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Tuesday, January 25, 2005 |
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Teeny tiny magics... So, like, in my previous post I recommended a story called "A Stone Woman," by A. S. Byatt. I'd just finished reading it yesterday morning. It really moved me. The last part of it takes place in Iceland. Trolls are discussed, and the turnings of women to stone. Volcanism, the twilight of summer nights. Byatt mentions Iceland's rare lichens and describes the Iceland moss that covers its mineral landscapes, a cushion softening your step when you walk across the stone. It was all so vivid, and I wondered whether I'd ever see such things for myself. In response to this post, Doc Omed, in Comments, noted a coincidence--"Jonah presented me with a little stone sculpture of a rubens-ripe reclining nude, and I just sent you a postcard with a picture of Oklahoma rose rocks on it--tiny magics?" Well, you bet. And here's another: In yesterday's mail I got a welcome-to-the-club packet from a cinema circle I joined a few weeks ago. Included was a DVD of a variety of short films from past volumes, by way of introduction. So last night I braved the chilly TV room to see what I could see. And a film called Savior (Morning Moon Films) began to play. In Icelandic it's called Bjargvaettur. It was directed by Erla Skuladottir and stars Kristjana Julia Thorsteinsdottir. A description: "Forced by her neglectful parents to spend the summer in a camp for much younger children, Kaja runs away. What she encounters on her journey are the dangers of the exotic Icelandic wilderness and her deepest fears." The film lasts 28 minutes and it's not particularly good. But it was shot on those Iceland stones, during a midsummer twilit night. A child wonders whether staring at a glacier might turn her to stone. And then she curls up to sleep in a depression on a rock, cushioned by the thick Iceland moss growing on it.
What is going on here, anyway? |
