words, words, words
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If I begin to detail myself here, will you understand?
P. I am me
Q. I don't always know exactly who that is
R. I am Quaker
S. I like words and playing with them
T. I like genmaicha tea
U. I like the word napkin more than most others
V. I spend time walking my neighborhood
W. I cook rice often
X. I sleep well most every night
Y. I eat large amounts of fruit and vegetables
Z. I munch, sleep, write, create, cook, bike, watch, walk, listen, hope, learn, drink, live, breathe, touch, know, question, taste, copy, read, stare, carry, talk, dance, finger, try.
raisin@gmail.com
albums:
Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
Erasure: I Say, I Say, I Say
Depeche Mode: Black Celebration
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On?
David Bowie: Hunky Dory
George Michael: Listen without Prejudice
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
songs:
Wild is the Wind: Nina Simone
Come Undone: Duran Duran
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini: Rachmaninov
My Funny Valentine: Chet Baker
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate: The Flaming Lips
This Must Be the Place: The Talking Heads
Hyperballad: Bjork
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Tuesday, December 17, 2002
As much as I love Lord of the Rings, I had a terrible time reading the books. The anti-war feelings that began to grow in me over last winter while I read those books clashed sharply with LOTR's thirst for violence and killing all the 'evil ones.' I hated the simplicity of Tolkien's characters, either good or bad, only a few lost people like Saruman who changed from one side to the other. Every orc was a bad orc, and nobody cared if they died. I couldn't help but relate this to Iraq - that the only thing that mattered in that country was to kill Saddam, no matter if all the iraqis died. They weren't worth anything anyway, right? Nobody I've spoken to about this understands my point of view, that Tolkien was an enemy of progress who always looked back to what once was with the idea that it will never be as good then. But through all three books, you come across ancient monuments of the prior civilization, the huge statues that guarded the way into man's lair, all built by dead hands because nobody living could do that any more. That kind of thought sickens me. It says that all the progress we have made is worthless, that the very fact I can walk down the street holding hands with a man is worthless compared to the beautiful cathedrals people once built. I love cathedrals, too, and I marvel at what we used to do. But look at what we can do now. Look at how many friends i have across the country that i communicate with daily. i wouldn't have many friends if it weren't for all these people. Is the internet not a beautiful cathedral itself, built in the most egalitarian manner where everyone can add a brick to the mortar? It has done so much for us, and while it carries its own sources of problems, I am so much happier with it than I was before. I don't disagree with the naive charm of a letter; i still write them all the time. But I would never give up email for its immediacy. This article, in Salon.com fully searches the world Tolkien was glorifying, and how contrary it is to our future. Here's a great paragraph: "Obsession with either past or future can almost define a civilization. Worldwide, most cultures believed in some lost golden age when people knew more, mused loftier thoughts and were closer to the gods -- but then fell from grace. Under this dour but recurrent worldview, men and women of a later, coarser era can only look back with envy, hearkening to remnants of ancient wisdom.
Recognize this motif? It drenches every page of "Lord of the Rings." It is the old classic, the eternal verity -- the worst of all human clichés."
another: "Or, as Lev Grossman put it in his Time essay:
'Popular culture is the most sensitive barometer we have for gauging shifts in the national mood, and it's registering a big one right now. Our fascination with science fiction reflected a deep collective faith that technology would lead us to a cyberutopia of robot butlers serving virtual mai tais. With 'The Two Towers,' the new installment of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, about to storm the box office, we are seeing what might be called the enchanting of America. A darker, more pessimistic attitude toward technology and the future has taken hold, and the evidence is our new preoccupation with fantasy, a nostalgic, sentimental, magical vision of a medieval age. The future just isn't what it used to be -- and the past seems to be gaining on us.'"
"Instead of railing against "evil," try to understand it. That's always been the best way to defeat it."
This all makes me sound like a liberal lover of all people. but wait, I am, and if I read about the life of Jesus correctly, so was he, a lover of the thieves and the prostitutes, the people who had lost their way. He understood them and helped them, instead of condemning to die like much of the religious right would like to do.
Is there enough empathy and love in us for everyone? even those who hurt us, use us, attack us? I hope so. I have to find it in myself first.
12:08 PM
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