Reading | Wandering in Multi Universes of Mind and Life

Tag: Reading
- Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
  
  Posted at 4:31 pm by A M Zénon, on December 9, 2020
  
  Absolutely surprised I was, when during the first corona lockdown, I sat down, and started reading Tolkien’s Hobbit, and immediately thereafter The Lord of the Rings, almost without significant interruption, in days to the end. The Hobbit only on the Kindle App. The Lord of the Rings in the 50th anniversary edition of Houghton Mifflin.
  
  I was always reticent to start, because I had viewed some pieces from the movies. I was afraid it was more of some fantasy war stories.
  
  Yet it gripped my intention as a kind of bildungsroman, as a path through life, going through difficult periodes in life. And all with great attention to feelings, thoughts, misery and happiness, of the surrounding earth, friendship, and especially for the feelings of others. Most of all struck me of course Frodo, the young one, with all his doubts, fear, and still going on. And of course Sam, the best of friends.
  
  I have read from youth much of the great world literature. As in all those novels there are human and social relations which belong to other times than ours. This book is written in its own time, by Tolkien has been, in his time.
  
  And I think to feel constantly the horrors of WWI and WWII, even as this is not the attention of the author.
  
  I read first the Kindle edition. That’s fine for making notes and quickly rereading the most beautiful and memorable passages.
  
  But after that I read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in the beautiful 50th anniversary edition of Houghton Mifflin. Because I thought this is a book that was made for reading with all the senses, with the beautiful black cover and the golden text of front cover and spine. The light brown pages are gentle for the eyes and for the mind. It was part of the same feeling, the beautiful gentle book in my hands and the wandering with these wonderful friends, especially when they were wandering through their natural world, of trees, flowers, animals, and human beings.
  
  I was reading as I did as a child, in an easy chair, with all other senses away from the rest of the world, completely living in a wonderful world of nature, flowers, plants, mountains, travelling, fear, horror, cold, but above all human heroism and human friendship.
  
  It is wonderful story, because Tolkien recreates his own world, and shares it with us. Tolkien, Frodo and Sam and Merry and Pippin…
  
  Posted in Literature, Magical, Reading, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Literature, Reading, Tolkien
- Reading Always Reading
  
  Posted at 6:25 pm by A M Zénon, on November 20, 2014
  
  I have always been reading. As long as I can remember. So I suppose at least from the moment, that I learned the alphabet. I got many books in my youth, took them from my brothers bookshelves, and from the, forbidden, parents bookshelves, borrowed them from the library. So I read all the books, that I could get.
  
  It has been all my life a pleasure to wander through the bookshops. As it is nowadays through the wider world of the online bookshops. And I welcomed the ereaders and the likes from the moment they were there. Physical books or ebooks, I don’t mind, all are good, if I can read.
  
  I read because I love the words, the language, the stories, the discoveries, the memories, the familiar and the unknown.
  I only need my mind and the letters of the alphabet.
  
  I read all kinds of books, novels, study books, art books, you name it. They all have 2 things in common. They show me familiar situations, to keep me reading. And they show me unknown situations, to keep me reading.
  
  I write about my thoughts and feelings. Perhaps a short description. But do not expect any expertise here. And certainly no good or bad judgement or more or less stars. You will never hear me tell you, that you should read this or that book, or just not.
  
  You will hear only some more or less loose, incoherent, coincidental thoughts and feelings. About books I feel close to.
  Well, if I succeed to put them into words.
  
  Will be continued…
  
  Posted in Amzenon, Lifelong Love, Literature, Reading | 0 Comments | Tagged Literature, Memories, Reading
- Opera in Daily Life: Don Juan in Hankey, PA
  
  Posted at 5:05 pm by A M Zénon, on March 7, 2012
  
  Don Juan in Hankey is a novel about an opera company, which is preparing a new production of Don Giovanni, about the acts and the thoughts of all the people involved. It is a wonderful story. The plot you must read yourself.
  
  It reads as a satire, but with serious nuances. There is a lot to laugh about, as always, about the protagonists and about you, if you recognize yourself in one or more of the characters. It was difficult for me to stop reading, because of the many cliffhangers. I was curious each chapter, each page, sometimes each sentence, to the next event.
  
  The description of the acts and the emotions of the characters is especially bright. I had the feeling as if I was there myself.
  
  What makes this novel so special, that are the many levels to discover and enjoy, as in every good novel.
  
  There is the story about the lives of the principal characters.
  The story about the opera company, which is creating a new production and trying to overcome all the problems, recalls the difficulties of teamwork.
  In the communication between the protagonists, you can hear them thinking, anticipating, preparing their responses to the other members of the Guild. It is a way of communication in our modern times. Be careful for the feelings of others in what you say and be willing to soften you words.
  
