(no subject)

"Henry James's Turn of the Screw can be an incredibly frustrating and difficult story. It hints at much, but rarely states anything directly. The sheer number of possible interpretations of the events it describes can make it a difficult read, but the openness of the text to multiple interpretations is also, in some ways, the point of the novel. Henry James constructed his story in order to make allusions to sexual topics without stating anything explicitly. The very language of the story allows sexual implications to proliferate almost endlessly." (some summary/analysis page, i just closed it oops and am too lazy to go back and get the link.)

well, isn't that helpful.

pretty much it seems i was right... ghosts of child molesters. conflicted children. hysterical governess. creepiness.

(no subject)

whoo. this is hard work. taking a wee break.

so, the opera is in 16 scenes divided by 15 variations on a theme presented at the beginning. my plan for today was to tackle the variations. light analysis and then practice conducting and cueing. i've been at it for 2 1/2 hours and only got through the first act - 7 variations. damn. there's just a lot going on.

( interested? )

this is why i loved music theory. on first casual listen, it's sounds to me like musical gibberish. and then slowly the pieces come together. it's a little puzzle. with creepy, child molesting ghosts.

also today i read a fascinating article about what the 'schoolbook' latin in the libretto actually means. it's very naughty. w00t.

and both crazy!a and the temp agency were really happy for me when i told them what was up. how sweet.

unrelatedly, when either the upstairs or downstairs neighbors (don't know which) smoke, it filters right into our study. it's rather unpleasant. but today they were smoking something other than cigarettes and it was so powerful, i was afraid to come in the room lest it make me unable to study. :)