Thanks for all the get-well comments. My condition is ongoing but hopefully can be managed by the treatments on offer. At the moment I am mostly in some pain throughout the day. I don't intend to return too often to these pages for a month or so, but did want to briefly mention that, after thinking about it, I agree with the arrest of Polanski. Chinatown is a great film, and was once my favourite, - as is Fearless Vampire Killers, Bitter Moon, and Frantic - but what he did (which he admitted to) is a crime that warrants punishment. As with Pound, we can have the man, and the work, and need not tar the one with the other. Polanski's tormented, oddly unfortunate life deepened the filmic intensity of his best projects, but the films rarely open out onto any apology or remorse, for evil. They're works of genius; but a genius inflected darkly.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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I would tend to agree with you but I don't think that Katy Evans-Bush does. There is a good debate on her blog about this issue if you haven't already seen it. Sorry to hear that you're still ill and hope that your health takes a turn for the better soon.
Best wishes from Simon & Rusty
I am at a loss why such super intelligent intelligent people like Barbet Schroeder would so immediately put their names on that petition. A lo9t of right-wing freaks have been attacking these people. However, there is no true polarity here, except the a lot of intelligent people are falling for the line that they should protect their own - I mean, intelligentsia. Thank goodness you are not falling for that. I think Luc Besson put it best about Polansk; while, he was a nice man, and he made brilliant films, he shouldn't necessarily go free for what he did. Luc Besson conclude that he himself was a father with a daughter.
And those committed by our Prime Minister here in Italy?