"... Bundles of crazed meteors offer the counter-subject to the seditious aria shattered by thundering; the sky is an alternation of remote lights and downpours of darkness; and Roberto writes that he saw foaming Alps within wanton troughs whose spume was transfromed into harvests; and Ceres blossomed amid sapphire glints, and at intervals in a cascade of roaring opals, as if her telluric daughter Persephone had taken command, exiling her plenteous mother."
Ok, I think know what seditious means but I think I am missing something in this context. I also looked up telluric. Oh, believe me when I say there's other stuff I don't get in this snip of a paragraph. Those two words are capturing my attention particularly however.
tel·lu·ric
1. Of or relating to Earth; terrestrial.
2. Derived from or containing tellurium, especially with valence 6.
But but but. It seems he's saying Persephone is telluric in contrast with Ceres. So I look up Persephone. Oh dear. Per Wikipedia, Ceries is the Roman name of the Greek goddess Demeter, and Persephone is the Greek goddess and in Roman mythology is Proserpina. Huh. Whatever. Not sure if it matters. It's just one of a pile of metaphors, images and references.
what the christ... i read that book... i remember getting through the first 30 pages was absolute torture but after that I loved it... but i do remember needing my pocket dictionary with me during a read... was it really that obnoxioius? i bet if i read it again i wouldn't like it... i'm getting dumber as i get older...
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I find myself doing a lot of skimming, I'm afraid I'm missing stuff. I'm up to page 65, and I've only had the book for a couple of months or so.
ReplyDelete