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Terri
Unregistered User
(8/1/00 12:11:13 am)
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The Innamorati
For those of you who are reading (or have read) Midori's Italian fairy tale novel, The Innamorati, we've posted a collection of Innamorati correspondence in the Forum section of the Endicott site. (www.endicott-studio.com)
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Ellen
Unregistered User
(8/2/00 6:08:41 am)
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Midori's letters
Oh, Midori, your letters are superb, almost as wonderful as the book itself. And they're beautifully presented on the website. Where did the illustrations come from?
Thank you for sharing them.
E.
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Kerrie
Registered User
(8/2/00 7:10:05 am)
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Re: Midori's letters
I agree! Since I just finished your book this past week, I can see everything unraveling and settling into place! It was quite beautiful, and as an actress, writer, lover, dreamer, I fell right into step with all of the Innamorati! I really want to take up Italian again too (I took 5 years of it, but lessons ended about 8 years ago! All I remember in the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Sign of the Cross, (Catholic school) plus a few other words!) and visit Italy. Each of the characters made me think of my "curses" and I'm not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing! They were human, even Erminia (is that right? I'm at work and don't have the book in front of me), and it's a hard thing to find, I think, in today's literary world. Many novels have characters that seem to step out of an overdramatic soap opera. While they each had a "curse" that seemed strong and alive itself, they coped in human ways, reacted with each other well, and, like good actors, played their parts convincingly!
Also, a movie I just saw recently reminded me of when Terri first named the title for me, when I was looking for books to review- she called it Illuminati- and the movie was Illuminata. Very much a Commedia-type film, and it made me wonder if this was what made you switch the titles? I highly recommend it as well Innamorati!
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Terri
Unregistered User
(8/2/00 7:14:30 am)
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Midori's title
Kerrie: I was just being absent-minded when I called Midori's book The Illuminati.
She's always called it The Innamorati.
Glad to hear you liked the novel as much as I did. I think it's a brilliant book and deserved all the fantastic reviews it got.
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Carrie
Registered User
(8/4/00
9:16:22 am)
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Re: The Innamorati
Midori -- The letters are quite the treat. I could feel the tension - the ups and downs, the love and insecurities that you experienced during the writing process. Thank you for sharing them. I found it to be an inspiring experience. And now I'm drooling over the thought of traveling Europe....
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Midori
Unregistered User
(8/4/00 2:44:28 pm)
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blush
Thanks everyone for the kind words. But a special thanks for Terri for hanging on to the darn things in the first place! And to her wonderful coworkers on the site, Richard and Mardelle who put it together and came up with the brilliant idea of putting the small bits so that it looked like great stationary. Ellen: all the art is from bits and pieces collected everywhere...but the absolute best book is called "Harlequin on the Moon, Commedia Dell'Arte and the Visual Arts", by Lawner. It's splendid and full of lovely art.
Terri has always been my great sounding board as a friend and as an editor...she's talked me into more things and out of more corners than anyone I know! I have valued her insights, her push and encouragement for a good many years and am still reaping the benefits. Yeah Terri, you go girl!
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Kerrie
Registered User
(8/5/00 6:03:22 am)
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Three cheers...
for friends! They're the best thing anyone can ask for whether traveling down a straight path, through life's labyrinth, at a crossroads or in the midst of Escher's "Relativity!" Yeah, friends!
(ok, enough of my pep rally)
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Kerrie
Registered User
(8/10/00 7:53:58 am)
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Courtesans
Midori,
I just remembered from reading your letters, your mention of a courtesan:
I've been reading about the life of a Venetian courtesan-poet in the 16th century.
Is that Veronica Franco you speak of? I saw Dangerous Beauty and ever since have been trying to find example sof her work, but to no result. Have you read her poems?
Kerrie
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Midori
Unregistered User
(8/11/00 7:34:50 am)
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Veronica de Franco
Yes, that is Veronica de Franco. There is a fabulous biography of her (which the movie is very, very loosely based on) called "The Honest Courtesan" by Rosenthal (I can't remember her first name but I think it's Julia? I am still away from home and stealing time at a computer lab!)
I know I also have a couple of citations for quite a bit of women's poetry and essays of the time, including a brilliant little piece called "The Worth of Women" by Moderata Fonte. When I get back I'll post some more stuff.
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Terri
Unregistered User
(8/12/00 1:09:55 am)
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the Innamorati letters
Good...then the web site article is doing its job, which is to whet readers' appetites for the book itself! We have fairy tale poetry by Midori and Carrie coming up on the web site next month, by the
Too bad we couldn't post Midori's entire, unedited letters, which are wonderful indeed, and so hilarious. But some of the best bits are just too personal -- riffs on her family life, or publishing gossip, or Midori's commentary on the rather, ummm, *colorful* stretch of love-life I had during those years. Someday someone ought to collect all her letters and publish them...but it's going to have to be when we're all dead, or old enough not to care about the mistakes of our youth. <g>
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Terri
Unregistered User
(8/12/00 1:14:00 am)
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correction
...the third line above is supposed to be "by the way" --
but the words disappeared when it was posted. Strange.
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