More linkage than post

Someday there will be a real post which isn't just a spur of the moment thought to be shared with whatever small part of the world is out there paying attention, but for now there is simply a link to an article about Neil Gaiman.

Fan girl alert!!!

Moments liks this are why I love, love, LOVE Bruce Springsteen!!!!!

There is no substitute, and there is nothing better.

To prevent readers and writers running out of source material

In reading Neil Gaiman's journal today, I followed a link over to John Crowley's journal where he recommends a list of books to writers, especially writers of science fiction and fantasy.

I link to it here not only for the list itself, but for the ensuing discussion as well.

http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/38862.html 

The potential for (almost) instant literary gratification

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/espresso-book-machine-launches 

My next reading assignment

http://www.aramcoexpats.com/Articles/Pipeline/Saudi-Aramco-News/Other-Media/3321.aspx

Okay, so maybe not my immediate next reading assignment, but I think I might need to read this book.

Having arrived at work at about six thirty Friday morning (my attempts to defend my sleeping territory not being exactly successful), I decided at about eight thirty or so that breakfast was in order.  On the very short drive to Panera for a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich (protein, grease and salt - yum!), I heard the author of Arabian Knight being interviewed on npr and was captivated by the story of the meeting between FDR and the Saudi king.

It took me a while to track down the book because I was not spelling Lippman or Knight appropriately, but I got there eventually.

Part of yesterday's adventures included a stop at the bookstore to investigate this particular volume a bit more closely.

Before I even consider joining the United States Marine Corps (or Uncle Sam's Misguided Children as I was told by one member of their ranks a number of years ago as he changed the tire on my car), I must finish Isabel Allende's The Sum of Our Days, which is proving to be a somewhat difficult but rewarding journey.

It is a book to be savored rather than devoured, and it is a bit of a challenge to read because of the rather disjointed nature of the narrative as well as the deeply personal nature of the material.  It's written more like a letter or a journal with the intended audience a close relative or friend -- in this case her daughter Paula, who was the subject of a previous memoir.

The writing style and the language she uses are as beautiful as any found her novels which I have read, and I am inspired to dig out the rest and push them closer to the top of my reading list.  Her description of the process of researching and writing Aphrodite motivated me to order a copy.

Given all of the food related reading I have been doing lately, I'm a little surprised that I didn't think about it, but now that I have, it should fit in nicely with my current curriculum.  (I was recently described as being adventurous in the kitchen.  Personally, I hadn't really thought of it that way.  I just like to cook and want to be able to replicate some of the fabulous things I have eaten.)

When Allende describes writing her novels Portrait in Sepia and Daughter of Fortune, as well as her trilogy for younger readers, the way that she narrates her creative and writing processes is incredibly inspiring.  Even when she describes her written correspondence with her mother:

"The purpose of that methodical correspondence is to keep pulsing the cord that has joined us since the instance of my conception, but it is also an exercise to strengthen memory, that ephemeral mist in which our recollections dissipate, change and blend together; at the end of our days it turns out that we have lived only what we can evoke.  What I don't write I forget; it is as if it never happened.  That's why nothing significant is left out of those letters.  Sometimes my mother calls me to tell me something that has affected her in some major way, and the first thing I think to say is, 'Write me about it, so it won't fade away.'  If she dies before I do, which is probably, I will be able to read two letters every day, one of hers and one of mine, until I am one hundred and five years old, and as by then I will likely be deep in the confusion of senility, it will all seem new to me.  Thats to our correspondence, I will live twice." (pg. 200)

I am fairly certain that I keep my own journal for many of the same reasons.  I try to keep track of the major, important events, so that I can go back and renew my memories.  In a journal, it is not just events.  there are thoughts and emotions and observations as well.

"Writing is like magic tricks," Allende writes thirty pages later.  "[I]t isn't enough to pull rabbits from a hat, you have to do it with elegance and in a convincing manner."  Which makes me wonder how similar that notion is to speaking clearly and with authority.

She continues in her philosophical vein and eventually moves from writing to religion and faith:  "...the world is magic, and ... all the rest is man's delusion of greatness, given that we control almost nothing, know very little, and have only to take a quick look at history to understand the limits of the rational, it isn't strange that all things seem possible to me."  (pg. 231)

And a little later she addresses Paul directly: "Here in this world you left behind, men have kidnapped God.  They have created absurd religions that have survived for centuries -- I can't understand how -- and continue to grow.  They are implacable; they preach love, justice, and charity, and commit atrocities to impose their tenets.  The illustrious gentlemen who propagate these religions judge, punish and frown at happiness, pleasure, curiosity and imagination.  Many women of my generation have had to invent a spirituality that fits us, and if you had lived longer, maybe you would have done the same, for the patriarchal gods are definitely not suitable for us: they make us pay for the temptations and sins of men.  Why are they so afraid of us?  I like the idea of an inclusive and maternal divinity connected with nature, synonymous with life, and eternal process of renovations and evolution.  My Goddess is an ocean and we are drops of water, but he ocean exists because of the drops of water that form it." (pg 233)

Perfect.  Just perfect.  Perfectly and clearly and beautifully stated.  I couldn't agree more.

Right now, I am about forty pages from the end of the book to which I believe I shall devote part of my lazy Sunday.

Bow ties are not just for nerds!

