25/07/2008, São Paulo - Meta-Sensoriais

Dança contemporânea.

Inspirados na poesia de Manoel de Barros e ancorados na investigação de suas capacidades sensoriais individuais e coletivas, sete artistas se deparam, experimentam-se e se reinventam numa dinâmica que justifica suas transposições metafóricas.

25/07/2008, São Paulo - Denise Fraga estréia no teatro A Alma Boa de Setsuan

Divertida e inteligente adaptação dirigida por Marco Antônio Braz inicia temporada no Teatro Renaissance.

A Alma Boa de Setsuan, que inicia temporada no sábado no Teatro Renaissance, em São Paulo, tem potencial para fazer longa e bem-sucedida carreira. Brecht definia como parábola essa peça cuja trama se situa numa cidade imaginária do Oriente, Setsuan. Chen Te é uma prostituta generosa e, por isso, ganha dos céus um dinheiro que investe na compra de uma tabacaria. Mas como ninguém se salva sozinho, é cercada por miseráveis. Incapaz de negar um pedido, acaba sofrendo com aproveitadores de todas as classes sociais. Para proteger seu único bem, ela inventa a existência de um primo, Chui Ta, ela própria disfarçada, que faz o ‘trabalho sujo’ de expulsar os pobres por ela.

De saída chama atenção a forma como a diferença física entre os Chen Te e Chui Ta, embora bem definida, fique parecendo um detalhe. O que parece interessar à atriz e à encenação, conseqüentemente ao público, não é ‘como’, mas ‘por que’ ela se disfarça em Chui Ta. Mais ainda, quais são as conseqüências disso. Muito claramente e ao mesmo tempo com a devida sutileza, Denise Fraga desenha uma linha ascendente no comportamento de Chen Te, que acumula cada vez mais bens e aos poucos vai perdendo o pudor de ser dura.

25/07/2008, Minas Gerais - 10º Festival Internacional de Curtas de Belo Horizonte

O 10º Festival Internacional de Curtas de Belo Horizonte acontece de 25 de julho a 1º de agosto, no Cine Humberto Mauro.

De 25 a 31 de julho, o Espaço Mari'Stella Tristão funcionará como videoteca, sala de imprensa, espaço de convivência,  e recepção do festival.

Comemorando sua décima edição, o festival apresenta ao público uma seleção com os melhores filmes do mundo, ampliação dos locais para exibição e a nova Mostra Um Olhar Particular, resultado das produções realizadas nas oficinas de capacitação do Programa Itinerante no interior do Estado. Será realizada também pela primeira vez uma Mostra Especial em comemoração dos 30 anos dedicados ao cinema do circuito alternativo e à formação de público.

Com o caráter competitivo, desde sua 3° edição, o Festival teve esse ano um número recorde de inscrições para as Mostras Competitivas Brasileira e Internacional, com o total de 1823 filmes, sendo 1216 internacionais e 607 brasileiros.

Para ver a grade completa de horários: http://www.palaciodasartes.com.br/agenda/detalhes.aspx?IdAgenda=478

25/07/2008 – Estréia nos cinemas “Arquivo X - Eu Quero Acreditar”

No segundo filme baseado na série de TV, os agentes Fox Mulder e Dana Scully voltam à ação para investigar o desaparecimento de uma mulher e um ex-padre que diz ter poderes paranormais.

25/07/2008 – Estréia nos cinemas “Ao Entardecer”

O longa é escrito pela autora do romance que inspira o filme, Susan Minot, em parceria com Michael Cunningham, de "As Horas".

O enredo resgata a história de Ann, uma senhora em estado terminal, cuidada pelas filhas, que começa a ter delírios e relembrar evento trágico de sua juventude decorrente de furtivo encontro com um médico durante o fim de semana do casamento de sua melhor amiga.

25/07/2008 – Estréia nos cinemas “Era Uma Vez...”

Às modas de Romeu e Julieta.

Dé, que mora na favela, e Nina, moça rica que vive no asfalto, se conhecem na Praia de Ipanema, no Rio de Janeiro, e acabam se apaixonando. Para viver esse amor, eles precisaram enfrentar todos os preconceitos das classes sociais em que vivem.

25/07/2008 – Estréia nos cinemas "Space Chimps"

A animação infantil leva macacos a uma aventura espacial.

Com um colorido vibrante e personagens de animais, "Space Chimps - Micos no Espaço" estréia e disputa a preferência do público infantil com outros desenhos já em cartaz, como "Wall-E" e "Kung Fu Panda".

O filme está sendo lançado apenas em cópias dubladas em português. Entre seus dubladores, estão os apresentadores do programa infantil "Bom Dia & Cia", Yudi Tamashiro e Priscila Alcântara, que emprestam suas vozes aos protagonistas Ham e Luna.

