english women in the afternoon - atonement / middlemarch / the wings of the dove / jubilee / an inconvenient truth

its has been a week of lazy afternoons. the house is even more comfortable now that the carpenters have gone leaving a double bed in my parents bedroom. it is dark and cool (compared to the rest of the house) and is the only room with air conditioning. unlike sonal who seems to be only able to read essays right now, i am enjoying reading long soap opera like novels- all set in england. mansions in romantic gardens, the stifling class system that love always seems to threaten, london as a distant metropolis affecting older, more ancient customs and while the men always seem to be more than a little stuck up, the women are the center of all attention. at least in the novels i am reading.

‘atonement’, ‘middlemarch’ and now ‘the wings of the dove’. briony in ‘atonement’ who regrets an accusation she made at her sisters lover; dorothea brooke in 'middlemarch' who marries an older wiser man only to be disappointed by his pomposity and then plunge into a guilty love for his younger blonde locked cousin; rosamund vincy whose delicate grace in a provincial town discouraged all the suitors until she fell for the husky voiced doctor from the city. she too was ultimately frustrated by the husbands inability to provide for her extravagant needs; and then there is the angelic, plain faced mary garth- who makes a good man out of fred vincy, rescuing him from a life spent in gambling. haven’t gotten to know the women in ‘the wings of the dove’ yet. but i will.

interrupting these pastoral rambling stories was ‘jubilee’, derek jarman’s dystopic vision of a version of london from the 1970s. queen elizabeth visits the future through ariel’s crystal and watches herself as bod murdering men while having sex with them. her friends are mad the pyromaniac, amyl nitrate the ballet dancer and eurovision song contest entry from britain and other homosexuals, punk rockers and anti-establishment heroes. all rebellion through is constantly mainstreamized by borgia ginz the big mouthed bald headed media mogul. think american idol having a punk rock special guest mentor. the film was a jubilee celebration of the 25^th year of queen elizabeth ii’s rule. its nasty, anarchic and completely and unabashedly arty. incredible.

one evening after dinner sonal and me were entertained by the apocalyptical grandstanding by al gore in ‘an inconvenient truth’. global warming exists! and he has a slide show to prove it. glaciers are melting, weather is changing and we are to blame. i am convinced, mr gore. but whats with all the cutaways between the slideshow where you perform with great skill demonstrating your caring nature and your honorable past. i thought you had already stood for elections and lost. but i must not be too churlish. the film is all right for what it tries to do, and does not completely pussyfoot around while placing the blame for the environmental disaster upon the big energy guzzlers in the west.

and as a footnote, we seem to have found a new place to party near college. ‘shankari’ is dingy,smoky and dirty. the beer is cold, and the fish fresh (and large). tara, this one is for you and entire paulose clan. :)