The Little Review (littlereview) wrote,
The Little Review
littlereview

Poem for Tuesday, Longwood, Lost in Austen


If You Go into the Woods You Will Find It Has a Technology
By Heather Christle

This tree has a small LED display
It is glowing and it can show you words
and it can show you pictures and it can melt
from one choice to another and you are looking at it
and it wants you to share the message
but it can't see that you are the only one around
and that everyone else is hibernating
which you love You are so happy and alone
with the red and yellow lights It's a nice day
to be in nature and to read up on the very bland ideas
this tree has about how to live This tree says
grow stronger and this tree says fireworks effect
This tree is the saddest prophet in history
but you don't tell it that You are trying to show it respect
which gets tiresome but then it flashes
a snake at you It's a kind of LED tree hybrid joke
and you could just kiss it for trying For failing
But it can't see you and it starts to cry

--------

I got to spend Monday having a movie day with dementordelta -- actually a miniseries day, since we watched all of Lost in Austen, then all of Queen and Country. I liked but did not love the first; the acting is terrific, especially Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston, and the concept is fun if rather self-indulgent for my tastes -- one character falling in love with you is fine, two is acceptable, but by the time even women were flinging themselves at the main character, I felt like she might as well be on the Starship Enterprise where Uhura and Sulu were duking it out over Ensign Mary Sue while Spock and Kirk plotted to get them both out of the way to fight over her themselves -- and I really did not like the ending. I'm quite comfortable with a certain amount of Jane Austen revisionism, but even a non-Janeite like me does not approve of trashing certain characters just to make others look better, particularly when it's women made to look bad so men can be "improved." However, it was worth watching for the line, "Even Colin Firth isn't Colin Firth. They had to change the shape of his head with makeup."

Queen and Country doesn't make anyone look bad, whether they're royals, royalty, or royalists, though whenever I see a comprehensive feature on the British monarchy and the Commonwealth, I want to know how people feel not just about the sovereign herself -- who truly does seem to be above reproach -- more the direct line of succession -- whose appeal in a constitutional monarchy I can understand -- but the rest of the royal dukes and hereditary peers and the rest of the apparatus of aristocracy, whom I'd resent just as much as the political and financial dynasties here (do the Queen's descendants get to stay on the Civil List no matter how much they get from sleazy rich foreigners who want to meet a prince?). After Delta left we had dinner and when younger son got back from his art class we watched the season premiere of Warehouse 13, which I enjoyed though I would have enjoyed it more if I'd refreshed my memory of what happened at the end of last season. Suffice to say that a certain actor's return was enough to guarantee that I'll watch this season (and I don't mean Kate Mulgrew hahaha).

Some more of Longwood's light exhibit:















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