25/07/2008, São Paulo - Grupo No Bailarás

Um tango provocante e divertido no Teatro Municipal.

"Grotesca Pasión Trasnochada" ("Paixão Grotesca de uma Noite Mal-Dormida", em tradução livre), é o espetáculo da companhia No Bailarás, de Buenos Aires, que une música ao vivo, sensualidade e recursos dramáticos para discutir os relacionamentos amorosos contemporâneos.

Criado e dirigido pela coreógrafa Silvana Grill, o espetáculo tem como foco principal a dança, mas une elementos de show (cinco músicos tocando ao vivo) e teatro (os camarins ficam no palco), além de uma boa dose de corpos nus, para tornar o espetáculo menos ortodoxo.

Três casais de dançarinos se revezam e interagem no palco: Julieta Biscione e Roberto Castillo, Juan Fosatti e Gimena Aramburu e Paula Gurini e Mariano Bielak (cada um deles também realiza trabalhos independentes ao grupo, como aulas e participação em campeonatos). As cenas são quase esquetes que acompanham músicas do compositor Ramiro Gallo, expressando situações como a troca de parceiros, a disputa de performance entre dois casais (com final surpreendente), strip-teases irônicos e uma curiosa dança com um “cadáver”.

25/07/2008, São Paulo - Por Instantes de Felicidade

Nova coreografia em comemoração aos 20 anos do grupo Quasar Cia de Dança.

25/07/2008, São Paulo - Cordélia Brasil

Texto de Antônio Bivar e direção de Gilberto Gawronski.

Com Maria Padilha e Cadu Fávero.

Para sustentar seu companheiro Leônidas, que sonha em ser escritor de histórias em quadrinhos, Cordélia, além de trabalhar como auxiliar de escritório, começa a se prostituir. Ela traz para casa um jovem de 16 anos, Rico, que acaba morando com eles. Forma-se então um triângulo, em que se insinua a cumplicidade entre os dois homens, já que Rico se identifica com o comportamento de Leônidas para com Cordélia. A relação torna-se cada vez mais comflituosa, acabando por precipitar um desfecho trágico que, paradoxalmente, é tratado de forma poética e absurda.

- From The Hours by Michael Cunningham

...

I want to be like author Michael Cunningham, who told the Guardian: "Marilyn Monroe once said 'I wasn't the prettiest, I wasn't the most talented, I just wanted it more than anybody else', and I think that's true of many artists. Without that I don't know where you would be. There's a kind of narrowing, an autism to it. I will sit in my chair and write something over and over and over again, which may be my main strength as a writer. I have a ferocious patience and I never give up. I never, ever give up."

...

I want to be like the passionate lover in the movie Brokeback Mountain, who said I just can't quit you -- well, kind of like him.

...

I want to be like Kevin Garnett, who after 13 years of selflessness won an NBA championship last night.

...

I want to want it relentlessly until it's mine. The problem is wanting something that deeply scares me. I never seem to get what I want.

--lissa

O filme irá cobrir a conturbada trajetória de cantora, que acabou morrendo de câncer de mama perto de completar 60 anos, em 1999.

Michael Cunningham (autor do livro As Horas) irá ajudar na criação do roteiro. O que é uma excelente notícia, afinal, Nicole Kidman ganhou um Oscar em 2002 por interpretar uma das mais importantes escritoras britânicas, Virgina Wolf, em As Horas. 

R. Michael Cunningham is upset with African American women. Cunningham, an
African American man, is a former college and professional basketball player, who says he does not have children; does not use drugs; attends church regularly; has a B.A. and M.A.; is a professional model and actor; is a motivational speaker; has never physically hurt a woman; is not gay; and is an active volunteer in his community. Despite these qualities, Cunningham says he cannot find an African American woman to marry. He is so upset with African American women that he has written and recently published a book, The Five F Principle in which he lays out his complaints against African American women.

Black Women Looking for a Fairytale

The book lashes out at African American women who are looking for a “fairytale” in the men they choose. Cunningham says too many women look for “Prince Charming” who is perfect in all respects. The”Prince” will wine and dine women but will often turn out to be a “player” who is involved in multiple relationships. The other fairytale character Cunningham says many African American women choose is the “frog” who they believe can become a prince. Too often, the book says “frogs” will always be “frogs” no matter how many times they are kissed.

Find Them, Feed Them, Fool Them.........................

The title of the book The Five F Principle refers to an old saying often heard in men’s locker rooms referring to a man’s sexual prowess. Find the woman, Feed the woman, Fool the woman, Fornicate with the woman, and Forget the woman. The book goes on describe how so many African American women go through these steps in relationships and often end up with children and no husband. Cunningham says that his argument is supported by the fact that so few adult African American women are currently married.

