Hey Black Dog, I nearly got to DC this weekend for work & was going to suggest coffee at Kramerbooks. (I'd be the person dressed in New York black, wearing a chocolate figure of Sebastian Flyte in my buttonhole.)
I will avoid making obvious puns about Sebastian Flyte and the oral appeal of chocolate, and simply mourn a missed opportunity to be Seen with somebody in New York Black. Coffee at Kramerbooks would have been fun! By all means, let's do it next time you're coming down.
I like your choice of Kramerbooks, by the way. I haven't been there in a while -- I'm a brutal Borders/Amazon/ABE utilitarian when it comes to bookbuying, and I don't miss the days when even the best bookstores only gave you a frustrating and tantalizing hint of any author or topic. But I have lots of fond memories of Kramerbooks and Afterwords and going there at 4am because I couldn't sleep. Are you an ex-DC person, that you know the place?
Nope, never lived in DC, but have had many friends & colleagues who are alumni of Dupont Circle. Kramerbooks was the first bookstore in my universe to wed my two worst addictions favorite things, books and coffee. Have always been fond of the place. Plus it's near where I usually stay.
What, BTW, do you make of the surname "Flyte"? Is it meant to be a) a cheesy indication of Sebastian's angelic status, or b) a cheesy reference to his father's headlong departure from the family, from England, and from grace?
It occurs to me that one could make quite a fun list of modern fictional characters named after St. Sebastian. The other who pops immediately to mind is Sebastian Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer." But there must be dozens.
". . . where I usually stay" sounds promising, so with luck we can make coffee work in the future.
As for Flyte -- to me it suggest flightiness, insubstantiality, fundamental unseriousness. Which is the impression Anthony Blanche tries to reinforce when he attempts to poison Charles' feelings about his new friend. And which is probably truer than Charles cares to admit. (Interesting that, IIRC, the "idyll" that opens their friendship is almost immediately undermined, and never really the same.) So, a comment on the nature of infatuation, and by Catholic metaphor, of the insubstantiality of earthly obsessions except as immature pointers to the "real thing"?
None of this, however, is true of chocolate, and I will not hear chocolate abused or trivialized in my presence. Or coffee, for that matter.
Damn, we really should have done Brideshead last summer. Maybe we can try again some time.
As for other Sebastians in literature, I confess I am drawing a blank, though I believe I remember a dog, or perhaps a bear, by that name, perhaps in a book I read as a child.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-10 07:25 pm (UTC)But as usual it didn't happen.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 07:43 am (UTC)I like your choice of Kramerbooks, by the way. I haven't been there in a while -- I'm a brutal Borders/Amazon/ABE utilitarian when it comes to bookbuying, and I don't miss the days when even the best bookstores only gave you a frustrating and tantalizing hint of any author or topic. But I have lots of fond memories of Kramerbooks and Afterwords and going there at 4am because I couldn't sleep. Are you an ex-DC person, that you know the place?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 08:32 pm (UTC)worst addictionsfavorite things, books and coffee. Have always been fond of the place. Plus it's near where I usually stay.What, BTW, do you make of the surname "Flyte"? Is it meant to be a) a cheesy indication of Sebastian's angelic status, or b) a cheesy reference to his father's headlong departure from the family, from England, and from grace?
It occurs to me that one could make quite a fun list of modern fictional characters named after St. Sebastian. The other who pops immediately to mind is Sebastian Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer." But there must be dozens.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 11:12 pm (UTC)As for Flyte -- to me it suggest flightiness, insubstantiality, fundamental unseriousness. Which is the impression Anthony Blanche tries to reinforce when he attempts to poison Charles' feelings about his new friend. And which is probably truer than Charles cares to admit. (Interesting that, IIRC, the "idyll" that opens their friendship is almost immediately undermined, and never really the same.) So, a comment on the nature of infatuation, and by Catholic metaphor, of the insubstantiality of earthly obsessions except as immature pointers to the "real thing"?
None of this, however, is true of chocolate, and I will not hear chocolate abused or trivialized in my presence. Or coffee, for that matter.
Damn, we really should have done Brideshead last summer. Maybe we can try again some time.
As for other Sebastians in literature, I confess I am drawing a blank, though I believe I remember a dog, or perhaps a bear, by that name, perhaps in a book I read as a child.