Sugar Revisited
tisdag, mars 24, 2009, 15:39
Var ju inte så amused efter filmen om The Young Victoria, så efter lite funderande dammade jag av Fabers tegelsten om Sugar som socioekonomisk motvikt till lilla Victoria nedan. Vi läste första kapitlet som en alternativ lärobok i British History/Victoriana och talade om alla tidsmarkörer och andra typiska inslag från det nedgångna londonkvarteret: cobblestones, prostitutes, muffled drunken voices, iron piping, clothes-lines, the pale gas-light of the street-lamps, dung, filth...
Läsarens närvarokänsla är mycket stark, tack vare skickligt skapad stämning genom bl.a. dramatisk ironi:
"You can come out of hiding now. Make yourself comfortable, for the room is utterly dark, and will remain that way until sunrise. You could even risk, if you wish, lying down beside Caroline, because once she's asleep she's dead to the world, and wouldn't notice you - as long as you refrained from touching.
[...]
Yes, it's all right. She's sleeping now. Lift the blankets and ease your body in. If you are a woman, it doesn't matter: women very commonly sleep together in this day and age. If you are a man, it matters even less: there have been hundreds here before you."
[...]
"Of Jack the Ripper she need have no fear; it's almost fourteen years too early, and she'll have died from more or less natural causes by the time he comes along. He won't bother with St Giles, anyway. As I told you, I'm introducing you at the bottom. "
För några dagar sedan dammade jag även av Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes och nu uppger The Times att deras son Nicholas nyligen begått självmord. Han hängde sig i hemmet i Alaska. "Dr Hughes's death adds a further tragic chapter to a family history that has been raked over with morbid fascination for two generations. "
Bara någon timme före beskedet satt jag och testade den för mig nya sajten Find-A-Grave och noterade bl.a. att Sylvia Plath är begravd i Yorkshire.
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