
#DynamicDs Day 24: #Dark - I devoured this book.
#DynamicDs Day 24: #Dark - I devoured this book.
I‘ve never really given a thought about how all the books we read follow similar archetypes; precisely 7 as per this book.
Oh boy. It ends in a "meh" despite the subject being extremely interesting, mostly b/c the intro and chapter 1 weren't quite on topic; Frantzen is in literature, not history, so for him the narrative is important enough to spend a chapter on 19th c opera. That said, the bits about Anglo-Saxon England and how later texts reflected it? Awesome.
Photo from Friday; today was so rainy I had to finish the book at the gym after the coffee shop closed.
"unlike me, an intellectual, those stupid basic Kushner fans don't notice the true depth of Angels."
Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but nothing in Frantzen's style of writing so far, 95% through the book, leads me to any other way of interpreting that quote.
Why why why was a typeface where the eth, the wynn, and the thorn are all so ugly and mismatched chosen for a book full of quotes in Old English?
I found this cool little map on Mental Floss. The article didn‘t add anything, so I didn‘t bother to post the link. I‘m surprised by the popularity of poetry! And my mom and aunt definitely contribute to mystery being the most popular in California! 😆
I love how Frantzen goes from "Foucault missed a lot in The History of Sexuality when it comes to the medieval era" (true) to "so all of queer theory is stupid and invalid and also they probably said something mean to me". I don't even care. I usually like academic pettiness, but this has been going on for 21 pages! I'm not out of the fucking intro yet. Do your own work instead of bitching at everyone else. Jesus fuck.
It's probably not a good sign when I'm irritated with the author before even leaving the introduction.
More soon.
I like this series. Semi-successful entry on a tricky theme: how mystery is created in fiction. Examples: Henry James, WG Sebald, Shirley Jackson, James Baldwin, Paul Yoon. The frustration & freedom in mystery. Imagination, capacity for wonder, pursuit of strangeness. Hauntings. Accepting what can‘t be understood.
98 — “the land of Un: uncertainty, unknowing, unfathomability.”
137 — “There‘s an aspect of infinity to mystery—an eternal becoming.”