I am Thankful for Books

Several years ago I made a list of 15 books, which have shaped the way I see myself and the world (as if those are two separate entities).  I think I would add Ann Carson’s “Eros the Bittersweet”, and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire to the list today. Here is the list I made then, no specific order or rank:

The I Ching

Canterbury Tales: Chaucer

The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco

Howl: Allen Ginsburg

The Book of Nightmares: Galway Kinnell

Tao de Ching: Lao Tzu

Persona: Pound

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: Annie Dillard

The Non-Conformist Memorial: Susan Howe

Trilogy: H.D.

Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Poems for the Millenium, Vol 1&2, ed. by J. Rothenberg

After Ikkyu: Jim Harrison

Philisophical Investigations: L. Wittgenstein

Stand on Zanzibar:  John Brunner

Best Commentary on Anathem: Within Without You: The Beatles

We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.

Yet another book list.

A list of 50 books, Many of which Look Amazing

Plate 'o Triangles

Still slogging through Stephenson's tome. Some times I feel as if I have been sentenced like Erasmus to copy the book, and eventually I will go mad, or perhaps gather wisdom like Jad. I am 400 pages into Anathem. The story proper began around page 200. Lots of set up, I hope it pays off. There is a lot of Plato, specifically the Timaeus, at least what I can remember from my Philosophy of the Middle Ages class I took as an undergrad. the Ideal world, the world we sense, the world contained by God. I remember drawing diagrams of triangles within triangles for the mid-term in that class. I suppose I could go look it up, but I know I'm not going to do that, instead I'll just rely on my  idea of the ideal of the book (Timaeus) that I can glean from the "speculative" fiction of Anathem. But as the characters in Anathem have said, there are no new ideas. But then there wouldn't be in an infinite number of universes; all ideas would exist if all possible permutations of "worlds" existed. I think the Amber Chronicles played with this idea in a more succinct manner.  I guess I aut to be going now.

I think I might pick one of these next. If I think of it again.

20 Best books in translation you've never read.

Bitchin'

Considering I have only read around 25 pages, these comments should be taken with massive qualifiers.

I wonder at the “speculative” fiction claim. Isn’t all fiction speculative? Is there some kind of pejorative connotations associated with sci-fi or fantasy (both of which I see this text being), which the author does not want to be associated with?  

I also question books when they come with a condescending introductory explanation for those readers who are not accustomed/willing/capable of “puzzling out works on your own.”  Does the writer, from the start, assume his readers are ignorant and lazy?  Or perhaps he is so enmeshed in his speculative world that he thinks “Earth readers” (? who else?) cannot fathom the arcane language of Orth? Is there a purpose behind the other world’s language taking such a prominent position in the telling of the story? I hope so, since so much space in the text is devoted to using the discourse of this world. Perhaps he is intentionally using the screen of language to hide behind to instill in the reader a sense of ignorance, or levels of knowing, or inability to see or know as well as others, which seems to be one of the themes emerging from the first few pages what with all the places to hide and move and screens through which they are all looking and seeing each other. 

I know I am impatient and arrogant, but I am not sure I am willing to move through the mechanics of this book in order to see the movements of the clockwork so that I will know “how to read it” (p.20); so I can understand the “spotty recapitulation of our history, reminding us how we’d come to know all that we knew.” (p. 20)

Ok, enough bitching, back to Anathem, perhaps the millennium gate will open and allow me into this text.

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."  Jenny Youngman