Waiting for the howl of romance ....

Winter doldrums require diversions

This blog (god, what an ugly, unappealing word) was started as a distraction from winter, and as a bit of a farce.

January and February have become more-or-less a period of winter doldrums for me in recent times. Some years I go on a reading binge. Other years I try to spend a few weeks on a sunny beach. This year, for a diversion, I began randomly "cruising" the sea of blogs -- reading, reading, reading.

What began last August as "following" the writing of an individual turned into sifting through a gamut of thoughts, ideas and expressions produced by countless people. Such is the experience of surfing upon the sea of blogs. As a result, I have grown sort of attached to a couple of writers -- at minimum, feeling empathy, at most, feeling attraction. Empathy is fine; attraction is not what I want or need at this point in my life.

By that I mean while I do very much enjoy a pretty face, I find intellectual stimulation and commonality of interests more fascinating right now. And, on that note ....

The Ideal Couple: Episode I

My mind has been wandering lately, of that you can be sure. It's been drifting southward from cold, snowy Minnesota to the foggy, damp climes of San Francisco, California. "Why?" I just heard someone ask. Thank you, for asking. Because there are princesses, divas, contessas and other assorted wolf-loving ladies by the thousands, listening and waiting there impatiently for the howl of romance to pierce the silence of their drab, soggy lives.

Inflating my memory, some of the great romances of San Francisco as depicted in the movies float to the surface. Who can forget Chris and Walker in "Point Blank?" See Chris gripping Walker during a confrontation with "Archie Bunker?" See Walker calmly gripping his Model 27, Smith & Wesson, .357 magnum, with a four-inch barrel? Nice piece. That is true love.

Chris holds Walker while Walker holds his revolver. A man's got to know his limitations.

Near the top of the list among the more attractive couples of San Francisco movie fame must be Matthew and Elizabeth from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Here we see Matt clutching Liz in a rather informal manner. I'm not certain if the action in the photograph is related to the title of the movie but, since we’re all pretty much adults here, I won't worry about it.

There’s Matthew. There’s Elizabeth. Don’t use your imagination.

To be continued tomorrow (barring the unforeseen) as Episode II

Music Note: Currently listening to Alice Cooper ....
Specifically, "Mascara & MONSTERS" ....
(Never a fan of Alice, but I think every boy/man can relate to "Poison")

Daschle, Geithner & Holder. The same or different?

Like many, I have a difficult time being silent when it comes to politics. In a philosophical sense, I tend to be more conservative than liberal. In a human sense, it frequently is not difficult to like even those you oppose philosophically.

For that reason, I was disappointed when former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle withdrew his name as Barack Obama's nominee to be the next Secretary of Health & Human Services. I know Daschle and I like him. He obviously made some serious mistakes regarding his tax responsibilities. He should lose points in his standing on the integrity scale. But, the way I see it, that does not mean I should like him less. We all do dumb things and dishonest things. It is a matter of degrees.

There are flaws in my argument, I would admit, but we each are who and what we are, not characters in a novel designed to fit an author's narrow scheme of things. Two other Obama nominees, Timothy Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury and Nancy Killefer, for White House Performance Officer, also had tax issues. Geithner was confirmed by the Senate; Killefer, like Daschle, withdrew her name from consideration. Then, there is Eric Holder. When he worked in Bill Clinton's Justice Department, Holder, the new Attorney General, advocated pardons for convicted terrorists and for the No. 2 fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list, who had fled the U.S.

Neither Geithner nor Holder withdrew their names from consideration. The subsequent confirmation of their nominations by the Senate really does bother me. Geithner is a tax dodger whose duties now include leading the Internal Revenue Service. Holder, a man who promoted pardoning convicted terrorists, is now the head law enforcement officer in the country. This, to me, is not right. Daschle's confirmation to run Health & Human Services would not have bothered me to any great extent. Is this simply because I (probably most people) tend to excuse individuals I know personally, even politicians who are supposed to be "public servants," for their lapses in judgment and honesty? If so, I suppose this makes me guilty of poor judgment, too.

Music Note: Currently listening to Fleetwood Mac ....
Specifically, "The Dance" ....
"Go Your Own Way" is a fantastic song ....

Books (again), internationalism & clouds

Seeing behind the curtains ….

Yesterday, I made a remark that I thought books produce more questions than they do answers. Hopefully, it was understood I was referring to literature, and to "legitimate" commentaries regarding philosophy, religion , history and similar topics.

There are any number of quacks, phonies and two-bit charlatans publishing books. Want to lose 50 pounds in 50 days? Want to double your income? You know what I mean. People who buy such books either are desperate or probably only interested in the pictures. But, the entire world revolves around selling and sales. Even "legitimate" authors want to have their books sell and to make money and, most certainly, they all want to convince you, the reader, that their talent is real and their ideas are valid.

Whether an individual reads to learn or for entertainment or for both, it would be nice to believe each individual's reading habit will include books that leave him asking questions rather than thinking he has learned all the answers. It is at that point when seeing behind the curtains and hearing beyond the spoken words begin, I think.

Comes the internationalist ….

