My vote for stocking stuffer

Somehow, the artificiality of the 

marionette's movements, entirely

controlled by a few strings, most-

ly in fact by one central string,

suggested a dance stripped of all

the self-consciousness and ego-

tism that absorbed the human dan-

cer. And the result was that the

marionette embodied a spiritual

power, a kind of purity, which on-

ly the greatest dancers ever

achieved ..

There is something .. that accords

with our natural yearning to be-

have in a certain way in the world,

to behave in a way that has a sav-

ing simplicity, a basic logic ..

Sometimes, in these quotidian mo-

ments, we feel the purity of which

Kleist speaks, we are freed from

the naturalism of our egotism and

our anxiety - we're quite simply,

transparently there .. what e.e.

cummings was thinking of when he

wrote,

   any man is wonderful

     and a formula

   a bit of tobacco and 

     gladness

   plus little derricks

     of gesture.

    

Jed Perl

Antoine's Alphabet

  Watteau and his world

  K   

  cf. L'enseigne de Gersaint 

Knopf, 2008©

5.25" x 7.75" clothbound