In the book, Cunningham says that African American women need to change their approaches if they want lasting, long-term, and healthy relationships. Too many women fall for “con men” because they are looking for a deal too good to be true. Cunningham says that if someone or something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Women who try to rehabilitate men who have had trouble in their past often end up unfulfilled and frustrated.

Cunningham based his book on his own experiences and conversations with female friends and relatives. He says he finds that African American women are angry with African American men as well. Many of the women he talked too feel that men have often treated them badly. Cunningham says that men will treat women the way a woman allows herself to be treated. Women he believes need to protect themselves from exploitation.

Cunningham says there needs to be a more honest discussion between men and women regarding the nature of relationships. The African American community needs for the relationships between men and women to improve. Too many children he says are growing up in families without men. While he believes that, it possible for single parents to raise healthy and successful children the odds are against them.

Time to Stop Playing Games

Currently, Cunningham says African American men and women are playing a game in their relationships. He says that these relationships are much too important to be a game and there needs to be much more honesty between men and women. With more honest dialogue between men and women , Cunningham not only will he be able to find his soul mate but that many of the challenges in the African American family will be addressed.

The book, The Five F Principle, is available online at www.myspace.com/fivefprinciple

copyright 2008- Tri-State Defender

"Adeline Virginia Stephen, the second child of Leslie and Julia Prinsep Stephen, born on 25th January 1882, descended from a great many people, some famous, others obscure, born not of rich parents, but of well-to-do parents, born into a very communicative, literate, letter writing, visiting,articulate, late nineteeth-century world..."

--Virginia Woolf, from A Sketch of the Past 13th April 1939.
Virginia Woolf was a prominant figure in the famed Bloomsbury Group of London and a leading figure in Modernist literature. She married Leonard Woolf in 1912 and together they established the Hogarth Press which published Woolf's work as well as that of T.S. Elliot, E.M. Forster, translations of Sigmund Freud, stories by Katherine Mansfield and the first novel by Christopher Isherwood.

Her first self-published novel was Jacob's Room published in 1922. Told through post-impressionist ekphrasis, it is the fictional biography of Jacob Flanders, a young man sacraficed to war. Jacob's college roommate and best friend-- Richard Bonamy-- is one of the many characters in Woolf's work that is gay. Bonamy is infatuated with Jacob and jealous of his many affairs with women during his travels, isolated as Bonamy is in his own world:

" 'He will fall in love,' thought Bonamy, 'Some Greek woman with a straight nose,' It was to Bonamy that Jacob wrote from Patras-- to Bonamy who couldn't love a woman and never read a foolish book......his tastes in literature affected his friendships...quite at his own ease with one or two young men of his own way of thiking."

And when Jacob returns to England just before the war:

" 'You are in love,' he exclaimed.

Jacob blushed

The sharpest of knives never cut so deep

It is Bonamy who is left alone-- literally-- in Jacob's room at the end of the novel:

" 'He left everything just as it was,' Bonamy marvelled, 'Nothing arranged. All his letters strrewn about for anyone to read. What did he expect? Did he think he would come back?' "

In 1925 Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway, the story of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, in which her entire life is encapsulated. She recounts her youthful romances and her choice of whom to marry. One of her early loves was, in fact, a young woman named Sally Seton.

"But this question of love...this falling in love with women. Take Sally Seton...Had not that, after all been love? The strange thing, on looking back, was the purity, the integrity of her feeling for Sally. It was not like one's feelings for a man...But the charm was overpowering, to her at least...feeling as she crossed the hall 'If it were now to die 'twere now to be most happy.'"

Mrs. Dalloway was, of course, re-imagined by Michael Cunningham in his novel The Hours which was made into the film by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman as Woolf, Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughn-- the comtemporary version of Clarissa Dalloway, and Julianne Moore.

Shortly after completing Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf met and became friends with the writer Vita Sackville-West. It is unclear whether their friendship was physical or not, but West was undoubtedly Woolf's most intimate companion apart from her husband Leonard.

It is for Vita that Woolf wrote her most unconventional novel, Orlando, the story of an immortal English nobleman who, half way through his life, inexplicably wakes one morning to discover he has become a woman.

This gave Woolf the opportunity to explore issues of feminism, sexuality, gender and marriage.

"Orlando had become a woman-- there is no denying it. But in every other aspect Orlando remained precisely as he had been. The change of sex, though it altered the future, did nothing to change the identity."

Shortly after, Orlando encounters the man who will be her husband.

But her husband departs when Orlando has an epiphany:

" 'You're a woman, Shel!'she said."

" 'You're a man, Orlando!'he cried."

