katherine anne porter's "ship of fools"

i watched the movie "ship of fools" last night, based on katherine anne porter's one published novel.  i had read the novel as an  undergraduate and seen the movie, i feel fairly sure; but i did not remember much of either experience.   it was a good black and white film from the mid-sixties, directed by stanley kubrick, i think,  who also directed "clockwork orange" and "2001: a space odyssey", if i am not mistaken.  it was fairly stark, and something of a grotesque.  the cast included oscar werner, a young  george segal, vivian leigh, simone signoret, and lee marvin.  it was a little torturous but entertaining.  set on a  cruise ship sailing from mexico to europe in the early 1930's, the impending nazi theme is dominant with the anti-jewish sentiment beginning to be in full evidence.  oh yes, jose greco was featured as the head of a remarkable flamenco troup that blended in with the rest of the variously disordered passengers.  george segal played an aspiring artist involved in an unsatisfactory romantic relationship.  oskar werner had the lead role as the ship's doctor who becomes involved with simone signoret as an aristocratic countess under house arrest for assisting in an insurrection among a  group of migrant spanish sugar plantation workers.  the theme of social unrest is prominent, and to some extent from a marxist point of view.  in steerage are several hundred workers being transported back to europe after a failed sugar harvest due to price collapse.  the elegant upper class passengers have little contact with the peasants in steerage.  it made me think of eugene o'neil's "the hairy ape", another marxist work.  the cynical approach to the social situation is largely unrelieved.  there is a religious sidelight in one of the characters, a christian fanatic; but it is not presented to be taken seriously.   in the end the movie is a dark criticism of the economic injustices and distorted personalities in evidence on a number of levels.  this atmosphere is largely unrelieved.  i watched the movie on my laptop computer, ordering it on-line from youtube.  it was my first time to order a movie like this, spending about $3.00.  the process was simple and painless.  i will be watching more movies like this from time to time.  it was a good experience.  addendum: the movie caused me to think of the paintings of heironymous bosch, the renaissance flemish artist so well represented in spanish collections.  his nightmare satire is relevant.  i may have seen bosch' own "ship of fools" in europe, perhaps at the prado, but i am not sure.  bosch' first name suggests a play on words to me of "the higher animus", a philosophical  concept that might provide some resolution to the dark circumstances of this comedy..

some of the best

reading there is

assorted (sordid)
poetry

an onamatapoeia
an avocada kia

put your ass in
(jurassic) park

emily brontesaurus

withering heist du

be a trix potter

almost marlowe
almost donne

loneliness
creeps in at night
i see it almost
everywhere

jam wishes
jam witches

the rabbit would
like some food
perhaps a bite
of my sandwich

major day

three schedules

agenda
budget
timetable

indian paint brush
pink and yellow
among bluebonnets
paint the hills

what was it like,
hiking up from
guatemala?
it can't have been
very nice.
it isn't all that
nice you're here,
is it now...
alone, detained

jerry mathers
the beaver
gerry mandered

manderlay

"all quiet on the
western front"

rabbit hour
the wild rabbit

welsh

rare bit

sent peter stine
a poem wonder
if he has
got it yet

it must be
nine o'clock

will have to shower
fairly soon
perhaps tonight

 there goes jodee
out to smoke
"honi soit que
mal y pense"

a little snack
food provided
otherwise you're
on your own

they don't think
about us late
at night, do they?

hungry, wandering
and alone

we had our sandwich
four hours ago

breakfast is
a world away

the bougainvilla
in a hanging basket
in full flower
dancing in the breeze

the chirping murmer
of crickets, cicadas

still and sultry
summer air

i miss seeing
frederika
reading in the
other room

james was just
getting a cup of
ice water

did not speak to me

lightening, thunder?
the sounds of traffic
motor cars

i think i hear
someone coming
it  could be
dillingham

i forget
james has cigars

so sue me
i meant no harm

peter rabbit

peter rabbit was in the garden this evening...
not a foot long when all stretched out,
nibbling on the moss rose or portulaca.
he had a good set of rabbit ears,
twitching maybe an extra inch high
as he picked up on even the slightest alarm.
he would dart back and forth in between
the parking lot and garden plants,
coming within a few yards of me,
sitting in one of the garden chairs.
it was the two connies who first spied peter.
connie d. put out some lettuce and apple.,
and then i noticed by one of the chairs,
a small pink pot with peter rabbit
blazoned and glazed across its sculpted face.
it was as if we somehow had invoked
the rabbit's presence by special invitation.
gary, the gardener, will be very excited
to hear of peter's sly appearance.
even dillingham was here, eating  peanuts;
and the beesley sisters called tonight,
our first contact in forty years...
a gay omen of good times to come,
even in the heat, in this late june.

the morning toast

a reference to the refuse and offal that flowed in the gutters of London on eighteenth century mornings

emancipation day

it's sort of like the day they announced that the sodomy laws had been struck down in texas.  i was  sitting on the patio of the corral bar on hemphill street in fort worth.  i spoke up and said, "now, i suppose we will all have to eat watermelon".   i think it was the  middle of july.

why swisher sweets always make me think of sir walter raleigh

once when sir walter was at table with his son at a banquet, his son spoke up and told this story:

sir walter was walking in the queen's gardens when he spied a lady in waiting sitting underneath a tree.  as he approached her, she said, what, sir walter, will you undo me!  shortly thereafter she was up against the tree and exclaimed, o sweet sir walter.  o sweet sir walter.  the last thing she was heard to utter was "o swisher swatter!  swisher swatter!"  that's why swisher sweets always make me think of sir walter raleigh.

from a book of conversations published in seventeenth century