Hi Bloggers
Below is the link to the exhibition I attended at MACBA in Barcelona recently. If anybody is interested in contributing to a correspondence art project as discussed last week please add a comment to this blog post and I will email you the details. I think this could kick start our plans for a left bank exhibition showcasing the many and varied talents of the group and encouraging creativity in others. I would like participants in this project to produce a piece of work 6x4 inches in size any medium or form ie painting, collage, textiles, words etc and to send it to me. You could use index cards or postcards or any card or paper 6x4 - this size is easy to post and produce good copies. Each work will be scanned so that they can be reproduced in different ways and catalogued. I would then like us to swap the work so that each participant then produces a piece of work in response to the one that they receive. I think that if we can get between 6 and 12 of us involved in this we should produce a reasonable number of pieces and the subject matter and medium will be interesting enough for an exhibition in the future.
Let me know if you are interested or if you think I have gone quite mad!
http://www.macba.es/
Michael can you please forward this message to left bankers who are not yet bloggers
PS Sorry I can't make the film this afternoon hope you all have a good time.
Paula
Sunday 29 November 2009
Friday 27 November 2009
Hi Paula,
Your info about 'La BD...' is very interesting, though I'm getting confused.
I've got Volume II of Keat's collected letters here (1958), and the poem written in the 21 April 1819 section of the long letter to his brother George, is the 'knight at arms' version - which also has a few other differences compared to the copy Michael gave us. The Editor of the 'Letters' (Rollins) in his footnote about the poem, suggests that someone else [a friend?] 'Jeffrey' [surname?] had a copy of the '"wretched wight" version of the poem' and Rollins seems to suggest that Keats must have sent this new version to his brother after 3 May 1819.
However ... I've now realised that, in his footnote, the book that Rollins is referring to for this information [(see KC, II, 120)]is Life of John Keats by Brown, Keats's friend. So ... is he a reliable narrator/biographer/witness? Did he, or someone else, tamper... or did Keats himself make the changes? I think we need to track down a tame Keats scholar. Meanwhile, I'm reading through the 'Letters' when I get chance; they are incredible.
Please remind me to ask you about your Lifelong Learning Course. I tried to find out what I needed to do, to be eligible to teach, but could not get a definitive answer, or find out where to do courses.
Your info about 'La BD...' is very interesting, though I'm getting confused.
I've got Volume II of Keat's collected letters here (1958), and the poem written in the 21 April 1819 section of the long letter to his brother George, is the 'knight at arms' version - which also has a few other differences compared to the copy Michael gave us. The Editor of the 'Letters' (Rollins) in his footnote about the poem, suggests that someone else [a friend?] 'Jeffrey' [surname?] had a copy of the '"wretched wight" version of the poem' and Rollins seems to suggest that Keats must have sent this new version to his brother after 3 May 1819.
However ... I've now realised that, in his footnote, the book that Rollins is referring to for this information [(see KC, II, 120)]is Life of John Keats by Brown, Keats's friend. So ... is he a reliable narrator/biographer/witness? Did he, or someone else, tamper... or did Keats himself make the changes? I think we need to track down a tame Keats scholar. Meanwhile, I'm reading through the 'Letters' when I get chance; they are incredible.
Please remind me to ask you about your Lifelong Learning Course. I tried to find out what I needed to do, to be eligible to teach, but could not get a definitive answer, or find out where to do courses.
Thursday 26 November 2009
Fantastic!
Hi
It's great to see 3 of you joining me on the blogoshphere! I also looked up the Keats version issue. In my OU literature text books It seems to think that "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" was written on 21 April 1819 in a letter to his brother George. Keats himself then modified it slightly for inclusion in The Indicator in May 1820. In 1848 it appeared in a volume of collected works but this was aversion copied out and changed by Charles Brown. So it would appear that "wretched wight" is the original version and "knight at arms" the copied and changed version.
The more you read both versions they are quite different - I think I prefer the Indicator version but ther you are!
Hope to see you all on Sunday
Paula
It's great to see 3 of you joining me on the blogoshphere! I also looked up the Keats version issue. In my OU literature text books It seems to think that "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" was written on 21 April 1819 in a letter to his brother George. Keats himself then modified it slightly for inclusion in The Indicator in May 1820. In 1848 it appeared in a volume of collected works but this was aversion copied out and changed by Charles Brown. So it would appear that "wretched wight" is the original version and "knight at arms" the copied and changed version.
The more you read both versions they are quite different - I think I prefer the Indicator version but ther you are!
Hope to see you all on Sunday
Paula
Wednesday 25 November 2009
La Belle Dame sans Merci, well I think, although enthralled by the mediaeval imagery, we wanted to say that not just knights and noblemen could be in Faery Ladies Thrall, but all men - all Wights can suffer so.... maybe we will find out about the agonies of of his, maybe not unrequited, but unconsummated love for the Fabulous Fanny on Sunday. Personally I prefer the Knight to Wight!
'La Belle Dame ... ' continued
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for such a good session on Saturday; I went away feeling inspired to work (particularly in the knowledge that now there are more folk to share it with) and reassured (when I sit here burning the Earth's energy resources in the middle of the night) that I'm not alone in my madness.
