|
Showing 1 - 7 of
7 matches in All Departments
This is a book of meditative reading. Each of the sixty-one
aphoristic entries aims to interpret Rilke's poetry as a musician
might play Debussy's Clair de lune, to transpose into the key of
language the song, the melody, and the refrain of Rilke's gentle
disposition: his recognition of the transience of things; his
acknowledgment of the vulnerability and fragility of people,
animals, and flowers; his empathy toward those who suffer. The cut
flowers gently laid out on the garden table "recovering from their
death already begun" in one of theSonnets to Orpheus form a thread
now visible now faint through most of this book. And because of the
flowers, the concept of gentleness forms another thread, and
because of gentleness, hands-agents of gentleness throughout
Rilke's poetry-enfold these pages. The German word leise (gentle,
tender, quiet) weaves the first thread; the second is woven by
flowers, then by girls' hands, then by angels, the beloved, the
poor, the dying and the dead, animals, birds, dogs, fountains,
things, vanishings. The purpose of this essay is to experience and
to examine gentleness, how it shapes and pervades Rilke's work, how
his poetry might gently inspire us to become more gentle people.
Lingering and its decried equivalents, such as dawdling, idling,
loafing, or lolling about, are both shunned and coveted in our
culture where time is money and where there is never quite enough
of either. Is lingering lazy? Is it childish? Boring? Do poets
linger? (Is that why poetry is boring?) Is it therapeutic? Should
we linger more? Less? What happens when we linger? Harold Schweizer
here examines an experience of time that, though common, usually
passes unnoticed. Drawing on a wide range of philosophic and
literary texts and examples, On Lingering and Literature
exemplifies in its style and accessible argumentation the new genre
of post-criticism, and aims to reward anyone interested in slow
reading, daydreaming, or resisting our culture of speed and
consumption.
Lingering and its decried equivalents, such as dawdling, idling,
loafing, or lolling about, are both shunned and coveted in our
culture where time is money and where there is never quite enough
of either. Is lingering lazy? Is it childish? Boring? Do poets
linger? (Is that why poetry is boring?) Is it therapeutic? Should
we linger more? Less? What happens when we linger? Harold Schweizer
here examines an experience of time that, though common, usually
passes unnoticed. Drawing on a wide range of philosophic and
literary texts and examples, On Lingering and Literature
exemplifies in its style and accessible argumentation the new genre
of post-criticism, and aims to reward anyone interested in slow
reading, daydreaming, or resisting our culture of speed and
consumption.
'This is a quite remarkable book, a pleasure to read. Not only is
it clear and informative but also by turns witty, melancholic and
insightful. The book is astonishingly erudite, but wears this
learning so lightly and so charmingly that it is both easy and
gripping to read.' Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of
London Penelope waits by her loom for Odysseus, Vladimir and
Estragon wait for Godot, all of us have to wait: for buses, phone
calls and the kettle to boil. But do we know what the checking of
one's watch and pacing back and forth is really all about? What is
the relationship between waiting and time? Is there an ethics of
waiting, or even an art of waiting? Do the internet, online
shopping and text messaging mean that waiting has come to an end?
On Waiting explores such and similar questions in compelling
fashion. Drawing on some fascinating examples, from the philosopher
Henri Bergson's musings on a lump of sugar to Kate Croy waiting in
Wings of the Dove to the writings of Rilke, Bishop, and Carver, On
Waiting examines this ever-present yet overlooked phenomenon from
diverse angles in fascinating style. On Waiting is the first book
to present a philosophy of waiting. Philosophy/Literature
'This is a quite remarkable book, a pleasure to read. Not only is
it clear and informative but also by turns witty, melancholic and
insightful. The book is astonishingly erudite, but wears this
learning so lightly and so charmingly that it is both easy and
gripping to read.' Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of
London Penelope waits by her loom for Odysseus, Vladimir and
Estragon wait for Godot, all of us have to wait: for buses, phone
calls and the kettle to boil. But do we know what the checking of
one's watch and pacing back and forth is really all about? What is
the relationship between waiting and time? Is there an ethics of
waiting, or even an art of waiting? Do the internet, online
shopping and text messaging mean that waiting has come to an end?
On Waiting explores such and similar questions in compelling
fashion. Drawing on some fascinating examples, from the philosopher
Henri Bergson's musings on a lump of sugar to Kate Croy waiting in
Wings of the Dove to the writings of Rilke, Bishop, and Carver, On
Waiting examines this ever-present yet overlooked phenomenon from
diverse angles in fascinating style. On Waiting is the first book
to present a philosophy of waiting. Philosophy/Literature
Rarity is a quality by which things flowers, leaves, light, sound
fleetingly appear and disappear, leaving in their wake a resonance
of something we just thought we had glimpsed. Each of the nine
chapters in this book pursues such intimations of rarity in poetic
ideas, images, and silences.
|
|