Reading Check-In ~ Parade's End
Picasso's art passed through my mind as I read this description. We see Christopher Tietjens torn apart, reinterpreted, and what Macmaster feels, it's what I do as I look at paintings from the cubist movement: unsettled.Tietjens had been staring --staring with the intentness of a maddened horse-- at his, Macmaster's face! And grey! Shapeless! The nose like a pallid triangle on a bladder of lard! That was Tietjens face... He could still feel the blow, physical in the pit of his stomach! He had thought Tietjens was going mad: that he was mad. It had passed. Tietjens had assumed the mask of his indolent, insolent self.
Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Tietjens is a very interesting character with his enigmatic speeches, I can't make out if they're serious or jests... I'm pretty sure he's just trying to get a reaction. He seems very grounded but isn't afraid to cross the boundaries of convention at work. His home-life is in turmoil stemming from the infidelity of his wife Sylvia, and the knowledge that his child may not be his. You get the impression there's incredible depth to him but he's restrained.
Originally I kept confusing the author's name with Pre-Raphaelite artist Ford Madox Brown, it turns out he was Ford Madox Ford's namesake and maternal grandfather. |
Comments
I've been reading so much from the 19th century, I'm at ease with it's language and style, with Ford I have to concentrate more, just as I did w/ Fitzgerald's Gatsby earlier this year. I feel I'll miss something if I don't.
I haven't read contemporary literature in a while but again I'm fluent in it.