μεταμορφώσεις

[Jeff Bernstein]

“We’re all one”

 

French and English emerged out of the same bubbling broth of Latinate Europe.

 

Aucassin & Nicolete :

 

“Fix, car pren tes armes, si monte el ceval, si deffent de terre, et aie tes homes! S’il te voient entr’ex, si defenderont il mix lor cors et lor avoirs et te tere et le miue.”

 

“Son, now take your weapons, mount your horse, defend your land and help your men! If they see you enter [the fray], they will better defend their lives, and their wealth, and the land, and what’s mine.”

 

In each word from Old French indicated in bold, a simple change—either (a) removing one or more letters; or (b) adding one or more letters—creates a word in modern English.

 

       OLD FRENCH | MODERN ENGLISH

  armes | arms

                              monte | mount

               deffent | defend

                      aie  | aid

                entr’ex | enter

      defenderont | defend

                    cors | cor(pu)s

                   miue | mine.

 

*

 Also

 

“Fix, car pren tes armes, si monte el ceval, si deffent de terre, et aie tes homes! S’il te voient entr’ex, si defenderont il mix lor cors et lor avoirs et te tere et le miue.”

 

The words in bold invoke Latin origins quick, fast and in a hurry.

 

*

 

What did we learn, Palmer?

 

SCROOBY THEORY : Studying ancient Greek and Latin in elementary and middle schools would prepare students for wondrous scholastic success in future (eg, subsequent language learning would come quick, fast and in a hurry).

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

An original Exorcist (1973), with Cronenbergian / Chestburster element, from 1838

she began to howl and to bark like a dog . . . and spoke at last, with a gruff bass voice like an old . . .

“I will not depart.” = “Danny's gone away, Mrs. Torrance.”

 

The Amber Witch, the most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known. Printed from an imperfect manuscript by her father Abraham Schweidler, the pastor of Coserow in the island of Usedom. Edited by William Meinhold, Doctor of Theology. Translated from the German by Lady Duff Gordon.

London : The Vale Press, 1903.

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe (1838) + Pet Sematary (1983)

[Jeff Bernstein]

An Ultimate Positive-Negative Situation

 

XXVI. The old maid-servant said, that out of her wages she had bought five pounds' weight of flax to hasten the death of the dear child on the pyre.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Halloween in High Society in the Age of Innocence

The Gilded Age was underway. Lavish debut balls held in restaurants or hotel ballrooms soon became common practice. Sometimes events made the vulgarities terribly obvious. When James Paul presented his daughter to Philadelphia society around the turn of the century, he had ten thousand Brazilian butterflies hidden in gossamer nets against the ballroom ceiling. The insects were to be released at the climax of the evening. Unfortunately, they succumbed to the heat before the appointed hour, and ten thousand dead butterflies rained down on the revellers.

 

Gloria Dilberto, Debutante : the Story of Brenda Frazier (Bertelsmann, 1987), 90.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Scrooby’s Tale of the Unexpected

 

Our economic times are brutal. Consider what I heard the other day. A mother slaughtered her own child, from hunger. She was beautiful and intelligent, this daughter, and might have brought the mother good tidings and repute in years to come. But hear now how it all turned out, for as the saying goes, Weg hat er aller Wege, an Mitteln fehlt’s ihm nicht. The mother got no good out of her horrid deed, for she vomited so much during the eating of the chopped parts of her daughter that she dropped dead on the spot.

