Anne, my favourite author is Umberto Eco, although I have not loved (or indeed understood) everything that he has written.

Your remark that the silliness is apparent at a shallow level is delicately cutting. For me the absurdity impeded the flow of the narrative because it was poorly handled. Maybe that prevented me from delving deeper, or maybe you perceive depths that were unintended.

Repetition of themes is for you mesmeric. The tra-la-la of a child repeating a nursery rhyme can I suppose have a hypnotic quality, but it does not for me render the tale related in the rhyme any more profound.

Thank you for the blessings on my name, Jean-Daniel. I suppose that I could have chosen instead 'Tudor Crossbow' or 'Stuart Cranequin'.

Yes, Haj Harun sees Stern as God descending from the skies, and O'Sullivan Beare sees him from a rather more jaded perspective. Unfortunately the former I find cartoonsih and both have no genuinely separate voice. I just don't think that Whittemore was a great author, and I find that his characterisation was poor.

But what do I know? I'm sorry to have crashed the party. I'll slink off to my private grief-hole and immerse myself in the goings-on in a 14th Century Italian monastery instead.

God Bless

--Previous Message--
: Bravo Jean-Daniel!
: You are perfectly right about the many layers
: of the books. When I was writing an essay on
: Whittemore and the books, I read them
: intensively twice and was totally immersed in
: Whittemore's world. I found the repetitive
: motifs were mesmeric and his writing style
: addictive.
: At a shallow level the books can seem very
: silly at times, but the overall feeling
: Whittemore conveys is melancholy.
: Anne
:
: --Previous Message--
: I have to disagree with "Angevin
: Arbalest", of course (but what a
: wonderful moniker!), having spent several
: weeks immersed in Sinai Tapestry--today sees
: the completion of the first draft of my
: translation.
: Point of view matters in this book. Stern,
: for instance, is not the same man as seen by
: O'Sullivan Beare or by Haj Harun. In turn,
: each character sometimes acquires a mythic
: dimension and becomes, in the eye of the
: beholder, God or "Jaysus" or a
: genie.
: A story told at some point in space and time
: is not the same when told elsewhere/elsewhen.
: Go back to your Borges for some pointers.
: This book is like the city of Jerusalem it
: describes: a succession of strata, each one
: hiding the other while explaining it. You
: have to see past the surface -- though it is
: brilliant enough.
: Back to work.
: Have a nice day,
: Jean-Daniel
: PS 1: Speaking of the surface, that is to say
: Whittemore's writing style: I noticed as I
: was translating the book that he never once
: uses an exclamation point (!). Periods,
: commas, question marks (.,?) are there, all
: right, but now I'll have to check for
: semicolons and... darn, how do you say ( in
: English?
: PS 2: Please note that Haj Harun quotes
: Sancho Pansa at one time. Another layer...
:
: --Previous Message--
: All comments are welcome, though we would
: prefer them to be positive.
: It is however a sad fact that there are
: people out there who just don't like
: Whittemore's books or don't GET him, just as
: there are writers who don't grab me even
: though other people rave about them.
: I would be interested to learn what you would
: class as a good read or who your favorite
: authors are.
: Then I might have some idea of where you're
: coming from.
:
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: : :
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