You realize, to your horror, that you haven't read any European literature. You think it'll be about the wiry tentacles of the political reaching into our being, the politicization of the soul, or some deep and no-doubt profound existential angst, or some philosophical ideas about the end of religion, the end of God, the end of language...For the life of me, I can't bring myself to it.
Started the Don, and it reads like a hypnotic dream, a series of images...the flow, get into the flow of things: memory, trash, spirtuality, all brushing up against one another. The old themes, the universal themes, played out in the contemporary settings of ordinary human lives; meaning, the sense of belonging, unbelonging, of time slipping out of your hands; the grand theme of loss (of love, of chances, of the possibility for redemption), of failure -"Listen you son of a bitch, life isn't always a goddam football game! You won't always get the girl. Life is rejection and pain and loss"- is never erased, but only finds new forms. And you've got to go with that, imagine what is possible, even if you haven't been part of the story.
" All these people formed by language and climate and popular songs and breakfast foods and the jokes they tell and the cars they drive have never had anything in common so much as this, that they are sitting in the furrow of destruction."
"..can almost hear the wind blowing across the Central Asian steppes, out where the enemy lives in long coats and fur caps, speaking that old weighted language of theirs, liturgical and grave."
~~~
The neurologist: What do you think what's wrong for you?
Wanted to say: listen dude, I didn't just pay your man sitting outside on the front desk 1,500 to hear my version of the story.
"Can you count to fifty?"
Wanted to say, do we really need to?What's wrong with one to twenty. doctors are far too serious in my opinion, a bit like academics.
~~~
At the bank the guard, all boots and laces, carries a short-arm machine gun in his hand. He's kept it well-polished, a man who loves his guns with care and near-fanatical devotion. He holds it down and I notice this huge silver ring on his index finger; it's like he's wearing a gleaming, diamond encrusted book; it's probably a set of Qur'anic verses.
10 comments:
b, what an american dream! Had you asked, i'd have imagined you'd go more towards painting *our unlucky fountain of tumultuous frothy ocean tide of benevolent sentimentality."
PS THERE'S A bit of white in this Bruegel. how come not the Fall of Icarus?
it was said tongue in cheek, of course! 'the triumph of death' is the picture that J. Edgar Hoover looks at in the first chapter of underworld (and it is also the title of that chapter).
Can dreams bind one person to another? If the answer to that is yes (putting on my romantic hat)then might not the more disturbing notion also hold true: that we can be bound by a common nightmare, of "us" against "them" (the commies, the jews, muslims, witches, gays..the whole works)?
B, I am not a big fan of the notion 'us' against 'them'. how should I put it? I think there's a place for all under your sun-brella...call it my brand of utopia if you want. and this not to say that I love everyone, merely to say...I love a few and then I let live (or I do't care?)
b...again, just so you know, I joke a lot & according to your own rule you should take me seriously:not. there you go, i pigeonholed myself :) despite my enjoying that precious thought of you taking me seriously, every now and then.
ps...Sounds like I should take more seriously on the don. you are making a constant case for him.
why do you say that, anon, "the precious thought of taking you seriously"? I do take you seriously. Sure, I don't always get what you're saying, but that's a different matter.
"...I love a few and then I let live (or I do't care?)"
that sounds just right!
No, according to the rule (which was said tongue-in-cheek, of course) don't take anything *I* say seriously.
Dear B,
I had no idea you were trying to get me. :) Had I known, I'd have helped, of course, I'd have made it truly difficult :) Flattered by that thought, though.
But, ah, now I get you...too bad B, cause many times one would feel tempted (to take you seriously, i.e.)
btw...meant to ask...how are we doing on that honesty piece? i took you seriously you were going to give it your {relative?) thoughts. And what's this ken irby thing of yours? (I'm not saying I don't like him0
what honesty piece? i can't write anything about honesty, honestly. I don't think I've ever used the word in a conversation..maybe not for 20 years anyway. I wonder if the word makes its presence here on the blog? I'm intrigued.
ken irby..yeah, just something pierre joris mentioned ('nomadics' on my people list). there are moments which are fresh and i like that. small moments, inscribed in memory. that's something. small scale
Ah, B, it's time we played the Memory game (no wonder it's from 2-99). well, you said you, at some point, you were going to write on honesty, maybe this -now past- week.
agreement happens in & on the small moments. :) sunny weekend.
don't remember saying i would! i remember saying i hardly ever use the word. dunno, A, why do you want me to write on honesty? do you have anything in particular in mind?
nothing, in particular. Just your thoughts on honesty or truth, whichever comes more in handy...anyway, It wasn't easy, but here it is:
b
don't think she is that sharp. just honest. honesty on its own isn't that interesting. but when there's craft involved , well..
"B(e) fine soon!"
will do my best, mother.
:-)
thanks for the well-wishes, A (gosh, that's sucha cumbersome phrase, it can't be right!)
10:03 PM
A said...
Man-cub or mother, dear son? Am getting lost in play, here (Um, you really amended the meanings of this word for me). :)
Yes, do put those quotes. And, please, do dwell on that honesty thingy of yours. Sounds fascinating already.
6:22 PM
billoo said...
maybe later, A. backlog of work and still a bit under the weather.
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