snow!

Reading a few things this weekend.

This one is good. This one is really good.

I haven't touched Rushdie since finishing my thesis in '07 and its very much like running into an old friend. His familiar narrative style, running on and on, moving in and out of reality feels like home. Themes of multiplicity, nations, food, smell, and most of all, stories are as strong and rich here as any other of his books.

Like other Rushdie novels, "the Enchantress of Florence" is full of stories. Overflowing with the voices of their stories drive the characters to complete Rushdie's. Remember Scheherazade, lying under the kings bed entertaining him with such good stories he eventually decides not to kill her? Rushdie's characters are driven by that same urge; to tell a story that will change, save or destroy lives.

Within his narrative, I've noticed that Rushdie is in a way, explaining his own compulsion towards story telling. Its not necessarily a conscious choice to write; instead it is like what Flannery O'Connor said: "To write is better than not writing".

I try to stay away from autobiographical readings of books, but that one point seems to be pretty clear. 

I haven't finished it yet, but here's a quote from the beginning. I read it ten times over before moving on:

"He could dream in seven languages: Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Russian, English, and Portuguese. He had picked up languages the way most sailors picked up diseases: languages were his gonorrhea, his syphilis, his scurvy, his ague, his plague. As soon as he fell asleep half the world started babbling in his brain, telling wondrous travelers' tales. In this half-discovered world every day brought news of fresh enchantments. The visionary, revelatory dream-poetry of the quotidian had not yet been crushed by blinkered prosy fact. Himself a teller of tales, he had been driven out of his door by stories of wonder, and by one in particular, a story which could make his fortune or else cost him his life".

Note how Rushdie makes language analogous to diseases; the gift of storytelling is hardly some fluffy happy gift which makes every one feel warm inside. It is, for this character at least, imposed upon him; he can't do anything about it. His blessing is his curse. He HAS to tell it. For better or worse.

For a lighter note, I'm on this:

This is about as much as can be expected.
I'm a sucker for conspiracy theories.

Miss Rumphius: My own hero

Since my last post, I've had a birthday, in which my mother gave me this for a b-day gift:

Consequently, this is also one of the few children's books that made it to my list. One of our favorites growing up, "Miss Rumphius" has stood the test of time and like all good books, the message remains pertinent. This is quite possibly one of my personal favorites; I get choked up to this day reading it.

Written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, "Miss Rumphius" is a simple tale about growing up, travel, and doing something to "make the world more beautiful". And, like many simple things, it captures the sublime.
In it, we meet Alice, a young girl who likes to help her grandfather paint. She listens to his stories and plans her own adventures when she is grown. Once she is grown, she realizes that she hasn't had her adventures and begins to fix that.

Of all the reasons I love this book (and believe me, I ADORE it!), I'll just talk about these three elements


A) The Art: Barbara Cooney has really caught onto a delicate style that reminds me of those old nature drawings. The colors are rich, each picture tells a bit of Alice's story in itself (see the paintings of her grandfather's travels) and best of all, Miss Cooney managed to capture the east coast and its nature.

B) The themes of childhood vs adulthood and travel: Miss Rumphius listens to stories of far away lands and plans to travel there when she is older. Eventually she does and after a time returns home. While simple, Miss Rumphius's story is heart aching to return to as an adult in the same delicious way it was exciting as a child. My change in perspective when I read this book is enhanced by the fact that the book itself is about change. Its about dreams and the fruition of those dreams. The unknown and the celebration of home. Every child dreams of travel and adventure.

C) Actively making your world more beautiful. Grace Lee Boggs speaks of the garden teaching us a respect for the Earth. Working with the land teaches us care and responsibility over the land and ourselves. Working the earth and watching your flowers and vegetables grow is better than any anti depressant. also, gardening makes things pretty! Which makes people happy! Which is what its all about folks! Contributing to beauty, actively taking part in that cycle is a brave brave road and the rewards are many.

SO, on looking back, I am aware that this is all so cheesy. But hey, I'm a super cheese ball. And I think this is important. If you're looking for a book to read to your kids this evening, I promise this one will become a family classic.

A life in books

Hello, cyber world. Does anyone ever read this blog anymore? If you're like me, you quit ages ago. So, I launch this post into the quiet chaos of the internets and wish it the best.

SO, today I took a survey of my library. I think I have earned the right to call my book collection a library. We're into the hundreds, if not the low thousands of books folks. Thats a library.

My mission tonight was to take out the books that have impacted my life for better or worse over my life and look at the scope of it all. Completely honest in every respect. So diverse I felt obligated to make it real by posting it here.

No explanations or excuses. That provides me with fodder for further posts discussing these books and possibly a place for you to share your thoughts.