His departure leaves Orlando to question the nature of marriage itself:

"She was married, true; but if one's husband was always sailing around Cape Horn, was it a marriage? If one liked him, was it a marriage? If one liked other people, was it a marriage?...She had her doubts."

Woolf commited suicide on March 28, 1941, leaving Leonard this note:

"I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been."

"A fantasia, em todas as suas formas, só tem utilidade se servir como uma reflexão do que pode ser construído para o futuro." (Kurt Vonnegut)

Muito embora o filme traga três personagens femininas, é do lado feminino de ser que cada um de nós temos, homens e mulheres, que ele mostra. E esse olhar feminino vem pelo poeta, justamente por um personagem masculino. Um jeito romântico de ser e de olhar o mundo. Lindo!

Aí ficam perguntas... Tudo tem que ser tão certinho? Tudo tem que sempre ser encarado dentro da normalidade, daquilo que já está pré-estabelecido? A mola do mundo também é movimenta por algo fora dos padrões, fora do convencional. Sempre teremos tempo de subverter a engrenagem. Ou não, pois o tempo não para. As horas voam... Onde estaria, melhor, onde ficaria o sonho, o desejo, a vontade em traçar seu próprio destino? Pois, levar uma vida dupla, onde a real é por pura obrigação, onde a de sonhos é escapismos, há de chegar uma hora que não aguentará mais. E ai...

Não li o livro do qual o filme foi baseado. Como também ainda não li o livro de Virgínia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway" que faz parte do filme. Esse me motivou a mais em ler. Então, focarei o filme. E sem entrar muito na patologia da escritora, por não ser a minha praia. O filme mostra um dia ímpar na vida de algumas pessoas. Com ela, escrevendo os esboços de mais um livro. Que viria a ser seu último trabalho. Como também, anos depois (Em 1951 e em 2001; nos EUA.), vidas alteradas em alguns dos leitores desse mesmo livro. Um dia que ficará marcado para sempre.

O que me cativou de pronto foi o lance dela ficar buscando uma frase para então iniciar o texto. Sem nenhuma pretensão nessa comparação, lhes digo que eu era assim. Para qualquer texto que escrevia, mesmo para uma redação na escola, buscava por uma frase para iniciar. Após encontrá-la, o texto fluía naturalmente.

Nicole Kidman faz a Virgínia Woolf. Confesso a vocês que não a reconheci de imediato. Só fui mesmo notar quando outra pessoa comentou. Parabéns pela performance e pelo visual!

Virgínia, após encontrar a frase... Ótima por sinal! Eu adoro flores! ...pensa no rumo que dará aos personagens. Sua intenção inicial era matar a protagonista. Sua inquietude também por conta de sua doença a faz parar por algumas horas e olhar o mundinho que a cerca. De onde se deprime por saber que está presa ao seu problema. Gostaria que mais do que drogarem-na, que os médicos encontrassem uma solução. Durante esse correr do dia... Constata que sua casa funciona sem ela, pois as criadas tomam as decisões que deveriam vir dela. Talvez, numa de punir, faz a empregada ir comprar gengibre em Londres.

Depois, com a visita da irmã com os filhos, capta mais coisas. Visita essa que por terem chegado antes da hora, irrita o marido (Stephen Dillane). A irmã (Miranda Richardson) lhe diz que é uma privilegiada, por poder viver duas vidas: a real e a dos livros. Mas Virgínia queria mesmo viver outra vida. Até da irmã, já seria bem-vinda. E por conta de um cerimonial junto com a sobrinha para um pássaro à beira da morte... reflete mais agora também sobre a sua vida real.

Uma das passagens mais tocante é dela com o marido na estação de trem. (Algo sadio em qualquer relacionamento: o de discutir a relação.) O que cada um falou para o outro. Mas que deixou uma pergunta: Será que ambos ouviram o que o outro dizia de fato? Claro, que eles tentaram. (Atualmente, eu diria que num caso semelhante, precisariam da ajuda de um profissional.). Mas diante do quadro clínico dela e por Leonard ser meio avesso às mudanças repentinas, não houve o acesso até ela. Mesmo havendo amor entre eles, um não conseguia satisfazer o outro. Numa parte, quando ela diz estar entediada ali naquele lugar, ele lhe diz que ela sentia o mesmo na agitação da capital. Ele bem que tentou dentro do limite dele, do jeito dele, fez o que julgava estar certo e por amor a ela. Mais uma vez estava disposto a mudar a si próprio por ela. Mas não era isso que ela queria. Virgínia queria não apenas libertar-se, como também não manter ninguém preso a si. E eles não se entenderam.

