This transitory home is domicile
To gas lamp buildings lit like bric-a-brac—
And, blazoning scripted signage, its track
Of squiggled neon sings its beacon style.
Backlit by night, the city’s surge decrees
The surf and wash of California dusk
And beauty visits with a thousand vacancies.
The hotel’s silent windows blindly ask
The passing sun to make each pane a bed,
Each frame an invitation and each sill
A resting place where passing fancies perch
Like gulls that gather faith in wind to spread
Their wings. So San Diego’s pilgrims will
Divine each door a way, each room a church.
Archives for June 2016
Hotel St. James
Would-be director of The Moviegoer set to release The Voyage of Time
It’s ridiculous to say there are amazing visuals here – of course there are – most of them familiar, or as it now needs to be said, “Malickian”. I’m looking forward to seeing both versions, the IMAX narrated by Brad Pitt and the feature narrated by Cate Blanchett. I have to admit, I’m somewhat more excited about the latter, as I’m looking forward to knowing more about the content. To say nothing of Blanchett’s voice.
Regarding the content, we know Malick was/is fairly interested in Heidegger (which may well have been what drew him to Percy, if not versa-vice), author, of course of Being and Time. He has an early book called “The History of the Concept of Time”, and it’ll be interesting to see if Malick draws on this at all, or deals with the chicken-and-egg question of whether it is Time or Being that is primordial (Heidegger’s big question in B&T).
If we speak of Time (as primordial), do we not assume that Time “is”? If we speak of Being as primordial, does Time then become illusory (or perhaps even non-being)? In short, why the voyage “of” time, rather than “through” time? If time itself is the Voyager, through or by what does it actualize itself (or become actualized)? Well, Being, perhaps. I would like to see if/how Malick will reveal these questions visually.
As I’ve noted here before, film and music are mediums uniquely fit for exploring these ideas, as they themselves exist (rather than simply being represented, à la Dali in The Persistence of Memory) in time.
And of course Augustine. What a treat to hear Cate Blanchett read from chapter 11 of Confessions!
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