Some Media

Angels & Insects (A.S. Byatt): I just finished reading it, knowing that if it didn't happen this weekend, I wouldn't get to it until next summer or so. It's scary to know that I will have very little time to read anything other than school stuff for the next semester and that Christmas break will be so busy that I won't be able to handle capital L Literature.

Anyway, the book is two novellas: "Morphia Eugenia" which, I'll confess I 'read' the movie first, is visually sumptuous but somewhat redundant to the movie (meaning the adaptation well-portrayed the text and didn't interpret it). But, I hadn't seen the film in years, so this was a nice repetition of story. Not to spoil the story, but the switching of letters around in "INSECT" makes for a wonderful connection to the natural world. A poor natural scholar gets caught up in a too-perfect family system that, of course, must be revealed.

"The Conjugial Angel" is interesting in how this follows up the impeccable Possession. This time the historical poets and poems that intertwine with our story are real. Alfred Tennyson's sister tries to contact, through seances in a lovely Victorian setting, the man (Arthur Hallstum)she was to marry years ago who died that Tennyson wrote In Memoriam about. Very interesting in how it weaves together Romantic and Victorian poetry with spirits in a type of ghost story. Basically, Byatt can do no wrong in my eyes, but it doesn't rival her magnum opus.

Katie and I saw a last movie together before she jetted off to London--The Illusionist, and I have to reaffirm for those in doubt that yes, I am available to have Edward Norton's babies. It was wonderful, the story, the acting (at least by Norton, Sewell, and Giamatti), the illusions (cinematography and cg)! While not being particularly impressive, Jessica Biel does a fine enough job and, most importantly, does not distract from or ruin the film. Katie and I were clever enough to figure out most of the story, but even 'knowing' what was happening didn't make the film any less enjoyable. Turn of the century Vienna is becoming more and more interesting to me as a time period; modern Western Europe, but tinged with Eastern influence (as this movie is). Especially interesting is Norton's show which is not just a magic show, but somehow a philosophic exploration on big issues: time, life, death. If it's showing near you, run don't walk!