
And I loved this description of the way that Vermeer repeatedly frustrates the viewer’s desire to turn a painting into narrative:
The painter thwarts our incessant demands for a story-line by freezing the action, by bringing time to a stop for an instant or two while contemplation exercises its power. The passivity or stillness he creates, reflecting his own nature, is in its way more dramatic, more active, than any action. So the young woman with a metal water jug pauses, one hand on the jug, one hand on the frame of the casement window which she seems about to open further, and the earth for a moment ceases to spin on its axis. So the woman in blue’s downcast gaze travels along the lines of the letter she has received, word by word by word, over and over. Vermeer seizes the moment and it repeats itself indefinitely. And in the same way his milkmaid, his figure of Fortitude, tips her jug and the milk falls from it in a silent stream for ever.
A couple more reviews of my book from the New Statesman and the Telegraph:
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/06/roads-moran-motorway-strange
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5517166/On-Roads-by-Joe-Moran-review.html
And here is the last word on MPs’ expenses from Garrison Keillor’s terrific weekly newspaper column in the US:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/the_old_scout/archives/2009/05/19/stop_the_trouser_presses.shtml
Mundane quote for the day:
The daily things we do
For money or for fun
Can disappear like dew
Or harden and live on.
Strange reciprocity:
The circumstance we cause
In time gives rise to us,
Becomes our memory.
- Philip Larkin
I was,at last, persuaded by the reviews of your book to find out about Black Box Recorder. Now I know very little about rock, soft hard or indie, being fixated on old-fashioned balladeers such as Phil Collins and really a jazz and classical music lover. But I'll probably download a few pennyworth of BBR. With which number(s)shall I start? My enthusiasm for learning about them doesn't in this case extend to whole albums.
ReplyDeletehi Tom
ReplyDeleteThe two BBR songs I really like are 'The English Motorway System' (obviously) and 'The Art of Driving,' both from their 'Facts of Life' album.