M. BREQUE,
Are you translating the Quartet for a new French edition? Was there ever a French edition? Even if you're doing it for pleasure I applaud your project. I agree with you that the Quartet needs some serious looking into by the critics. Regarding your observation about the shadows of the past the reviewer for Harpers Magazine compared it to the winding down of a top. I agree up to a point. I think the kind of magic that Whittemore works is that even as the characters become less "fantastic" as we go from Strongbow to Yossi these people are no less extraordinary for the things they do. Like David Jerusalem in Borges' Deutsches Requiem (which is really, for me, the most terrifying thing I've ever read)they become hymns to every minutia of existence. That's one of the reasons why i think Joe is such a wonderful and unique character. You can really kind of chart this progression through him in his three books. In the beginning he was just as mythic as Wallenstein or Zawir but as we get to Nile Shadows he's become quieter. He's learnt in his capacity as medicine man to listen. And then at the end of the book he's just "a small man." And then in the last book he's there just in passing and only once (I was a little pissed actually, being such a joe fan and all, that Bell never even spoke of him. But that's just my one gripe) but, and here is where I think the end becomes really cool, we've kind of adopted the Joe of Nile Shadow's capacity to listen. We've become a little more sensitive to life. We've gotten more involved in regular, earthy, mundane things. I think that's just a brilliant move. The only other author I can think of who kind of turns greatness on it's ear like this is Tolstoy. there's probably others but Tolstoy sounds just right. Here's the other thing though... I've really gotten to love that special kind of enjoyment of reading someone whose an obvious creative genius and yet is ignored by and large by the lit. establishment. And by that I mean the academic establishment. For my own part I never much cared for the folk that I've known professors to lap up like John Barth, Vladimir Nabokov and David Foster Wallace...yuk! (no offense, I hope, to any fans of these authors) Up there with Whittemore I also think Mervyn Peake and Richard Brautigan have yet to recieve their deserved accolades as being some of the best wizards of the language in the last century. And yet...and yet... what if they did?... I don't know. Maybe I just don't want to share. Time for me to grow up.
-Pat

--Previous Message--
: I was re-reading the Alexandria Quartet at
: about the time that particular article was
: sent to me.
: I then had to re-read Jerusalem Poker to
: find the reference.
:
: Actually the Alexandria Quartet is a good
: companion piece to the Jerusalem Quartet
: even though the two quartets are very
: different in style.
:
: Whittemore was obviously very widely read.
:
: I wonder if he and Durrell ever met, they
: both hung around in the same area of the
: world, so it's quite likely. In fact, now I
: think of it, they must have, because I came
: across a reference to Whittemore on a site
: which listed Durrell's books and papers and
: there was a copy of Sinai Tapestry among
: them.
:
: Cheers,
:
: Anne
:
: --Previous Message--
: You're right. History was a springboard for
: Whittemore's imagination.
:
: Thanks for the Durrell reference: I knew
: there was one in Jerusalem Poker, thanks to
: an article on this site, but I didn't know
: what it was.
:
: I've not read The Alexandria Quartet yet,
: but I'd like to.
:
: Just found an allusion to Ulysses in
: Jerusalem Poker, by the way, but i think
: Joyce is deliberately misquoted here.
:
: Jean-Daniel
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Indeed.
:
: I have been thinking about the way
: Whittemore uses history. He reports the
: facts accurately and then it is as if he
: goes on to ask "What happened
: next?" and formulates his own quirky
: outcome. The books are really a
: fictionalised secret history. One always has
: the impression that something beyond
: explanation is being conveyed.
:
: By the way, did you notice the reference to
: "The Alexandria Quartet" by
: Lawrence Durrell in Jerusalem Poker? It's on
: page 216 of the OEB edition. It refers to
: the poems of Arnauti who happens to be
: Justine's old lover in the novel
: "Justine".
:
: Cheers,
:
: Anne
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Anne,
:
: I see what you mean, indeed.
: Tapestry is definitely the word.
:
: You know, the more I get into the Quartet,
: the more I see the similarities with
: Tolkien. In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn,
: Gandalf et al are reenacting the mighty
: deeds of a bygone golden age, they are but
: shadows of their ancestors.
:
: The same thread runs through the Quartet,
: with characters like Joe, Stern and Munk
: longing for the 19th century, the time where
: giants like Strongbow, Johann Luigi Szondi
: and Menelik Ziwar roamed the Earth.
:
: No offense to the critics, but I think the
: Quartet is in need of serious critical
: attention.
:
: Jean-Daniel
:
: --Previous Message--
: Jean-Daniel,
:
: I don't know about "Our Colly" but
: the link below has the story of Joe's
: ancestors as told in "Sinai
: Tapestry"
:
: Anne
:
: --Previous Message--
: : Anne--
: I did not KNOW anything about the O'Sullivan
: Beare clan, but I was getting there.
: Tell me, "Our Colly" was for real,
: that's it?
:
: Yakouba was the subject of a book by William
: Seabrook. I'll have to look it up, but it
: seems the White Monk didn't live in the same
: time frame as "Strongbow".
:
: As for Johann Luigi Burckhardt, he was one
: of the first Christians/white men to enter
: Medina, and he rediscovered Petra. His name
: is mentioned in Jericho Mosaic, which
: aroused my suspicions.
:
: I'll keep you posted.
:
: Jean-Daniel
: --Previous Message--
: I knew about Numa Numantius and I have tried
: to find references to Yakouba and Johann
: Luigi (recently)
:
: I suppose you already know about the
: O'Sullivan Beare Clan.
:
: Google is a wonderful thing.
:
: Cheers,
:
: Anne
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: I just wrote:
: Did you know that
: some of the more extravagant characters in
: the Quartet are not fictitious? Numa
: Numantius and Yakouba, the White Monk of
: Timbuktu, for instance.
:
: How about a new feature on this site,
: "Historical Sources of the
: Quartet," for instance?
:
: Well, you ain't seen nothing yet.
:
: Check Johann Luigi Burckhardt on Google...
:
: Who needs fantasy? Reality beats the hell
: out of it anytime.
:
: Jean-Daniel (still waiting for 50,000 people
: to show up: they want to see this baby fly)
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