Krepostnoi
Increasingly disenchanted
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2012
- Messages
- 4,325
It has been observed that this august site is inexplicably lacking a thread devoted to the singular yet multi-faceted talent that was Mervyn Peake. Let us remedy that shortcoming forthwith, then, for long before Yann Martel had his stories of tigers afloat Mr Peake had his tale of the life of Pye. His illustrations are instantly recognisable, although you will have to find someone with less of a cloth ear than mine for verse to sing of his poetry... His magnum opus, of course, is the Gormenghast trilogy - I use the term advisedly: is anyone on record as having managed to get to the end of Titus Awakes? Just what is Dr Prunesquallor's first name? Why was he so taken with the word lambent? And just what was the terrible disease that caused this magnificent man to spend the last decade or so of his life cruelly wasting away, bereft of the ability to draw or write?
As exhibit one in the incomprehensible undervaluation of his contributions, consider this article in the Guardian on the behind-the-scenes crisis in the Palace of Westminster. Arcane rituals abound, no single individual (save, apparently, two locksmiths) knows the entire geography of the place, and yet we read the following:
As exhibit one in the incomprehensible undervaluation of his contributions, consider this article in the Guardian on the behind-the-scenes crisis in the Palace of Westminster. Arcane rituals abound, no single individual (save, apparently, two locksmiths) knows the entire geography of the place, and yet we read the following:
Clearly Gormenghast is the metaphor ne plus ultra, rather than that arriviste magical establishment, and yet soi-disant historians fail to find le mot juste. Pardon my French (and other Mediterranean languages, unwonted dead or alive), but I am somewhat angry at this blindspot. Assist me, dear fellow Forteans, in setting the record straight and restoring this man's rightful status as national treasure. What does he mean to you?ahistorical acultural phillistines said:Recently, when historian Lord Hennessy, a crossbench peer, was showing me around what he inevitably called “Hogwarts”...
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