Archive for January 2009
Reading is Rape (GRE)
Apparently, Toni Morrison, in The Bluest Eyeconsidered rape akin to reading. Interesting interpretation. And, yet, I understand where she is coming from (aside from the fact that I am white and middle class). I understand where she is coming from in that reading is a struggle lately. I think this is because I feel like everything I read has to be GRE related. Or, if it isn’t GRE related, then it has to be scholarly. In fact, fluff makes me angry. While I used to enjoy sappy Christian romances, now I find myself having to skim them (I still like the “good” parts–so I skim for those). However, I know that I know need to look for something that is intellectually stimulating. And, yet, this is frustrating because I don’t always want to make my brain work.
What do you read when you are just reading for enoyment? Should you always read with intentionality?
8 comments January 18, 2009
You’re a Genius all the Time (GRE)
Scribbled secret notebooks and wild typewritten pages for your own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening.
Try never to get drunk outside your own house.
Be in love with your life.
Be crazy dumb saint of the mind.
Blow as deep as you want to blow.
Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind.
The unspenspeakable visions of the individual.
In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you.
You’re a genius all the time.
(Kerouac)
Add comment January 15, 2009
Fluffy Butterflies (GRE)
I enjoy Lolita(Nabokov), but I am very disturbed by his love for butterflies. Mostly, because butterflies are fluffy and I don’t like fluffy things. In fact, I am terrified of dryer lint and cotton candy. Back in the day, this extended to fog, as well. But I have come to realize that even though fog is technically a cloud on the ground, you really can’t feel it’s fluffiness, like one might expect from a cloud.
Lepidoptera: The Art of Mounting Butterflies.
Again: Eww.
Add comment January 13, 2009
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) (GRE)
I have read WCW’s poetry before, but I rediscovered it in the process of good ‘ol GRE studying. Yay for the GRE. For William. For Bill? For Will? For Carl? Hmm…
This is Just to Say
I have eaten
The plums
That were in
The icebox
And which
You were probably
Saving
For breakfast
Forgive me
They were delicious
So sweet
And so cold
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
Add comment January 8, 2009
Chocolate vs. Bullets (GRE)
In George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man,” I recently met my new favorite character:
Bluntschli: Bluntschli is a Swiss professional soldier fighting for the Serbs (against Bulgaria). He believes that it is better to be armed with chocolates than with ammunition on the battlefield.
I wholeheartedly concur!
Add comment January 5, 2009
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