Re: Margaret Drabble born (5-6-1939)

On 6/7/2024 2:50 AM, Ross Clark wrote:

English biographer, novelist, and short story writer.

I don't believe I've ever read a word she wrote, but her name is familiar.
Crystal's quote from her, about "turning landscape into art", leads to a comment on the words "landscape" and "scenery", neither of which is particularly old.
 landscape "A picture representing natural inland scenery..."
         (from about 1600, from Dutch)
     "A view or prospect of natural inland scenery..."
         (from early 1700s)
Both definitions include the word "scenery" -- first its a picture of the scenery, then the scenery itself _as seen_ from a certain point.
So what is "scenery"
 scenery  "The items used on a theatre stage to represent the location or setting in which the action of a play or other dramatic production takes place, such as painted scenes, backcloths, built set, stage furniture, etc.        (from about 1700)
      "The features of a place, landscape, or view considered in terms of their appearance or attractiveness..." (from about the same time)
 !! In both cases the earliest meaning is some kind of artifice (a painting, stage set) which is then extended to the real (place?), _as seen_, or _as it looks_. Yet the actual (fields, trees, mountains, etc.) seems more basic. Was there no word for it before these ones came along?
 Just "land", maybe?

interesting point...  Mountain, Hill, Tree, Stone, River...
                       were naturally recognized as they were...
BUT... a wider, more-generic Entities
        (a View, a Vista, Landscape, Scenery...)
      would only be recognized ...........
... makes me think of Theories of Art (Heidegger)
Mimesis, Oscar Wilde, and Joyce's  [cracked Looking Glass...]
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i've liked some essays and stories by A.S. Byatt
                A.S. Byatt's sister is Margaret Drabble.
Both A.S. Byatt (real name Antonia Susan Byatt) and Margaret Drabble are renowned British novelists. They are known to have a sometimes strained relationship due to the presence of autobiographical elements in both their writings.