It did not occur to me that I'm (sort of) an "internationalist" until someone pointed it out to me in terms of books. My list of the fourteen best novels of the 20th Century had two books written by a Greek, one by a German, two by an Irish expatriate, one (actually a four-book set) written by an English expatriate born in India, one written by a Norwegian who did not come to the U.S. until he was an adult, and seven by Americans, at least two of which were expatriates for parts of their lives.

Who drives the clouds?

A few nights ago, I was perusing (or cruising, if you prefer) a few blog sites when I encountered this phrase: "I know who drives the clouds."

My immediate thought was, "That is one thing I do not know."

My second thought was, "What a beautiful use of words; what a perfect expression. Did it originally come from a novel or, maybe, from a poem?"

My next thought was, "Drives, as one drives a herd of cattle over natural terrain, or drives, as one drives a car along a defined roadway?"

My walking-away thought was, "Now, there is something of relevance to mull over for a while."

As Bob Dylan once said:
"How many times must a man look up
before he can see the sky?"

Music Note: Currently listening to Richard Tucker ....
Specifically, "Richard Tucker Sings Puccini" ....
(I gotta find a way to bust out of this serious mood)

Books produce more questions than answers, I think ....

"My mistake was in ever opening the books."

Just for the sake of argument, I have decided to name my own selections as the ten best novels of the 20th Century (plus a couple of extras). Just be thankful that I did not go for the full 100, as Random House did with its selections. Fram's list:

1. Ulysses by James Joyce (Also No.1 on Random House list.)

2. The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis (Some would call this an epic poem; not on Random House list.)

3. The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (Not on Random House list.)

4. Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rolvaag (Not on Random House list.)

5. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (No. 3 on Random House list.)

6. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (No. 24 on Random House list.)

7. Deliverance by James Dickey (No. 42 on Random House list.)

8. An American Dream by Norman Mailer (Not on Random House list.)

9. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (No. 45 on Random House list.)

10. The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man by Thomas Mann (Not on Random House list.)

11. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (No. 70 on Random House list; I'm particularly thinking of book three, "Mountolive," from among the four.)

12. Earth Abides by George Stewart (Once a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, among other things. Not on Random House list.)

13. McTeague by Frank Norris (I'll cheat. "McTeague" was published in 1899, the 19th Century, but what's a year in the overall scheme of things? It also has a San Francisco connection. Norris lived there for a time, and died there, and is buried across the bay in Oakland. Not on Random House list.)

14. The Sea-Wolf by Jack London (Another San Francisco connection. London lived there much of his life, and it is the point of origin as the story opens. Not on Random House list.)

To each his own. Actually, I'm not at all certain about the order in which I would place the final half-dozen. Too subjective a decision. Care to argue, debate, differ? Opinions are always welcome.

The quote above which I used to begin this segment, incidentally, comes from the lips of Wolf Larsen in "The Sea-Wolf:"

"And he (Wolf Larsen's brother, Death Larsen) has never philosophized on life," I added.

"No," Wolf Larsen answered, with an indescribable air of sadness.
"And he is all the happier for leaving life alone. He is too busy living it to think about it. My mistake was in ever opening the books."

That thought has bounded about inside my mind any number of times. Books produce more questions than answers, I think.

Music Note: Currently listening to a classic rock station on the radio ....

Bibliophile, bookworm, and proud of it ....

The editors of Random House's Modern Library put together a list of the one hundred novels they consider to be the best of the 20th Century.

I've read 37 of them, the majority within the first 50 listed, and all but one of the top ten. I have no idea how that would stack up against the average reader. There are a number of other instances where I have not read the book listed here as "one of the great ones" by a particular author, but I have read one or more other books written by that individual. More interesting to me is the fact that I do not recall even ever hearing the name of 14 of the authors mentioned here, mostly listed among the last 50.

These are the novels in the order selected. How do you fare? Are you a bibliophile, a bookworm? If so, I hope you are proud of it. Blame Random House for any spelling errors.

1. Ulysses by James Joyce
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
7. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
8. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
9. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
11. Under the Volcano: A Novel by Malcolm Lowry
12. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell
14. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
15. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
16. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
17. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
18. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
19. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
20. Native Son by Richard Wright
21. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
22. Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money by John Dos Passos
24. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
25. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
26. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
27. The Ambassadors by Henry James
28. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell
30. The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion by Ford Madox Ford
31. Animal Farm by George Orwell
32. The Golden Bowl by Henry James
33. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
34. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
35. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
36. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
38. Howards End by E.M. Forster
39. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
40. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
41. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
42. Deliverance by James Dickey
43. A Dance to the Music of Time (series) by Anthony Powell
44. Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley
45. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
46. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad
47. Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard by Joseph Conrad
48. The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
49. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
50. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
51. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
52. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
53. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
54. Light in August by William Faulkner
55. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
56. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
57. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
58. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
59. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
60. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
61. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
62. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
63. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
64. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
65. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
66. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
67. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
68. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
69. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
70. Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
71. High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Arthur Warren Hughes
72. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
73. The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
74. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
75. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
76. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
77. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
78. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
79. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
80. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
81. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
82. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
83. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
84. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
85. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
86. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
87. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
88. The Call Of The Wild by Jack London
89. Loving (A novel by Henry Green) by Henry Green
90. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
91. Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
92. Ironweed by William J. Kennedy
93. The Magus by John Fowles
94. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
95. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
96. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
97. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
98. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
99. The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy
100. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington