Richard
further to the subject of interactive composition, rapping, tailoring...
and the pastoral... or "dematerialized" pastoral
Paul Alpers says in _What Is Pastoral_:
"Virgil's clarifying and unifying interpretation of Theocritus's
bucolics turned their representational interests and practices into
"representative anecdote" in Burke's sense. But if this is how
pastoral developed, there remains a prior question: if the beginnings of
pastoral are in Theocritus's poems, why can we not develop the idea
of representative anecdote and the specific representative anecdote
of pastoral from them?"
Mmmm...
Yeh, I reckon one can...
I mean, when Theocritus has Gorgo say:
"Mine's just the same. Diocleidas is a perfect spendthrift. Yesterday
he gave seven shillings apiece for mere bits of dog's hair, mere
pluckings of old handbags, five of them, all filth, all work to be
done over again. But come, my dear, get your cloak and gown. I want
you to come with me (grandly) to call on our high and mighty Prince
Ptolemy to see the Adonis. I hear the Queen's getting up something
quite splendid this year."
(Theocritus XV, JM Edmonds trans)
he's even pre-empting the pastoral's "collision" with Modernism!
Can't do Greek on this thing but "hapan rhupon"(??) seems to be the key
here. A phobic reaction to dirt is at the basis of rural light and joy.
And in this sample, the anecdotes are there for the plucking...
Best
JK
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