Akhmatova & D M Thomas

"Nadezhda Mandelstam has this to say about Akhmatova's
preoccupation with the double: 'it was something rooted in her psychology,
a result of her attitude to people--in whom, as in mirrors, she always
sought her own reflection. She looked at people as one might look into a
mirror, hoping to find her own likeness and seeing her "double" in
everybody....Apart from the element of self-centeredness, it was due as
well to another quality which she displayed in high degree: a capacity to
become so passionately involved in others that she had the need to tie
them to herself as closely as possible, to merge herself in them.' "

similarly, as we work to understand our characters and the humanity of the
people we are trying to communicate to the world we talk at length about
the importance of identifying WITH the person/personality rather than
focusing on how FAR we are from them in our own lives and experience. i
found it interesting to have these same thoughts discussed in reference to
an artist in a different realm from us AND a russian one at that.

secondly: another quote from D.M. Thomas's introduction to her selected
poems--"Her incorruptibility as a person is closely linked to her most
fundamental characteristic as a poet: fidelity to things as they are, to
'the clear, familiar, material world'."

i likened this to chekhov's study of the drama of life as we know it. he
explores the theatricality of our down to earth humanity. this is far more
subtle than the average commercial disney musical and therefore far more
difficult in my opinion, but there is SO much to work with. it takes time
and analytical energy to attempt to get to the core of such work, but as
we have begun to discover, it is so rewarding and fascinating--the more we
delve, the more we find.

-jessie