tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4623081166026975702..comments2024-03-28T14:47:11.132-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: AUTUMNAL THOUGHTS IN MID-SUMMERRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-80233881645044001932013-08-09T13:18:22.923-04:002013-08-09T13:18:22.923-04:00Acastos, I would LOVE a guest post on this whole s...Acastos, I would LOVE a guest post on this whole subject, if you wanted to undertake it. By the way, I stand in awe of your ability to memorize an entire poem longer than six lines. In high school we were required to memorize the first ten lines of Marc Anthony's well-known speech [Friends, Romans, countrymen ...] and it damned near kept me from graduating.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-23008063533099126012013-08-09T12:15:38.085-04:002013-08-09T12:15:38.085-04:00Actually, I know the poem well, having taken up Ha...Actually, I know the poem well, having taken up Harold Bloom's challenge to his students whenever he teaches it to learn it by heart. I tend to take notice of mentions in popular culture (the final line was carved in letters 3-feet high on a low wall in the Olympic village for the London 2012 Olympics), and am constantly amused by the self-serving mis-interpretations suffered by this darkly ambiguous verse. (As Bloom points out, the final lines are positively Satanic - in the Miltonian sense). Another poem that seems defenceless against grotesque mis-interpretations by the popular mind is Frost's "Road not Taken". Ego-projection is a powerful thing.Acastoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02396103259765857115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-3584875514040393972013-08-09T11:14:10.703-04:002013-08-09T11:14:10.703-04:00By the way, Rowling quotes the first six lines of ...By the way, Rowling quotes the first six lines of the second stanza, not the last lines. The section that concludes "I am become a name."Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8762075414946273852013-08-09T11:11:31.533-04:002013-08-09T11:11:31.533-04:00All right. Now I really do feel stupid! Apparent...All right. Now I really do feel stupid! Apparently I am the last person on the planet not to be familiar with the poem. Yikes! Rod Blagojevich? That really takes the bloom off the rose.<br /><br />I assume you have been feverishly googling.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-57812617475269507182013-08-09T09:48:46.858-04:002013-08-09T09:48:46.858-04:00These five final lines were also quoted by (1) Ted...These five final lines were also quoted by (1) Ted Kennedy in 1980 after losing the Democratic nomination for president, and by (2) Rod Blagojevich after being impeached by the Illinois House of Representatives in 2009. Everybody seems to fancy that defiance is always heroic.....Acastoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02396103259765857115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-22150236275527737772013-08-08T21:08:00.137-04:002013-08-08T21:08:00.137-04:00It's interesting that those very lines from Te...It's interesting that those very lines from Tennyson would appear in a film and a novel that were released about the same time. Not sure if they're the UK equivalent of our "Two roads diverged..." I took the lines from Tennyson as a sort of metaphor for the modern-day relevance of the UK. Who knows, Tony Blair might've promoted them as part of his "Cool Britannia" campaign. ;-) Kiniryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01985065190136114367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-71577639464919635002013-08-08T12:35:02.984-04:002013-08-08T12:35:02.984-04:00That's fascinating. You figure Rowling must k...That's fascinating. You figure Rowling must know that, right, even if dopes like me don't. Or are those six lines so famous? I would have thought the opening lines, or maybe the very end of the poem, would be more often quoted.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-77854965028545873112013-08-08T12:00:22.518-04:002013-08-08T12:00:22.518-04:00Hmm...Judi Dench, playing M, read those very same ...Hmm...Judi Dench, playing M, read those very same six lines in scene in "Skyfall" in which she was testifying before a British sub-committee on intelligence failures at MI6. The scene was enhanced by cutaways to Bond (Daniel Craig) running at full speed through the streets of London, trying to thwart an attempt on her life by the terrorist Silva (Javier Bardem). The underlying theme of the film was the relevance of a Cold War relic like Bond to the modern-day high-tech world of intelligence gathering and operations. Kiniryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01985065190136114367noreply@blogger.com