READIN

Friday, July 15th, 2005

🦋 Intersinuations

While reading Calvino's Under the Jaguar Sun on the train to work this morning, I ran across the following passage:

It was his way of speaking -- or rather, one of his ways; the copious information Salustiano supplied (about the history and customs and nature of his counrty his erudition was inexhaustible) was either stated emphatically like a war proclamation or slyly insinuated as if it were charged with all sorts of implied meanings.

Oh, and: the story is great. Quite applicable to my own consciousness.

* Ah yes, it comes from "sinus", which means "curve" like in "sine wave" -- that's where I'm getting "snake" from, it is a curvy animal.

posted morning of July 15th, 2005: Respond
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Thursday, July 14th, 2005

🦋 Candy

The candy-making date is to be this Saturday afternoon. We will make chocolate fudge and marshmallows, and dip them in chocolate; also brazil nuts and peanut clusters, and a couple of molded chocolate shapes.

Meanwhile in the read, last night we had Chapter 13, "The Big Day Arrives". Sylvia was participating in the book as much as I have seen her do, pointing out the different characters in the picture, describing who they were and what their roles in the story were.

Update: Also Connie and Julia are going to come over and help, and bring strawberries for dipping.

posted morning of July 14th, 2005: Respond
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Monday, July 11th, 2005

🦋 Bread and Chocolate

Our reread of The Phantom Tollbooth stalled around Chapter 17, because of the presence of Demons -- ever since about when Milo was in the Forest of Sight, Sylvia has been asking with trepidation, "Are there Demons in this chapter?" most every night, and I would reassure her that there were not any yet. But once we got to Chapter 17, where there are Demons, Sylvia did not want any more. I tried encouraging her a bit to stick it out through the scary part in expectation of a happy ending -- one indeed which she is already acquainted with and had talked about in earlier parts of the book -- but I did not want to lean on her about it.

So, we have moved on to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Yes, we are reading this partially in expectation of the new movie that's coming out -- we watched and enjoyed the Gene Wilder film and are looking forward to the new one.) I'm a little surprised because Sylvia didn't think too much of James and the Giant Peach, which I always thought was pretty similar; I guess the addition of Chocolate makes all the difference. She is crazy about this book.

We have decided to try making chocolate candies as a cooking project while we read this book. I have not made candy for several years, but last time I did they came out pretty well. I think the addition of Sylvia's enthusiasm will be helpful. Also tonight she said she wants to bake Challah bread with me, another thing I have not done for a long time. (Maybe ever? I've made egg breads but I don't know if any of them were specifically challah.) So -- looking forward to the kitchen stuff, I'll let you know how it goes.

posted evening of July 11th, 2005: Respond
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Friday, May 6th, 2005

Here is an essay William Gass wrote for the New York Review of books on the occasion of a new and complete translation of The Man Without Qualities -- nice piece but poorly formatted. (Note that I am reading the older, abridged translation -- only even learned today that that's what it is.)

posted evening of May 6th, 2005: Respond

Note on the below: "treating someone as a means rather than an end" is the same as "objectifying" the person, and the thought I am trying to develop about Ulrich can be rendered as that he "objectifies himself".

posted evening of May 6th, 2005: Respond

🦋 Bland Ambition

For the inhabitant of a country has at least nine characters: a professional one, a national one, a civic one, a class one, a geographical one, a sex one, a conscious, an unconscious, and perhaps even too a private one; he combines them all in himself, but they dissolve him, and he is really nothing but a little channel washed out by all these trickling streams, which flow into it and drain out of it again in order to join other little streams filling another channel. Hence every dweller on earth also has a tenth character, which is nothing more or less than the passive illusion of spaces unfilled; it permits a man everything, with one exception; he may not take seriously what his at least nine other characters do and what happens to them, in other words, the very thing that ought to be the filling of him.

-- The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil: Chapter 8, "Kakania"

I have been getting my first inklings of sympathy for Musil's characters, I started to notice it around Chapter 14 -- specifically for Ulrich but also Walter and Clarisse. With Ulrich my thinking has run sort of like this -- that Ulrich, there's something weird about him... I have heard calculating people described as "treating others as means reather than ends" -- could that be applied to Ulrich? Maybe, but (a) I am not concretely sure what the phrase means (NPI), (b) Ulrich hasn't even interacted with that many other people yet (at the time I was thinking this, about Chapter 12, only 2 other characters had been introduced, both very briefly). Aha! But Ulrich has been relating to himself quite a bit in this story. Could it be that he is "treating himself as a means rather than an end"? That sounds promising, though with the caveat that I am still not so sure what I mean by it. But let's pursue...

I am feeling a good deal of sympathy for Ulrich -- could the point of identification be reducible to the (still not-well-defined) attribute of "treating oneself as a means rather than an end"? When I started sympathizing with him it was in connection with his desire to become "an important person" and cluelessness about how to achieve that -- such a vague, shapeless ambition has been characteristic of my Bildung. It is something I am really thinking I need to grapple with in approaching my Master's Degree.

posted evening of May 6th, 2005: Respond

Tuesday, May third, 2005

Okay the current Ulysses attempt is officially over -- it's just not moving me enough to be worth the effort. (Except for that "Calypso" episode, that one's really nice.)

Moving on... I'm flirting with the idea of reading The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. I read the first 20 or so pages yesterday and found them funny and engaging. For some reason I am reluctant to commit to that book though.

posted evening of May third, 2005: Respond
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Wednesday, April 27th, 2005

Talking with Nathaniel on the phone tonight I mentioned that I am in the middle of Ulysses and he replied that he is too, for a few decades now.

posted evening of April 27th, 2005: Respond
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"Hades" -- I read half of this episode on the train last night and was having a pretty hard time following it. But this morning restarted the chapter and lo and behold, the story flowed quite smoothly.

posted morning of April 27th, 2005: Respond

Monday, April 25th, 2005

As I read Ulysses, I am finding that I enjoy the narrative chapters (so far, "Telemachus", "Nestor" (or about half of it), "Calypso", and parts of "The Lotus-Eaters"), the other ones (so far, only "Proteus" has been a real offender) put me to sleep. This morning while reading "Proteus", I was just finding it impossible to pay attention to the book and was thinking about putting the book down if it didn't draw me in soon.

But then this afternoon I started in on "Calypso" and I was back on track. This chapter is actually the one that made the most of an impression on me the previous times I tried to read Ulysses -- when I think of the book, the first thing that comes to mind is Leopold Bloom eating kidney. This afternoon my response to the chapter was to get very defensive about being submissive in relationships; as I realized what I was doing, I was able to let go of that somewhat.

posted evening of April 25th, 2005: Respond

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