With regard to 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' ... I was nonplussed to see how little there was about Keats on my shelves. However, I was due in Exeter University Library (yesterday) so I was hellbent on ransacking their shelves - except that they were looking rather thin, too. An online search for the Motion biography copies indicated they were out. I was surprised, and foolishly assumed the 'Romantics' lectures were timetabled for about now, but, of course, the students are all Keats obsessed because of the film. Walking around the 'Eng Lit' floor I noticed that all the students at computer terminals had images of 'Isabella' or 'La Belle Dame ...' or 'The Eve of St Agnes' on the screen; it was only then that I twigged.
When I checked the shelves more carefully I realised that it was the more recent criticism and biography missing from the shelves (I know Michael said he was not impressed with the Motion biog, but he was a name to start my search with and his work has the advantage of being recent, so that any new discoveries about versions and different publictations might be detailed - so if you've still got a copy Michael, see if there's anything about versions of 'La BD'), while the fusty, dusty old copies of Letters were still there. I think it's quite sad that the students had not helped themselves to the 'Letters' in preference. There were also several older biographies that I could not decide between. I now wish I'd checked them more carefully, but I was short of time and limited in how many books I could take out.
I did bring home Volume II of Hyder E. Rollins (Ed) 'The Letters of John Keats 1814-1821' , which covers the period when Keats met Fanny Brawne and, obviously, includes the long letter that Michael refers to in his post. The main footnote to the 'Belle Dame' section of that letter says: 'Jeffrey (see KC, II,120) also has a copy of the "wretched wight" version of the poem that follows, which Keats must have sent to his brother after May 3, 1819.'
After some searching, this morning, to try to explain this note (especially in the absence of a decent biography), the only Jeffrey(s) I've found are the Jeffrey family (of Teignmouth!) and Keats seems to write to mother, sisters and (?) brother. There must be more detail about Keats's various correspondents in Volume I of the 'Letters' (I wish I'd brought both home). So far, I think that Rollins's note is suggesting that Keats himself made the changes to the poem and sent/gave a copy to one of the Jeffrey family and also sent a copy of the revised version to his brother George, but after May 3 1819 when the long letter was sent (it seems a 'Jeffrey' may have done some transcriptions of the Keats letters (Rollins 108 n.5). A quick skim further on in the Rollins suggests no refs to 'La Belle Dame' in the letters to one of the Jeffrey sisters, nor an extant copy of a further letter to George in May 1918.
I need to eat(!)now, but will settle down to read more carefully this afternoon and let you know of any further progress.
NB quick edit, the time originally given to this post bears no relation to the actual time (14.26, Wed 25 Nov 2009); maybe my perimenopausal effect on time is spreading beyond the the clock in my study!!
Thanks for such a good session on Saturday; I went away feeling inspired to work (particularly in the knowledge that now there are more folk to share it with) and reassured (when I sit here burning the Earth's energy resources in the middle of the night) that I'm not alone in my madness.
With regard to 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' ... I was nonplussed to see how little there was about Keats on my shelves. However, I was due in Exeter University Library (yesterday) so I was hellbent on ransacking their shelves - except that they were looking rather thin, too. An online search for the Motion biography copies indicated they were out. I was surprised, and foolishly assumed the 'Romantics' lectures were timetabled for about now, but, of course, the students are all Keats obsessed because of the film. Walking around the 'Eng Lit' floor I noticed that all the students at computer terminals had images of 'Isabella' or 'La Belle Dame ...' or 'The Eve of St Agnes' on the screen; it was only then that I twigged.
When I checked the shelves more carefully I realised that it was the more recent criticism and biography missing from the shelves (I know Michael said he was not impressed with the Motion biog, but he was a name to start my search with and his work has the advantage of being recent, so that any new discoveries about versions and different publictations might be detailed - so if you've still got a copy Michael, see if there's anything about versions of 'La BD'), while the fusty, dusty old copies of Letters were still there. I think it's quite sad that the students had not helped themselves to the 'Letters' in preference. There were also several older biographies that I could not decide between. I now wish I'd checked them more carefully, but I was short of time and limited in how many books I could take out.
I did bring home Volume II of Hyder E. Rollins (Ed) 'The Letters of John Keats 1814-1821' , which covers the period when Keats met Fanny Brawne and, obviously, includes the long letter that Michael refers to in his post. The main footnote to the 'Belle Dame' section of that letter says: 'Jeffrey (see KC, II,120) also has a copy of the "wretched wight" version of the poem that follows, which Keats must have sent to his brother after May 3, 1819.'
After some searching, this morning, to try to explain this note (especially in the absence of a decent biography), the only Jeffrey(s) I've found are the Jeffrey family (of Teignmouth!) and Keats seems to write to mother, sisters and (?) brother. There must be more detail about Keats's various correspondents in Volume I of the 'Letters' (I wish I'd brought both home). So far, I think that Rollins's note is suggesting that Keats himself made the changes to the poem and sent/gave a copy to one of the Jeffrey family and also sent a copy of the revised version to his brother George, but after May 3 1819 when the long letter was sent (it seems a 'Jeffrey' may have done some transcriptions of the Keats letters (Rollins 108 n.5). A quick skim further on in the Rollins suggests no refs to 'La Belle Dame' in the letters to one of the Jeffrey sisters, nor an extant copy of a further letter to George in May 1918.
