Thursday, April 26, 2012

APRIL is the cruellest month






ABOUT - The title of this blog is because of Seamus Deane's novel of the same name. I became aware of the urgent need to launch my own personal blog at the moment I landed in Barcelona from Dublin four days ago. I started planning my second visit to Ireland around Christmas. And so, as a Christmas gift I received a thick lovely package of Irish novels – classic and contemporary – and yes, one of them was Deane's. Even before I knew of this novel I was already grasping the notion of visiting Derry. After reading the novel I was convinced the visit to Derry had to be the highlight of my Irish holidays. However, it was not so. But that's another story. And needless to say, the lovely city of Derry is not to blame. External circumstances. It deserves its own post. To be sure, to be sure! So, as I was saying, I am totally in love with Deane's novel. Also it was very, very special because the limits between the fiction and my reality became hazier and hazier each passing day. Derry is the location of the novel. Derry was going to be the location of part of my holidays. I really enjoy literary tourism!


Bogside,  Derry (April 2012)

APRIL - The title of this post is taken from the classic poem "The Waste Land" of the magnificent  T.S Eliot. Anyone who has read any poem of his, or even just a couple of verses, can easily tell, without much technical knowledge, that Eliot's work is strongly intellectual. I mean, any of his poems is a web of intertextualities, a never-ending net of cultural references - say literary, cultural, historical, etc. I mean, you have to decipher, you have to check History, you have to think, you have to research. Once you have deciphered all the hidden meanings and located all the historical references in its time and place, the poem is like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It's such a gratifying challenge! The butterfly image is funny. I did not plan it, it just came out! Probably I'll regret it later, but it is good because I can use it to go back to the main point of the paragraph, April (because it is a natural process and also because it's spring!). So, in spite of T.S Eliot being an indisputable synonim of intellectualism, that is,  of modernism, my most personal connection with him is irrational. The whole paragraph beginning with "April is the cruellest month" is full of intense references to... my own life! I remember the first time I read it, I thought it was a joke! It scared me... Well, another topic for its own post! Notice the "Marie", and I am Mari! Apart from the whole 'Waste Land' thing, April has other intense connections with me... many elements that define me. Like the day of the proclamation of the Spanish Republic, my birthday, and also Toshiro Mifune's! Also, the Irish Easter Rising 1916... I better stop here because I know I'm forgetting many others...!

Sandycove, Dublin (April 2012)

LANGUAGE - I am a bilingual speaker of Spanish and Catalan. However, my favorite language is English. Spanish for some reasons, and Catalan for some others, are most of the times obstacles for me to be myself. I often find myself thinking in English. After all, what can you expect? MOST of the novels I read are in English, the films also...In my opinion, the English language is more convincing, more concise, more powerful. Since I finished my degree, I don't have many chances to practice it often, so I thought that maybe starting to blog would be a nice idea. At least it would force me to search new and/or mysterious words in the dictionary... So I hope this blog is theraupetic in that way! To heal my English wounds! 

AUDIENCE - Of course, the main reason for starting this blog is personal. To practice my English, but mostly to let my thoughts flow... I'll be writing about literature mostly, but who knows. Sorry, what I wanted to say in this section is that although I started this blog to/for myself, it is always nice to be read. As a matter of a fact, one of the other reasons why I started it was as a kind of "reward" to all that people whose blogs at some point or other have helped me to chose one option or other as regards trips, novels, etc. Whether I get acknowledged or not, I would feel honoured to be of any help or advice to anyone out there. So, thanks for reading!!


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