As outras duas histórias, mesmo passadas em anos diferentes, irão se unir de fato nesse único dia. Não, não se trata de nenhuma viagem do tempo, vendo o filme irão entender melhor. Por hora, vou tentar contar sem estragar a surpresa de quem ainda não viu esse filme.

Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) leva a vida de uma dona de casa padrão. Casada. Mãe de um menino e encontra-se grávida de outro. No dia do aniversário do seu marido, Dan (John C. Reilly), algo acontece que a faz mudar radicalmente a sua vida. Pontua essa decisão não apenas a história do livro, mas a conversa com a amiga Kitty (Toni Collette). Essa, por estar na iminência de não mais poder gerar um filho considera a amiga uma privilegiada. Mas essa não é a vida que ela queria levar. Laura queria libertar-se. Mas como sair daquela engrenagem? O que seria do seu garotinho? Certo ou errado, Laura segiu com a sua decisão.

Passados mais alguns anos... Conhecemos Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) que como na manhã da história do livro, sai para comprar flores. Também irá dar uma festa. Seu grande e inestimável amigo Richard (Ed Harris) ganharam um prêmio. Prêmio esse que o colocava na lista dos grandes poetas. Mas que para ele, viera mesmo por ele se declarar aidético. Ela já incorporou em seu dia-a-dia ir cuidar dele. O que o deprime. Tal qual Virgínia com o marido, ele também se desgosta em precisar desses cuidados. A ama demais para mantê-la presa a ele. Ela tem uma filha (Claire Daines), ela tem Sally (Allison Janney). Tem a sua própria vida.

Assim, ao final de um único dia... após fazerem um mergulho profundo dentro de si mesmo... após reverem seus fantasmas, ou seriam seus piores pesadelos? Dormem o sono dos justos. Para alguns, um novo amanhecer surgirar. E por conta disso, mesmo sendo um clichezão, repito: Enquanto há vida, há esperança. Eu fico triste quando vejo um final com o fim de certos personagens. Triste, mas respeitando a decisão.

Esse entrou para a minha lista de que vale a pena rever, sempre! Filmaço! Nota máxima!

Por: Valéria Miguez.

As Horas (The Hours). 2002. EUA. Direção: Stephen Daldry. Elenco: Nicole Kdman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, John C. Relly, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Miranda Richardson, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane. Gênero: Drama. Duração: 114 minutos. Baseado no livro de Michael Cunningham.

All three of these genres have one thing in common: The stories concern elements that do not exist in the so-called real world. In other words, they speculate about what might be possible but, in our everyday experience, isn't.

In science fiction, the speculations must be grounded in the principles of science; they might not be possible now, but someday they could be, which is why science fiction is often set on future Earth or on another planet. The subjects of science fiction are space travel, dimensional travel, time travel, post-apocalyptic societies and technological innovations.

In fantasy, however, the speculations are usually based on magic and the supernatural. These speculations must follow rules, but they are not the rules of science. Generally, fantasy stories take place in imagined worlds (but not necessarily another planet) or on a fictional historical Earth.

Horror, on the other hand, most often takes place in the present day, in the world in which we live. But it introduces a fantastic or supernatural element, usually a monster of some kind. Horror also differs from fantasy in that it, by definition, should be frightening and dark.

But what about fiction that doesn't fit neatly into one of these three categories? For instance, where would Neil Gaiman's American Gods be classified? It is set in the modern-day world, but with its cast of mythical gods, it shades more toward fantasy than horror, although it does have horrific elements. Or what about David Mitchell's excellent novel Cloud Atlas? This experimental novel is set in several different times, in the past, present and future, including a post-apocalyptic society. But it doesn't read like traditional science fiction.

That's where the label speculative fiction is useful. It covers any work of fiction that posits a "what if" question and then attempts to answer that question. That includes science fiction, fantasy and horror, plus narrower genres like alternate history and magical realism, as well as works that defy any neat label.

More contemporary writers who aren't often associated with genre writing are stepping out of the bounds of literary fiction and into the realm of the speculative, and I'm glad because they are turning out some great works. For example, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union is a fascinating alternate history, and one-third of Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days is set on a future Earth, with aliens and space travel. I first started reading Jonathan Lethem via his genre-defying novels Gun, with Occasional Music, As She Climbed Across the Table and Amnesia Moon.

I like the speculative fiction label because it describes my favorite kind of writing but is much more open than the traditional genres. When I read speculative fiction, I can read hard sci-fi, traditional fantasy, contemporary horror or experimental literary fiction. The label also encourages good authors to experiment and stretch themselves without fear of being pigeonholed into an undesirable section of the bookstore. The stigma of writing about such subjects seems to have been dropped. For proof, just look at Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning (and Oprah Book Club pick) post-apocalyptic novel The Road or Kazuo Ishiguro's foray into science fiction, Never Let Me Go, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named one of Time's 100 Best Novels of All Time.

