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Apr. 12th, 2005 11:15 amAwake despite fatigue, blankly contemplating personal problems, ignoring impendage of finals. I imagine I'll finish Little, Big today. From a few pages ago:
"[My husband] told me, once, about this place, in India or China, where ages ago when somebody got the death sentence, they used to give him this drug, like a sleeping drug, only it's a poison, but very slow-acting; and the person falls asleep first, deep asleep, and has these very vivid dreams. He dreams a long time, he forgets he's dreaming even; he dreams for days. He dreams that he's on a journey, or that some such thing has happened to him. And then, somewhere along, the drug is so gentle and he's so fast asleep that he never notices when, he dies. But he doesn't know it. The dream changes, maybe; but he doesn't even know it's a dream, so. He just goes on. He only thinks it's another country."
Compare Lost Highway:
"In the East, the Far East, when a person is sentenced to death they are sent to a place where they can't escape, never knowing when an executioner may step up behind them and fire a bullet into the back of their head."
But how different, especially considering contexts.
"In Another Country" was the one about Nick the soldier recuperating in an Italian hospital, I believe. Hemingway's story titles are so often perfect.
"But that was in another country, and besides the wench is dead" is Marlowe's Jew's great one-liner. Strange how sad it becomes, out of its own context. For some reason I was convinced Shakespeare appropriated it in one of his own plays, but textual searches say no.
We did see Mulholland. It was very beautiful but not quite as I remembered it. As with Highway (suggestion for portmanteau Lynch parody title: Lost Driveway) I begin to suspect I've been reading too much into a complex but essentially modest genre piece. I'll write my revised take when I'm less distracted.
"[My husband] told me, once, about this place, in India or China, where ages ago when somebody got the death sentence, they used to give him this drug, like a sleeping drug, only it's a poison, but very slow-acting; and the person falls asleep first, deep asleep, and has these very vivid dreams. He dreams a long time, he forgets he's dreaming even; he dreams for days. He dreams that he's on a journey, or that some such thing has happened to him. And then, somewhere along, the drug is so gentle and he's so fast asleep that he never notices when, he dies. But he doesn't know it. The dream changes, maybe; but he doesn't even know it's a dream, so. He just goes on. He only thinks it's another country."
Compare Lost Highway:
"In the East, the Far East, when a person is sentenced to death they are sent to a place where they can't escape, never knowing when an executioner may step up behind them and fire a bullet into the back of their head."
But how different, especially considering contexts.
"In Another Country" was the one about Nick the soldier recuperating in an Italian hospital, I believe. Hemingway's story titles are so often perfect.
"But that was in another country, and besides the wench is dead" is Marlowe's Jew's great one-liner. Strange how sad it becomes, out of its own context. For some reason I was convinced Shakespeare appropriated it in one of his own plays, but textual searches say no.
We did see Mulholland. It was very beautiful but not quite as I remembered it. As with Highway (suggestion for portmanteau Lynch parody title: Lost Driveway) I begin to suspect I've been reading too much into a complex but essentially modest genre piece. I'll write my revised take when I'm less distracted.
