopatric speciation in literature is the use of common forms even in stories that were written before globalization. Symbols such as the snake or the flood are used in literature across the globe. The snake is employed as a symbol of sin or revulsion in both Genesis and ancient Indian literature. The apocalyptic flood appears in both Noah’s story and in Native American creation stories as the purger of humankind’s accumulation of sin. Perhaps, this similarity can be seen as a tie of intellectual design that crosses linguistic, and supposedly evolutionary, divisions.
April 28th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
dear isabel, thank you for your interesting comment! i actually wrote that article several years ago, and didn’t realize they had put it back up.
that is a good point about pre-global universals in storytelling traditions, although snakes and floods probably don’t have symbolic significance in cultures where there are no snakes or floods, so in that sense they are environmentally and evolutionarily conditioned… i mean, i’m not a huge fan of evolutionary theories of literature, but one could definitely argue that myths demonizing snakes serve the evolutionary purpose of teaching people to avoid potentially poisonous snakes (or that they are a reflection of an evolved, innate disgust for snakes).
April 28th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
those of you who can’t get enough lists of books should definitely check out my latest effort in this important genre at blackbird media. thanks to jeff haden for putting it up!