Olivier Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus (Twenty Ways of Looking at the Infant Jesus) is one of the great works for piano from the twentieth century. I have loosely based the 20 stanzas of Kim's game on Messiaen's 20 'regards'.
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I had the great pleasure of meeting Messiaen in 1988. We talked for a few minutes about the relationship between literary works and his music.
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The movements/stanzas of the works are entitled:
Regard du Père - Regard of the Father
Regard de L'Étoile - Regard of the star
L'Échange - The exchange
Regard de la Vierge - Regard of the Virgin
Regard du Fils sur le Fils - Regard of the Son towards the Son
Par Lui tout a été fait - By Him everything was made
Regard de la Croix - Regard of the Cross
Regard des Hauteurs - Regard of the heights
Regard du Temps - Regard of time
Regard de l'esprit de Joie - Regard of the Spirit of Joy
Première communion de la Vierge - First communion of the Virgin
La Parole toute-puissante - The all-powerful word
Noël - Noel
Regard des Anges - Regard of the Angels
Le Baiser de L'Enfant-Jésus - The kiss of the Child Jesus
Regard des Prophètes, des Bergers et des Mages - Regard of the prophets, the shepherds and the Wise Men
Regard du Silence - Regard of silence
Regard de l'Onction terrible - Regard of the terrible Unction
Je dors, mais mon coeur veille - I sleep, but my heart is awake
Regard de l'Église d'Amour - Regard of the Church of Love
- Translation into English from the notes by Roger Nichols in the booklet that accompanies the Collins recording of Vingt Regards by Joanna MacGregor
Kim's Game - by G. S. Ripley
A number of miscellaneous objects are arranged on a table and covered with a cloth. The players are brought to the table in convenient groups and the cloth removed for one minute, by a stop watch. The players must then retire beyond sight of the table and write a careful description of the objects and their arrangement. The man with the best description wins.
<http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/ripley/stalking/kims_game.htm> (30 December 2003)
Kim is a character in axel-and-alice.com and towards earth. It is possible that she was sexually abused as a child. It is possible that she dies in a plane crash.
The poem Kim's game, among other things, attempts the themes of
(1) religion and postmodernity
(2) identity and dissolution (3) time
and memory.
PHJ, December 2003