Rodney Hall, frequent guest of this blog, began a spiel on this topic when last we met. This commentary on the nature of art is so fundamental and so important, it needs to be posted somewhere: once again, I exhorted him to start his own blog and yet again, he refused. For that reason, I present his ideas here, rather than attempt to pass them off as my own.
Continue readingArchive for Charles Dickens
‘Story is Such a Lie.’
Posted in Observation, Real Men with tags C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Luis Bunuel, Mr Deasey, Rodney Hall, Ulysses on January 20, 2023 by Jarrod BoyleThomas Hardy: Character is Fate in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’
Posted in Fiction, Observation, Reading with tags Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Donald Farfrae, Michael Henchard, Narcissus, Phillip Pirrip, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy on May 31, 2022 by Jarrod Boyle‘Character is fate, said Novalis, and Farfrae’s character was just the reverse of Henchard’s, who might not be inaptly described as Faust has been described – as a vehement gloomy being who had quitted the ways of vulgar men without light to guide him on a better way.’
Thomas Hardy,
The Mayor of Casterbridge,
P. 131
While reading The Mayor of Casterbridge this morning, I saw something that I did not like: myself.
Continue readingDesperate Romantic: My Life as a Stalker (A Lamentably True Story)
Posted in Acts of devotion, Love letters, Observation, Real Men with tags Allen Ginsberg, Bikram yoga, Charles Dickens, Howl, Roald Dahl, Russel Hoban., The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, The Wish on November 26, 2014 by Jarrod Boyle6: Calm and Huge, Like a River of Violence
This kind of obsessive love is often depicted as torture. Continue reading
The Dark Side of Unconditional Love
Posted in Observation, Reading with tags Bill Sikes, Charles Dickens, Nancy, Oliver Twist on August 12, 2014 by Jarrod BoyleIt is said that unconditional love is the kind of love we should aspire to; it’s the state of loving in which you love someone, regardless of whether they love you in return, or even treat you well. It is to achieve a state of selflessness as a result of your feelings.
It has occurred to me that this is not always a good thing. Continue reading
Why the Left is Being Left Behind
Posted in Film, Observation with tags A Tale of Two Cities, Argo, Ben Affleck, Canada, Charles Dickens, French Revolution, George Clooney, Good Night and Good Luck, Iran, Michael Collins, Mohammed Mossadegh, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Syriana, Trojan Horse on December 7, 2012 by Jarrod BoyleYou can’t take other people’s opinions too seriously. Continue reading