For Your Sickness and Pain take up a Pen and Paper

A former teacher and a journalist discovered the help writing can be when she was trying to come to terms with her son’s 27 months deployment as an infantryman in Iraq. This benefit and revelation led Sue Diaz to conducting weekly writing workshops in the US with war veterans.

Diaz says: “The heart of each workshop session involves writing together. I offer a prompt – a word, a phrase, an object – to get pens moving. We all write for 20 minutes, then take turns reading aloud what we've written. That part's always optional, but most make that choice. It's a chance not only to be listened to, but in some instances to at long last be heard.”

Read the article to learn how the practice of writing, especially communal writing, helps to confront pain and work through difficulties.

Then write your way to healing and wholeness.

Sue Diaz, ‘To Help Veterans Confront War: Pen and Paper’, CSM, 9 November 2007.

Image: “For Your Sickness and Pain take up a Pen and Paper.”

Shirin Ebadi on Faith, Good Works, Justice and Fortitude

In the front page of Shirin Ebadi’s book, Iran Awakening, is this statement from the Koran, that has obviously been a strength to this Nobel Peace prize winner in her work for human rights.

‘I swear by the declining day, that perdition shall be the lot of man. Except for those who have faith and do good works and exhort each other to justice and fortitude.”

Source: The Holy Koran 103.3

Image: Shirin Ebadi and a boy.

A review of Shirin Ebadi’s book, Iran Awakening is posted at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Shirin Ebadi on the Power of the Written Word

The human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, in her memoirs entitled, Iran Awakening, gives this cameo into the power of words and stories.

“Propped up on my desk in Tehran is a clipping of a political cartoon I like to keep in sight while I work. The sketch is of a woman wearing a space-age battle helmet, bent over a blank page with a pen in her hand. It reminds me of a truth that I have learned in my lifetime, one that is echoed in the history of Iranian women across the ages: that the written word is the most powerful tool we have to protect ourselves, both from the tyrants of the day and from our own traditions. Whether it is the storyteller of legend Scheherazade staving off beheading by spinning a thousand and one tales, feminist poets of the last century who challenged the culture’s perception of women through verse, or lawyers like me, who defend the powerless in courts, Iranian women have for centuries relied on words to transfer a reality.”

She says how her book is subject to censor and adds:

“My work places me in opposition to our system, and I suspect I may never be able to write anything in Iran without taking off my helmet.”

Shirin Ebadi with Azadeh Moaveni, Iran Awakening (London: Rider, 2006), 209-210.

A review of Iran Awakening can be found at Reviewing Books and Movies.

Image: Shirin Ebadi

Doctorow on the Importance of Stories

“A story on the page is like a printed circuit for our lives to flow through, a story told invokes our dim capacity to be alive in bodies not our own.”

E L Doctorow, City of God (London: Abacus, 2001), 204.

Image: “A story on the page is like a printed circuit…”

Chekhov and Making Small Things Greater

Several actors in Robert Dessaix’s novel Corfu, are discussing the style of Anton Chekhov:

What we can hold onto in it [Uncle Vanya by Chekhov], however, is Chekhov’s astonishing ability to make small things greater and big things… not smaller exactly, but big for smaller, more human reasons. Drinking tea, loving a woman, saving the forests, playing the guitar, a botched operation, a thunderstorm, the pointlessness of everything… somehow or other (it’s a mystery to me, I can’t fathom it) all these things make space for each other, allow each other their own particular value, refuse to shout each other down.

In life things may not work out like this, but they do in the play. Life, so to speak, may not be beautiful, but its translation may be.

Robert Dessaix, Corfu (A Novel) (London: Scribner, 2003), 247-248.

Image: “A thunderstorm… it’s a mystery to me…”

Hillary Clinton: Not Letting the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story

A story is doing the rounds, circulated by email and judged by people to be fiction. It has been linked with various celebrities—George W Bush, Al Gore and now Hillary Clinton—but it illustrates the way people put ‘spin’ on a negative story to make it sound positive.

This email claims that Hillary Clinton, an amateur genealogical researcher, discovered that her great-great uncle, Remus Rodham, a fellow lacking in character, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889.

The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows. On the back of the picture is this inscription: "Remus Rodham; horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889."

In Hillary's Family History, her staff of professional image consultants, cropped Remus's picture, scanned it in as an enlarged image, and edited with it image processing software so that all that's seen is a head shot. The accompanying biographical sketch is as follows:

"Remus Rodham was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed."

Image: Hillary Clinton on the platform.

Elvis Presley: The Influence of a Hero

Call it the influence of a hero or ‘the great cloud of witnesses’ but there is no doubting the inspirational impact of an effective model in any sphere.

In the realm of music, Elvis Presley, not only wowed his generation of fans but he inspired many other musicians to exercise their gifts. Read what William McKeen says about the influence of the King:

"It took a while, but radio sparked a musical revolution that led to a social revolution. Elvis was the visible embodiment of the musical revolution. ... 'Hearing him the first time was like busting out of jail,' Bob Dylan recalled. 'I just knew I wasn't going to work for anybody; nobody was going to be my boss.' ... Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones--they all said they did what they did because of Elvis. Keith Richards said he'd likely be an accountant today ... if he hadn't heard rock'n'roll."

