Itinerantdaughter's Blog

…and forgot how to spell “androgyny.”

I swear, I’ll do some poignant here soon. It’s going to happen. The divine spirit will fill me at any moment and I will be unable to tear myself away from the page.

I read an essay today that was about ____ and writing, and it was pretty awful at de-constructing ____ but has come closer to describing the writing process than anything else I’ve ever read about writing (and that’s a pretty good deal of text!)  I suppose it’s personal for everyone, but her experience sounds most like mine…

“It seems to me that the desire to make art produces an ongoing experience of longing, a restlessness sometimes, but not inevitably, played out romantically, or sexually. Always there seems something ahead, the next poem or story, visible, at least, apprehensible but unreachable. To perceive it at all is to be haunted by it; some sound, some tone, becomes a torment –– the poem embodying that sound seems to exist somewhere already finished. It’s like a lighthouse, except that, as one swims back toward it, it backs away. ”

The myth of catharsis.  Sigh.

Oh! This reminds me. I write book reviews, and here are the synopses of some nonfiction books I may be assigned to read (assignments are SO fun!) I haven’t included reviews, per se (though I accidentally read a heated comment on the first entry, which sucks because now I feel as if my own opinions are poisoned and therefore I can’t evaluate properly, and I wanted to do that off the bat), just a summation, usually from Amazon.com (not linking):

The Wicked Son: Antisemitism, Self-Hatred and the Jews by David Mamet

The world hates the Jews. The world always has and will continue to do so.” So says celebrated playwright and novelist Mamet in this new entry in the Jewish Encounters series, as he sets his sights on both anti-Semites and apostate Jews, whom he refers to as “the Wicked Sons.” Mamet marshals his passion and mastery of language to argue that only religious observance is an authentic, non-self-hating expression of Judaism.

Ambrose Bierce’s Write it Right: The Celebrated Cynic’s Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised And Annotated for 21st Century Readers Ambrose Bierce and Jan Freeman

In 1893, Ambrose Bierce declared “I am for preserving the ancient, primitive distinction between right and wrong.” In Write it Right, originally published in 1909, Bierce turned this considerable zeal on the English language. The result revealed that the satirical author of The Devil’s Dictionary had a keen ear for the vernacular—and that he hated it. This slim volume of his three hundred or so reviled words and expressions contains many we use today with no hesitation at all. (Of “electrocution” he says, “To one having even an elementary knowledge of Latin grammar this word is no less than disgusting, and the thing meant by it is felt to be altogether too good for the word’s inventor.”) Jan Freeman, acclaimed author of the weekly column “The Word” for the Boston Globe, annotates Bierce’s rulings with style, humor, and in-depth research, revealing what Bierce got right—and what he didn’t—and giving insight into how the language has changed over the past century. Write it Right, with its incisive wit and insight into the history of American English, is the perfect gift for word curmudgeons.

(Me: be still my heart!)

A book on Trotsky, but I’m not sure I’m well versed on the Russian Revolution enough to do this one…this could be my chance to learn more?

Out of My Life and Thought by Albert Schweitzer

His autobiography. I’ve always admired him, but for reasons which aren’t too clear to me…! I used to know!

(I have decided, as of this very moment, to not look on Amazon anymore because I can’t help but read just a leeeetle too much, so only titles from now on! If you don’t eat your meat, how can you have any pudding?)

Trotsky: A Biography

Another one? What’s with the wave of interest in Trotsky?

How to Be Inappropriate

On second thought, don’t really need to read a book on that…

So…what would YOU pick?

This entry (I am in denial about blogging; refuse to call it a “post”) reminds me of the other name I was considering giving this blog, “Unmistakeable Animal.” Sort of self-aggrandizing.