"it's amazing how you notice little things / yet as small as i am you don't notice me"

[larryhammer]

Reading, reading, reading. A little bit, anyway:

In poetryland, finished Tales of a Wayside Inn by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Well-handled all around, and I've seen several individual tales in anthologies over the years (and of course "Paul Revere's Ride" is a recitation classic), but the frame story arcs into … nothing. It just kind of shivers away in a burst of farewells. This might be why it's not read as a whole very much any more.

And then read Corilolanus by William Shakespeare, another reread of something last (though only once) read in my teens There is much here relevant to contemporary politics, though presented through the filter of an apparent virulent antidemocrat.

Over in prosestead, finished Hydriotaphia: Urne-Burial and started the other half of the book, The Garden of Cyrus. Also, am ¾ through The Art of Fugue by Joseph Kerman, a set of essays on various Bach fugues.

And in interactive fiction (IFstan), reread the classic, and very short, Pick up the Phone booth and Die by Rob Noyes, and read Bronze by Emily Short, a beautifully written and evocative retelling of Beauty and the Beast, in which you are Belle returning to the castle.

---L.

Subject quote from "Amazing," Beth Sorrentino.

Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

There is an excellent film version of Coriolanus in a modern setting, which makes the political relevance even clearer.

[larryhammer]

When was it made? and when is it set?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

More information than I can easily type out. :-) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolanus_(film))

[larryhammer]

the film has been shown on a limited basis in other large US cities

:-(

Explains why I hadn't heard of it. Must look for.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

I like Bronze and still tend to recommend it to some people who start looking around at IF.

[larryhammer]

It's a good intro game. And gorgeous writing.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

So, how does one go about reading Bronze?

[larryhammer]

The main website is here -- you'll need the story file available there, and an interpreter such as one of those linked at the bottom.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Do you prefer Frotz or Glulxe?

[larryhammer]

I'm using the iOS version of Frotz.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thanks.