There is no order, chronological, genre or otherwise. Take them as they come.

1. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
2. "She Came to Stay" Simone De Beauvoir
3. The Bible
4. The Essential Kabbalah
5. Hafiz
6. "Setting a Trap for God" Rocco A. Errico
7. New Seeds of Contemplation ~ Thomas Merton
8. Mere Christianity ~ C.S. Lewis
9. Forty Stories ~ Donald Barthleme
10. Jitterbug Perfume ~ Tom Robbins
11. Foe ~ J.M. Coetzee
12. Devil on the Cross ~ Ngugi
13. Midnight's Children ~ Salman Rushdie
14. Oranges are not the Only Fruit ~ Jeanette Winterson
15. Absalom, Absalom ~ Faulkner
16. Facing the Wall ~ Don Potter
17. Jesus Interrupted ~Bart Ehrman
18. Foxfire numbers 2 and 7
19. Behavioural Concerns and Autistic Spectrum Disorders ~ John Clements and Ewa Zarkowska
20. Stand Still Like the Hummingbird ~ Henry Miller
21. The Diary of Anais Nin volume 1931-1934
22.The Collected Poems of Yeats
23. The Complete Short Stories ~ Flannery O'Conner
24. Poems ~ Tennyson
25. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
26. Paradise Lost ~ Milton
27. The Lupine Lady
28. In the Penal Colony ~ Kafka

Other Honorable mentions include Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions", "Wuthering Heights" (yes, I am a secret fanatic for 18th c. British lit). , Anne of Green Gables. Possibly more, but I've had a whiskey drink so that is all my memory will allow for the moment.

If anyone is out there, what are your all time favorites? Any reccomendations? I'm fresh out of new reading material this week.

Cheers and Good Luck

more Asheville publicity

This time about biofuels:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/06/26/vegetable.oil.vehicle/#cnnSTCVideo

Really Fox news, really.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I've never quite understood that. There's nothing like knowing the actual person.

I created a nook for myself the other day. Where I am, where I am at in my life it seems that nooks need not only be created, but they also need to be defended. There's been a tenacity of late that is new. One would think that having grown up with three siblings and a set of angry parents, I would learn to be tenacious and defend my space. I have learned since then that The world outside the "normal" life of family teaches you an even deeper (and sometimes angrier) tenacity. One that drives you to escape to a space that is yours and only yours. One that you defend without shame.

This nook isn't very impressive. its just a desk next to a window. It smells like dust in here and old cigarettes smoked a year ago (the ones that landis and i smoked on sunday afternoons lying in bed refusing to get up). Just outside of the window is a wall. Brick. But sometimes, all you really need is a desk next to a window. What is outside the window doesn't really matter; just that there is light.

I just finished reading this book:

Cecil Bothwell is the local Mountain Xpress writer just voted best journalist. He was also fired shortly after the Xpress ran a cover story about this book. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it, especially if you're interested in what going on politically underground in Asheville.
In some ways, The Prince of War isn't an entirely surprising book. It will offend some Christians and perhaps grossly misrepresent many individuals of faith. for others it will simply confirm their suspicions. As someone who was raised in the heart of Billy Graham's "territory", I found myself somewhat on the fence with this one. Bothwell doesn't hold back and makes no pretense to support anything that Graham has ever done. So, if you're looking for an unbiased biography on one of the most influential religious leaders in America, you might want to check out a different book. The first page for instance, leading into the introduction has this quote by Thomas Jefferson: " Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man"
Don't expect Bothwell to have much more sunshine than that. While I don't necessarily agree with his methodology on this one, you do have to hand it to the guy for stepping out in the middle of one of the most entrenched regions in the country and to publish something as scathing as this book is. And while we could sit around and argue his journalistic style (lack of an objective voice etc) I would venture to say that 75% of the book are direct quotes from Billy Graham spanning the past 50 years, many of which are taken verbatim from the Nixon tapes, speeches, phone conversations, etc. Bothwell also observes Graham's negotiation of the civil rights movement; strategic if not downright neglectful at times. Hosting numerous events and crusades for instance where there were either no black admittance or segretated seating are just two examples.
Whatever I can argue about Bothwell's obvious dislike of the man and the faith, I would highly recommend this book. The direct quotes, citations, official reports are all just a few of the ways Bothwell makes the case that Billy Graham has been entrenched in the White House, helping win elections and suppressing numerous grassroots movements from washington for the past 40 years. Its a side of Billy Graham that we don't often see and quite a few people i think don't want us to see.
I picked my copy up at Malaprops bookstore downtown, but i'm sure other local places and online stores have it available by now.