I have said in the past that this newsletter does requests, but in two years I have never received one. I did receive a request recently, however, to give a Zoom presentation on mermaids, and decided that the subject was also appealing for the newsletter’s audience. The subject quickly expanded beyond the topic of mermaids, though. Mermaids are a variety of water-spirit, and water-spirits are a variety of elemental, the animated, half-humanized forms of the four traditional elements: earth, water, fire, and air. A past newsletter spoke of the intensity of the human desire to animate the world. Not just to personify, for a personification is merely a kind of abstraction, a walking idea, but relate to the objects of nature as sentient, as fellow creatures. We do not want to live in a world of dead objects but in a community of living things that are, as my students say, relatable. If this is a “primitive” impulse, we are all still primitives, or at least those of us who respond to the talking animals, plants, and other objects of cartoons.
I've been meaning to send you this request for some time now, yet it always finds a way to slip my mind. If you haven't yet seen the movie As Above, So Below (2014), you MUST watch it. The comparisons to Donte's Inferno are STRIKING. At the risk of spoiling anything, I won't say anything else, but I think it would make for a wonderful Newsletter topic. (Disclaimer: As I'm sure you could assume, the films a horror.)
HI, Cole! It's always good for my morale and motivation to hear from engaged and intelligent readers. Thank you both for reading the newsletter and for the suggestion. I skimmed the Wikipedia plot summary of the film, and see what you mean about the symbolism. It will go on my list, though heaven knows when I'll be able to get to it. But I still like knowing about things, even when there aren't enough hours in a day to pursue them. Best, Mike
I've been meaning to send you this request for some time now, yet it always finds a way to slip my mind. If you haven't yet seen the movie As Above, So Below (2014), you MUST watch it. The comparisons to Donte's Inferno are STRIKING. At the risk of spoiling anything, I won't say anything else, but I think it would make for a wonderful Newsletter topic. (Disclaimer: As I'm sure you could assume, the films a horror.)
HI, Cole! It's always good for my morale and motivation to hear from engaged and intelligent readers. Thank you both for reading the newsletter and for the suggestion. I skimmed the Wikipedia plot summary of the film, and see what you mean about the symbolism. It will go on my list, though heaven knows when I'll be able to get to it. But I still like knowing about things, even when there aren't enough hours in a day to pursue them. Best, Mike