Re: franny & zooey fun

Never one to hesitate for a moment to reveal my ignorance, just what the
heck are you calling an "iceberg"? No doubt you're referring to a
"painted & powdered Pavilion" of some sort, but the reference passes me
right by.

Great story, though. I love to read about people with that concern for
detail.

Jim

Scottie Bowman wrote:

> Yesterday off-list, Daniel sent me a marvellous excerpt
> from Tolkien as a side-bar to my obsession with icebergs.
> And now Michael, prompted by Bessie's medicine cupboard
> & living room, invites us to offer our own lists.
> Which is it to be? The curlicued, porticoed, pillared, puffed,
> painted & powdered Pavilion - or the silent, gleaming hill of ice?
>
> It just so happens that a couple of days ago, I sent another post
> about icebergs - this time to Heming-L. Since none of those bastards
> responded to it & hating to throw out good food, I thought I'd
> give you chaps a chance.
> __________________________
>
> A droll variant of the 'iceberg'.
>
> Over a couple of recent evenings, BBC television has
> offered a marvellous, extended study of the personality
> & work of the Italian film & opera director, Luchino Visconti.
> A despotic charmer of unimaginable wealth & even more
> unimaginably noble birth, he was, I suspect, very much
> the kind of bloke with whom Hemingway would have liked
> to claim an intimate understanding. (Though Colonel Cantwell
> might have had a little difficulty with Visconti's predeliction
> for beautiful young men.)
>
> And he was another extremely single minded & obsessional
> artist. I'd already read it somewhere but was reminded by
> the programme of the way Visconti demanded a perfection
> of detail that some might have thought crazy.
>
> Claudia Cardinale recalled that when she went to the grand ball
> in 'The Leopard', Visconti insisted her reticule contain the phial
> of perfume, embroidered scraps, hairpins, etc, etc, appropriate
> to a rich bourgeois girl of the period - indeed actual examples
> from the period - even though THERE WAS NEVER ANY
> INTENTION THESE WOULD BE SEEN BY THE CAMERA.
> Similarly, when Dirk Bogarde arrived at the old vaporetto station
> in 'Death in Venice', his cases had to contain the (now antique)
> silver backed hairbrushes, jars of pomade, hand stitched shirts,
> leather-backed books & so on - such as Aschenbach might have
> carried with him on his last hols in 1904 (or whenever.)
> Again, THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO BE SEEN.
> But Visconti wanted him to know they were there.
>
> And, as the Master has taught us, in that same magical way we,
> sitting here in the tenth row, know they are too.
> ___________________________________
>
> Every so often I become persona non grata on Heming-L.
> This time, I think, it has to do with a running row I used to
> conduct with one of the other geriatrics - a widely loved &
> repected academic whose opaque musings I could never resist
> having a go at. Then, a month ago, he up & died. I have a nasty
> feeling they blame me.
> (Let's hope all past & present Directors of Creative Writing
> on THIS list remain in hearty good health.)
>
> Scottie B.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Aug 19 13:43:33 2003