Shelf Life: Gigantic Cinema, A Weather Anthology
Gigantic Cinema: A Weather Anthology. Edited by Alice Oswald and Paul Keegan. W. W. Norton, 2020. 242pp.
Source: online purchase from ZBK Books, $4.77 + tax, after having discovered it first at a Barnes & Noble
An anthology of authorless, numbered passages drawn from the history of literature (prose fiction, poem, play, journal, proverb, etc.) that move through day and season with careful and elegant transition. Like a mixtape, this anthology forges surprising connections by theme and juxtaposition. E.g.,
- Philip Larkin's poem "Absences" (1950), about rain stopping
- a medical textbook from 2017 describes the rainbow in a cross-section of gut fascia
- the selection from the masque of classical gods in Act IV of The Tempest, by Shakespeare, with Iris and Ceres discussing the rainbow
- a passage from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon on the situation after a typhoon
- a three-page visual poem by Ian Hamilton Finlay called "Breezy Day"
Clever, even ingenious. I'd read about half of the three hundred entries before (more or less) and was familiar with a good many more without recognizing them.
A really enjoyable, leisurely read. Bedside shelf material.