20101130
IT'S MUCH BETTER BETTER TO FACE THESE KINDS OF THINGS WITH A SENSE OF POISE AND RATIONALITY
Long time no see. Read Jag vill inte dö, jag vill bara inte leva by Ann Heberlein which is the first book I've read in Swedish this year. Read The raw shark texts by Steven Hall, which was great and very different from anything else (though the writing reminded of Alex Garland which can only be a good thing). And, after having taken a break from it, I'm now back to reading The year of the flood.
20101101
SANITY IS A VALUABLE POSSESSION; I HOARD IT THE WAY PEOPLE ONCE HOARDED MONEY
"A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women."
"It's impossible to say a thing exatcly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavours in the air or on the tongue, half-colours, too many. But if you happen to be a man, sometime in the future, and you've made it this far, please remember: you must forgive, a man, as a woman. It's difficult to resist, believe me. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.
Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really wbout who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangment of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, crisscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be."
"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze."
"By telling you anything at all at least I'm believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are (...) After all you've been through, you deserve whatever I have left, which is not much but includes the truth."
- The handmaid's tale, Margaret Atwood
"It's impossible to say a thing exatcly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavours in the air or on the tongue, half-colours, too many. But if you happen to be a man, sometime in the future, and you've made it this far, please remember: you must forgive, a man, as a woman. It's difficult to resist, believe me. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.
Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really wbout who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangment of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, crisscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be."
"A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze."
"By telling you anything at all at least I'm believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are (...) After all you've been through, you deserve whatever I have left, which is not much but includes the truth."
- The handmaid's tale, Margaret Atwood
20101028
20101021
WHICH IS MORE THAN I CAN SAY ABOUT SOME PEOPLE
Since megavideo is all "You've watched 72 minutes, please wait 54 minutes or sign up" so I can't watch The City for an hour, I've decided to finally post a list of some of the books I've bought since moving to London (won't mention the ones from the post back in August);
Margaret Atwood - The tent
Margaret Atwood - Surfacing
Joyce Carol Oates - Rape a love story
Doris Lessing - The diaries of Jane Somers
Marilyn French - The women's room
Sylvia Plath - Ariel
Richard Yates - The easter parade
Richard Yates - Young hearts crying
Iain Banks - The wasp factory
Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem (a report on the banality of evil)
Michael Chabon - Wonder boys
Michael Ende - The neverending story
A.S. Byatt - The Oxford book of English short stories
Sebastian Faulks - Charlotte Gray
Laurence Rees - Auschwitz
Laurence Rees - The Nazis
George Orwell - Why I write
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never let me go
Bought some of these for school, but will keep them regardless (for background: dropped out of uni. Cue Grease song, "no graduation day for you!") Anyway, I will incorporate those books into my own collection. Books that did not make the cut: Pride and prejudice and Trainspotting. God, I hate those books. Anyway, for some reason I haven't been reading as much as I normally do since moving here. Makes me feel lost. Have read Bodily harm by Margaret Atwood, The tent by the same author, Rape a love story and The falls by Oates, Auschwitz by Laurence Rees and a lot of the short stories from the Lorrie Moore book. Reading Ishiguro's Never let me go now; it's good but so different from what I usually go for. Feel like I wanna read some Joan Didion but, to my great shock and surprise, can't find any of her books at Waterstones. Sad.
20100920
NEITHER OF THE GRIMES SISTERS WOULD HAVE A HAPPY LIFE, AND LOOKING BACK IT ALWAYS SEEMED THAT THE TROUBLE BEGAN WITH THEIR PARENTS' DIVORCE
Currently reading The easter parade by Richard Yates. Sorry about the lack of updates, will write more about what books I've read/bought on Wednesday.
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