Salammbô

Lettuce butties again.The things I do for sweet dreams.

The pub was nothing but Midsummer Night's Dream and Catch 22.With an interval about bowling actions.

The Times has just hit the streets with a headline that bright pupils do best in groups of bright pupils.Perhaps we should think about that.

Or perhaps not . . .

I haven't a clue what a lettuce butty is . . .

Miss Cleo would like a lettuce butty.
Bailey would prefer a chip butty.

<it pays to watch C. Street while you're at uni>

'K, fine . . . but what is it?

Miss Lola would rather inhale the green than eat a chip butty.

is what google gives ya when ya ask for a lettuce butty

and the chip butty

I'll have a couple a those, sure . . . uhm, the one's at the top, not that descration of perfectly good potatoes . . .

Doggy Setanta mi britches backside:-

A lettuce butty is a concoction of vegatative substances which folklore claims to produce the most wondrous of dream scenarios.They don't always work,and some research is called for in this regard,but when they do it is worth the wait.Asceticism may be derived from the notion.

It is odd how Flaubert never mentions Salammbo's diet.When you consider that the whole edifice of her being has been extracted and metamorphed from her grub it is a strange omission.Perhaps he thought of goddesses denuded of biological imperitives.

Well-you would wouldn't you?

I try never to think while eating . . . don't wanna choke . . .

Chicken!

A lettuce butty is, in effect, a veggie sub.

I think I'd pay to see Setanta eat one of those.

~~~~~~~~

I should probably look around for the book in question, in French, but I keep getting distracted.

ehBeth:-

Read Mailer on interruptions.Cannibals and Christians I think.

Is an interruption the same as a distraction?


Now I'll be distracted by that question.


Which is, I think, different from being interrupted by a question. Or different from being interrupted by that question.

ehBeth:-

You might say that I distracted you with an interruption so that you could study a little the distraction of interruptions and the totalitarian function of them and then you can decide whether to allow yourself to interrupt your thought processes when somebody distracts you.

Pub conversations consist of such things which is why thy end up often in conceptions due to a first-rate interruption failing to be distracted by extraneous ideas brought in from outside the tight parameters of the occasion.As a fair number of us owe our very existence to this phenomena there are arguments for and against.

In the tent Matho seems to be ignoring all potential distractions in his Salammbo induced madness as he has no reason to do otherwise and is likely to have been incapacitated anyway and thus he would probably not be interrupted unless Salammbo herself did so within that "weakness in which she lost all consciousness of herself."

oh no, 8 pages already. I've read chapter one and the Introduction. I'll read the thread and then see what I have to say.

So far this is a delicious book. Easy to read and full of exciting images. I'm distracted briefly by the little carved wooden cobra sitting on my desk as I type. He's coiled and ready to strike. It was a mother's day gift from my youngest daughter this year.

As I told spendius already on another thread, Matho, so far seems to be a poor soul captivated in his own misery with Salammbo as his object. Spendius seems to be in control so far. He's a subversive little fellow......possibly not to be trusted. We'll see. I've still only read the first chapter.

I'll try to read at least one chapter a day until finished. My progress is not inhibited by a lack of interest, however. I simply have to write my article because the deadline is perilously close.

The sub-question of the thread is, I must admit that of why spendius chose his moniker. It's a motivating question of itself. But the book attracts my attention, even without the sub-question motivation.

As to kindled perfumes........do incense and candles count?

Listen everyone. ehBeth has come to know me well.

Lola:-

Welcome back.I have missed you.

I chose my user-name because Spendius is a hero of mine and he is Flaubert's hero too.

The book itself:-

I would advise reading Ch 1 again,Feel the scene.Assimilate it.Be there.That is razor prose.Sculptured language.Extreme care has been taken to try to bring Carthage to your senses.

"Then she began to sing the adventures of Melkarth,the god of the Sidonians,and the father of her family."The nerve of it.In the midst of the feast.
Unprotected except by her aura which was enough to cow drunken mercenaries.What an image.What a book.What a writer.

Further down the same page-"they strove with open mouths and craned necks to grasp the vague stories hovering before their imaginations,through the dimness of the theogonies,like phantoms wrapped in clouds." Just like me when Flaubert sings.As you should be.

We might decipher those phantoms and blow away those clouds but not without effort which isn't really effort because it is so interesting.We just need to give ourselves up to it.

I could have suggested other books but I saw pictures of your rooms,guessed the candles and incense,and knew you would love Salammbo somewhere down in the depths.The objective proof that you are no feminist.Even your baby daughter has you sussed out.

Main thing is no speed reading.It is hard to do I know so racy is it.

It is a book for ever.

spendius (with a small s) I am unable to speed read. For whatever learning disabled (or learning difference) reason, I read very slowly. But when I have read, I know more of what I've read than most speed readers. Still, I shall read it again. However, I think I should read the book entirely before going back. Otherwise I'm commenting without the whole picture. On the other hand, maybe it will be interesting to observe my thoughts slowly as my ignorance is replaced with information.

Well i met her in a club down in North Soho
Where you drink champagne, and it tastes just like Coca-Cola
C-O-L-A, cola
She walked up to me and quoted Flaubert
And i looked in her eyes and i almost fell for my Lola
L-O-L-A, Lola
Lo-Lo-Lo-la, Lola