Getting James.

I repeat: I see no point in New Year celebrations. To me, January 1^st is simply another day after the day before. Nevertheless, I am pleased that I kept my promise to myself through the long bouts of depression and attendant apathy: I aspired to reach the magic 200-posts-a-year minimum, and so I did. And tonight I completed what I would consider my only notable achievement of 2024 – I finally learned the language of Henry James.

I tried to read him a year or so ago, starting with The Turn of the Screw, which was reasonably transparent, and then moving on to a couple of short stories which certainly weren’t, at least not to me. I wouldn’t say that he wastes words, but he does tend to use rather a lot of them and often in the kind of order to which I am not accustomed. I suppose it’s because his natural idiom was American of the late 18^th century, whereas I’m English and a product of the 20^th century. Whatever the explanation, I found him insufferably dense and gave up. But this week I tried again (he is pretty highly regarded after all) and tonight I finished his story The Friends of the Friends, and I finally broke though the barrier so now I can read Henry James.

It tells the story of a man and a woman who never meet and never even correspond, but know one another entirely through the intercession of a mutual friend. And they have something in common: they both had, during their younger years, the same kind of paranormal experience. Through this arcane process they fall in love, and eventually it comes to a head in the most delightful way imaginable. And I’ll say no more in case anybody reading this blog wants to read the story and doesn’t want spoilers spoiling it.

So there you have it: I finally achieved something in 2024. Happy New Year to anyone who considers the greeting to be worthy of note.