AnimaMundi

Library of Alexandria

Some years before I had even heard of the Library of Alexandria, I had a big dream about its contents and its wealth as "the place of the cure of the soul". The books and manuscipts were displayed before me in a special light. It was a humbling dream. It only was years later through reading the works of Carl Jung and E.M. Forster that I learned of the biblioteke, which term actually refers to the Collection of Books rather than the building itself, and its importance in the history of western civilization. In light of the dream, the print copy book versus the ebook is at an interesting nexus right about now.

Fucking Idiotic Is As Fucking Idiotic Does

Friends of The (Gurgling) Cod, or FOC, know of what The Cod speaks. So it should come as no surprise that he has been labeled a "fucking idiot" for reviewing a book about Saint Alice Waters and her devotees. This can be read on many levels, as you choose or as they choose, whoever "they" are. As the Cod says, if he is a fucking idiot in the use and comprehension of the English language, then maybe he should look for another day job. I don't think his students would agree, but that's another story.

A Book Is A Book Is A Book...

I read print in hardbound and trade paperback books, rarely in newspapers and magazines, cd liner notes (almost impossible even with magnifiers), ingredients on food packaging, wine bottle labels and mostly nowadays on a computer monitor. I do most of my reading now online. I do not see myself ever buying a Kindle. When I read a novel, short stories or a book about mythology or whatever, I prefer a hardbound copy or a trade paperback. Quality trade paperbacks are my choice since they are more easily held, lighter, cheaper and more flexible. I love the smell of a new book. I usually open a new book or like new book and smell the spine. Is this a fetish?  I would miss that quirk. Mass market paperbacks are flimsy and usually the print is miniscule, so I avoid them. I have read about the pros and cons of Kindle, but remain unconvinced. If I was a commuter or stuck in a God-forsaken cubicle, I might reconsider. They are light, portable, the contrast seems to be good and they are easily hidden. I don't travel for extended periods of time so I need only one book, if that. If and when I go to Sicily or Calabria again, the book is written on every stone I would fortunately step on.

Maud Newton has written a timely freely-associated (the entry is really for her upcoming moderation of a panel on Literature and The Digital Age) post on the various forms of books in the digital age:

"As Toni Morrison observed in her endorsement for the Kindle, reading novels means entering another world. When I’m fully immersed, I don’t focus on the pages, or how I move between them, but on the story itself."

As usual, Maud gets to the heart of the matter in her own succinct way.

Here's the rub for me. I know that my fictional novel reading has suffered due to my online reading. By online reading, I mean reading articles, or blogposts of fairly limited length. Oh, yes and YouTube. ADS and eyestrain, I know, but when I see an online article that is, say, 10-15 LONG pages, I balk. I do read them, but rarely and only when I get swept into the narrative of another world. Lately, I find myself unable to read a sustained print novel of say 400-600 pages. Under 400 or so, I'm still good if the narrative flow or author's style grabs my attention somehow and the story's rhythm(s) begins to resonate, transporting me to landscapes, villages, cities, other worlds, mindscapes, emotionally treacherous terrain and times out of time. Yes, also to short stories and essays. Thank you, Eudora Welty. "Love Is A Four Letter Word" took a few days, but that's only because I didn't want to finish it too quickly.
But my attention span is variable and seasonal, and yes, I know ADS again. Is this something that is digitally induced or is it just old age? Or a combination of the two?  I have unread books on my shelf that have been there for 20+ years. They keep me company. They tell me that I have much more to discover. Maybe I should wait until I open that one book and it will look like the ones on my shelf and "will be whatever book I desire when I open it".
 

  

"Love Is A Four Letter Word"

Relationships can be transformative in more ways than one. Love, or what we think might be love, can be one of the most ecstatic and treacherous experiences in life. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people blessed by amnesia or indifference. Giving, taking, heartbreaks, heart throbs, hearts mending, hearts rending, heart aches, "losing love is like a window in your heart, everyone sees you're blown apart", stalemates, horse latitudes, ferocity, violence, jealousy, remorse, spite, only the loneliness... The whole miraculous and horrific spectrum is there for those with the strength of heart to experience. I don't know about you but I am looking forward to the July 28th drop of "Love is a Four Letter Word" True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships and Broken Hearts."  

Jonathan Baumbach's "YOU"

Is it you? Is it me? Who are you? Who am I? Where are you? How are you? Where have you been? Are you the same you that I remember? Am I the same you that you remember? Am I the same I that I remember? Am I the same I that you remember? So it goes.

 

Jonathan Baumbach's "You" is a unique exploration of Memory and Love or lack of it. He blurs the lines between author, characters, the book and reader. It's called surfiction in this review. In the process of describing his encounters with an uncertain person (an ex-wife?), he plays with memory and its elusive nature. In re-membering, he shows how we try to put things back together. Though the pieces don't always fit quite rightly. This makes for uneasy places in one's memory log. As the psychoanalysts like to say, memory and fantasy have always interpenetrated each other. This book is a quirky imaginative view of human relationships and memory. How we remember is just as important what we remember. With humor and casual intimacy, the author invites us to be part of the whole dance. It's well worth the invitation for the surprises that await the reader. Highly recommended. 

The Garden of Eden

"Perhaps everyone has a garden of Eden. I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it.  Either, or, it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between the madmen who remember and the madmen who forget. Heroes are rare."

James Baldwin "Giovanni's Room"

"Sound Unbound"

I have only read a few of the 36 pieces about media in all forms in this enlightening take on the remix and sampling. Assembled by DJ Spooky, the contributors take vastly different angles on pop media culture as recombinant mixes of what nature and man have created out of chaos. I'll try to post about some of the pieces in the book. I recommend it to those interested in music, sampling, plagiarism, remixing culture, media etc. 

 "Sound Unbound"

Maud Newton's Long Awaited First Novel

Maud Newton has published the first, as far as I know and what do I really know, excerpt from her first novel. If you have read her blog or any of her short pieces this is very welcome news. This is good writing and hilarious to boot! She's been working on it for what seems like decades. For her, it probably seems like aeons. I would keep on eye out for it. It will do your soul good.

Post Mortem, David Foster Wallace

When a musician or author dies I usually read their obit. Unfortunately due to an early untimely death and fortunately due to a later timely death, I try to seek out the artist's works and thereby come to appreciate some of the artist's work. I had never read a word of David Foster Wallace until he committed suicide. I read his commencement speech at Kenyon University 2005 right after he died. A very worthwhile read.

Re-membering David Foster Wallace

Via Kottke

At Times A Romantic Voyeur

"But I love traveling in India," Mr. Theroux continues, "because Indians are approachable. If I were traveling in the U.S. and asked people some of the questions I ask in India, I'd get a very dusty answer. People would say 'Who are you?' 'You work for the government?' When you're in India, you can ask, 'Where do you live, what do you do, how much do you earn, how many children do you have?' It's the accessible poor. You can do that in Southeast Asia, too. But in America you can't. Try asking those questions in Jackson, Mississippi."