A friend of mine has been nagging at me for helllaaaa days about blogging. Quite frankly, I haven't really had the time or energy to do so recently because of my internship. I don't like feeling so drained sometimes! (But it's drained in a good way, I suppose, since I really love what I'm doing.) The result of my being so busy is that I've had little time to read, think, and write as much as I would normally like.
I've been waayyyy ambitious with starting books and not finishing them all within the time frame I want. In fact, right now I have literally a pile of books that I've begun reading but have not finished:
-Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
-Folktales from India
-The Arabian Nights
-The Histories by Herodotus (which I am trying to reread for like 3rd time . . . I get so lost in all the names! and Herodotus, the so-called Father of History is not great with providing an understandable sense of time and place . . )
I'm going through such an ancient myth faze right now.
I have, however, finished reading Helen of Troy by Bettany Hughes. This book is basically an exploration of Bronze Age Mycenaean culture to explain the truthmyth of Helen of Troy/Sparta. I love ancient Greek myths and culture, so that was pretty much my motivation for picking up this book. And it was on sale.
It's a fairly good read, since Hughes definitely writes in a way that I like. There is no doubt that she sounds very academic, but she surprises me, the reader, every once in a while with extremely blunt profanity. She tosses in "shit" and "fuck" into her sentences as if they are nothing, but they certainly have the sort of violent impact that other words cannot provide. It actually reminds me a bit of the way I write, because I tend to throw swear words into my writing because sometimes it just takes some loaded word to convey a more forceful, impassioned meaning. More affirmation for me, I suppose, that academic writing can be even a bit transgressive.
Hopefully as my internship winds down, I'll be able to finish these books that I've started so that I can start new ones and write and think some more.
Like I wrote, I'm definitely going through an ancient myth faze right now. I'm exploring old cultures and old icons of beauty, rage, delight, regeneration, and whatnot hopefully so that I can create a new, complicated goddess like Bhanu Kapil asked me to. What a challenge . . . I hope I'm up for it.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
RIP Randy
Randy Pausch passed away yesterday. He's taken advantage of his death as much as he has his life. Seriously, read or watch his last lecture.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Tea and Literacy
There aren't enough hours in a day. Tired as I am from work during the week, I never fail read and write just a little before I go to bed to unwind after a long day of expending too much energy. As a result of the fatigue from teaching and talking and training for a half-marathon, it took me some 4 nights to finish Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, which Ellen Revelle had recommended at her tea with Revelle Seniors and anyone-else-who-was-lucky-enough-to-sign-up-but-wasn't-a-senior. Well, I loved the book, and I think I'll send Mrs. Revelle a thank-you card for the recommendation.
The book is about Mortenson's ambitious objective to bring peace to Pakistan and Afghanistan through education. The man failed to reach the summit of K2 and wandered into a poor, remote village of Korphe in Pakistan where he was welcomed by the community, despite his being an "infidel". To repay their kindness, Mortenson promised to build Korphe a school. This he did, but didn't stop there. One school in Korphe turned into fifty-five schools all over some of the most remote places in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even though the Taliban and post-9/11-anti-Muslim sentiment in America made it ever-harder for Mortenson to find support for his cause.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about education and literacy. Here in many parts of America, we take these things for granted, particularly literacy. The sad thing is that I encounter more and more people who tell me that they hate reading or that they'd rather get their information from TV or the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I love the Internet too (blogging, yay!) - the tv not as much. I always feel so sad whenever people tell me that they hate reading or they hate books, because it makes me wonder how often they think about what a huge privilege literacy is. People in poverty-stricken areas in the US and even outside in places like Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc don't have the kind of access to language and ideas that literate people are entitled to. I find it more than a little bit ridiculous that people who have the liberty of words and language don't really value it, while there are millions upon millions of people who DO want and need it.
I really admire and applaud people like Greg Mortenson who understand the value of education and the wonders it can do for people's lives. It opens doors of opportunities and minds to new perspectives. The world becomes bigger and more hostile and more beautiful. Change and progress, in particular, don't seem so impossible or so threatening.
My Humanities professor said at the end of the quarter, "The age of books is ending." I not-so-secretly hope that it never does. I love the comfort I feel with a good book between my hands, whatever it may be. I can only fervently dream that people who say that they hate reading think twice about what they're saying and realize the leverage they have.
The book is about Mortenson's ambitious objective to bring peace to Pakistan and Afghanistan through education. The man failed to reach the summit of K2 and wandered into a poor, remote village of Korphe in Pakistan where he was welcomed by the community, despite his being an "infidel". To repay their kindness, Mortenson promised to build Korphe a school. This he did, but didn't stop there. One school in Korphe turned into fifty-five schools all over some of the most remote places in Pakistan and Afghanistan, even though the Taliban and post-9/11-anti-Muslim sentiment in America made it ever-harder for Mortenson to find support for his cause.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about education and literacy. Here in many parts of America, we take these things for granted, particularly literacy. The sad thing is that I encounter more and more people who tell me that they hate reading or that they'd rather get their information from TV or the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I love the Internet too (blogging, yay!) - the tv not as much. I always feel so sad whenever people tell me that they hate reading or they hate books, because it makes me wonder how often they think about what a huge privilege literacy is. People in poverty-stricken areas in the US and even outside in places like Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc don't have the kind of access to language and ideas that literate people are entitled to. I find it more than a little bit ridiculous that people who have the liberty of words and language don't really value it, while there are millions upon millions of people who DO want and need it.
I really admire and applaud people like Greg Mortenson who understand the value of education and the wonders it can do for people's lives. It opens doors of opportunities and minds to new perspectives. The world becomes bigger and more hostile and more beautiful. Change and progress, in particular, don't seem so impossible or so threatening.
