Oct 10, 2016 10:24 PM
2383 Views
Amazing JEALOUSY LOVE STORY. Even a middling novelist can tell quite a lot of truth. His humble medium is on the side of truth. Whereas the theatre, even at its most ‘realistic’, is connected with the level at which, and the methods by which, we tell our everyday lies. This is the sense in which ‘ordinary’ theatre resembles life, and dramatists are disgraceful liars unless they are very good. On the other hand, in a purely formal sense the theatre is the nearest to poetry of all the arts. I used to think that if I could have been a poet I would never have bothered with the theatre at all, but of course this is nonsense. What I needed with all my starved and silent soul was just that particular way of shouting back at the world. The theatre is an attack on mankind carried on by magic: to victimise an audience every night, to make them laugh and cry and suffer and miss their trains. Of course actors regard audiences as enemies, to be deceived, drugged, incarcerated, stupefied. This is partly because the audience is also a court against which there is no appeal.
I took a moment, sighed and exclaimed, "Everything"
This book is a psycho-spiritual masterpiece of the highest caliber. I decided to sit down and come up with a laundry list of what it is about:
the stars and earth
, isolation, connection, misunderstandings, avoidance,
uddhist demons and Christian saints,
dreams, concussions, drownings, death
petty cruelties, belittlement and acts of supreme generosity
heterosexual passions and homosexual cravings
theatre, woodworking, cooking and music
merboys, seals, ghosts and sea dragons
vengeance and apathy
interpretations, neurosis and delusions
minutiae and momentary insights
sullen villagers and grandiose urbanites
dogs, cats and many roses
lost loves and childhood musings
churches, taxis and pubs
murderous rages and spiritual awakenings
vulgarities and
stagnation,