  It is also a story about the essence of human life, of the energy of human beings, of getting up after a setback, of optimism.
  
  The ‘colors of the language’, a good story can be like a painting, remind me of the bright colors of modern city life.
  
  The storyline and the way of telling remind me of the opera Don Giovanni, with its many scenes and its lively phrases.
  
  Above all, the ‘music of the language’, language can have a musical quality, is like the music of Mozart and Don Giovanni, lively and bright.
  
  It was a great pleasure to read this musical novel. I think it will be for all members of opera companies, opera singers and opera lovers, and for all lovers of a novel about modern life. Recommended!
  
  Don Juan in Hankey, PA
  
  Posted in Joy, Literature, Opera, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Don Giovanni, Don Juan, Gale Martin, Literature, Mozart, Opera, Reading
- Reading in Silence
  
  Posted at 4:43 pm by A M Zénon, on January 13, 2012
  
  Series: Favorite Paintings
  
  Catena Saint Jerome in his Study from the National Gallery
  
  Catena St Jerome in his Study
  
  Standing alone before St Jerome.
  Wandering through the National Gallery in London, I am always looking for my favorite paintings. One of them is St Jerome in his Study by Catena. Some years ago, I fell in love with this painting. As no other people seemed interested, I could watch St Jerome for a long time without being disturbed. It gave me a wonderful feeling, to stand alone before this painting. I felt totally quiet.
  
  Readers and silence.
  There is silence. The bird does not make noise.
  The lion is sleeping. St Jerome is reading.
  It is this act of reading which is holding my attention. Reading is an interaction between two people, the author and the reader, actually from author to reader. It is a lonely activity. Readers are alone with their thoughts. Before this painting, I forget all the people, walking behind me through the National Gallery rooms.
  I am just there with another reader, although he cannot talk with me. That does not matter. Readers like other readers. Readers like silence.
  
  Colors and composition.
  The quiet green and brown colors and the geometrical composition with right lines are greatly contributing to the feeling of rest.
  
  Favorite details.
  The reading St Jerome in his red and blue gown.
  The view through the window of the blue grey mountains and the sea.
  And especially the sleeping lion.
  
  Some thoughts.
  
  I love paintings because of the pleasure of lines and colors.
  Moreover, they are arousing old and new thoughts and feelings.
  Some feelings are reminding of personal life events, sad and happy ones.
  New thoughts are sometimes more interesting. They can produce another way of looking, of thinking, about personal life, about humanity, about the world.
  
  Perhaps this painting is representing another meaning than a reading St Jerome. I am sure it has many different meanings. Sometimes that is important, sometimes not.
  The painter creates, the art lover re-creates.
  
  I am an art lover. I value art historians and art books highly. Art books show me details, I could overlook. They help me seeing more. However, when I am standing before a painting, it is between the painter and me. It is about what he wants to show and say, and about what I think and feel.
  
  Jerome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Vincenzo Catena | artist | active 1506 – 1531 | The National Gallery, London
  Vincenzo Catena | Saint Jerome in his Study | NG694 | The National Gallery, London
  
  Other paintings of St Jerome
  
  Cavarozzi St Jerome in his Study
  
  Bellini St Jerome Reading in the Countryside
  
  Ghirlandaio St Jerome in his Study
  
  Posted in Art, Paintings | 0 Comments | Tagged Art, Catena, Italian Renaissance, Looking, National Gallery, Paintings, Reading, St Jerome, Venetian School
- Le Temps a Laissié Son Manteau
  
  Posted at 4:44 pm by A M Zénon, on April 1, 2011
  
  Limbourg Brothers Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
  
  In spring the beautiful rondeau of Charles d’Orléans sings in my head.
  
  Le temps a laissié son manteau
  De vent, de froidure en de pluye,
  Et s’est vestu de brouderie,
  De soleil luyant, cler et beau.
  
  Il n’y a beste, ne oyseau,
  Qu’en son jargon ne chante ou crie:
  Le temps a laissié son manteau !
  
  Riviere, fontaine et ruisseau
  Portent, en livree jolie,
  Gouttes d’argent d’orfaverie,
  Chascun s’abille de nouveau:
  Le temps a laissié son manteau.
  
  From Charles d’Orléans Poésies ed. Pierre Champion, Librairie Honoré Champion 1971.
  
  Nature has taken off her coat of wind, of rain and of cold, and has dressed in embroidery, in bright and beautiful sun. There is no beast or bird, which in his own tongue not sings or shouts: nature has taken off her coat. River, fountain and creek dress, in beautiful livery, drops of silver, everyone dresses in new: nature has taken off her coat.
  