I need to eat(!)now, but will settle down to read more carefully this afternoon and let you know of any further progress.
NB quick edit, the time originally given to this post bears no relation to the actual time (14.26, Wed 25 Nov 2009); maybe my perimenopausal effect on time is spreading beyond the the clock in my study!!
Tuesday 24 November 2009
The Strange Case of La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Hi everyone at our last LB on Saturday when we were discussing the Keats poem it became clear that there were two different versions........... the one I had printed off from the net had 'wight; in the first lines of the first and second stanzas and there were other alterations. Anne Willingale our researcher par excellence quickly discovered the following:
There are two versions of this very famous ballad. The first version is from the original manuscript and the second version is its first published form. The first is generally considered the best; it was altered upon publication. We do not know who did the alteration.
The original version is found in a letter to Keats's brother, George, and dated Weds 21 April 1819. Keats typically wrote a running commentary to George and his wife Georgiana in America, then loosely grouped the pages together as one long letter. The letter which contains La Belle spans almost three months, from 14 February to 3 May 1819. It also contains other famous poems, including 'Why did I laugh tonight?' which ends, prophetically enough, 'Verse, fame and Beauty are intense indeed / But Death intenser - Death is Life's high mead.' Also included are 'To Sleep' and 'On Fame.' The letter ends with the beautiful Ode to Psyche, of which Keats wrote: 'The following Poem - the last I have written is the first and the only one with which I have taken even moderate pains - I have for the most part dash'd of[f] my lines in a hurry - '
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy/Pity) was dashed off, then, and largely dismissed by Keats himself. It was first published in the Indicator on 10 May 1820 and has since become one of his most celebrated poems.
Note: In 1893, the pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse was inspired by La Belle Dame Sans Merci to create one of his most famous works. Click here to view the painting.
Thanks for that Anne.........so the mystery remains.....who had the temerity to alter the poem presumably without the poet's permission? Maybe Keats didnt care too much...........must be a story in it somewhere.
I'm reading Rose Tremain's The Road Home. This novel is worth a thousand reports and official investigations into immigration. As usual Tremain writes like an angel and draws our attention in a delicate yet ucompromising manner to the lives behind the stereotypes and media myths.
Also well into; 'Marching to the Fault Line,' by Francis Beckett and David Hencke. This is the story of the Miners Strike and describes what happens when a so called 'democratic party' goes to war with its citizens. This was a fault line in our recent history and the social problems inherent in British society today stem in part from the way the forces of law and order were used (apparently quite willingly) to crush the aspirations of whole working class communities. I seem to be in an extreme left wing mood at the moment and watched Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film IF.
It says everything that needs to be said!!!!!!!!!
I look forward to hearing from you all.
Michael
There are two versions of this very famous ballad. The first version is from the original manuscript and the second version is its first published form. The first is generally considered the best; it was altered upon publication. We do not know who did the alteration.
The original version is found in a letter to Keats's brother, George, and dated Weds 21 April 1819. Keats typically wrote a running commentary to George and his wife Georgiana in America, then loosely grouped the pages together as one long letter. The letter which contains La Belle spans almost three months, from 14 February to 3 May 1819. It also contains other famous poems, including 'Why did I laugh tonight?' which ends, prophetically enough, 'Verse, fame and Beauty are intense indeed / But Death intenser - Death is Life's high mead.' Also included are 'To Sleep' and 'On Fame.' The letter ends with the beautiful Ode to Psyche, of which Keats wrote: 'The following Poem - the last I have written is the first and the only one with which I have taken even moderate pains - I have for the most part dash'd of[f] my lines in a hurry - '
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy/Pity) was dashed off, then, and largely dismissed by Keats himself. It was first published in the Indicator on 10 May 1820 and has since become one of his most celebrated poems.
Note: In 1893, the pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse was inspired by La Belle Dame Sans Merci to create one of his most famous works. Click here to view the painting.
Thanks for that Anne.........so the mystery remains.....who had the temerity to alter the poem presumably without the poet's permission? Maybe Keats didnt care too much...........must be a story in it somewhere.
I'm reading Rose Tremain's The Road Home. This novel is worth a thousand reports and official investigations into immigration. As usual Tremain writes like an angel and draws our attention in a delicate yet ucompromising manner to the lives behind the stereotypes and media myths.
Also well into; 'Marching to the Fault Line,' by Francis Beckett and David Hencke. This is the story of the Miners Strike and describes what happens when a so called 'democratic party' goes to war with its citizens. This was a fault line in our recent history and the social problems inherent in British society today stem in part from the way the forces of law and order were used (apparently quite willingly) to crush the aspirations of whole working class communities. I seem to be in an extreme left wing mood at the moment and watched Lindsay Anderson's 1968 film IF.
It says everything that needs to be said!!!!!!!!!
I look forward to hearing from you all.
Michael
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