Oh my friends, winter has indeed set in early, as evidenced by the dissociation and wintry lamentation we’ve got on tap this week. But fear not, for Tom Jones returns with juicy gossip to distract us!
Sonnet 97, by William Shakespeare
Read by Diane Havens
Diane writes…
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.
Early onset of winter after the rudely interrupted autumn reminded me of this sonnet by William Shakespeare.
When you miss someone you love, when there is a period of separation, no matter the season, the world does indeed seem cold and lifeless. Those feelings reflected so poignantly here in this poem, (and drawn more literally in Greek myth — when Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began). A classic timeless theme.
Beautifully underscored with original music by Jon Sayles. http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/earlymusic.htm
Fractal, Story No. 7 from Little (flash) Fiction, by Paul McQuade
Read by Xe Sands
Xe writes…
Returning to the thoroughly thought-provoking flash fiction collection from Little Fiction this week…with a cerebral and surreal piece from author Paul McQuade.
Oh if ONLY I could pull off a decent Scottish brogue and read this as McQuade might. Ah well.So. This piece. Had a marvelous discussion about it with a friend this morning. Whether you listen to this or not – go read it. Then bring your thoughts to bear – I want to hear what you think of it – what it means, how it should sound. I had one concept in my head…my friend brought another. Now I have two. But I want more. I want overlays of concepts multiplying endlessly. “An infinite fractal curve can be perceived of as winding through space differently from an ordinary line…”
I want a fractal of it in my mind – layered, faceted. All possibilities at once.
Go forth and think. Then share.
…um, what are you still doing here? Sigh. OK, well then I shall blather on until you are fit to bursting with a need to go think about something else.
So here’s the thing: I was supposed to record “Fractal” last week, but just couldn’t even approach it for some reason. For me, there is a significant current of dissociation running through this piece, and I was fully “sociated” last week.
But this week…this week, I have been narrating Allies in Healing, by Laura Davis. The connection? Dissociation as a survival mechanism. The synchronicity does not escape me.
Tom Jones – Book 2, Chapter 4, by Henry Fielding
Read by Mark Turetsky
Mark writes…
Book 2 Chapter 4 of Tom Jones.
This is part of an ongoing project in which I will record and post one chapter per week of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones over the course of four years.
Oh, will the gossip against poor Jenny never cease? In this chapter, Mrs. Partridge hears that Jenny had not one, but two bastards while she was living with the Partridges. This leads to a scene of domestic combat. Once again, we have the mock epic metaphor device. In this case, the Narrator compares Mrs. Partridge to a housecat (as opposed to a bigger, more fearsome feline, more worthy of epic metaphor). A fitting image, since he weapon of choice against her husband is her nails. By the end of the fight, she becomes to covered with Mr. Partridge’s blood that her neighbors all believe that he beat her, and call for his punishment.
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