Reviews for The Practice and Representation of Reading in England

The average rating for The Practice and Representation of Reading in England based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-27 00:00:00 John Case This is a collection of poems written between 1917 and 1920 but which "mysteriously vanished" and remained unknown to the world before resurfacing 50 years later. The poems limn the subtlest reaches of earth- and body-centered mystical experience, on par with the accomplishments of Emily Dickinson in that regard; but instead of adding those extra layers of linguistic entanglements so beloved by Emily (and by myself in Emily), Jimenez writes in a very simple and direct language, though it still takes a highly sensitized reader (who has, perhaps, had similar experiences) to tune into the experiences rendered: Outside The rigid air, a bell in the cold, eyes on the frost! Inside, before, home was a body, and the body soul. The white soil, the silence, the smoke lifting our home! Now, as I walk, the soul is body, home is the soul. This for me can not be improved upon in its expression of that cozy & delicious feeling one gets when outside in the cold knowing a warm home awaits, which is a spiritual feeling in itself as far as I'm concerned, but it also resonates on other levels of the purely spiritual that have little to do with actual houses or actual frost, as it suggests that "home", that place of spiritual/metaphysical rest and quietude and bliss, that is almost always out of reach but that is ever right there, waiting for us to recognize it. He also excels at poems of transient indefinable joy: Things give birth. I love them, they, in a rainbow of grace, give me children, give me children. If you've ever had the chance experience of seeing the earth as endless plenitude and fructiferous miracle, which can happen in an orchard or on a city street, then you should appreciate this seemingly off-hand jotting. For being a Nobel Laureate, Jimenez' entry in Wikipedia is fairly scant. For instance, the "mystery" of this manuscript isn't even mentioned, though there is a tantalizing mention of another, erotic, manuscript that was also "lost" for years. When he was around 20 he apparently had a breakdown of some sort and was sent to a sanatorium run by nuns and novitiates. A few years later he wrote a series of poems of s highly erotic nature depicting sexual romps with those very novitiates, though it is unclear whether they are literally erotic or depictions of spiritual experience in erotic terms. I'm led to think they are literally erotic as he later wrote undoubtedly explicit sexual verse inspired by relations with his wife. This collection includes some poems that adroitly straddle the two realms, sexual and spiritual, and show that they aren't necessarily antithetical. I am the center of my immense world, you, the center of yours. What an immense penetration of so many double and different things, until we both meet, as one, out of the two in between! Sr. Juan Ramon Jimenez, I do want to know more about you! You obviously had a very interesting internal life. One word of warning, though; this book is pretty cheesy looking, the title and the color-photocopy-quality cover design giving it the appearance of a vaguely saccharine New Age vanity project.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-11-05 00:00:00 SAM RECTOR Tremendo pedrolo, chavales, si os queréis aburrir, adelante. Si os dice algo, os envidio. A mí no me dijo nada.