and thus spake on that ancient man, the bright-eyed Mariner

April 24, 2020 11:47 AM

The University of Plymouth's Art Institute commissioned an immersive, in-progress online reading of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with different narrators and artwork.

Part 1: read by Jeremy Irons in Bath Priory, Somerset. Art by Glenn Brown.
Part 2: read by Jeanette Winterson at The Charterhouse, London. Art by Lisa Wright.
Part 3: read by Samuel West in Islington, London. Artwork by Ackroyd and Harvey, created on the schooner Noorderlicht by rolling a ball in a storm.
Part 4: read by Peter Wilson, Point Wild, Antarctica. Filmed by Eric Wehrmeister.
Part 5: read by Willem Dafoe. Artwork by Gordon Cheung
Part 6: read by Hilary Mantel. Artwork by Linder.
Part 7: read by Simon Armitage. Artwork by Sarah Chapman

posted by ChuraChura (9 comments total)

This is a 4-panel comic that readers of this post may enjoy.
posted by 4th number at 12:01 PM on April 24, 2020 [12 favorites]

I can't wait to dig into this. I'd also love it if they put up a field recording of St. Michael's Parish Church as "read by the author".
posted by phooky at 12:10 PM on April 24, 2020

It may not be common knowledge to everyone, but Iron Maiden devoted like half an album to a heavy metal version of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to round out your day of tales of seafaring woe.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:22 PM on April 24, 2020 [8 favorites]

Rollerskating with an albatross around your neck is difficult: Iron Maiden + Chic = Iron Chic, “Rime of the Good Times”
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

Bernard Edwards broke out the B.C. Rich for that: approved!
posted by thelonius at 12:43 PM on April 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I was playing a lot of Iron Maiden pinball a couple months ago, and Rime was one of the more tolerable songs on the machine. :) ('hallowed be thy name' was the other standout.)

I will now bow out to avoid turning this entirely into an Iron Maiden discussion.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:58 PM on April 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

The same people also brought us the Moby Dick Big Read. One of the things I liked most about that was the way individual readers were connected with specific chapters, so that David Attenborough read the chapter about whether the number of whales was declining. I'm looking forward to finding out whether something similar is done here. (Moby Dick Big Read previously on Metafilter).
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 3:18 PM on April 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

In high school, we actually convinced the English teacher to let us play the Iron Maiden version for one of our classes. We had a surprising number of metal heads in our AP English class.

I'll definitely get around to listening to these sometime after listening to some Iron Maiden.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:43 PM on April 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Reading No.8 - Reader: Tilda Swinton, Artist: Duane Slick, you grey-beard loons.
posted by doctornemo at 7:24 AM on April 25, 2020 [3 favorites]