  Charles d’Orléans lived from 24 November 1394-5 January 1465. He became Duke of Orléans at a very young age, after the murder of his father Louis d’Orléans in 1407. He was captured at the Battle of Agincourt and lived as a hostage in England during 25 years. The last years of his life, he lived in Blois on the Loire River. He wrote rondeaux, chansons and ballades. I first heard about him through the wonderful biographical novel by Dutch author Hella Haasse: Het Woud der Verwachting or In a Dark Wood Wandering.
  
  Another beautiful poem for this time of year:
  
  En regardant ces belles fleurs
  Que le temps nouveau d’Amours prie,
  Chascune d’elles s’ajolie
  Et farde de plaisans couleurs.
  
  Tant enbasmees sont de odeurs
  Qu’il n’est cueuer qui ne rajeunie,
  En regardant ces belles fleurs.
  
  Les oyseaus deviennent danseurs
  Dessuz mainte branche flourie,
  Et font joyeuse chanterie,
  De contres, deschans et teneurs,
  En regardant ces belles fleurs.
  
  Watching the beautiful flowers that the new era of Love invites, they are all glad and full of beautiful colors. They are so full of perfume that everybody with a heart is happy. The birds are dancers under many flowering branch. And sing for joy, high and low. Watching these beautiful flowers.
  
  He also wrote in English:
  
  Ayens the comyng of may
  That is full of lustynes,
  Let us leve all hevynes
  As fer as we can or may.
  
  Now is tym of myrth and play;
  Wynter weth hys ydylnes
  Is discomfet as y ges,
  And redy to fle a way.
  Ayens the comyng of may.
  
  Wherfore, ladys, I yow pray
  That ye take in yow gladnes,
  And do all your besynes
  To be mery nyght and day.
  Ayens the comyng of may.
  
  I love his poems. Some are happy. Some introvert and melancholic. Charles d’Orléans has written his poems nearly 600 years ago. However, I could still feel the joy and the grief of the poet. In the same way as I feel joy and grief.
  
  Wikipedia Charles Duke of Orléans
  Charles De Orléans Poésies Ed. Champion
  Hella Haasse In a Dark Wood Wandering
  
  Posted in Joy, Lifelong Love, Literature, Poetry | 0 Comments | Tagged Charles d' Orléans, Hella Haasse, Literature, Loire, Poetry, Reading
- Fülle des Wohllauts
  
  Posted at 2:49 pm by A M Zénon, on March 19, 2011
  
  No chapter from a novel describes the delight of the opera lover
  as beautifully as the above section from Der Zauberberg.
  Nobody has written about opera as beautifully as Thomas Mann:
  
  ‘Ein international Chor gefeierter Sänger und Sängerinnen setzte, begleitet von diskret zurücktretendem Orchester, die hochgeschulte Gottesgabe seiner Stimmen ein zur Ausführung von Arien, Duetten, ganzen Ensembleszenen aus den verschiedenen Gegenden und Epochen des musikalischen Theaters:der südlichen Schönheitssphäre einer zugleich hoch-und leichtherzigen Hingerissenheit, einer deutsch-volkhaften Welt von Schalkheit und Dämonie, der französischen Grossen und Komischen Oper.’
  
  Der Zauberberg is a ‘Bildungsroman’. The protagonist Hans Castorp, a young engineer, travels to Davos to visit his cousin Joachim, who remains a long period in a sanatorium. Soon Hans forgets to return home. He is intrigued by life in the small community. The following years, he learns much about life, love, friendship, world views and opera.
  
  It is in the chapter about music, Fülle des Wohllauts, that we see Hans Castorp reveling in the most beautiful opera arias. Hans gets access to a beautiful gramophone with the brand name ‘Polyhymnia’.
  He makes sure he is alone in the music room and starts listening to famous opera arias for hours.
  
  Below, some of the arias Thomas Mann and his protagonist listened frequently to, with quotations from Fülle des Wohllauts:
  
  Aida:
  
  ‘Der unvergleichliche Tenor, der fürstliche Alt mit dem herrlichen Stimmbruch in der Mitte seines Umfanges und der silberne Sopran…’
  ‘..nun öffne sich der Himmel und ihrem Sehnen erstrahlte das Licht der Ewigkeit.’
  
  Enrico Caruso and Johanna Gadski: O Terra Addio 1909
  
  Aureliano Pertile Dusolina Giannini Carlo Sabajno: O Terra Addio 1928
  
  Carmen:
  
  ‘Der Soldat sang von der Blume, die Carmen ihm am Anfang ihrer Bekanntschaft zugeworfen, und die im schweren Arrest, worein er um ihretwillen geraten, sein ein und alles gewesen sei.’
  ‘Und ewig dir gehör ich an, liess danach die Stimme um zehn Töne sinken und bekannte erschüttert sein Carmen, ich liebe dich.’
  
