tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post790065264843335650..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Confessio lapidisCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-84330872944119551042014-06-09T08:26:16.954-04:002014-06-09T08:26:16.954-04:00Very erudite, but I still think this is an image o...Very erudite, but I still think this is an image of time-travelling DC superhero Booster Gold.Rob Barretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17791752557408134270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-66660244129892878882012-03-02T08:45:16.176-05:002012-03-02T08:45:16.176-05:00Gets seriously interesting! I missed Shakespeare&...Gets seriously interesting! I missed Shakespeare's use of Gower on this theme, and this morning is the first time I have read Gower. Wow!<br /><br />I have only seen this theme of total obliteration once, in an early modern civic ritual. Its to ensure the obliteration of cyclical time. No broods of Phoenix's will emerge vengeful from the ashes.<br /><br />Need to read Gower fully with care. Little flashes of it also remind me strongly of something British and hairy. Seems to be swimming in the same pool of ideas/images in a few places. <br /><br />Fascinating. Thanks.Jebnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-34326243160788468442012-02-28T09:43:57.000-05:002012-02-28T09:43:57.000-05:00Wonderful opening. Part of what I love about this ...Wonderful opening. Part of what I love about this bit from Gower is the secondariness of human interests and activity. We have the stone's activity; but we also have the statue (made from many things). To be sure, the statue's a figure of a human, made by humans, and read as about humans. But this is still an 'adventure story' of sorts in which one 'object' batters another, and the human just watches, uncertain and scared. So when you write "towards the menacing statue, and therefore towards us," I'd say, sure, it's towards us, but mainly it's <i>towards the statue</i>, which is its own thing, independent of humans. What would an adventure story only about stones and minerals look like? Well, something like this.medievalkarlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12440542200843836794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-80510193268337675562012-02-27T16:34:08.150-05:002012-02-27T16:34:08.150-05:00So interesting to see your take on this "ymag...So interesting to see your take on this "ymage," Jeffrey! I like the way you are reasserting the "lithic" agency within Gower's account of N's dream; I feel the general tendency is to think about the materiality of the "ymage" with its disparate elements/materials, and the fact that this entire statue breaks down - but the role of the *stone* that actually destroys this "ymage" is something I've never seen discussed in quite this way. Allan already beat me to the punch re: herbs and stones etc. in CA Book 7. I'd just say, given your interests, you might take a look at Deanne Williams' discussion of this "ymage" in Daniel as a hybrid monster, if you haven't already?<br /><br />Williams, Deanne. "Gower's Monster." In Postcolonial Approaches to the European Middle Ages: Translating Cultures. Ed. Kabir, Ananya Jahanara. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 127-150.<br /><br />As far as I remember, Williams doesn't address the lithic or (poly)temporal elements of Gower's "ymage" episode per se, nor does she really think about lithic motion. It's pretty much, as I remember, presenting the notion of this "ymage" as an emblem for the whole CA as a hybrid creation (indeed, this image is often a "frontispiece" to the CA in some mss, which would seem to support such a reading).<br /><br />Other Gowerians can chime in here, but I feel that Gowerian stones are often his poetic vehicles for thinking through processes of change and transformation *in general.* In that respect, I'd say stones are quite agentic throughout the CA. Conceiving of Gowerian stones in terms of *motion* would appear to be taking things promising new directions. There is, of course, the motif of casting dice (imagery of cyclical turning and change) in the Latin lines before this "ymage" section, but that's not quite the same as God hurling a destructive stone!Jonathan Hsynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-5614356154494708132012-02-27T15:18:42.785-05:002012-02-27T15:18:42.785-05:00You've done it now, Jeffrey. Gowerians are co...You've done it now, Jeffrey. Gowerians are consulting in secret places. I think your reading appears less "perverse" or surprising when considered in relation to Gower's fifteen starts, stones, and herbs (CA VII.1281ff), for example. Gower's foray into the hermetic arts and macrocosmic bodies, though always tied by way of resemblances or powers to the human, at least points outward way, way past the human.Allan Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05687714445553975831noreply@blogger.com