smokingboot

The cut hides me waffling on re that interests meme. Can't imagine it will interest anyone else, but I'll keep it for my own reference

LJ Interests meme results

black narcissus:
Watching this film when I was a child made me want to see Kathmandu (that and Mad Carew) I find suppression in film much more arousing than actual depiction, and there's so much suppressed here, self-expression, love, desire, madness. I also love the extraordinary sense of a land far up in the mountains where the rules just aren't the same; funny dwarf ponies and flagrant, heady flowers, beautiful people with gold across their faces, and a feeling of the wind pouring out of the screen and across your hair. In that place every soul succumbs to irresistable beauty: the practical sister whose vegetable garden is thwarted by a love of flowers, the young prince with his good intentions, and of course, that lipstick scene; I am hetero as far as I know, but if anyone male or female, looked at me the way she looks when she embraces her fall, I would have to break their gaze, their heart or their neck. A dangerous land. If it truly existed, I could not stay away.
egypt:
What don't I love about Egypt? The eternal clamour for Baksheesh perhaps. I have always loved the stories of the gods, and seeing Luxor and Dendarah, travelling Sakkara and the Nile overwhelmed me; But living Egypt is as powerful as the echoes of the land of the Dead. Cairo is vibrant, the great mosques and citadel of Saladin full of spice and colour. I was recently told I would stand again in front of the Great Pyramid within 2 years. I hope it's true.
gerbils:
Once upon a time, I was deceived by their cuteness. Now I am grown, heed my warning: their evil knows no bounds.
jean delville:
Dream imagery; I want that Orpheus picture for my icon.
milton:
Milton, Milton, what a bastard! To create a stodgy god and a gorgeous devil and to expect me to prefer the former to the latter, all wrapped up in excellently crafted poetry so I can't even slate him for bad writing. I want to hate Paradise Lost, especially re the way Eve cops it for Milton's own warped needs, but I can't, because it is too full of beautiful quotes. Oh, and I really do hate the sheer ignorance of Comus. But L'Allegra and Il Penseroso? They are just superb English poetry. He wrote them when he was an undergrad. Bastard.
odilon redon:
Oh, frighten me with smiling spiders! I love beauty, but I also like a twist of nightmare; the twee and the grotesque should enhance each other. I like a little fear in my dreams.
rousseau:
Now this man creates Paradise Lost in a way Milton never could: He shows me the savage garden. Primitive fairy tales, I love them. See the tiger in the lightning storm, and the piper by the river! He takes me back to Eden, dark as well as light, a place where I can dream and belong, and probably die too, though doubtless in a very interesting way.
spiritualism:
Mmm, difficult one this for me. My spirituality is not the same as spiritualism, though I believe in the eternal life of souls, and have no problems at all with the idea of those beyond coming back and having a chat. I have certainly seen ghosts before, but I suspect there are different kinds, from reflections of a past time to the presence of a soul communicating with you.

I respect the integrity of many spiritualists I have met; but as I have remarked before, if a medium channels a spirit which claims to be ancient chinese, I expect that spirit to prove itself by at least naming its earlier province or dynasty: if it can't give facts about its past, how reliable can it be about anything else? How do we know it isn't a persona, however well-meaning, from the subconscious of the medium? One answer I was given was, 'You've got to have faith,' which simply will not do for the philosophy that claims to give evidence. And I am deeply suspicious of any philosophy that cannot withstand questioning. So, in short, spirits I believe in, and spirituality is perhaps the main bulwark of my life, but the philosophy of Spiritualism as currently taught, I am still not sure about.
tim burton:
Well hey. He can't edit to save his life, and his films are usually about 15 minutes too long, but I still love them. 'Big Fish' remains one of my favourite films ever, I loved 'Nightmare before Christmas' 'Edward Scissorhands' and excuse me, why is everyone so damned attractive in Sleepy Hollow? It just arrests my sleep. Fortunately, the Chocolate Factory, while utterly magnificent, also sports Mr Depp with a deeply foolish haircut, so at least I can stop fancying him for a while...
wordsworth:
One of my tutors once said that of all great poets, William Wordsworth was the hardest to catch in the act of greatness, and he does have a point. WW often gets it wrong, but when he gets it right, he gets it really right. And besides, bad poetry is fab too:

'I've measured it from side to side,
Tis two feet long and three feet wide.'

Cheers Will.