  Alfred Piccaver: Blumenarie Hier an dem Herzen treu geborgen 1920
  
  Faust:
  
  Hans Castorp feels particularly sympathetic to Valentin, who reminds him of his recently
  deceased cousin Joachim, who had served in the army.
  
  ‘Jemand trat auf, jemand Erz-Sympatisches, der Valentin hiess, den aber Hans Castorp im Stillen anders nannte…’
  
  Hans Nissen: Da ich nun verlassen soll
  
  Der Lindenbaum:
  
  At the end of the story we find Hans Castorp back in the mud of the battlefields of WWI, singing:
  
  ‘Ich schnitt in seiner Rinde so manches liebe Wort …’
  ‘Und sei-ne Zweige rau-uschten, als rie-fen sie mir zu-‘
  
  Richard Tauber: Der Lindenbaum 1927
  
  Der Zauberberg is one of my favorite novels. I read and re-read it in different stages of my life, or sometimes only out of love for it. It is not only the story, which is holding my attention. It is also the enchanting narrative style.
  The best edition is the Grosse Kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe from S.Fischer Verlag, from which the quotations are. However, I think each edition will be good.
  
  Many opera lovers will share the feelings of Thomas Mann and his protagonist, and me, for the enchantment of opera. Attending a live performance is beautiful. Listening to records or CDs of the great arias at home has its own delight.
  
  Wikipedia The Magic Mountain
  DVD with Christoph Eichhorn as Hans Castorp
  Thomas Mann Der Zauberberg Grosse Kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe
  
  Posted in Classical Music, Joy, Lifelong Love, Literature, Magical, Opera, Stories | 0 Comments | Tagged Aida, Carmen, Christoph Eichhorn, Der Lindenbaum, Der Zauberberg, Faust, Listening, Reading, Thomas Mann
- What are Great Moments ?
  
  Posted at 3:12 pm by A M Zénon, on February 12, 2011
  
  Berthe Morisot
  
  When I am listening to music, looking at a painting or a sculpture or reading a book, I know instantaneously that something is happening to me, a kind of flash. Sometimes a memory of an event in the past, sometimes a memory of a friend, but often an indistinct feeling of happiness, of “je ne sais quoi” or even of melancholy. These moments make a deep impression, I never forget. I don’t know if they are influencing my daily life. But I do know they are remaining in my memory and in my thoughts. They can change with time, mood, ageing or personal development. They never fall out of favour.
  
  For instance, when at the age of twelve first reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace, I looked at Pierre and Andrei as grown-up men. Young, my greatest admiration was for Pierre with his more deviating way of life. Older, I appreciated more Andrei’s social attitude. Yet each time I reread the novel, I feel involved with both and with Natasha of course.
  
  The same, in some other way, is happening with music like the first time I heard Beethoven’s Eroica on a small recorder or the Violin Concerto by Yehudi Menuhin live.
  
  Wilhelm Lehmbruck
  
  Or when I am looking at a sculpture by Lehmbruck or a painting by Malevich or a .
  Earlier I always tried to understand why some works had such an effect on me. Nowadays, I am just happy with the old familiar memories and the future, not yet known, events. They are like old and new friends. They are part of me.
  
  In this blog I’ll write about my favorite music, art and books.
  What I hear, see, read, feel, think and love.
  
  Posted in Classical Music, Literature, Paintings | 0 Comments | Tagged Art, Classical Music, Listening, Literature, Looking, Memories, Reading
- Meeting Jan Six and Rembrandt
  
  Posted at 9:09 am by A M Zénon, on November 16, 2010
  
  Last week, after a troublesome journey, I arrived at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. After some queuing up in the rain I was going at once to Jan Six. There he was, with his beautiful red coat. I liked him at first sight. His appearance, his posture. His polite impatience, was he going out ? His gorgeous cloths. The many buttons. Most of all I liked his eyes. Were they green ? Friendly but a little absent. He had other things on his mind.
  
  In another room his etch, more casual, Jan Six was leaning against a window-sill. Reading some papers. As if not aware of the portraitist.
  
  A reader lives in another world or age. Forgets the other people around. Can a reader be unaware of the attention when pictured ? Is it possible to picture the very moment of reading ?
  
  Both portraits showed a real person. Someone you could give a hand and speak to. I felt the presence of two people. Jan Six or was it Rembrandt that I saw or maybe, interpreting, me ?
  
  Rijksmuseum
  Rijksmuseum and Jan Six
  
  Posted in Art, Paintings | 0 Comments | Tagged Looking, Reading, Rembrandt, Rijksmuseum
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