[Jeff Bernstein]

metempsychosis

(34:31). This set-up returns as the final shot of the film. Please note Alma's placement . . .

she has inherited the position of the ancient Greek statue.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Nicolete liberates herself

 

Aucassin was put into prison, as you have seen and heard, and Nicolete, for her part, was in the chamber. It was summertime, in the month of May, when the days are warm and long and clear, and the nights soft and serene. One night Nicolete lay in bed, and saw the bright moon shine in the window, and heard the nightingale sing in the garden, and she thought of Aucassin, her friend whom she loved so much. Then she thought of the Count Garin de Biaucaire, who hated her to death. Right then she decided to stay no longer, and escape whatever evil death awaited her. Nicolete saw that the old woman who was with her was asleep. So she rose and draped herself in silk that became her so well; then she took bedsheets and towels, and tied one to another, and wove a rope as long as she was able, and knotted it to a pillar of the window, and lowered herself down into the garden. There she took her dress in hand in front and behind and raised it up from the dew she saw sparkling on the grass, and she went through the garden.

 

Aucassins fu mis en prison, si come vos avés oï et entendu, et nicolete fu d'autre part en le canbre. Ce fu el tans d'esté, el mois de mai que li jor sont caut, lonc et cler, et les nuis coies et series. nicolete jut une nuit en son lit, si vit la lune luire cler par une fenestre et si oï le lorseilnol center en garding, se li sovint d'aucassin sen ami qu'ele tant amoit. Ele se comença a porpenser del conte garin de biaucaire qui de mort le haoit; si se pensa qu'ele ne remanroit plus ilec, que, s'ele estoit acusee et le quens Garins le savoit, il le feroit de male mort morir. Ele senti que li vielle dormoit qui aveuc li estoit; ele se leva, si vesti un bliaut de drap de soie que ele avoit molt bon, si prist dras de lit et touailes, si noua l'un a l'autre, si fist une corde si longe conme el pot, si le noua au piler de le fenestre; si s'avela contreval le gardin, et prist se vesture a l'une main devant et a l'autre deriere, si s'escorça por le rousee qu'ele vit grande sor l'erbe, si s'en ala aval le gardin.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

Droll antiquity in Der Erwählte

 

Learned reader, please contemplate, for a Sunday moment, an instance of the Aucassin & Nicolete charm in Thomas Mann’s medieval tale, The Holy Sinner :

 

Seine Stammburg, wo Herzog Grimald meistens Hof hielt, war Chasel Belrapeire und lag auf den Höhen des Schafe nährenden Artois, von ferne anzusehen wie auf der Drechselbank gedreht mit ihren Dächern, Söllern, Vorfesten und turmverstärkten Mauerringen, eine wehrhafte Zuflucht, wie wohl ein Fürst sie braucht: gegen wilde Feinde von auswärts sowohl wie gegen böse Launen der eigenen Untertanen; doch höchst wohnlich und den Sinnen angenehm zugleich.

 

His ancestral castle, where Duke Grimald mainly held court, was Castle Belrapeire, and lay on the heights of the sheep-nourishing Artois, looking from afar as if turned on a lathe, with its roofs, terraces, ramparts and wall rings, a well-fortified refuge fit for a prince: protecting against fierce enemies from abroad as well as against the evil notions of his own subjects; yet also most cosy and pleasant to the senses too.

 

[ höchst wohnlich ]
[ most  – homey ]

 

* Directly after referring to inflexible tyranny, the narrator extols the pleasance of the Situation.

 

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

"I like to watch."

 

 

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

Slow-motion out-of-phase

Twelve Monkeys (1995), anticipating the effect in Lost Highway (1997); both recall Vertigo.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Tom and Jerry Mary Poppins Returns Aucassin & Nicolete

He rode through the trees after Nicolete  
while his horse galloped with fastest pace;
and by no means did the thorns and briars
let him be; not a chance! They tore his clothes
which hung all over him now in tatters,
and the blood leaked from his arms, chest and legs
in forty places, or maybe thirty,
so you could follow his track by the blood
trail in the grass; and he thought always
on Nicolete, his sweet friend, so he felt
nothing of the stings and cuts. All day long
he travelled the forest but heard nothing
of her; and, seeing the coming of night,
he ’gan to weep, for he could not find her.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Tarantino and proleptic urination

In terms of the clock-time continuum within Pulp Fiction, Jules exits the picture at his line, “I got to p***.” (25:08)

 
Interested reader, consider now the beginning of Death Proof within the continuum of Grindhouse. At 1:40:40, Arlene says, “I’ve got to take the world’s biggest f****** p***.” Is this a joke at the expense of the audience, who has just sat through Planet Terror?

