(no subject)

[proximoception]

Been forever since I read Hyperion, as compared to Fall of. It echoes Book 1 of PL intentionally closely--Keats is implicitly agreeing with Shelley and Blake that there's a secret Paradise Lost that needs outing. Wonder why he stopped? I admire the verse and the way he evokes titanism; he doesn't juxtapose their size with the tininess of nearby objects, and the effect is to make their size one of importance, of in-gathered potential significance. They are full of the matter that matters. You can see why there's that homage in Little, Big.

This is probably related to that sense of ideas being physically part of you or near you I tried to describe a while back. Pretty fascinating that Keats succeeds as well as he does in evoking that, since you'd think it would be too particular to individuals and their moods--e.g. my jaw tension thing. I think he mostly does it through slowness. Not slowness of the verse, maybe something more like making the reader aware of the disparity between the pretty good speed of the verse and how slowly the titans move, how slowly they get to the point. They almost seem surprised at their own points when they reach them, or at least Thea and Cybele do. This is risky too as it renders things tedious for anyone not feeling what he's trying to do.

Now if only the narrative had gone somewhere.

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Slowness and paralysis in Keats. "Watchest the last oozings hour by hour." "Where the dead leaf fell, there did it rest." Fall of Hyperion picks that up in spades.

He says he abandoned it because it had "too many Miltonic inversions in it."

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Yes, just read that, and it sure does, and To Autumn does. And spent an hour with your book today, btw, in the library reference section. It's great! Can't imagine what I had to do with that but thank you.