Wednesday, January 28, 2004

 

I need more Christopher Logue. Just finished All Day Permanent Red, which I loved. Of course, the bastard has set himself up for success in a way, retelling the Iliad. The subject matter is rock-solid. But he tells it like a movie. Visual, powerfully emotional, and still nuanced...it sweeps you in rises. It has a virtue a lot of contemporary poetry lacks: escapism. It pulls you out. Mimesis of thought process, childhood remembrances, meta commentary on the elements of language: none of this is on the table. We have instead: big fat sweeping epic involving Gods, monsters, and prophecy. With all its built-in, tricksy, cheap, real-as-the-day-is-long emotional heft. Now with anachronistic references!

I wonder could you do the same thing with the Book of Acts? I've always though Acts would make a great movie; Paul, stung by the freaking word of God as he trumps his jerkoff way to Damascus, ends up getting bitten by poisonous snakes, chased out of Turkey, yelling at the Areopagitica, and shipwrecked --twice. I imagine Paul as a youngish Harrison Ford.

posted by Reen |link| 0 comments

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