The International Lawrence Durrell Society Herald Number 30 Fall-Winter 2013 Anne R. Zahlan and David Radavich, Acting Editors Susan S. MacNiven, Founding Editor On Miracle Ground XVIII an embarrassment of riches you have an emerging idea or pointing to the next international draft of a publication, this may be James Gifford, conference. I hope to see as many the perfect venue for “flipping” President, ILDS of you in attendance as possible, the usual ratio of presentation-to- with keen ideas and sharp discussion for traditional panels – questions for discussion. The registration for the seminars will Durrellians, the centenary friendliness and genuine pleasure remain open until a month prior celebration in London during the of the Durrell 2012 conference to the conference, provided they summer of 2012 continues to masked the high scholarly have space. provoke much attention and standards evidenced everywhere, Our host for 2014, thought for Durrell’s works, and and the work of the past year Fairleigh Dickinson University, is that energy is carrying forward to bodes well for more to come. a strong match for the our 2014 conference in May, We are also organizing internationalism of the ILDS. The which will be held in Vancouver, seminars for the first time in the Vancouver campus is one of four British Columbia. Vancouver is a conference. This format allows for in the USA, Canada, and the UK. highly cosmopolitan city with a more discussion-oriented and Floating near to 1,000 students, it diverse cultural opportunities, nuanced interaction with a group plays host to more than 35 and our conference will be in the of colleagues. For those who want nationalities and emphasizes a heart of the Yaletown district of to experiment with the format global perspective in our age of downtown, hosted by Fairleigh instead of or in addition to a globalization. With 38 languages Dickinson University – “five traditional paper, it will be spoken on campus, please feel races, five languages, a dozen modeled after the seminars of the encouraged to think expansively creeds” may prove true indeed, if Modernist Studies Association. for our understanding of Durrell not much more, but there are no Each participant will share a draft in his second century. promises of “more than five sexes paper prior to arriving in Vancouver will offer a and only Demotic Greek . to Vancouver so that the seminar broad scope for visitors, with its distinguish among them.” We will time can be dedicated to new identity as the “city of glass” be in the centre of a thriving, discussion and opportunities for juxtaposed against impressive diverse community in which to mutual engagement amongst the examples of modernist Art Deco consider Durrell’s works. participants. If you have a hot topic architecture. With the downtown As Pamela Francis points around which you would like to core originally being an island, out in this issue of the Herald, the organize a seminar, there’s still we will be surrounded by the sea past year has been busy for time remaining to propose it. If and mountains – a short stroll Durrell scholarship, and we have ILDS Herald 2 from the historical Gastown Welcome to Vancouver Salish people. district and a thriving Chinatown (second largest in North Helen Wussow America), and amidst Hollywood North on all sides – all hosted on traditional Musqueam territory. On Miracle Ground XVIII, “Durrell Lastly, I invite you all to & Place: Translation, Migration, peruse the ILDS website Location,” will be held in www.lawrencedurrell.org. It has Vancouver, British Columbia, a new design and content Canada from May 14 through 17, being added continuously. We 2014, sponsored by ILDS and have many surprises coming as Fairleigh Dickinson University. Flight Spindle Whorl well, with an updated online Vancouver as a location for a Vancouver Airport Authority bibliography (tip of the hat to conference on Lawrence Durrell James Clawson) and a thriving may seem odd. But, like Two tall wooden figures will twitter feed @DurrellSociety Alexandria, Vancouver is a port greet you, hands extended in (courtesy of Charles Sligh). Also, town positioned on the edge of an welcome. These pieces are the since the earlier scheduling of the immense continent. Vancouver work of Susan Point, a Coast conference may limit travel for looks not to the cultures behind it, Salish (Musqueam) artist whose some, we are exploring ways to but to those that lie before it work is featured in the many leverage the campus’s rich IT across the sea—much like galleries lining Water Street and environment to create an online Alexandria. in the University of British experience or remote form of Conference attendees will Columbia’s Museum of participation. Updates to come . notice