Mysterious and strange. Just what we like.
Very aware this is a single spoke in a very large wheel.
You wonder if he even knew where he was going after he wrote that first sentence.
READING RECORD
Slaughterhouse Five
“There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”
Reading in Late Summer.
I have several books on the go at once. I like print best, but these days it’s good to have a Kindle book on the phone for emergencies and an audiobook in the car. I read a lot of comics as well, it should be noted, though I can never get enough of them.
Recently finished:
Boxers/Saints by Gene Luen Yang (x) – I have mentioned this here before. Wonderful, beautiful, simple, complex. A very personal, magical realist take on the horrific events that unfolded in China at the turn of the century. It’s in two volumes so he could present a story from either side. The cross over like Moon Knight and Hulk. It made me want to read the Bibliography. Yes, basically.
The Mighty Avengers, Vol.5: Earth’s Mightiest (x) – I’ve been getting these superhero collections out for my son and pre-reading them to see if I approve. This was a bit complex for him, and not because the plot was difficult, but they’re using this form where each image is like an oil painting, but with huge amounts of text per panel. I would say it took me about twice as long to read a page of this as it would to read a page of prose. But, you know, I’m probably not in the target demographic. Also, someone needs to go back to Drawing Ladies school, sorry. Jeez.
Essential Avengers, Vol. 9 (x) – Again, proof reading this for the younglings. This is the era of stuff I probably read when I was their age. They both found it difficult to read. The removal of the colour destroys a lot of the composition, and flow, if these had been draw in black and white they would’ve used more black. Also the attitudes and culture in them is far too antiquated for a 10 year old. Why is everything like this? Makes you realise the world is making progress. But again interesting from my perspective, this contains the origin story of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and the Vision just cracks me up. They really need to think about that colour thing when they reprint though. This stuff is meant to be for kids. HELP THEM.
The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (x) – Interesting from a technical point of view of layout and story structure, execution of plot in short form etc. But, yes, content bleaker than bleak. the violence, hatred and misogyny drips off the page and kinds of nullifies any benefit mentioned earlier. Wasn’t prepared to recommend it to anyone I know. In the preface Tatsumi asks not to judge him on these early works alone. Almost interested enough to see what else he did, maybe.
My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse (x) – Ashamed to say this is my first Wodehouse. It’s taken me a while to get past the poshness. But worth it. Very pleasant. Although I felt slightly mugged by the stories about some other dude who also happens to have a butler.
Currently reading: Slaughterhouse Five (x), Written on the Body (x), The Brothers Karamazov (x), A Game of Thrones (x).
New York seemed much farther off than Samarkand
“A flame darted from the logs and she bent over the fire, stretching her thin hands so close to it that a faint halo shone about the oval nails. The light touched to russet the rings of dark hair escaping from her braids, and made her pale face paler.”
Every life is in many days, day after day.
“We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”
— Ulysses
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
Week Off Ramblings
I just ended a week off, coinciding with the half term break. I assembled a basketball hoop, learnt some more Max and generally took it easy.
I took a lot of pictures and made a few image sequences which I posted on G+, they only work on there so I can’t embed.
(One day there’ll be Vine for Android then I can take over the world.)
I have also made some progress on the very slow burning stereoscopic project I’ve been working on for too long.
Rise of the Continents hits BBC2 next weekend, so I might have to put something on here about that.
I just started Remains of the Day, the phrase “mistaking the superficialities for the essence” really stuck with me.
“I’m not asking anybody,” said Eeyore. “I’m just telling everybody. We can look for the North Pole, or we can play ‘Here we go gathering Nuts in May’ with the end part of an ants’ nest. It’s all the same to me.”
‘one of the few English books written for grown-up people’
“That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.”
Paul Greer 