I've been slightly obsessed with him for a couple of weeks or so. I read one of his stories, "The Distance of the Moon," in my writing class, and it was bizarre and wonderful -- a bunch of people in some no-time and no-place, back in the days when the moon was closer to the earth, climb on it and collect moon-milk...it starts at one point and just spins wilder and wilder. It's kind of magical realism-ish, but it's not even "real" enough to be magical realism. It's like a fairy tale. For some reason I was thinking of it the other day, and I was at the bookstore and I bought the book it comes from, Cosmicomics.
Man, it is GREAT. WEIRD, but great. And "The Distance of the Moon" is definitely the LEAST far-out of the stories. Basically some old guy, or "guy" -- his name is Qfxfq -- narrates all these stories about the old days, and they all have to do with space and evolution and the origins of the universe and such. In one, he and everyone he knows are compressed into a single point at the beginning of the universe, and all on top of each other. In another one, they're evolving from sea creatures to land creatures and the narrator is embarrassed to have an old uncle who won't come out of the sea and be modern. In another one, he and some lady and some guy are falling infinitely through space, and he dreams about being able to change the shape of space so he can mack on the lady. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? And in the one I'm reading now (I'm almost done with the book), he's looking through his telescope one day and he sees a sign on a distant galaxy that says "I SAW YOU." Because the galaxy is 100 million light years away or some such, he thinks back to what he did 200 million years ago, which apparently was something embarrassing. Now he's trying to figure out what to put on his own sign to send back that will strike the right note of posturing but not incriminate him. I LOVE THIS BOOK.
So, I was at the Coop today because I decided to buy it again, for my dad. And I was thinking that these are probably the only two copies of this book that have sold in the last ten years or something. And I got to the checkout and the guy was like, "Hey, Italo Calvino, he's great!" And I got all giggly and we bonded over his awesomeness. Apparently there is a SEQUEL (of sorts) to the Cosmicomics stories. So I'll be checking that out. But it just kind of made my day to be able to talk about Italo Calvino to some random Coop guy.
In other book news, P.D. James has a new book out, which I also bought for my dad. She is a like 900-year-old (OK, she's 88) British mystery writer that I adore. Once I saw her speak in Brookline and she was so great -- she's just this proper little British lady with a dry sense of humor. It's morbid, but I keep worrying that each book will be her last, and when she comes out with a new one I'm always relieved. I hope this one isn't her last either. Live forever, P.D.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
It feels like spring today
Which is sad, because it isn't spring, at all; in fact winter's barely begun (and we had an ice storm last week that knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people in the region). But it sure is nice out today -- not just warm, but somehow damp and breezy in a way that makes me FEEL like it's spring. So it's nice to have that, just for something different.
I remember once, after I was laid off from my old job with a magazine publisher -- which happened in January -- I went one day several months later to the Dunkin' Donuts near my old office to get some bagels. It was late fall but it was a day like this, only more so -- quite warm and VERY damp and breezy, almost tropical. I was getting in my car and I had this CRAZY wave of disorientation where I couldn't remember where I was, time-wise. I sort of felt like I was back at my old job, because I was at a place I used to go to all the time when I worked there and hadn't been to since, and the weather was so unseasonal that the usual grounding context of that was gone. I thought for a minute that I had to get back to work. It only lasted a second, but it was quite a weird feeling.
I wouldn't mind if winter only lasted a month. Truly, I wouldn't. Summer, too, at least the really hot part of the summer. Five months of fall, five months of spring. That sounds about right.
I don't really have much to say; I'm just trying to post when I have the impulse. I watched The Boys of Baraka this weekend and found it frustrating. There's a school in Kenya for at-risk Baltimore middle-school boys, and it's about that. The kids were charming and sweet, but the school is totally run by white Americans and there doesn't seem to be much interaction with the local people, so what is the point of having it in Kenya? It seemed like a pretty good program, but the point seemed to be to get them out into wilderness, not into Africa necessarily. They saw giraffes, etc., but if there was ANY interaction at all with Kenyans, the movie didn't show it. Also, the school was closed (due to political upheaval) halfway through the boys' two-year term there, and it was sad and left me feeling down about the whole thing -- not the movie's fault, certainly, but it made me depressed over the situation, and angry at nobody. So much to fix, and so few resources to fix it. But I wanted to say, "You know where there's a lot less political upheaval? Canada. And it's cheaper to get to. And they also have wilderness."
