Random
The Laminated Cat (Rule of Threes #2)
Urban Perspective with Self-Portrait, Federico Garcia Lorca from graphicwitness.org
1. …and I just spilled coffee all over García Lorca’s “Dance of Death” from Poet in New York. Just listen to these lines (read them aloud, I mean):
They are gone, the pepper trees,
the tiny buds of phosphorous.
They are gone, the camels with torn flesh,
and the valleys of light the swan lifted in its beak.It was the time of parched things,
the wheat spear in the eye, the laminated cat,
the time of tremendous, rusting bridges
and the deathly silence of cork.
Now imagine those lines swimming in Starbucks Christmas blend. What is a laminated cat? WHAT IS A LAMINATED CAT? (Other than the band or the song.) I don’t care–I’m a believer in Keats’ negative capability argument:
when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.
Which could be a handy way of getting out of analysis, but I don’t think so.
If you buy any book with that holiday gift card from Aunt Mitzy, go out and get García Lorca’s Selected Verse, Revised Bilingual Edition, edited by Christopher Maurer. With cover art by the poet. I don’t actually understand very much Spanish, but I think it’s important to read the Spanish aloud anyway to get the rhythm and lilt into my bones.
2. On a more ridiculous note, I reread The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett this weekend. Yes, that’s The Secret Garden, the book many of you (girls?) read when you were nine or ten. I was at my parents’ house and forgot to bring a book. Dickon was one of my first literary crushes. He went around with a pet raven on his shoulder (those of you who know me will recall my only tattoo).
Remember the books that made you fall in love with reading? And the characters you first fell in love with? What were they? Sometimes I think we all get so caught up in what’s going on now, what’s cool now, that we forget the importance of our formative literary experiences…
3. Interesting article about female sexuality as portrayed in the media (New York Times).
Tags: Federico Garcia Lorca, female sexuality in the media, laminated cat, Lorca's selected verse, the secret garden
Night by Elie Wiesel and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski when I was a sophomore in high school started it. After that, it’s been like punctuated equilibrium. Lolita in college and Ulysses right after. Then Pynchon. Then DFW. The internets. What next?
Night by Elie Wiesel and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski when I was a sophomore in high school started it. After that, it’s been like punctuated equilibrium. Lolita in college and Ulysses right after. Then Pynchon. Then DFW. The internets. What next?
I had a crush on Dickon! But my first book crush was on the tin solider from Hans Christian Andersen’s story. I was like, forget that ballerina bitch! I’m all over here on the other side of this book and I will love you forever. I was probably about five.
I can’t remember not reading ever, honestly. But I think the thing that set me up as a reader for life was reading this kids’ version of Arabian Nights, this dusty old book from the fifties that my dad read as a kid. It was like, oh my god, there is this whole other world out there and it’s scary and dangerous and magical and adventurous and i MUST READ MORE. But there are so many others, too: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, Amelia Bedelia, Dr. Doolittle, Diana Wynne Jones’s books, The Narnia Chronicles, Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series…on and on and on.
I had a crush on Dickon! But my first book crush was on the tin solider from Hans Christian Andersen’s story. I was like, forget that ballerina bitch! I’m all over here on the other side of this book and I will love you forever. I was probably about five.
I can’t remember not reading ever, honestly. But I think the thing that set me up as a reader for life was reading this kids’ version of Arabian Nights, this dusty old book from the fifties that my dad read as a kid. It was like, oh my god, there is this whole other world out there and it’s scary and dangerous and magical and adventurous and i MUST READ MORE. But there are so many others, too: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, Amelia Bedelia, Dr. Doolittle, Diana Wynne Jones’s books, The Narnia Chronicles, Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series…on and on and on.
how was the return to the secret garden?
we started to read the westing game in the van this summer, but only got partway through, i really want to finish now
how was the return to the secret garden?
we started to read the westing game in the van this summer, but only got partway through, i really want to finish now
The return to the Secret Garden 1. made me wish I had a secret garden AND a raven. 2. was comforting, both in its voice and sweetness. Sometimes it’s nice to be a cheese ball!
I never did read The Westing Game…
Yay to the books of childhood!
The return to the Secret Garden 1. made me wish I had a secret garden AND a raven. 2. was comforting, both in its voice and sweetness. Sometimes it’s nice to be a cheese ball!
I never did read The Westing Game…
Yay to the books of childhood!
my friend ben kopel has a blog/press called laminated cats: http://laminatedcats.tumblr.com/
my friend ben kopel has a blog/press called laminated cats: http://laminatedcats.tumblr.com/
My grandparents had truly lame “toys” when I visited. Like a brown shoe, a broken trumpet, a large rock–all placed in this bottom drawer for me to “play” with.
BUT
They had Tom Swift! Ten or so. I read them all and I thank them.
My grandparents had truly lame “toys” when I visited. Like a brown shoe, a broken trumpet, a large rock–all placed in this bottom drawer for me to “play” with.
BUT
They had Tom Swift! Ten or so. I read them all and I thank them.
Amber, I’m really happy you had a crush on Dickon too. People look at me like I’m seriously off when I say that. Now I can be seriously off with another human being :)
Amber, I’m really happy you had a crush on Dickon too. People look at me like I’m seriously off when I say that. Now I can be seriously off with another human being :)
I bet the rock provided all manner of entertainment. I played with pots and pans at my grandparents’ house.
I bet the rock provided all manner of entertainment. I played with pots and pans at my grandparents’ house.
I’m so with yall on Dickon. Also Tristan from All Creatures Great and Small, and to a leser extent Laurie from Little Women
yikes, read lesser, keyboard’s sticky :(
I’m so with yall on Dickon. Also Tristan from All Creatures Great and Small, and to a leser extent Laurie from Little Women
yikes, read lesser, keyboard’s sticky :(
there was some guy from anne of green gables, or one of those anne books, who I really liked, too.
there was some guy from anne of green gables, or one of those anne books, who I really liked, too.
The Westing Game is awesome, Blake. But even better by Ellen Raskin is Figgs and Phantoms, and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel). I still read Figgs and Phantoms every couple of years and bawl my face off. (And I’m not the crying type.)
The Westing Game is awesome, Blake. But even better by Ellen Raskin is Figgs and Phantoms, and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel). I still read Figgs and Phantoms every couple of years and bawl my face off. (And I’m not the crying type.)
Oh, yes, Laurie, too. Most definitely. :)
Oh, yes, Laurie, too. Most definitely. :)