Orkney and Stone

At the Ring of Brodgar,
Orkney.

What Nisus Said

Nisus ait: 'dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt,
Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?'


Nisus said, Do the gods add this heat to the mind,
Euryalus, or does a man's own dire desire become a god to him?

-- Virgil's Aeneid IX, 184-185
(my translation)

Narrative Reflections

The joy--and the limitation--of much crime fiction: simplicity.  Obscured, hidden, elusive at first reading, yet essential and binding.  My dilemma as a reader and teacher: Is the noir model of life adequate? Is it true enough?  Qui bono, you know?  I teach Hammett's The Maltese Falcon every year or so, but early in the term, for I wouldn't want to end their education with Sam Spade's "I won't be a sap for you."  I am too much the Romantic Idealist for that.


P.S.  When I wrote this note, I was thinking of the crime writing genre as a whole, its general nature and tendencies, and not of the excellent work within the genre.  Crime writing is one of my favorite genres, and it's the one I'm slowly working in.

Evening Relaxation

Literary Vistas

A somewhat random sampling of a few shelves . . . .

Old friends; prime rereading.

Crime novels: Rankin's Rebus and the work of local California writers.

Stalwart friends from childhood: R. E. Howard's pulp adventures.

Blade Runner 2056

Auditioning for the new film.

Actually, just getting my right eye irrigated with a Morgan lens and a saline drip.

In the old days, the doctor or nurse would just pour a pitcher of water over your face while you struggled to keep your eye open.

Kirkwall Ruins

Muse

"I aim to startle as well as please."

--Muriel Spark

Orkney Time

Two of the Stones of Stenness.

By Tooth and By Thorn

Mementos from Scotland.

Quick (Late) Dinner

Oatmeal and whisky.

Here's a shot of the River Tay at Dunkeld too.

St. Magnus Cathedral

Kirkwall, Orkney.
June night and light.

The Superior View

Street shots: Last evening in Edinburgh.

Just looking about.

Viking Remnants

Thorfinn was here.

The Brough of Birsay, Orkney.

Lateral Shift? Patience and Pages?

I'm enjoying Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

I recall reading it some years back and finding it rather thin, but now--and after reading and appreciating Gaiman's nonfiction collection The View from the Cheap Seats in one long session on a trans-Atlantic flight--I'm finding Neverwhere a fine novel.

Is this a matter of patience?  Of being willing to listen to the novel and its voices?


P.S.  I even picked up a copy of Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane today.  (I bought a used copy of the trade paperback instead of a new and cheaper pocket-sized paperback because I'd noticed that Gaiman was using longish sentences and short paragraphs often enough that somehow read better in that larger sized trade paperback.)

Of course, I have enjoyed (twice) Gaiman's American Gods.

 Finally, I enjoyed this paragraph from early in Neverwhere, though that enjoyment came from seeing the author's (and the reader's?) self-projection in this description:

     "Yes, thank you," said Richard.  He was a fresh-faced, boyish 
     young man, with dark, slightly curly hair and large hazel 
     eyes; he had a rumpled, just-woken-up look to him, which 
     made him more attractive to the opposite sex than he 
     would ever understand or believe.

Profile Pics: 5 + 6

Stromness Shots

That's a two-way street, by the way.
Motorists are very accommodating of each other in Orkney in particular and in Scotland in general.

Looking out from, more than at:
Stromness,
Orkney.

Orkney Kine

Orkney kine are not the hairy, furry Scottish cattle that one expects.  They are multicolored, or of various colors, not the ruddy shade you may expect.  And, cattle and sheep alike lie down (lay down--what's that rule?) to avoid the worst of the wind in ways that I am not used to with livestock.  I mean, some sheep and cattle flatten themselves like cats or dogs in the sun.

Abbey Vista

Jedburgh Abbey.

Blackness Castle

Orkney Vistas