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| Henry |
No, things don't usually go on as if nothing ever happened, because something did happen and more will probably happen and until it does, we'll all be subject to despair and worry and grief and anxiety and -- well -- annoyance, particularly for me -- at the yammering and yammering on and on of opinion. I'm going to sit tight and be quiet and maybe dip my toes in one article or another but politely decline from engagement in anything but an assertion of peace, love and my vote when the time comes.
On another note, this afternoon I am going to hear the great Ursula K. Le Guin speak at Royce Hall. I'm so looking forward to her and then to Patti Smith tomorrow night. I bought both tickets months ago and feel a tad self-indulgent going two evenings in a row to an event, especially given my deadlines for work and just all the other stuff, but those feelings are tads and as soon as I'm in my seat, I'll be thrilled. And grateful.
Reader, what are you reading? I'm immersed in City on Fire and thrilled that I'm once again able to plow through a 900-plus page book. I had thought that skill was lost as the last few tomes I'd attempted were ditched around 150 pages in, with 500 pages looming. I wasn't sure if I was getting old and decrepit and losing my mojo as a reader extraordinaire or that those other books were just duds for me. They were duds for me. I might also be losing my mojo, at least in tolerance for what I don't love. I don't feel like being a critic, so I won't tell which ones, but they were literary sensations and best-sellers by wunderkinds. City on Fire, on the other hand, keeps getting better and better. It's a great story about numerous characters in gritty, 1970s New York City, and the writing is plot driven and literary. I'm generally a hardback novel reader, but I downloaded this one on my Kindle, and other than having no idea what page I'm on (27% through so far, but I'm IN), I'm enjoying the ability to look up some words that I'd never seen used. All you have to do is push on them with your finger and the definition pops up. This never ceases to amaze me and make me glad to be alive in 2015. Here they are:
horripilation: the erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement
oubliette: a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling
vigorish: an excessive rate of interest on a loan, typically one from an illegal moneylender
monorchid: (of a person or animal) having only one testicle
Here's a sentence using all the vocabulary words:
I knew I owed him, so I descended into the oubliette, the sack of coins a monorchid hanging in front of me, a horripilating woman with the vigorish he demanded.
I challenge you to give it a whirl.
I love you. Thank you for all of this. I am particularly enamored of "monorchid," if only because I wonder how something that translates as, literally, "one orchid" came to mean anything regarding the male genitalia. I will consider City on Fire, although 900 pages seems awfully daunting.
ReplyDeleteThe book is daunting only in size. The vocabulary is interesting rather than pretentious or even difficult. It's just such a great story!
DeleteOkay. I'm in. Maybe over the holiday break.
DeleteI just finished reading "Everything Is Goodbye" by Gurjinder Basran. It's set in Vancouver, written by a Canadian woman about the Sikh community in Vancouver. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting, lily cedar. I love kundalini yoga -- we have a big Sikh community here in Los Angeles that runs several yoga centers.
DeleteI learned in nursing school that an orchidectomy is the surgical removal of the testicles. In other words, castration.
ReplyDeleteI am reading nothing of great interest. I need to get to the library.
I love your sentence. Have GREAT fun the next two nights. Be inspired and awed and all good things.
Good one, Ms. Moon! I think your book selections are always eclectic - and your auditory listening is always inspiring, too.
DeleteUrsula Le Guin. You are so lucky. I'll bet she was fantastic. Such a great mind and a wonderful writer.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting ready to leave and will give a full report!
DeleteI believe these nights out in the field are research, filling the well, soul care. It is worthwhile. While the city burns - or may be going to burn - what better way to spend your time than in open-hearted receiving and regard of another artist's soul-offering?
ReplyDeleteWe went to a poetry party last night. There was music, reading aloud, coconut cake, wine and the meeting of hearts. If we die tomorrow, we know that we lived today, full-heartedly. Living the human spirit's oneness with others, with the divine and the universe is enough.
This comment was a blog post in and of itself -- so, so beautiful, Karen!
DeleteTerrific words and sentence. I'll make sure to insert at least one of them somewhere into a conversation real soon - but won't attempt a sentence with them, yours was so perfect.
ReplyDeleteI'm now engrossed in Doreen Carvajal's The Forgetting River. I'd read a review of it 3 years ago (and remember it well). I then apparently ordered it (but have no recollection of that) and last week discovered it - unread - on my bookshelf.
Enjoy your afternoon and night out.
I think I've already mentioned that I intend to try this book, though I'm not sure when. I've heard it's a difficult read. Is that actually a sentence from the book, or is that your own sentence? Because while it's a wonderful sentence I'm thinking that 800 pages of sentences like that might be slow going for me!
ReplyDeleteOk, I am in! My library has it and I am getting it today! Wish me luck!
ReplyDelete