Morning Read

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An abbreviated read, hastily summed-up; and more’s the pity, because two of the items (Boccaccio, James) would merit the whole day’s study.

¶ The Decameron, V, vii: The story of Violante and Teodoro has everything that the perfect post-modern opera requires. Yet another birthmark — the second appearance in a row of this creaky device, so handy in days before reliable record-keeping. Violante’s character is not so much confused as undivided; the abyss between the soubrette and the tragic heroine isn’t even a crack at this point. I can’t speak for the original, but, in translation, the tone of this tale is wondrously mixed, as though Boccaccio has no idea what kind of story he is writing. Is that because comedy, necessarily more artificial than tragedy, required more self-conscious development? If I were going to unpack one story (that I’ve read so far), and really study it down to the ground, it would be this one.

¶ In the Aeneid, Turnus — whom I gather to be Aeneas’s noble opponent for the rest of the proceedings — makes his appearance. When he scoffs at Alecto in disguise, she unmasks herself and lets him have it. How seriously are we to take “the cursed madness of war and rage” as a complaint?

¶ Clive James on Arthur Schnitzler: Three essays run together. The first is about the stupidity of cleverness (Hitler was too clever not to learn the wrong lessons from Napoleon’s invasion of Russia), the second is about Schnitzler’s loosy-goosy take on anti-Semitism, and the third is about the loneliness of love. All three are worth more attention than I can afford this morning, so at least this paragraph will serve as a marker: go back.

¶ Today’s Blogging Hero: Deidre Woollard, of Luxist. Another Weblogs, Inc production, this one might actually turn out to provide some amusing links. I am sure that there are readers who could tell me that they could have told me about this site. One of the Power Points, though, beggars belief: “New bloggers should be prepared to take criticism, and understand that it can make them better bloggers.”