At the moment I’m in a state that varies between a sense of “recovery” (relief) and anxiety. Although I have plans for future exhibitions they lie a long way ahead, and just at the moment I can’t get moving on any particular project. Instead I have begun preparation of a talk I am scheduled to give to the regional Italian Circle, in November. I’ve decided that I would like to talk about the Faust story, which has occupied the thought and imagination of so many people in the past. In the back of my mind there is the possibility that it might precipitate some visual idea which I could develop into a picture, but in many ways it is refreshing to get back to writing.
Having read the original sixteenth century text (at least, an English translation of it!) and Christopher Marlowe’s two versions of the play I am now girding up my loins to look at Goethe. I have suspicion that he is where it all went wrong and he lost the plot. I have been wondering why it is that Germans appear to believe that if something is very long it must be very important. Wagner seems to have fallen for that one, but so did Thomas Mann. My initial impression is that Goethe would have benefitted from a good editor.
It is certainly not the case in literature (nor in painting for that matter) that “size matters”