Sun. Sept 8 – 63
Saw Delphi, which we adored. It was in a much better state than Olympia. We watched Electra being performed in the old theatre. Even the language difficulty could not harm it. I went right home and wrote my own 8 page play Chrysothemis because there are always overlooked characters (and middle daughters!!!) whose story has not been told. Now at work on Dido. Read Balzac’s Père Goriot. “Human richness” is the most beautiful richness in the world. We arrived in Piraeus in a harrowing gale and one of the first things we did was DEVOUR our mail. Later we visited the Acropolis whose beauty is so masculine. If it is not one of the 7 wonders of the world then there are 8 wonders is all I can say. Sublime. Museum also good. I loved the statue of a dog; it had a savage gleam in its marble eye. The smiling sphinx is so delightful it makes you smile right back at her. Dad got us tickets on the SS France out of LeHavre Oct 11 – longest ocean liner in the world!!! Tues. 17 Sept 63 Island hopping is fun! Short runs of 13 mi each. However today we did 70 miles from Spezia (search me how you spell it) to Milos. (Where You-Know-Who comes from. I love it that they found a potbelly attractive.) That’s where we are now. By great good luck ran into Ace Quarles, a professional captain looking for a boat to sail on and Dad took him on. No pay, just room and board but he is giving a lot more than he’s getting. He’s wiry and dark with hair just beginning to gray. Says he usually charters in the Virgin Islands. 29 Sept 63 Ace draws pictures of women with huge chests. He claims to be a realist yet refuses to admit these pictures are not realistic. I told him muscle strong man cartoons are the exact same thing and he did not seem pleased. Have decided to become a Great Ballerina, laugh at my childish notions as you will. A profession without a place for giant breasts. Merrill says mine are so big she calls them “watermelons”. I feel hampered by taking only modern dance. My terrible desire for security impedes everything I do. I want to be sane, I want to be normal, I want to go to college I want to have children: all these desires seem incompatible. I want, I want, I want. I would have to give myself over totally to dancing and I don’t want to give myself totally over to anything. I cry from the depths of my heart. Conundrum. Take a ballet class I guess whenever I get home. Maybe it’s just a passing phase. (Note from Nov. 9, 1963: “I do not want to be a ballerina any more.”) Wed 2 Oct 63 Lovely postcards from Delos. Arrived from Mykonos on Thurs 26 Sept. Boat full of chattering, gaily dressed, colorfully windblown sightseers. It’s a holy island and you can’t spend the night there. The open-mouthed dog lions gave me a special sense of connection to the past. They seemed to be howling to Apollo on Mt. Cynthos, Drive these people away from the sanctuary! Bring back a silence broken only by the sound of priestess’ feet on marble! He will never hear them; no one has heard them but I. It was here that Ace said goodbye, expressing a hope that we will meet again in the Virgin Islands. I said, “As soon as you lower your charter prices.” But wasn’t there something more there? Something you can’t put on paper? No of course there wasn’t. Went to the museum. I liked the statues NOT on display, the head of Perseus stacked in a corner. If something looks wonderful in a rubble pile it is really wonderful.
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Alysse Aallyn
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