The first thing that will come to your mind is probably that I do go on a bit! Perhaps both he and I would be better appreciated if we could be a little more concise in getting across what we have to say. I’m working my way steadily through his Joseph and his Brothers, and interesting as it is, I have to acknowledge that it requires commitment. I hope that this blog doesn’t call out in my readers the same sense that you’re in it for the long haul.
The second common factor we share is a propensity for thinking in terms of series. Joseph is, in fact, a series of four novels with a continuing theme. Readers who have explored the “galleries” attached to this site will know that I have been prone to exploring connected themes extending through a set of paintings. The first was the Four Quartets project. I’ve probably worked out the seam discovered in Malta now, but I’m by no means sure that the Beyond theme has been exhausted. Will I ever feel that I have had done with Almscliff Crag?
I think that I am attracted by the idea of long-term engagement with artistic projects. It has only just occurred to me that a few of the novelists whose work I enjoy have also gone in for this kind of thing. John Le Carre’s development of the character of George Smiley would be one such, and Lawrence Durrell’s “Alexandria” quartet another.* The idea of exploring the implications of a theme, or the possibilities implied within an image, I find very attractive.
*Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past is, of course, the granddaddy of such projects.