Want to know more? Check out these sites:

• The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Speculative Fiction Wikiportal
• Speculative Fiction Blog

What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, "Musing among the vegetables?"--was that it?--"I prefer men to cauliflowers?"--was that it?

The sign of life is a semi-colon; it is the syntactic scaffold upon which the continuous form of a sentence hangs. In its conjunctive suspension the accumulation of words and ideas inhabit a space of their own, the alert expression of a moment's experience held to the light. Woolf's waves locate the motion of memory as stream of conscious creativity such that a muse among the vegetables makes for curiously luminous sport: A lark! A plunge! But with the contrast of something solemn and awful ever present. Tragedy triumphs in Woolf, but it is always a partial victory. The rest is what beauty we make of the everyday stuff that binds our moments into hours, the quotidian refuse of another bright possible day.

Masterfully, Michael Cunningham's love letter to Woolf, The Hours, captures the moment:

The vestibule door opens on to a June morning so fine and scrubbed Clarissa pauses at the threshold as she would at the edge of a pool, watching the turquoise water lapping at the tiles, the liquid nets of sun wavering in the blue depths. As if standing at the edge of a pool she delays for a moment the plunge, the quick membrane of chill, the plain shock of immersion. New York in its racket and stern brown decrepitude, its bottomless decline, always produces a few summer mornings like this; mornings invaded everywhere by an assertion of new life so determined it is almost comic, like a cartoon character that endures endless, hideous punishments and always emerges unburnt, unscarred, ready for more. This June, again, the trees along West Tenth Street have produced perfect little leaves from the squares of dog dirt and discarded wrappers in which they stand. Again the window box of the old woman next door, filled as it always is with faded red plastic geraniums pushed into the dirt, has sprouted a rogue dandelion.

Cunningham's splendid lyric translation of Woolf is foregrounded by the spare news that it is New York City. It is the end of the twentieth century. From the death of a terrible century, a rogue dandelion. One recalls Wallace Stevens' pathos,

What more is there to love than I have loved?
And if there be nothing more, O bright, O bright . . .

Into the bright quiet beauty of morning and mourning, both authors pause for the space of these fraught caesuras to give us ourselves all over again. If life is our dearest possession, to have and to hold for unspecified seasons, then we ought do our best, while we can, to be aware.

I mentioned Stevens, but perhaps it is Whitman's grass that I want? Is there something about the latter's ecstatic democracy that seems averse to a discussion of Woolf? The way the death of another is instrumental to one's consumptive appreciation of life? What is that? Have I been seduced by privilege? Raymond Williams writes that the Bloomsbury fraction, as he calls it, is simply a fraction of the ruling class. What then? What then?

I had set out to write a review of the film version of The Hours. For that I refer you to a capable friend.

We lived in Pasadena [Calif.]. I seemed to be growing up to be sort of a skateboard kid. I wasn't opposed to books -- I thought they were fine, but I wasn't especially interested in them.

One day, when I was a sophomore, I was having a cigarette, in a dusty little section between buildings. I was 15, smoking a Kent stolen out of my mother's purse, trying to look as dangerous as possible.

I was standing next to this girl, a senior I can only describe as the Pirate Queen of my high school - every high school has one: tough, beautiful, sarcastic, impossibly cool. I, being more ambitious than realistic, started talking to her. I started talking about Bob Dylan vs. Leonard Co hen, that Cohen was undervalued, and she looked down at me and said, "Have you ever thought of being less stupid?"

I had, but I was happy with the stupid I was. She asked, "Why don't you read a book? Have you even heard of T.S. Eliot or Virginia Woolf?"

Later on, I went to the school library, a Band-Aid-colored trailer, and there was no Eliot and one Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway," and that was the one I checked out. I couldn't make sense of it or tell what was going on, but I could see the beauty and clarity and muscularity of those sentences. I had never seen writing like that. It never occurred to me that you could do with words what Jimi Hendrix did in music.

"Mrs. Dalloway" made me a reader, turned on a little light bulb in my head. . . . I've come to think that most of us had a first book, not necessarily a great book, that cracks the world open for us.

Whether you consider the film version of Michael Cunningham's The Hours a success or a failure, you may want to check out an interview with David Hare, screenwriter for the 2002 film.

He explains the miracle of making a commercial success out of the type of British film traditionally destined for art houses.

What is even more unusual, according to Hare, is that the film's success caused Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway, on which The Hours is based, to climb to the top of the U.S. paperback chart.

"No academic, however jealous, could disdain a medium that drives the modern reader back to Virginia Woolf," Hare says.

Funny how he sounds so disdainful of academics.

