Derik Badman's Journal

2022-03-12 11:35

I finished up Ulysses the other night. A few weeks of intensive reading each night before sleeping. There is much to enjoy in it, much to puzzle, and some to just be bored with, but overall I enjoyed revisiting the novel. I only occasionally looked up a few things, and did not found myself desirous of trying to understand or explicate everything. I just let the reading happen, enjoying what I could, understanding what I could, finding what I could.

After some beautiful days, and the sprouting of the crocuses in the nearby yards, today there is a snowstorm that has covered everything in white. I am feeling rather unmotivated today.

I watched Ford's The Searchers this morning, finding it to not be a western I am fond of. I'm not a fan of Wayne, he is tolerable in Liberty Valance, but in this movie he is a true asshole, who in the last couple minutes of the movie has a turnaround from his previous actions in a way that seems to just be there to provide a sort of happy ending to the movie (wondering if the novel ends differently?). The ex-confederate racist doesn't shoot the niece he was planning on shooting earlier in the movie, that he multiple times said was no longer his "kin". Suddenly, he just picks her up and carries her home without a word. It's a rather galling end, a redemption not at all earned, nor explained. The more old western's focus on plots involving Native Americans the worse they are.

I rewatched Ray's Johnny Guitar the other day also, finding that much more enjoyable, though it too has a rather abrupt ending that does not really resolve much of the conflict that drove the plot.

Still hacking away at my Hadleyville project/site, though I might be losing steam or just need to switch focus a bit. Ukraine has taken over the news, and covid has been pushed to the back burner for now. Dare we hope for a respite after what is now 2 years of pandemic.