There might be a lot about the school I don't know -- I haven't Googled, and the movie doesn't say a lot about it except in the context of the boys' POV. Just wanted to mention that.
Also, poor Baltimore -- I feel like the only positive Baltimore-y thing out there right now is Ace of Cakes. It looked pretty much like a hellhole in this movie.
Then I watched the extras -- there was an illuminating six-minute rant from Bill Cosby, who seems to agree with me that the Africa bit of the equation isn't strictly necessary as long as you, and I quote, "put a BODY on them" -- that is, keep on them about the stuff they need to do -- and the commentary for the entire thing. I didn't really mean to, but I did. I wasn't quite ready to leave it yet.
Pretty cool, BTW, that this Kenyan name that they had for the school (it means "blessing," if my mainlining of news magazines of late is any indication) is now the name of the President of the United States. What a lovely thing that is, eh?
In unrelated news, it smells like dead mouse in my office. I can't find it anywhere, and I keep hoping I'm imagining it, but I keep smelling it. Eeeugh.
I remember once, after I was laid off from my old job with a magazine publisher -- which happened in January -- I went one day several months later to the Dunkin' Donuts near my old office to get some bagels. It was late fall but it was a day like this, only more so -- quite warm and VERY damp and breezy, almost tropical. I was getting in my car and I had this CRAZY wave of disorientation where I couldn't remember where I was, time-wise. I sort of felt like I was back at my old job, because I was at a place I used to go to all the time when I worked there and hadn't been to since, and the weather was so unseasonal that the usual grounding context of that was gone. I thought for a minute that I had to get back to work. It only lasted a second, but it was quite a weird feeling.
I wouldn't mind if winter only lasted a month. Truly, I wouldn't. Summer, too, at least the really hot part of the summer. Five months of fall, five months of spring. That sounds about right.
I don't really have much to say; I'm just trying to post when I have the impulse. I watched The Boys of Baraka this weekend and found it frustrating. There's a school in Kenya for at-risk Baltimore middle-school boys, and it's about that. The kids were charming and sweet, but the school is totally run by white Americans and there doesn't seem to be much interaction with the local people, so what is the point of having it in Kenya? It seemed like a pretty good program, but the point seemed to be to get them out into wilderness, not into Africa necessarily. They saw giraffes, etc., but if there was ANY interaction at all with Kenyans, the movie didn't show it. Also, the school was closed (due to political upheaval) halfway through the boys' two-year term there, and it was sad and left me feeling down about the whole thing -- not the movie's fault, certainly, but it made me depressed over the situation, and angry at nobody. So much to fix, and so few resources to fix it. But I wanted to say, "You know where there's a lot less political upheaval? Canada. And it's cheaper to get to. And they also have wilderness."
There might be a lot about the school I don't know -- I haven't Googled, and the movie doesn't say a lot about it except in the context of the boys' POV. Just wanted to mention that.
Also, poor Baltimore -- I feel like the only positive Baltimore-y thing out there right now is Ace of Cakes. It looked pretty much like a hellhole in this movie.
Then I watched the extras -- there was an illuminating six-minute rant from Bill Cosby, who seems to agree with me that the Africa bit of the equation isn't strictly necessary as long as you, and I quote, "put a BODY on them" -- that is, keep on them about the stuff they need to do -- and the commentary for the entire thing. I didn't really mean to, but I did. I wasn't quite ready to leave it yet.
Pretty cool, BTW, that this Kenyan name that they had for the school (it means "blessing," if my mainlining of news magazines of late is any indication) is now the name of the President of the United States. What a lovely thing that is, eh?
In unrelated news, it smells like dead mouse in my office. I can't find it anywhere, and I keep hoping I'm imagining it, but I keep smelling it. Eeeugh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)