Snow has blanketed the city. It is yet to turn to mulch, which it will inevitably. However for now it seems to have dimmed the din of the city and created a perfect lazy Sunday for me with no intention of going out and about the city. So far I have spent it watching “My Fair Lady” cuddled with Seda (love of my life) and cooking asparagus. The film has left us with the irresistible desire to every now and then scream “in Spain, in Spain” or “the plain, the plain” for no apparent reason and suddenly out of the blue.
Apart from that I have finally started reading Sarah Waters’ “Tipping the Velvet” which I was saving for some time for a languid, lazy days such as today. I have only read 30 pages but I already love it. It has been quite some time since I have read anything this beautifully written and I can’t remember the last time I have read anything this romantic. I am no doubt biased on this matter but it seems to me the representation of heterosexual romance is rather dead. It has either been told and depicted and described to death over the centuries or the institution of middle class marriage has totally demystified it. At best you have romantic comedies or melodramas but romance without the laughs or the tears have become somewhat embarrassing. May be because it lacks the ‘difficulty’ it once had after all it goes without saying that like all stories, romance also strives on obstacles and no doubt lesbian love by definition still has obstacles inherent to it. But then again as I said I am prejudiced and obviously lesbian romance must move me more than the hetero version.
Of course as much as the style and the story there is the period atmosphere the ‘costume drama’ aspect that fits in so well with the cross-dressing theme. Of course romance is at is pinnacle in old England in Jane Austen for instance and her screen adaptations (NOT the American version of Pride or Prejudice – awful awful film- but rather the classic BBC version and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility) and no doubt Shakespeare who also has the cross-dressing themes but seems also to always have the tragedy and the comedy mingled in the romance.
I can’t wait to watch the BBC adaptation of Tipping the Velvet and I am sure I will keep jutting down my musings on the novel as I read on. I will keep on reading until it is time to go and watch “There Will be Blood” tonight with Seda and Gencay at Kanyon - the name of a fancy shopping mall, mayhap I’ll put a picture of it if I can figure out how it is done.
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