Archy
stephen carroll
|
|
 |
An old man in a dry month
Male
60 years old
United Kingdom
Last Login: 11/28/2009
|
Mood:
confused
|
|
View My:
Pics
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Archy's Interests
|
| General | Landscape, poetry, the countryside, beer and wine, observing people, writing (although I have given up trying to get published). | | Music | I have a weakness for Elgar- I used to walk through the woods to his Sussex house every day when I lived nearby. I heard Simon Rattle say on the radio that only classical music has the power to convey sadness and happiness at the same time. Chunks of Mozart operas do this. | | Movies | I Capture the Castle, Withnail and I, Under the Volcano, Hear My Song, If..., O Lucky Man, Adam Adamant (based on me, I think), A Private Function, Stars and Bars. | | Television | I don't have one which annoys the licensing authorities with whom I have been battling for twenty years. When I telephoned them and asked if it was compulsory to have a television in this country I was told 'well, it is NORMAL' to have one'.
| | Books | Wolf Solent (J.C.Powys); Epitaph of a Small Winner (J. Machado de Assis) is a cynical look at life; Seven Gothic Tales (Karen Blixen) is an operatic masterpiece; A Month in the Country (J.L.Carr) is gentle and very English; Love and War in the Appenines (Eric Newby)has the rare quality of charm; Image of a Drawn Sword (Jocelyn Brooke)is a surreal masterpiece. Also, I like 'The Magus' and 'The Ebony Tower' (John Fowles), 'The Idiot' (Dostoevsky), and 'Great Expectations' (first half). I can't read Hardy any more. He upsets me too much. Does this make me a Lovie? I regard Jane Austen as a witty drawing room writer 'who never got further than pouring the tea'. She detested the countryside and she had no eye for architecture.
In his introduction to Wolf Solent, J.C.Powys says 'all solid entities have to dissolve, if they are to outlast their momentary appearance, into atmosphere'. How does the mind hold the sensations of the minute? There is an astonishing, wavery, insubstantial quality about this book, which to me is worth all the others put together. | | Heroes | These vary and change from time to time like friends in real life. As I am clumsy socially, I wouldn't like to meet any hero by appointment, except perhaps Jan Morris, because she is charming and not too serious. I like a flippant approach. Among my heroes are Hardy, Byron, Max Wall, Lindsay Anderson, Kenneth Williams, John Cowper Powys, A.M.(the subject of my novel 'Venetian Cousins'),R.B. (the last romantic) and Edward Thomas. Of these, only R.B. is alive. In literature I have a weakness for certain writers as characters: Fr Rolfe, and Julian Maclaren-Ross for instance, although they would doubtless have been unpleasant in real life I can't help admiring them. I like a bit of malice. |
|
|
Archy's Details
|
| Status: | Single | | Zodiac Sign: | Leo |
|
|
![]() |
Archy is dazed Posted at 12:37 PM Dec 4, 2008
view more
|
|
Archy's Latest Blog Entry
[Subscribe to this Blog]
|
diary for Thursday 27th Nov
(view more)
|
diary monday 23rd November
(view more)
|
diary Sunday 22nd November
(view more)
|
diary Friday 20th Nov
(view more)
|
diary Thursday 18th November
(view more)
|
| [View All Blog Entries] |
|
Archy's Blurbs |
About me:
I am a grumpy old fellow of 59 who likes to enjoy the sweet light of the sun while he still can. Difficult with women, and clumsy socially. I am married (in spite of what my profile tells me- I probably put 'no' to 'do you have a partner?' a term I associate with business. I like being out of doors. Passing the biscuits in a polite setting is my greatest nightmare. I have learnt a lot from John Cowper Powys about keeping my sense of self intact.
At present I am in my second year at university. If you would like to know what it feels like to be England's oldest undergraduate,try my uni blog:
uniarchyblog.blogspot.com
|
Who I'd like to meet:
With the sole exception of Jan Morris, who sounds suitably charming and flippant, I would be afraid to meet any of my heroes. But I would like to have been a regular at The Sailor's Return, in East Chaldon, Dorset, when the Powys brothers and their friends were about. I would also like to have been a servant in the Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice, when Byron was in residence.
|
|
| Archy's Friend Space (Randomized) |
|
![]()
|
