Belatedly, I wanted to echo others in expressing my gratitude to you Samantha for introducing us to this book. Several times you have referred to it as a balm, and that is certainly something it has become for me. (I hope you write something on it.)
I was late reading the novel and finished it a few weeks ago on vacation, and just now finished all the recordings. The parts about Plotia and losing shame in nakedness made me think of Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium, where love of beautiful bodies leads one to loving beauty itself.
I think it was David who discussed resonances with Joyce. Having finished Ulysses about two months ago, I appreciate David's distinction between the intellectual versus affective use of repetition and language between the two books. I wish a choreographer would adapt The Death of Virgil into a ballet--not necessarily a narrative one, but one that captures the experience of the language and Virgil's inner monologue. (Wayne McGregor recently adapted some of Woolf in this way, including the Waves which was mentioned in the discussion. I didn't see it, but read the New Yorker review of it).
Belatedly, I wanted to echo others in expressing my gratitude to you Samantha for introducing us to this book. Several times you have referred to it as a balm, and that is certainly something it has become for me. (I hope you write something on it.)
I was late reading the novel and finished it a few weeks ago on vacation, and just now finished all the recordings. The parts about Plotia and losing shame in nakedness made me think of Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium, where love of beautiful bodies leads one to loving beauty itself.
I think it was David who discussed resonances with Joyce. Having finished Ulysses about two months ago, I appreciate David's distinction between the intellectual versus affective use of repetition and language between the two books. I wish a choreographer would adapt The Death of Virgil into a ballet--not necessarily a narrative one, but one that captures the experience of the language and Virgil's inner monologue. (Wayne McGregor recently adapted some of Woolf in this way, including the Waves which was mentioned in the discussion. I didn't see it, but read the New Yorker review of it).