Three for Friday
The Pilgrim, the Thief and the Rambler, some weekend reading on the theme of journeys, celebrations and sacred mysteries.
Thanks to those who liked and commented on Tuesday’s thoughts about the evolution of the pilgrimage to soul-searching, Mrs. Dalloway was mentioned and the movie, The Way starring Martin Sheen. The first I love as a novel set on one day (better in my view than Michael Cunningham’s take on it, The Hours, which has also been made into a movie), the second I have yet to see. Prompted now I will watch it with interest.
My suggestions for weekend reading include a very very short story, or ‘sudden fiction’ by Robert Walser about the simple pleasure of walking. He did also write a much longer story called ‘The Walk’ which you might enjoy too.
Wordsworth is here celebrating the French Revolution, and an account by poet A.E. Stallings of the fate of another ancient Greek marble, looted by a souvenir hunter.
Wordsworth’s ‘pilgrimage’ across France coincided with the celebration of the first Bastille Day and he was swept up in the euphoric ideal of liberty which seemed to promise a heaven on earth.
Wordsworth's celebration of the French Revolution
It turns out Elgin wasn’t the only thief of Greek artefacts in the nineteenth century. Here’s a recent essay by the American poet, resident in Greece, A.E. Stallings, about the lost caryatid of Eleusis. She makes a plea for the return of the statue as a symbol of the regeneration of a once sacred site.
I’d love to read your responses to any or all of the above.
Thanks.