tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post2144981891333911330..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: I shall gaze at the ocean. - Victor Hugo's William ShakespeareAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-85596426522016823982013-01-10T08:19:25.059-06:002013-01-10T08:19:25.059-06:00That's a good one - "great but not good&q...That's a good one - "great but not good" is a real category. Hugo was often good too! But his greatness can swamp everything else.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-54541705913341866742013-01-10T00:53:50.182-06:002013-01-10T00:53:50.182-06:00I am reminded of American physicist Steven Weinber...I am reminded of American physicist Steven Weinberg's description of Werner Heisenberg, who headed the Third Reich's atomic bomb research as, "a man who managed to become a great physicist without ever becoming a good one." [Or some such.]Gene O'Brienhttp://www.facebook.com/eugene.b.obriennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-44967932508058890872011-05-09T21:01:07.185-05:002011-05-09T21:01:07.185-05:00Oh, yes, that's a good metaphor. I have no do...Oh, yes, that's a good metaphor. I have no doubt that the 20th century Hugo would have been a film director, one unafraid of explosions, and not entirely ashamed of the occasional motorcycle chase.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-53458679275798586982011-05-09T13:04:33.401-05:002011-05-09T13:04:33.401-05:00Brilliant stuff. I'm intrigued by the way he p...Brilliant stuff. I'm intrigued by the way he pushes two ideas together until they're borderline garbled, "eagles flecked with foam," for example. It's poetic compression, but he doesn’t do it preciously, he doesn't ask you to stop and look at this inventive little artifact he's wrought -- the whole force and rush of the sentence is working <i>against</i> a reader who wants to pause. He writes like a man on a motorbike whizzing you past explosions, shouting, "No, you can’t look at that, hey, there's another one." I think you call him "bullying" in the next post. It's a good word.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-23731489370728827492011-05-05T09:22:37.617-05:002011-05-05T09:22:37.617-05:00Yeah, that's about right. The funny thing is ...Yeah, that's about right. The funny thing is that Hugo's insight into Shakespeare are not so useful. But then there's the rest of the book.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-23871795223511147892011-05-05T08:51:57.460-05:002011-05-05T08:51:57.460-05:00Well, you've certainly got me interested. I ha...Well, you've certainly got me interested. I had no idea Hugo ever turned his talent toward Shakespeare, and by that I mean, wrote about himself while writing about Shakespeare. But it does sound like a fantastic, if bizarre, read.Michellehttp://incurablelogophilia.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-69798057133954767772011-05-02T20:07:39.231-05:002011-05-02T20:07:39.231-05:00Good stuff, huh, Pykk? Good, good stuff. Maybe a...Good stuff, huh, Pykk? Good, good stuff. Maybe a <i>leetle</i> florid now and again.<br /><br />I'm with you on Hardy, C.B. Hardy will write a sentence with a perfect image or penetrating insight and follow it with a sentence that is barely competent. Then, back and forth, great, terrible, great, ordinary, terrible again, for 300 pages.<br /><br />Anyone else who wants to take a look at <i>William Shakespeare</i> can <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cUBAAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">go right here</a>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-60121549626427971612011-05-02T19:06:06.495-05:002011-05-02T19:06:06.495-05:00Oh good grief you've prompted me to look it up...Oh good grief you've prompted me to look it up. Those billows, that ebb and flood, those inexorable comings and goings, that noise of all the winds, that blackness and that translucency, that vegetation peculiar to the deep, that democracy of clouds in full hurricane, those eagles flecked with foam, those wonderful star-risings reflected in mysterious agitation by millions of luminous wave-tops! And the queens knitting mittens.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-12324895021977648552011-05-02T13:25:12.605-05:002011-05-02T13:25:12.605-05:00I love the two quotes you lead off with. I can se...I love the two quotes you lead off with. I can see how true both of the are. They remind me of an English professor I had once who describe Thomas Hardy as "a great writer, but not a good writer." After read Hardy for many years now, I see that he was right.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06906212382849291562noreply@blogger.com