| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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So, I rarely ever see him because our schedules are so very different and then yesterday I saw him on campus and we exchanged civil nods and last night he was at the bar my friend Yael and I went to. It had all the awkwardness of a dating type breakup but without the intensity of emotion. At least on my part. Anyway, I got another haircut. I think I am going to stop asking for a specific haircut and just say, please don't make me look like Prince Valiant. I found out a biographical essay I wrote is going to be published. I've decided that this summer, in addition to taking French and developing my exam reading list, I am going to read a whole lotta Faulkner because, well, it's about time I did so. I was moved by a quote I found which resonated with some intense discussions I'd been having and also because I am taking a course in Southern lit next fall. I'm also going to write more creative stuff, just for myself. Shannon read a few character sketches I did last semester and they made her laugh. I should be cleaning, writing, doing anything to get ready for Sem to arrive. |
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I'm sorry about your friend-breakup, Kazu. Those are always so hard. |
Re: Faulkner, What would you recommend? I am definitely reading Light in August this summer because that is where the aforementioned quote is from. |
I'm reading a hell of a lot of books right now. I'm stuck on page 17 of Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock." I am dreading reading it further because I know the first narrator is going to die soon, as he knows he's going to die -- there is so much tension and anxiety building...it's painful. The thing I've found about Graham Greene is that you don't enjoy the experience of reading his books, you don't like his characters, and there certainly aren't happy endings.....and yet you learn so much about life and humanity and the world and God and yourself through his books. It's almost as if you go through one of those difficult yet character-building experiences life offers just by reading a novel. (On a brighter note, you know that part in Morrissey's "Now My Heart is Full," where he sings, "Dallow, Spicer, Pinky, Cubitt / rush to danger, wind up nowhere"? Those are four characters from this book.) |
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I've read (let's see): Light in August The Sound and the Fury Absalom, Absalom As I Lay Dying Spotted Horses / Old Man / The Bear ...and I think that's it. Light in August is my favorite, because (IMO) you see Faulkner demonstrating the full extent of his talent here. The characters are very interesting, the story is good, the way in which he structures the book perfectly fits the story, and his prose is fantastic. And you don't have any confusing bits like the first chapter of the Sound and the Fury. (Though that's really good, too. I would say save the first chapter for last when you read it.) What was the quote you liked so much? |
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The quote I saw was, "Memory believes before knowing remembers." And it totally struck me, like I said, because it resonated with a conversation I'd just had. And even though I think quotes, I hate not knowing where they came from and am driven by finding the context, so I looked on-line and found this, which made me realize, I Must Read Faulkner. I also took that as sign to take the Southern literature class, which I was rather ambivalent about at first. Not because it's Southern literature (which I like very much) but because of the scheduling. The rest of the passage: "Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders. Knows remembers believes a corridor in a big long garbled cold echoing building of dark red brick sootbleakened by more chimneys than its own, set in a grassless cinderstrewnpacked compound surrounded by smoking factory purlieus and enclosed by a ten foot steel-and-wire fence like a penitentary or a zoo, where in random erratic surges, with sparrowlike childtrebling, orphans in identical and uniform blue denium in and out of remembering but in knowing constant as the bleak walls, the bleak windows where in rain soot from the yearly adjacenting chimneys streaked like black tears." |
Shamefully I havent read Faulkner since then, but i do remember really enjoying it. |
so, kazu, when you start it let me know and i'll start it over again. in other news, BART train filled like canned fish and stopped in a hot black tunnel for a long long time. and this guy next to me who breaths in funny strings of gasps and wriggles his nose like a rabbit says something about cocktail service. and i take the too heavy bag from my shoulder and put it on the floor and think all we need is a woman going into labor. i didn't panic though crowds still get to me. i found myself on the verge of hyperventalation the other night when we walked around the back of SBC nee PacBell Park before returning to our seats to watch Say Hey pushed to 4th. on my walk back from BART i tensed my hands up and pulled my fingers about working muscles against muscles and it made me feel better. and i walked home shuffling with my hands curled up into my chest and people looked at me differently and i wondered to myself where the line is. i'm in berkeley tonight. tomorrow i'm landscaping in the santa cruz mountains. and once again i watched the breakfast club and it reminded me of heather. good job heather. some of your plants are still alive. |
yesterday a cute little french girl chatted me up on bart and gave me her phone number. all of her friends are in chicago where she got her computer science degree. she used the NK card. i think she spoke to me mostly because i was trying not to be mean to this really drunk guy who was asking me all kinds of questions while waiting for the train. he asked if i had a computer, and when i said yes he got this expression like computers are only used for naughty things and then asked me what i did with it. um....yeah. |
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"Yes, Faulkner is someone you really have to just give the benefit of the doubt to when reading. There is no greater writer for leading you through darkness to the light of day." And I just wanted to say, Amen. Have you started Light in August yet, Kazu? |
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Me: (groggy, croaky voice) hello Jim: hi, it's me, I just wanted to call and tell you that Kevin is home and he's okay now. M: (utterly confused) wha... J: He was electrocuted at work yesterday. M: (suddenly wide awake) what!?! J: yeah, he was on a job at a towing company and picked up a wire which still had electricity in it and it got him. he couldn't let go and one of the guys at the place had to grab it out of his hand. It burned his hand and nicked his heart, but he had on those hefty boots that comcast makes them buy and the doctor said that probably saved his life. you know, if he hadn't had those shoes on or if he'd been on a different and the customer panicked rather than helped, he might be gone. DAMN. I called Kevin this morning and he's fine. In fact, his enzymes (in his heart?) didn't even rise the normal-not-yet-dangerous amount. I guess the boots prevented the shock from going all the way through him, but even that wouldn't have mattered if the guy hadn't grabbed it. The building had some electric problems. He's still a little shaken up but he has the weekend off. It's company policy that he has to take a drug test before he can go back but Kev says his boss would've made him stay home until monday. Still, damn. My brother. |
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Seriously, tomorrow when I've had enough sleep, it will hit me just how close he came. |
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