this orientation as soon as Anthropology. For, like Watch the ILDS site and twitter they disembark at Vancouver Alexandria, Vancouver is a place feed for details. International Airport. Informa- of many languages and many This is my last President’s tion is provided in Mandarin, beliefs. Letter, and in mid-May the ILDS Cantonese, and Korean (in Once upon a time, people will have a new president – I feel addition to Canada’s two official were swept to this place on some much satisfaction for what we languages). A large advertisement of the strongest tides in the have all accomplished over the for hairy crab hangs on a wall world, waters which rush to fill past four years, and it has been a directly outside customs (if you the deep sea harbor. Now listen . privilege to work with Charles want to know what a hairy crab is, . from your hotel window you Sligh and Paul Lorenz, as well as you must come to the will hear the sounds of gulls, everyone else on the Society’s conference—perhaps you will waves, and wind, all of which lie executive board. We have much meet one). For those familiar with under Fog Woman, provider of yet to do, but our next board will Hong Kong, Vancouver will seem the salmon you will eat, fish that have more than three decades of like a miniature version of that journey thousands of miles only productive work to draw from. I older harbor. Vancouver’s to return to their original waters. look forward to supporting those Chinatown, the local community of You will find her story portrayed whom you choose. Richmond, and the numerous fine in the work of Bill Reid, a Haida I hope to see you all at the restaurants offering cuisines from artist honored in the downtown eighteenth On Miracle Ground the Pacific Rim are all a testament gallery bearing his name. conference in the 34th year of the to the city’s rich Asian heritage. Personally, I never ILDS! Your journey down the thought of Vancouver as a escalator at the airport to passport destination, but the tides of life control will be observed by faces seem to have landed me here. I carved on the world’s largest grew up on a small farm in spindle whorl, symbol of the Coast northern Minnesota, not far from ILDS Herald 3 the Canadian border, and crossed Teaching Durrell in the poetically evocative, richly an ocean to study in England. Arab Spring elaborate, elegantly dense, the From there I traveled to Memphis current generation from which I ventured to Donald Kaczvinsky communicates through tweets Alexandria, and there discovered and bytes and has little patience the greatest gift of all. Then on to for a baroque style. Then, Durrell New York City, a harbor which My brother-in-law, who teaches is a dead-white-male writing welcomes, like Vancouver, English at the University of from a distinctly conservative voyagers and seekers. Houston-Clear Lake, once told me political perspective and having And now I have migrated never to teach something you rather slighting things to say to this place of sea and sky only really love because the students about women and minority to cross a border that is as will break your heart. I’ve cultures. Well, that’s formidable. imaginary to me as it is to the remembered his words, though I So, even to put Durrell on the bald eagles that nest far up the try to ignore them. After all, syllabus takes dedication and Burrard Inlet, the arm of water shouldn’t we teach what we love devotion. From the back end of that stretches well beyond the and are excited about, to engage the 20th-century or the beginning city’s harbor. the students in what has fascinated of the 21st , Durrell simply doesn’t Alexandria has a storied and engaged us? Such is my case look quite as exciting or landscape. In Vancouver, with Lawrence Durrell. experimental or “sexy” as he did landscape is the story. The Over my 23 years working in the 1960s and ‘70s. Indeed mountain you look at today is an here at Louisiana Tech University, even his sexual frankness now esteemed ancestor from I’ve taught works by Durrell seems not very frank, indeed, yesterday; the osprey in the sky probably 6 or 7 times, in classes rather oblique and tame when was once a killer whale, now ranging from a graduate-level compared to, say, Miley Cyrus. translated through love. The self course in Modernism-Postmodern- And yet I teach and you bring to On Miracle Ground ism to more traditional courses in continue to teach Durrell’s work, XVIII may well experience a Modern and Contemporary British not because I’m Sisyphus, but seismic shift, a strange Literature. I must say, I’ve never because he has important things dislocation of place, the result of been thoroughly satisfied with to say and says them in an watching the sun setting as it how I’ve presented Durrell.