Back To the Lighthouse

A Boston Globe review of a new collection of American novelist William Maxwell's work credits Woolf's To the Lighthouse as the inspiration behind They Came Like Swallows, his highly autobiographical work that covers the death of his mother in the flu epidemic of 1918-19.

Writer on Woolf tells own story

Ruth Gruber is famous for a number of things.

Her work on behalf of Jews during and after World War II is legendary.

Woolfians also admire her for her almost prescient study of Woolf written to fulfill her doctoral requirements at the University of Cologne, making her the youngest recipient of a Ph.D. in history.

Her groundbreaking work, Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman, was first published in 1935 and reprinted with the addition of new material in 2005.

Now 95, Gruber is still writing. This time, she has published her own story, and it is aptly titled Witness: One of the Great Correspondents of the 20th Century Tells Her Story.

Listen to an interview with Gruber.

Woolf one of many

In Mad, Bad and Sad: the History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present, Woolf is just one of the many women whose mental state author Lisa Appignanesi discusses.

In truth, however, Appignanesi does not think any of these women deserve the description her title seems to bestow upon them. Read about the book in The Guardian Unlimited and The Telegraph.

I julas lyckades jag äntligen se filmen "Timmarna" i sin helhet, vilket nördvändiggjorde:-) en genomläsning av Cunninghams bok.Totalt uppslukad blev jag, gladdes åt varje ord och hur skickligt lager lades på lager, skeeende flätades in i skeende. Jag har nu också vågat mig på urkällan själv, dvs Woolfs "Mrs Dalloway". Det känns pretentiöst att ens försöka skriva något om den, ett mästerverk talar för sig självt. (Att läsa romanen är lite som att följa en fjäril i spåren och upptäcka nya världar, besöka människors inre som vore de levande än idag(ja, ni hör själva:-)).

"No importa con qué empiece, siempre acaba siendo mucho menos."

"Pero deberé enfrentarme a las horas, ¿no? A las horas después de la fiesta. Y a las que vengan después."

"Mi vida me ha sido arrebatada. Vivo en una ciudad en la que no deseo vivir. Llevo una vida que no deseo llevar."

"No se puede encontrar la paz evitando la vida"

"Alguien debe morir para que los demás valoremos más la vida"

Las Horas

(The Hours) 2002 Stephen Daldry

On Saturday night Kristin and I went out to the movies. Fun. We saw Evening, based on the book by Susan Minot. The screenplay was written by Minot and one of my all-time favorites, Michael Cunningham (author of The Hours). The film is chock full of stars: Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Natasha Richardson, Dame Eileen Atkins, Ebon Moss-Bachrah, Glenn Close, and newcomer Mamie Gummer who is Streep's daughter in real life.

The story is about a woman on her deathbed looking back to one weekend when she was young and she fell in love with a man who she ultimately did not spend her life with. It's about regret and mistakes and what matters in the end. As usual, the book is better than the movie. At times the acting seemed forced, but there are some real zinger scenes in there.

La letteratura ci dice, e ci ripete in continuazione, che ogni persona è l’eroe della sua propria storia; che ciascuno è la figura centrale di un dramma epico, anche se i suoi giorni e le sue notti non appaiono per niente eccezionali a chiunque altro. Fugge le generalizzazioni, le teorie e i princìpi.

La letteratura, se è buona letteratura, ha un centro morale e, allo stesso tempo, ci ricorda che anche chi al mondo fa del male, lo fa seguendo ragioni che per lui hanno un significato. Gli assoluti sono area di competenza di politici, soldati, preti. Un libro che piaccia a un politico, a un soldato o a un prete probabilmente non è un buon libro. La letteratura non sostiene impegni stabiliti. Non crede nell’autorità. Si preoccupa più degli individui che delle forze che li governano.

La letteratura esiste per contraddire i dogmi, la vergogna, gli omicidi in nome di una causa, il senso di colpa, la tirannia, il consumismo, il patriottismo, l’avidità, la fraudolenza, la celebrità, il mercenarismo, le dispute territoriali, l’ignoranza, le false comodità, la tradizione gretta, la bassa animosità, la moda, l’illusione, la delusione, il diritto divino, gli intrallazzi, ciò che è messianico, falso, banale, miserrimo, la pochezza della vita umana, gli imperativi dei governi, la perdita di ogni speranza, e la santità delle istituzioni, insieme a molte altre cose. Sebbene la letteratura si interessi profondamente al bene e al male, non pretende di immaginare che l’uno sia facilmente distinguibile dall’altro. Testimonia che ciò che è bene per qualcuno è quasi sempre male per qualcun altro.

La letteratura afferma con insistenza che nessuno è troppo strano per essere capito. Offre ciò che nessuna altra forma può offrire, la sensazione di cosa significhi essere un’altra persona. Ci accompagna mentre viviamo le nostre vite; ci rende possibile vivere in un mondo più grande.