 
Jules leaving the world of Pulp with his diuretical line is entirely suitable—it is a humorous meta-clue that his time in the movie is over.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Tom and Jerry Mary Poppins Returns

How do we resist?

[Jeff Bernstein]

The Lovers

Aucassin rode on. The night was still and fair, and he went until he came to where the seven roads fork. He looked about him and saw the hut Nicolete had made. It was covered inside and out and above and below with flowers, and was lovely; and it couldn’t be lovelier. Aucassin stopped, and looked, and the rays of the moonlight shone inside. ¶ “Ah, my love!” he said. “She’s been here, my sweet friend. She made this. I shall stay here, and rest until dawn.” ¶ Aucassin took his foot from the stirrup to dismount; and the horse was large and tall. So much were his thoughts with Nicolete that he slipped from his horse and fell on a rock so hard he jarred his shoulder out of place. He knew immediately a great damage had been done. With effort Aucassin reached out and tethered his horse to a thorn-bush as best he could. Then he turned from his side and came onto his back into the hut; and he looked through a gap in the flowers and saw the stars in the sky; and one shone brighter than the rest. ¶ Now hear the song.

. . .

Now speak and tell and fable. ¶ When Nicolete heard Aucassin, she went to him, for she was not far. She entered the hut and put her arms around his neck, and they caressed, and they kissed. ¶ “My sweet friend, we’re together.” “Yes, my sweet friend, we’re together.” ¶ They kissed, and they caressed, and their joy was intense. ¶ “Ah, sweet friend!” said Aucassin. “Just now I hurt my shoulder.” She felt about his shoulder, and she found it out of socket; and she touched it and handled it gently with her hands, and (as God allowed, who loves lovers) she put it again into place. Then she took fresh herbs and flowers and green leaves and bound them to him with the belt of her gown; and he was healed. ¶ “Aucassin,” she said, “sweet love, what will you do now? If your father has them enter the forest and find me, they’ll kill me.” “No, my sweet,” he said. “I will not let that happen.” ¶ He mounted his horse, and took his love up in front of him, kissing and caressing, and they went on ahead into open country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

“Silesius, seventeenth century!”

Die sund ist anders nichts, al dass ein mensch vot gott sein angesicht abwendt und kehret sich zum Tod.
Loss is turning from Art and choosing inhumanness.

[Jeff Bernstein]

We’re all gonna be like three little Fonzies here.

Perhaps before an older Tarantino saw It Happened One Night . . .

Oswaldo. We divide Minnie’s Haberdashery . . .

 

his younger self saw the episode “Ralph vs. Potsie” on Happy Days in 1979.

[Jeff Bernstein]

What is Art?

Omnis ars proficiscitur que causas et effectus rerum docet. Omnis enim res effectum aliquem habet. Ergo philosophia omnium artium cuiuscumque rei mater est.

Cicero, De oratore, fol. 115v.

All art is philosophy; and philosophy is the mother of all arts.

ie, The origin of art is the faculty of artfulness.

It’s in the way that you use it.

[Jeff Bernstein]

[Jeff Bernstein]

 

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

Who so ever is up to hear the boke
intitled Godefrey of Boloyne,
which speketh of Conquest of holy lands,
of warres diverse and noble feats of arms
in Iherusalem & countrees besides,
such reader will be mekede glad again,
to hear a’the many mervayllouys works
that happed and fallen on both sides this tyme;
no reader is so jaded of tale,
so sad with circumstance and enterprise,
but will be made glad again, the song’s so sweet,
of valyant Godefrey of Boloyne
conquering with smoting sword the said realm,
and was kynge there.