Filed under: Uncategorized
I think it is time to start thinking out loud again. I am not good at this, so I intend to stick to one theme or general idea. What that idea is I really don’t know yet. The candidates are books, films, and current events. Photos is a dark horse pick.
Filed under: Literature | Tags: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Because I was so taken with A Moveable Feast when I was in Paris and Hemingway goes on and on about the book when talking about Fitzgerald and then talking about his life with my professors The Great Gatsby was the first book that came to mind when I though it was time for me to start reading good books again. I do not think now that there is a better book that I could have read. From the very first page I found it intoxicating and having read over the introduction again it is even more beautiful in light of the story it precedes, which I suppose is the was with this sort of thing:
When I came back from the east last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes thousands of miles away… No-Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
Approaching this story with that mindset, I feel the weight of Gatsby’s struggle and I wish with all my heart that I could stand with him and help him, but really, what would there be to do? I could not tell a man like Gatsby to stop reaching for him dream however hazardous it was, for the result of that would be just as tragic as watching him fail to attain his goal. I am left feeling just as I am meant to feel, empty and deprived of good will towards all those men who are so false as the people who destroyed Mr. Gatsby. In spite of everything then I defend him and it is clear that there is no clear answer most of the time. Most of the time people will be like the people of this story and although they confide too much, they tell you nothing at all. Tom may tell Nick intimate truths about his affairs, but there is no honesty in him. But then Gatsby is just the opposite; telling no truth about who he is, but he is all the time real and honest. What I would not give for this type of honesty and confidence from some of my closest friends!
The next book I am reading is A Farwell to Arms, and after that I am open to all suggestions.
Filed under: Literature | Tags: A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, The Old Man and the Sea
He wanted me to read the new book, The Great Gatsby, as soon as he could get his last and only copy back from someone he had loaned it to. To hear him talk of it, you would never know how very good it was, except that he had the shyness about it that all non-conceited writers have when they have done something very fine, and I hoped he would get the book quickly so that I might read it.
I was enthusiastic about the trip. I would have the company of an older and successful writer, and in the time we would have to talk in the car I would certainly learn much that it would be useful to know. It is strange now to remember thinking of Scott as an older writer, but at the time, since I had not yet read The Great Gatsby, I thought of him as a much older writer.
From the “Scott Fitzgerald” chapter of A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
I have decided to fill this “fresh time,” as I am calling it, with those books that have for almost a year now, been calling my name and begging for my attention. Ever since I returned from Paris there has been this urge for 20th Century American literature flowing coolly through my veins, that was until recently, stifled my much more aggressive and unhealthy urgings. But now that all that is finished I have come to these books like a puppy to it’s chew toys. I just finished reading both The Old Man and the Sea, and The Great Gatsby. The latter I read in the greater Cincinnati airport during a rather nasty layover I had coming back to school, and the former I bought and finished this evening. I am rightly ashamed of myself for never having taken the time to read these books before and I am pledging to make it up to them by reading other books in the very near future.
I would like to go right on talking about them both but I am so taken over with The Old Man and the Sea right now that I feel I should really take some time to collect my thoughts about it before trying to write them down. So I will have a go at talking about The Great Gatsby for the present.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tonight I asked my friend this question:
Would you rather be omniscient or not be omniscient?
His response was, “I don’t know.”
Which is a really good answer to the question from a philosophical perspective I guess, but I really do not know anything about philosophy so I am not one to make that call. What I will say is that God’s job is really hard. I often marvel at how amazing everything that He has done is, but if I try and imagine taking on even one of His many qualities I am blown away by the absurdity of the magnitude of implied responsibilities given with even one attribute.
So, I guess, no I would pass on omniscients, but I might go for something with a little less responsibility, for example, turning water into wine, but here again there is a problem because as we all know we must drink responsibly, so the whole idea of it would be lost when added to the fact that I really don’t drink anyway so I would only ever make wine for others and then I would need to be omniscient to know when little Johnny and Lucy had one too many.
The bottom line is, there are MANY good reasons that I am not God, or even a god, or any type of deity at all. I really enjoy letting God handle everything and if I could just remember that more often I think I would lead a more restful life. And seeing as it is now one thirty at night and I have to drive people to church in the morning, I think I will get started on the restfulness right now.
Filed under: Uncategorized
So I was listening to the radio as I picked up a truckload of trash the other day and this story was on the news, so it must be true:
So this guy is driving along in his SUV. Eating his large order of onion rings from wherever and he starts to choke on the onion rings. So he is choking and gagging, he’s asphyxiated, passes out. So because he is still driving, the car goes out of control, off the road into a ditch and crashes into a tree. The airbags deploy, he’s hunched over so they hit him really hard, knocks the onion ring free and saves his life.
I really don’t have much to add to this story, but my day was great after hearing it and I got to tell it to everyone else. I don’t know how this guy must feel right now, maybe he is mad about the SUV, or he’s sworn off onion rings, or he’s suing someone, or just thankful to be alive. But if he has not already, at some point he will understand the impact that this story will have on his dinner party persona. I mean he can tell that story forever and it will never get old. I am not quite sure if I want something like this to happen to me, but I am thinking about having onion rings sometime soon.
Filed under: Uncategorized
After literal years of quite, perhaps it is time to talk again and for the sake of continuity it will be titled the same as always, even in this new “local” I have nothing to say at the moment but I am sure it will come…
The Quiet Pool 