The Pearl of the World's song, Stillwagon asserts, implies "something greater than a single musical note, chord, or phrase." It refers instead to "a streaming complex of feeling tones-a melody or song" (iv). The Great Tidepool in Cannery Row, Timshel in East of Eden, and Ethan Allen Hawley's talisman in The Winter of Our Discontent operate similarly as palimpsests, touchstones of meaning, foundations for interior questing and song-line plots.
#THE PEARL JOHN STEINBECK REVIEW SERIES#
There is a germ of a good idea in his booklet: The Song of The Pearl functions as a metaphor or vehicle for a whole series of intangible, thematic, or narrative qualities and possibilities associated with the fated gem that protagonist Kino finds. Some of the URL links Stillwagon mentioned-notably his website at and are no longer active so accurate appraisal is not possible. (I know graduate students who have written more and better on Steinbeck who would not presume to call themselves Steinbeck Scholars, but that is another matter).
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Whether those accomplishments qualify for notable ranking as a "Steinbeck Scholar" strikes me as questionable. There might be a few others as well, but that was all I could determine with certainty. Then touring until 23 November.Steinbeckians beware! Save your money! This turgidly written, stylistically sloppy, editorially challenged, and inadequately researched "book" should be consulted only as an example of what not to do when writing about John Steinbeck.Īccording to Stillwagon's bio-blurb at the occult Find Astrologer website, he is, besides being a Humanistic Astrologer with particular interest in the work of Swiss analytical psychiatrist Carl Jung, also a former industrial/corporate Training Manager and Instructional Designer, and a self-proclaimed "published Steinbeck Scholar." His bio statement at the beginning of this little booklet states that he is a "Steinbeck/Ricketts Scholar and has many publications regarding training management and the work of John Steinbeck." Besides this extended essay I was only able to find a couple of his other Steinbeck-related publications-one was an extremely hostile review of Susan Shillinglaw's Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage (2013) the other was an internet publication of an essay presentation called "Steinbeck, Ricketts, Jung" that he delivered at the Monterey Peninsula Friends of C.
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With this inventive, heartfelt small-scale touring show, the young company Dumbshow are finding a distinct voice and aesthetic.Īt the Point, Eastleigh, on 30 October. Instead, it plays up the comedy as it tells the story of an entire community – including a couple of entertaining nuns who are like two blisters waiting to pop – which is either corrupted or compromised by the sudden arrival of the pearl. It’s good, too, that it doesn’t have a finger-wagging moralistic bone in its body. For instance, crates are transformed into the steep cliffs up which Kino (Michael Bryher) and Joanna (Hester Bond) must climb with their baby to escape danger.Īt other times the stagecraft is a mite clumsy, and sometimes the studied simplicity is a little self-conscious even at 70 minutes, the show feels as if it is stretching things out.īut Sam Gayton’s adaptation and the production gets to the emotional heart of the story. There are some lovely moments as the flotsam and jetsam on the stage is put to good use. There’s a similar directness and simplicity in the staging, which uses an original score by Rollo Clarke as much as the text. There is more than a touch of Kneehigh theatre’s bird-twitchers from Tristan and Yseult in the chorus of beachcombers who piece together the tale from objects washed ashore.
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This affecting adaptation by Dumbshow uses plenty of poor-theatre techniques and is all the richer for it. What and how we value family, friendship and community, which have no market value but truly make us wealthier, is at the heart of John Steinbeck’s novella. W ho wouldn’t like to win the lottery or discover a priceless object in the attic? But for Kino, a poor pearl diver, finding a specimen of great worth doesn’t transform his beloved family’s life as he had hoped.