Rug Out the Window

I just found out that the website for The Paris Review has their full interviews for free via pdf. Today I read one with Charles Olson; I didn’t know anything about the guy so I figured it’d be a good place to start. Turns out that in addition to being a notable American poet of the 50s and 60s, he’s also crazy. The interview starts with:

Charles Olson: Get a free chair and sit down. Don’t worry about anything. Especially this. We’re living beings and forming a society; we’re creating a total, social future. Don’t worry about it. The kitchen’s reasonably orderly. I crawled out of bed as sick as I was and threw a rug out the window.

Interviewer: Now the first question I wanted to ask you. What fills your day?

Olson: Nothing. But nothing, literally, except my friends.

Interviewer: These are very straight questions.

Olson: Ah, that’s what interviews are made of.


It gets wilder, and often less coherent, in the rest of the interview. Next I’m gonna read ones with Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner – they’re usually straightforward fellas.

History Books

I finished reading a 10th grade French history textbook, kindly given to me by a social studies teacher at the high school in Landivisiau. We had talked about what’s covered in a US public school’s history course versus one in France – specifically the Cold War – and so he let me have a copy of the 10th and 12th graders’ books.

The 10th grade textbook begins with Ancient Greece and ends with the industrial revolution. Aside form a greater focus on Europe and France, especially France’s “inspiring” other countries to become democratic, I didn’t notice any glaring differences. The French textbook didn’t seem to talk much about the Louisiana Purchase, though I guess it wasn’t a good deal for them and they had a lot going on at home and elsewhere. I think the notable differences will come from the 12th grader textbook, from the end of WWII to today.

Green Mansions

Netflix offers instant viewing for the PBS series: e2 design, about sustainable living and green design. The show’s website also streams episodes, but not all of the first season. So far I’ve watched up to episode four (about building a house out of Big Dig scraps) of season one, and gotten pumped up each time. While I’ve had the itch before, this series really makes me wanna get involved with this sort of thing. Not just as a hobby, though, but in a “go back to school and become a professional” kind of way.

Maybe it just seems so attractive because Brad Pitt narrates the episodes, but I don’t think it’s a feasible option for me. Just yesterday I came up with some American Studies graduate work that I could really get into. I plan to go to graduate school and eventually return to teaching, either at the high school or college level. I guess I just need to remember that I can’t do everything, especially not at once. And that getting excited about something doesn’t mean I should consider it as a career option – even if Brad Pitt wants me to.

Trifocals

I’ve come up with three possible focuses for a graduate program in American Studies:

1. Explore the different forms of narrative in American literature – as well as media and vernacular – and the social and psychological implications of using those forms.

2. Study the major philosophies in American culture, and how literature has influenced and represented them.

3. Look at heroes in American culture, specifically through literature, and the implications thereof.

These are pretty general, though I think it’s good to start that way. Plus, I don’t foresee difficulty in narrowing them down. For starters, I’m mostly interested in 20th Century stuff. But now I need to figure out which focus offers the most fertile fields, instead of worn territory, and who can help me till them.

Japes

It’s my friends’ fault that I’m not funny. They make good jokes and get me going on a certain type of humor, but once left to my own devices I drop the ball. I always think I can imitate their style and it always falls flat. At least I can beat most of them at basketball.

Weight On My Shoulders

There’s a free gym in our housing complex, and since I’ve often wondered what consistent weight lifting is like I decided to give it a try. This is my seventh week of training – going three times a week for about 45 minutes each session, when I do two sets of eleven dumbbell exercises. And I don’t like it.

It’s boring. It’s hard in an unsatisfying way. The radio is usually on a crappy 70s station that drains my spirit. But I want some form of exercise, and a free gym will have to do until I can afford to take MMA classes or go rock climbing or do anything else awesome. Working out like this has also given me more respect for athletes who log hours and hours at the gym. Then again, they get a paycheck to play games.

Loops

Gotta keep reminding myself, cause all those lovely realizations bleed out eventually.

Like swinging a golf club: doing it right once doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way.

Or how I periodically must clip my nails.

We’re not Sisyphus or Prometheus, with sharp moments when the liver’s torn or the boulder tumbles.

There’s no culmination, no shoulders of day to day giants; we just sometimes forget to breathe.

"A Forest of Symbols"

There’s a man with hands tied to a whipping post. The other man whips him, sleeves rolled up. “Ideology” labels the whipper, “language” the whip, and “you” the whipped. Underneath the image, Nadia wrote (among other things):

“I think part of this pathological need to systematize everything comes from living in cities, incidentally. Every single thing around us here has been made by human beings, and has specific human meaning attached to it – so when you look around, instead of seeing the actual objects that are around you, you see a forest of symbols.”

I like this. I’m glad it got me thinking about my tendency to systematize and analyze everything, and the implication thereof. But isn’t that the means by which we think, even on the most basic level?

Animal Collective

I have a lot more patience for people than for pets. Maybe it’s cause I believe our higher mental complexity deserves greater slack, but when I think that through it seems backwards. Shouldn’t higher-level thinking beget greater responsibility, accountability? Pets don’t make conscientious decisions, so why would I act as though they have agency or personality? They don’t do anything on purpose. Or they do everything on purpose, because there’s no weighing out decisions abstractly or in the long-term. They seem to deserve more of my patience than people do, yet maybe it’s because they bring out the animalistic response in me - all chasing, yelling, grabbing, pouncing, and throwing.

Man, I gotta get a job.

Bread and Water

Grocery 1 (2 @ 0.99) : 1.98

Kennebunkport Wheat 6floz for 5.99 : 5.99

Salsa Chunky TJ’s : 2.29

Eggs Brown Extra Large Cage Fr : 2.79
TJ’s Honey Nut O’s Cereal : 2.49
B-Tortilla Handmade! Whole Whe : 2.49
Meatless Bkfst Patties : 3.39
Tamales Grn Chile&Cheese : 1.99
TJ’s Spring Salad Mix : 1.99
Organic Rnd Yellow Tort. Chips : 2.59
Beans Refried Black Beans FF V : 1.29
Organic Black Beans : 1.09
Tomatoes Whole No Salt w/Basil : 1.49
TJ’s Feta : 2.99
Spinach & Chive Linguine Pasta : 1.99
Vege Gyoza : 3.49
Fries Sweet Potato : 2.29
Organic Onions : 2.29
Pasta Whole Wheat Rotelle-Orga : 1.29
R-Strawberries Clamshell : 4.79
5 Layer Dip Small/11.5 oz : 3.99
Agave Organic Sweetner : 2.99
Yogurt Greek Style Plain : 2.49
Whipped Cream Cheese : 1.49
Milk Lowfat 1% Half Gal TJ’s : 1.69
TJ’s Organic Half & Half : 1.49
Pasta Spaghetti : 0.99
La Ferme Julien Rouge : 5.99
Villa Cerrina Montepulciano : 4.99
Eggplant Zucchini Marinated IT : 3.99
Organic Avocados : 4.39
A-Lemons Organic 1# : 2.49
Sliced Multigrain Sourdough : 2.79
Grocery 1 (5 @ 0.29) : 1.45
The Works Bagels : 2.29
TJ Xtra Shrp Wisconsin Cheddar : 3.37

Subtotal : $97.87
State Tax 1 : $2.02
State Tax 2 : $0.85
TOTAL : $100.74
VISA : $100.74

Items 46 - G, Amanda
07-09-2009 05:12PM