A New Year's message from Dr. D., founder of the AALDS:
"To be a parent is a great art. To give birth to children is nothing — any animal can do it; it is a natural, biological, instinctive process. To give birth to a child is nothing great, it is nothing special; it is very ordinary. But to be a parent is something extraordinary; very few people are really capable of being parents."
— unidentified source, probably from a treatise on psychology
Dear Durrellists...
This quotation reminds me, and perhaps the AALDS collective mind, to reflect more over of Larry's [Lawrence Durrell's] parenting style quite apart from his spousal relationships. He loved his children and youth. I understand he was quite entertaining and regularly had children enthralled with melodramatic faces and singing.
Wishing all those Durrellists out there across the globe a very Happy New Year and may the four seasons of 2014 sweep you gently through much joy, flowers, fruit and song.
Agape,
DrD
An apt posting on the first day of 2014. Parenting aside, it points to the importance of "the child" in Durrell's life and writings. A word count of "child" or "children" in The Alexandria Quartet and The Avignon Quintet reveals over two hundred hits! Why Durrell's obsession? Here's a couple of possibilities. One, in his writings, Durrell's "child" is a metaphor for a lost or dispossessed child, an orphan, and it ultimately derives from the author's lost childhood in India. Two, in terms of Durrell's personal life, the lost child corresponds to the separation from his daughters, Penelope Berengaria and Sappho Jane. His relationship with these two was troubled, particularly with Sappho Jane. — BR
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