I was just relooking at the image that was one of the inspirations for the the novel:
Bruegel “the Elder’s” THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH (Museo del Prado in Madrid).
Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this in 1562. It references the time of plague.
In the painting, you can see skeletons hauling a wagon full of skulls. One of the skeletons is playing a hurdy-gurdy.
A woman is in front of the death cart and is about to be run over - she holds scissors and thread (a reference to Atropos).
The court jester is hiding under the table.
In the farthest right corner of the painting (in the bottom) is a young handsome man playing the lute.
He is held in the arms of his beautiful young female lover who is singing music. Behind them, a death skeleton is making music with them, too. He is playing the violin. We are biding time for the inevitable - when the young lovers will die.
MILES CHRISTI - Chapter Sixteen - Part Three - The Fight
POWERFULLY captures the existential brutality/inevitability/senselessness/horror of death that is in the Pieter Bruegel the Elder THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH painting. It is almost like you are LIVING in that painting when you are reading certain sections of this chapter.
Identifying with The Court Jester - it makes me want to hang out on the planet and read fascinating stories like MILES CHRISTI for as long as possible - before the inevitable happens.
BEFORE the fight...
"All miserable . . . Except for Aile, who miraculously, rode behind him dry in her blue gown still marked with Tìbald’s blood (was that her talisman?). How long ago that night that drove them to it when werwolves roamed about . . . If they were ever about . . . Her iron and helm had been tossed in a cart and her hair washed, combed, plaited. A silken wimple covered her from head to shoulders as sheer as a breeze and soft as a breath which she wished would rustle. Blow."
I love Tim Osner's cinematic descriptions! When I read this beautiful description - it made me imagine who would play the role of Aile in the movie version of MILES CHRISTI? What would the costume design be like?
The recurring image of the flies is very powerful. At first they are simply annoying - but then - in groups they are relentless and dangerous. They could drive a person to go completely mad.
"The wave of flies thickened like black sea grass. They swarmed over some carrion and covered it so that it wriggled like a resurrecting creature. And with the coming of the Normans, to the flies – live meat."
I am again imagining that - for the film version - they would have a special effects/horror expert crew make this section happen!
"Aile in her fine attire shook. 'Take me out of here,' she whispered as if her words might stir the dead."
I found this part deeply moving. I am very connected to the character of Aile. I really love her.
"He had but one eye, having lost the other on pilgrimage to Jerusalem two years ago. By its sacrifice he gained an inner vision. This war was, in part, his child, and Jerusalem his grave."
Such a mystical image. I am a fan of the 1998-1999 Japanese neo-noir science fiction anime Cowboy Bebop (Hajime Yatate 矢立 肇 the Sunrise animation staff). The lead character has a similar ability. Spike Spiegel sees the past from one eye and the present from his other eye. This impacts his entire way of existing in the world.
From Cowboy Bebop:
"Spike Spiegel : Look at my eyes, Faye. One of them is a fake because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I've been seeing the past in one eye and the present in the other. So, I thought I could only see patches of reality, never the whole picture."
"He rubbed beneath the patch over his missing eye. An itch for when his world had dimension."
Powerful chapter!
I was just relooking at the image that was one of the inspirations for the the novel:
Bruegel “the Elder’s” THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH (Museo del Prado in Madrid).
Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this in 1562. It references the time of plague.
In the painting, you can see skeletons hauling a wagon full of skulls. One of the skeletons is playing a hurdy-gurdy.
A woman is in front of the death cart and is about to be run over - she holds scissors and thread (a reference to Atropos).
The court jester is hiding under the table.
In the farthest right corner of the painting (in the bottom) is a young handsome man playing the lute.
He is held in the arms of his beautiful young female lover who is singing music. Behind them, a death skeleton is making music with them, too. He is playing the violin. We are biding time for the inevitable - when the young lovers will die.
MILES CHRISTI - Chapter Sixteen - Part Three - The Fight
POWERFULLY captures the existential brutality/inevitability/senselessness/horror of death that is in the Pieter Bruegel the Elder THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH painting. It is almost like you are LIVING in that painting when you are reading certain sections of this chapter.
Identifying with The Court Jester - it makes me want to hang out on the planet and read fascinating stories like MILES CHRISTI for as long as possible - before the inevitable happens.
BEFORE the fight...
"All miserable . . . Except for Aile, who miraculously, rode behind him dry in her blue gown still marked with Tìbald’s blood (was that her talisman?). How long ago that night that drove them to it when werwolves roamed about . . . If they were ever about . . . Her iron and helm had been tossed in a cart and her hair washed, combed, plaited. A silken wimple covered her from head to shoulders as sheer as a breeze and soft as a breath which she wished would rustle. Blow."
I love Tim Osner's cinematic descriptions! When I read this beautiful description - it made me imagine who would play the role of Aile in the movie version of MILES CHRISTI? What would the costume design be like?
The recurring image of the flies is very powerful. At first they are simply annoying - but then - in groups they are relentless and dangerous. They could drive a person to go completely mad.
"The wave of flies thickened like black sea grass. They swarmed over some carrion and covered it so that it wriggled like a resurrecting creature. And with the coming of the Normans, to the flies – live meat."
I am again imagining that - for the film version - they would have a special effects/horror expert crew make this section happen!
"Aile in her fine attire shook. 'Take me out of here,' she whispered as if her words might stir the dead."
I found this part deeply moving. I am very connected to the character of Aile. I really love her.
"He had but one eye, having lost the other on pilgrimage to Jerusalem two years ago. By its sacrifice he gained an inner vision. This war was, in part, his child, and Jerusalem his grave."
Such a mystical image. I am a fan of the 1998-1999 Japanese neo-noir science fiction anime Cowboy Bebop (Hajime Yatate 矢立 肇 the Sunrise animation staff). The lead character has a similar ability. Spike Spiegel sees the past from one eye and the present from his other eye. This impacts his entire way of existing in the world.
From Cowboy Bebop:
"Spike Spiegel : Look at my eyes, Faye. One of them is a fake because I lost it in an accident. Since then, I've been seeing the past in one eye and the present in the other. So, I thought I could only see patches of reality, never the whole picture."
"He rubbed beneath the patch over his missing eye. An itch for when his world had dimension."
Beautiful image.