{"id":2269,"date":"2005-01-05T09:41:28","date_gmt":"2005-01-05T14:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2010-07-12T13:03:44","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T17:03:44","slug":"his-soul-swooned-slowly-as-he-heard-the-snow-falling-faintly-through-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2269","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe &#8230;&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?file=\/c\/a\/2005\/01\/01\/DDG7VAJAL81.DTL\">A lovely piece on endings<\/a> in art.  The ends of books, plays, symphonies &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>An excerpt:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A great artistic ending, by contrast, is both startling and inevitable, mysteriously certain. It clarifies even as it complicates, crystallizes and expands. Think of the snow that falls across Dublin in James Joyce&#8217;s short story &#8220;The Dead,&#8221; or the ravishing last scene of &#8220;Der Rosenkavalier.&#8221; Think of Rosebud in &#8220;Citizen Kane&#8221; or &#8220;Ode to Joy,&#8221; that exultant crown of Beethoven&#8217;s Ninth Symphony&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>For David Thomson, author of the New Biographical Dictionary of Film, the last image of John Wayne in &#8220;The Searchers&#8221; comes to mind. The shot of Wayne silhouetted in the doorway, deciding whether he might stay or must move on, telescopes the film&#8217;s action to a single moment. &#8220;Extraordinary,&#8221; says Thomson, his voice hushed. &#8220;When he walks away and that door closes, we know this man is an endless wanderer, doomed to never live indoors.&#8221; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Great stuff.  The last sentence of <i>The Dead<\/i> is the best ending ever written.  This isn&#8217;t an opinion.  It&#8217;s a fact.  Do not argue.  At least not on this blog.<\/p>\n<p>The end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lovely piece on endings in art. The ends of books, plays, symphonies &#8230; An excerpt: A great artistic ending, by contrast, is both startling and inevitable, mysteriously certain. It clarifies even as it complicates, crystallizes and expands. Think of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2269\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[114,578,1325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18158,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions\/18158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}