My Humanities professor said at the end of the quarter, "The age of books is ending." I not-so-secretly hope that it never does. I love the comfort I feel with a good book between my hands, whatever it may be. I can only fervently dream that people who say that they hate reading think twice about what they're saying and realize the leverage they have.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Last Lecture
After all the jack Kerouac and W.S. Burroughs, I finally picked up two books that were not nearly so depressing. One was called 'Love and Louis XIV' by Antonia Fraser, and the other 'The Last Lecture' by Randy Pausch.
The first book I chose to read because Antonia Fraser is a brilliant and colourful biographer/historian. I loved her biography on Marie Antoinette, and chose this one on King Louis XIV and his relationships to the many, many women in his life (not all of them his lovers). It helps that I find the history of French aristocracy fascinating. I think I love it so much because the French court was so pleasure-seeking in its grand, opulent yet religiously prudish, and sophisticated way. So much so, that it was apparently the most fashionable and genteel of all the European courts for centuries and centuries. It's also always nice to read about important people that manage to find love like any of us, but with the added glamour of these people being powerful and wealthy and what not.
I'm always chasing beauty, especially in history. I'll concede that beauty does not always guarantee the happy ending, which is just fine with me.
The second book, 'The Last Lecture' is basically the last lecture of Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch. He titled it "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Not what you'd expect from a relatively young man dying from pancreatic cancer. Despite his looming expiration date, his lecture, this book, share nothing but optimism. He gives the reader, his audience, all the advice he has to give on how to live life to the fullest and fulfill all the dreams you had as a kid. It was beautiful and life-affirming. I think even Nietzsche would have approved of Pausch's frank no-nonsense way of dealing with his impending death (no religion is involved, mostly just common sense and a rare quality of truly appreciating what life offers in the way of opportunities).
After reading this book I wondered how I am achieving my dreams. I went back to look at my old scrapbooks and 'About Me' projects for grade school. I had written that I wanted to be an artist and a teacher, and that i wanted to go to college and then more school after that (At the age of 7 I thought that grad school was called "university".) I'm not quite the artist I had in the mind of my 7th grade self . . I don't paint and sculpt and draw glorious things real. But I play them, read and write them (or at least I am working on it). I think I've always wanted to just look for beauty and pass it on - I'm shallow like that.
Ii can claim that I guess I've stuck to a loose interpretation of what I wanted to be by the time I'm an adult. I still want to be a teacher, only of bigger kids. I want the college kids, not the hormone-challenged beasts of grades 5-12 or the still far too young to understand children of k-4. Granted, I still have quite some schooling to go before I teach, and I'm not at Stanford like my grade-school self demanded, but I'm on my way to being a real human being. It also means that I'm still in many ways stubborn as an ass and have a one-track mind, despite my frazzled brain and random bursts of spontaneity.
Mostly I think it whispers in my ear that I think too small, and dream too small. That's my biggest fear.
So I will try to dream big and be more spontaneous and enjoy my life more, because I'm so blessed with so many favorable circumstances.
Go to www.thelastlecture.com for more information on Randy Pausch, Ph.D. He's fulfilling his dreams every day.
The first book I chose to read because Antonia Fraser is a brilliant and colourful biographer/historian. I loved her biography on Marie Antoinette, and chose this one on King Louis XIV and his relationships to the many, many women in his life (not all of them his lovers). It helps that I find the history of French aristocracy fascinating. I think I love it so much because the French court was so pleasure-seeking in its grand, opulent yet religiously prudish, and sophisticated way. So much so, that it was apparently the most fashionable and genteel of all the European courts for centuries and centuries. It's also always nice to read about important people that manage to find love like any of us, but with the added glamour of these people being powerful and wealthy and what not.
I'm always chasing beauty, especially in history. I'll concede that beauty does not always guarantee the happy ending, which is just fine with me.
The second book, 'The Last Lecture' is basically the last lecture of Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch. He titled it "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". Not what you'd expect from a relatively young man dying from pancreatic cancer. Despite his looming expiration date, his lecture, this book, share nothing but optimism. He gives the reader, his audience, all the advice he has to give on how to live life to the fullest and fulfill all the dreams you had as a kid. It was beautiful and life-affirming. I think even Nietzsche would have approved of Pausch's frank no-nonsense way of dealing with his impending death (no religion is involved, mostly just common sense and a rare quality of truly appreciating what life offers in the way of opportunities).
After reading this book I wondered how I am achieving my dreams. I went back to look at my old scrapbooks and 'About Me' projects for grade school. I had written that I wanted to be an artist and a teacher, and that i wanted to go to college and then more school after that (At the age of 7 I thought that grad school was called "university".) I'm not quite the artist I had in the mind of my 7th grade self . . I don't paint and sculpt and draw glorious things real. But I play them, read and write them (or at least I am working on it). I think I've always wanted to just look for beauty and pass it on - I'm shallow like that.
Ii can claim that I guess I've stuck to a loose interpretation of what I wanted to be by the time I'm an adult. I still want to be a teacher, only of bigger kids. I want the college kids, not the hormone-challenged beasts of grades 5-12 or the still far too young to understand children of k-4. Granted, I still have quite some schooling to go before I teach, and I'm not at Stanford like my grade-school self demanded, but I'm on my way to being a real human being. It also means that I'm still in many ways stubborn as an ass and have a one-track mind, despite my frazzled brain and random bursts of spontaneity.
Mostly I think it whispers in my ear that I think too small, and dream too small. That's my biggest fear.
So I will try to dream big and be more spontaneous and enjoy my life more, because I'm so blessed with so many favorable circumstances.
Go to www.thelastlecture.com for more information on Randy Pausch, Ph.D. He's fulfilling his dreams every day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)