La letteratura crede nell’amore, ma per quanto riguarda l’amore non è sentimentale. L’amore dolce, quello semplice, è materia di canzoni pop e di certi film.
La letteratura crede che la vita sia sacra, troppo sacra per venire utilizzata come moneta corrente. Quello è affare da politici.
La letteratura può credere che le nazioni debbano difendersi, ma allo stesso tempo si rifiuta di sottovalutare l’orrore del sacrificio umano. Quello è affare da militari.
La letteratura rispetta le passioni, le convenzioni e le fedi, ma non l’omicidio. Quello è affare da fanatici.

La letteratura offre lealtà assoluta solo alla stessa umanità. Esiste per complicare il quadro. Esiste per fare domande sulla realtà. Sebbene rigetti soluzioni semplici, è per sua natura ottimista. Le persone disperate non scrivono libri. Le persone che scrivono libri credono, implicitamente, che valga la pena scrivere dell’umanità. Le persone che scrivono libri lo fanno seguendo l’assunto che, per quanto buio tutto possa apparire, ci sarà un futuro in cui i loro libri vivranno.
La letteratura dice, in definitiva, a chiunque abbia un senso dell’assoluto: Oh, stupidi umani! La vita è molto più di quanto possiate veramente capire. È per questo che la amiamo. È per questo che resiste».

[Se i nemici dei libri sono i medesimi degli uomini, quelli della letteratura lo sono della vita, anche se a leggerli sembrano decisamente troppi e non tutti convincenti. Michael Cunningham, lettore della vita attraverso la letteratura e viceversa, nella pagina della Cultura del «Corriere della Sera» del 23/6/2007, a proposito del conflitto tra letteratura e assoluto, anticipazione del testo che sarà letto qui stasera]

I don't recommend this book.

The back of my copy of MRS. DALLOWAY went on and on about how revolutionary the book is, how it shaped the novel into what it is today, snatching it up and reinventing the novel at a point when it was almost officially dead--and at first I wasn't convinced. This, I thought, is what everybody makes such a fuss about?. By the end of the first twenty pageshowever, as Woolf begins to weave the characters in and out of each other's lives with incredible skill, I was irrevocably sold.

Woolf's influence is apparent in more current works (and not only in The Hours), as novels toy with time and structure, and consider only one day of a character's lifetime, while merely alluding at their past, rather than building a narrative around the entire life and times of a handful of characters, and carrying them from birth to death. How Woolf's characters parallel each other as they move through London on a single day (the hours marked off on Big Ben throughout the book) could keep me busy drawing connections for days. She creates an impressive depth in a rather simple story, and I wish I knew a little more about the time period, because I suspect that there were many, many references that I didn't catch but that add even more depth to MRS. DALLOWAY.

For all this, I award the book that rating of the highest honor:

RATING: 5

The start of the book was strange. I was confused by the dialog, I did not realize who was who, why there was the book, but I immediately was taken by the poetry of the language. The first part, In the Machine, was the most beautiful piece of writing I have recently read. Somehow it always grabs my attention when the main character in the story is a kid, and it was the case here. Lucas... tragic, heroic, poetic, lost, loving, scared, courageous...

The Children's Crusade was speaking to me less powerfully, despite of its current setting. It was crafty, but not that unique, not that poetic and mysterious. Like Beauty was even less powerful, perhaps because of its Sci-Fi convention.

I would like to commend Cunningham for his courage of choosing popular genres when presenting such poetic writing. It is quite seldom for serious literary works to be presented as crime or terrorist fiction, and even rarer as Science-Fiction. It is uncommon to depend so much in a contemporary novel to present so much poetry, verbatim, put into words of the novel’s characters. And the poetry was so powerful. I never read Whitman, but Specimen Days made me want to do that. I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Isn’t that simply beautiful???

Oh, and the matter of using the form of a triptych again. So what? If it works, I don't mind. There is enough minor items connecting the parts into a single whole (names, locations, artifacts, Whitman, humanity). Instead of having three novellas, we have a triptych. Accept it, and be grateful to the author for the book.

Having finished Specimen Days I will go back to A Home at the End of the World. I have to give it another try--I put it away just after a couple of pages.

From Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart contemplating while she is waiting for Hank Rearden:

The hours ahead, like all her nights with him, would be added, she thought, to the savings account of one’s life where moments of time are stored in the pride of having been lived. The only pride of her workday was not that it had been lived, but that it had been survived. It was wrong, she thought, it was viciously wrong that one should ever be forced to say that about any hour of one’s life. (343)

From The Hours, Clarissa’s thoughts towards the end of the book:

There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more. (225)