17 Comments
Jun 11Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Tremendously thought-provoking as usual. Thanks, Kate.

I saw the Mirren/Reynolds film very recently as it was recommended to me by a friend. It was good! I saw the Malkovich film "Klimt" in the cinema when it was released. My favourite scene is the one where he is working with gold leaf and a jealous paramour storms out of the room after an argument. 0.48 in this trailer 😆

https://youtu.be/_hPdN2QBTeY?si=YKZRDCseancnG95R

Expand full comment
author

That’s a great scene! Funny and aesthetically pleasing. :)

Klimt has a lot of film worthy layers. Thanks Jules!

Expand full comment
Jun 11Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

How did I not know there was a biopic of Klimt starring John Malkovich?! Weekend viewing officially sorted! (And wow, the actor who plays Schiele looks *just* like him.)

Expand full comment
author

You're so brave to see a 5.1 IMDB rated film 🤣 Sometimes those are my favorites though!

I don't known anything about Kinski except for this Schiele performance. Hopefully he is able to get work after the role! ;-)

Expand full comment
Jun 12Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Two reviews for you to consider before you commit:

Me: "Malkovich is in it, so it's great."

Husband: "That's three hours of my life I'll never get back."

Wikipedia says it's 131 minutes so it obviously felt longer to him! 😂

Expand full comment
author

🤣🤣

Expand full comment
Jun 12Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Haha! You'd be surprised how much schlock I'm able to withstand as long as the fin de siècle aesthetic is on point (and John Malkovich is involved).

Expand full comment
author

We await your review with anticipation!

Expand full comment

Just wanted to write a quick comment about your inclusion of the amazing Austrian video Stairway to Klimt. Setting this aside for a proper listen tomorrow.

Expand full comment
author

Sure!

I can understand ein bisschen 😅

Expand full comment
Jun 13·edited Jun 13Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Fascinating and thought-provoking, Kate. Thanks so much for all the effort you put into these.

Pleased to hear of the mention of Murakami (of course). My mind was thinking of Killing Commendatore before you mentioned it, so I'm glad that got some air time. I enjoyed that novel a lot (of course 😄).

You know, I'm ashamed to say I've never read Moby Dick. I'm actually considering it as my next read. I've read the opening chapter a few times and I do love the prose, plus I enjoyed the snippets you read out here. I've been eyeing up the annotated Penguin version. I read their annotated H.P. Lovecraft series many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed all the footnotes and thoughts scattered throughout the text.

The Klimt stuff is great to hear about and click through to here. I'd already done a little Googling when he'd cropped up in your novel, but this extra depth was much appreciated.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Nathan!

Yeah, that Murakami text in particular is such an interesting look at visual arts, but I think it's also applicable to writer-artists. I guess the focus is on portraiture and self-portraiture, so perhaps in the way we write people we know into stories or write memoir/autofiction. Need to think about it!

You will love MD when you get to it one day! I agree, Penguin has great annotations. Mine is Norton Critical, also very good. I do think it's worth checking out those notes and was lucky to have the "Melville professor" share his wisdom with us as well (in a very open-ended, Socratic sort of way).

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

PS your closing questions raise a lot of thoughts on things I'd never even considered in my own fiction!

I'm onto the fourth Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe right now, but back in the first or second book there's a little section where the protagonist is in a library area that has a lot of (fictional) paintings and one in particular is described at quite some length. It actually added some extra context to the story because it was (if I recall) about the moon and the view from the moon, which, in Gene's wonderful style, only became apparent as you started to interpret what was actually being described.

Expand full comment
author

And I have to read Wolfe! Never have.

Thanks - hope it makes its way into one of your stories. :)

Expand full comment
Jun 13Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Literary science fantasy at its best.

Expand full comment
deletedJun 17·edited Jun 20
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
author

Thanks for the great comment, Garrett. So very insightful to also link art education with money (more generally...money at a school...money available to a university or older student...money for leisure time...). I also took my first art history class freshman year, thinking it was a one off, and ended up doing a double major with English. I was completely captivated. I guess I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, so I didn't worry about the job prospects. :) However, living in Basel, I've met some people with very interesting jobs in the art world (due to Art Basel and the museums).

Thanks for listening. I'm also still learning a ton about art all the time! It's endless, isn't it?

Expand full comment
deletedJun 20
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
author

I’m in that camp, too! It was like that when I lived in Austria. Many other places in Europe, too. Such an equaliser. Ah Bernie’s dream.

Expand full comment