 |
| 30 January 2017 |
I haven't posted here for quite some, and have actually not been inclined to do so since the American election in early November. My disgust over its outcome was such that it took up much of my attention, and left little available to think about Venice and my life there. The past seemed irrelevant given the nightmarish present and the alacrity with which the American media bowed down to even the most fascistic impulses, statements, and acts of the incoming administration. (Of course, this is the obvious danger when 90% of America's media is owned by 6 corporate conglomerates. Freedom of the press quickly becomes a thing of the past, as do broader freedoms.) I also had two manuscripts I was in the process of revising. One of them, my second children's picture book, sold in December to a US publisher who hopes to bring it out in spring of 2026. The other, a novel for adults, I've just finished revising and given to my agent.
In any case, I'm going to make an effort to return to combing through my much-too-large collection of un-posted and unedited images of Venice, in spite of the concerns that come with living in a country in the midst of becoming a mafia state, in which corruption and extortion and the threat (and use of) violence against the most vulnerable of the country's very own citizens are openly practiced and boasted about by those occupying the highest offices in the land.
But that's enough about all that for now. The above is an image of what was my family's regular morning view for the last 5 years of our life in Venice. Do I miss it? Very very much.
Yes, that is quite a view of quite a city. Magical and fanciful, elegant and abused, nostalgic and overrun. One can almost forget about the death of American Democracy for a moment and believe in something beautiful and ancient….. knowing nothing lasts forever.
ReplyDeleteNothing does last forever, but it's galling to witness the willful and wanton and completely unnecessary destruction of the sort now being inflicted in the US. Americans have put someone in the White House who will literally kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them without a second thought--the disruption of research into bird flu alone could do that. (I remember in March of 2020 when the psychopath told reporters "we now have 15 cases [of Covid] in the US but in a couple weeks it will be down to zero", knowing full well he was lying.)
DeleteTHANKS.
ReplyDeleteI understand this absence, unfortunately.
Compassion.
I'm afraid that too many people have reason to understand it, unfortunately. In the US, our country has become a colonial outpost and lapdog of Russia, whose GDP is the same as Italy's, and less than California's! But there's the promise of trillions of dollars in it for the devil and his dam now running things in Washington.
DeleteI'm afraid I quite agree with your comments on the current American - and wider situation! I do hope that your books both do very well. I was rather worried by not seeing any posting from you since before Christmas - but I think we're all pretty fed up and depressed at present. I do rely on my "fix" of Venice, and your nostalgic images. Thank you, as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ella, and I'm very glad you enjoy the images.
Delete