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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2012 22:55:01 GMT -6
Wasn't she good friends with Truman Capote? I've heard that, but I still haven't checked her bio. The only books I read by Capote, that I can remember were, In Cold Blood, and Helter Skelter. Chilling! Peace, OHD
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Post by Shenanigan on Dec 5, 2012 23:02:16 GMT -6
The only books I read by Capote, that I can remember were, In Cold Blood, and Helter Skelter. Chilling! Helter Skelter was written by Vincent Bugliosi, he was the prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2014 13:00:18 GMT -6
Reading the discussion about “Moby Dick” I got the itch to dig into it again (it has ben many years). What a great lead into a novel. . . . . . “Call me Ishmael.” What a descriptive name for a character. The one cast out and in this case away to the sea and then cast back to the world of men.
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation.”
Melville's way with words colors the world he is describing with emotions and understandings beyond mere words. 'Spleen' used in a way of long ago for resentment, for anger. 'Regulating the circulation' as more than the flow of blood but as a way of renewing one's life that had grown stale.
“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can”
Melville could have just said something as simple as, 'it was time to get to sea to raise my spirits.' But this would not have created a picture of a person going sour in the soul and in need of a reviving. “Growing grim about the mouth,” what a great turn of a phrase. Just think of yourself when things have not been going well and it seems that every person is bent on making your life miserable, isn't that grim in the mouth? Then emphasize that with “ whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul,” does that not bring back thoughts of when times were dark and events pushing in on you. And then, “whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me “ to describe moments of extreme hypochondri.
Here in Melville's Moby Dick each word is to be tasted, savored, allowed to soak your palate in words, consuming the book slowly so that it becomes a stroll through a wood and not a dash to the finish line.
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