I’m not sure which part I find most amusing – that the Wall Street Journal has a fashion column or that the president is a nerd.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/24301

 

Meditation

Every once in a while (which might actually be fairly often), I think about meditation. Meditation would be a healthy addition to my life because I have a lot of trouble powering down my mind, especially when I go to bed for the nigh. Relaxing my body into the dark and quiet of my bedroom seems to be an invitation to my brain to kick into overdrive. I have become dependent on a murmuring radio to give my mind something to focus on so that I can leave the rest of the day behind and achieve sleep. Even then, sleep is frequently invaded by whatever might be causing stress in my life. Work is the most common culprit.

After a day of constant correspondence and conversation via e-mail and instant messenger, as well as ringing phones and surrounding conversations, I like to come home to peace and quiet. I will turn on the radio but not the television, and I have moved away from “popular” music and back to the classical music and public radio programming which were the background of my childhood.

I have read several memoirs involving meditation and yoga and retreats, and I wonder if such an environment would have a salubrious effect on me. Could I really spend a week in a silent retreat not speaking to anyone? Would I have any interest in starting to speak again once I had spent a week not doing so?

Moral Dilemma

As a small town hermit, my personal world is pretty small -- by choice, by nature and by circumstance.

I tend to not read magazines since I let my New Yorker subscription expire.  (Too many of them were piling up unread.)  I rarely watch television and refuse to pay for cable.  Despite spending quite a bit of time online, I don't wander around on the web much.  Social networking sites are pretty much lost on me.  Never having been one of the popular kids, I am much more of an observer than a joiner.

While I see signs of a struggling economy all around me, I have thus far been fortunate enough to not have it hit too close to home.

The other day, however, I found a reason to be genuinely (albeit somewhat selfishly) concerned.

As a self-described book junkie, a significant amount of my disposable (and sometimes some of my not so disposable) income is handed over to bookstores of one sort or another -- some new, some used, some online, some brick and mortar.  Sometimes I give in to the need to have something as soon as it is published and rush right out to a store to pay full retail (although usually minus a membership discount).  Occasionally, I have the patience to wait a few days for a shipment to arrive from an online retailer.  More often, I try to acquire titles, especially if they have been available at least long enough for the hardcover to be issued in paperback, used, either in a shop, online, or at a library sale.  I get more for my money that way, books get a new home, and I feel a little bit better about the piles of paper surrounding me.

In short, I don't have a lot of loyalty to any particular literary resource.  Usually, I land somewhere between efficient use of money and going where I can find the titles I want.

On Friday, seeing the noticeably depleted (perhaps reduced or streamlined would be a better word choice since I don't believe that brisk sales are the culprit) shelves of a fabulous local independent bookseller (http://www.toadbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp) was a sobering and somewhat depressing experience.  As usual, the Toadstool Bookshop had the title I wanted, and I found a few others I decided I couldn't live without.  All three books came off the used shelves in the back.  Also in stock were two newly released hardcovers which have piqued my interest.

Herein lies my dilemma: Do I purchase the two hardcovers at full price (for a total of about fifty dollars) and support a wonderful local business, or do I purchase them online at a discount (for a total of about thirty-three dollars) and save myself the equivalent of a tank of gas?

Of course, the wiser choice would be to wait for the books to be released in paperback (because it is not as if I don't have at least a year's worth of reading in the house already) or become available used.

Nevertheless, the experience made me think a little bit about buying more than just food locally.

Do people *really* think that the Senator is recommending suicide?

"The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them, if they'd follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things -- resign, or go commit suicide."
-- Sen. Charles Grassley, on AIG execs

This quote is all over the place, and based on what I have heard so far, people are completely missing the point.

Granted, the Senator probably could have made his reference to Japanese culture a little more tactfully, but more than that I think he needed to make it a little more clearly.

The reference is to the high value placed on integrity and honor, and shame is taken very seriously.  It’s an ancient code.

Given the magnitude of the personal greed and betrayal of public trust, the resulting shame is sufficient to warrant apology and resignation at the very least, and according to the ancient Japanese code, seppuku is not out of the question.  The suggestion only seems ridiculous by isolationist American standards.

People need to take responsibility for their actions rather than continuing to work the system to avoid consequences.

One might argue that hearing such a recommendation from a politician is the epitome of irony, but that’s a debate for another day.

Personal Aspirations

Some say that it is better to give than to receive. Some say that you should treat others as you wish to be treated. There is a theory out there somewhere that love should be unconditional.

I finished reading In Buddha's Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center by Kimberly Snow this past weekend. As I was reading: I found the following passage, and it spoke to me pretty clearly:

"'Most of the relationships in our country are based on a sort of ledger model,' says Lama S. 'I make you a cup of tea, but on some level, somewhere, I'm expecting you to make me one in exchange. If a week or so goes by and I haven't gotten my cup of tea, then I start this angry little dialogue within myself about how "you" aren't fulfilling "my" needs. But any relationship that is founded on the idea that another person will make you happy is doomed from the very start. The only ones that will ever succeed are those that begin with the question "What can I do to make the other person happy?" And this motivation needs to be the ground of the relationship, not just a temporary attitude that you adopt to make yourself seem like a good person. You really can't be waiting for that cup of tea to come back to you but must learn to give freely. A cup of tea, a smile, a little kindness, there is always something that we can offer. Only through our unimpeded generosity do we become happy. ... The center of the universe has shifted a little from you to the outside. This can be done within a relationship, within the family, with the world at large. Give. Love. Help. But without wanting something back to balance the ledger. You'll find that this makes you deeply happy all the time.'" (pg. 160-161)

Give of yourself and give freely. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Not that I can't do things for myself and pursue my own interests or set limits and boundaries (although the ideal is probably to give with no boundaries).

Nevertheless, to give with no expectation of reciprocation is one of my personal aspirations.