William McKeen, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Elvis," American History, August 2007, pp. 24-25.

Source: Delancey Place, which sends an excerpt or story to your inbox every day. Their address is:
Delancey Place. Com

Image: Elvis Presley.

German Soldiers Using 10 Rolls of Loo paper a Day

There is a curious story about the ‘Mystery of why German Soldiers Use 10 Rolls a Day’.

Don’t wipe away the yarn too quickly. It might be a story more about the accounting than the rolling. Prepare to be flushed but try and figure out the moral of this story.

Link:

Roger Boves, ‘Mystery of Why German Soldiers Use 10 Rolls a Day’, The Times, October 30, 2007.

Image: A decade of Loo Rolls

Humans as Bundles of Contradictions

When Dr. Burroughs, Bishop of Ripon, was here in Australia, he told a story of a small boy who had been drafted in at the last moment to fill a vacant place at a fashionable dinner-party—the sort at which the menu offers a choice for nearly every course. Hardly had he settled down when a problem confronted him on which his previous experience threw no light. In a low, compelling voice, the waiter put the alternatives to him: ‘Thick or clear?’ Playing for safety, our young friend answered Both!’

What the waiter did is not related; perhaps he brought a mixture; but it really does not matter. The thing that does matter is that in saying 'Both!’ that boy described himself and every other human being. No boy is altogether thick or altogether clear; altogether kind or altogether cruel; altogether good or altogether bad. He is both! He [and all of us!] is an everlasting anachronism, an animated ambiguity, a bundle of contradictions; and he is all this for the simple reason that, first and last, and through and through, he is so essentially a boy.

F W Boreham, The Fiery Crags (London: The Epworth Press, 1928), 15-16.

Image: “he is so essentially a boy.”

This story is one of the more then 200 stories that are contained in the newly published book: F W Boreham, All the Blessings of Life: The Best Stories of F W Boreham.

Discover the places where you can buy this book at the site New Boreham Books. While you are there, follow the link to Abe Books and see the growing range of F W Boreham resources.

Robert Dessaix: Why Whiling Away Your Life is So Important

In his novel Corfu, writer Robert Dessaix has this to say about spending time being or pottering about:

“What is so seductive about this chronicle of a year in Molyvos—especially for a reader setting out in the sun, as I was, on a bend in the road in Gastouri, just the odd cat stirring, old Spiros with his walking-cane grunting and greeting as he hobbles past—is that it dawns on you as you read why whiling away your life in an insignificant Greek village is so life-enhancing for many foreigners—at least at first; here, magically, everything matters all of a sudden—a broken flowerpot, the priest’s wife’s gossip, your neighbour’s sprained ankle, the beauty of the mountains against the molten evening sky, a funeral, a drowning, fried sardines with friends down by the water… and also doesn’t matter.”

Robert Dessaix, Corfu (A Novel) (London: Scribner, 2001), 251.

Image: Molyvos at sunset.

Last Supper on Internet: One Picture is Worth…

Last year I was one of the 350,000 people who visited Milan’s Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and one of our ‘must sees’ was Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.

I wish we could have lingered longer but the crowds were pressing in behind us.

Now a 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work.

The image is 1,600 times more detailed than those taken with a typical 10 million pixel digital camera.

People will be able to see segments as though just centimetres away and examine otherwise unavailable details.

The link is here:
The Last Supper in Detail

Image: Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper

Taking Your Prospective Partner for a Ride

CSM has an interesting story about a honeymoon couple in which the new bride makes some timely discoveries about her husband from the decisions about who get’s in the driver’s seat, whether they will mooch along and view the sights or head on briskly to their destination and which way they should go at the crossroads.

When he senses she is upset, the conversation goes like this:

“You want to drive, then?” He raised his eyebrows and winced.

“No, it's more than that.” I had trouble finding the words. “It's driving in the bigger sense of the word. I don't want marriage to mean that you make all the decisions.” How bad was this sounding? I brushed at a tear. “I don't want you mapping out the rest of my life.”

To read the full story, follow this link:

Elizabeth Brown, ‘They Learn to Share the Driver’s Seat’, CSM, 22 October 2007.

Image: “who get’s in the driver’s seat.”

Mark Haddon on the Police and My Mind as a Bread-Slicer

Christopher Boone, the fifteen year old narrator in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident, has these things to say about the police and his mind:

“Then the police arrived. I like the police. They have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing. There was a policeman and a policewoman.

The policewoman had a little hole in her tights on her left ankle and a red scratch in the middle of the hole.

The policeman had a big orange leaf stuck to the bottom of his shoe which was poking out from one side.” (p7)

Christopher is then interviewed by the police about the murder of Mrs. Shear’s poodle:

“He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works. The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And sometimes the slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage.”

“I sometimes think of my mind as a machine but not always as a bread-slicing machine. It makes it easier to explain to other people what is going on inside.” (p8)

Christopher is taken away by the police in their car and he writes:

“The police car smelt of hot plastic and aftershave and takeaway chips.” (p11)

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (London: Vintage, 2004), 7, 8.

Images: Police and industrial bread-slicer.

Other stories from this book can be found at:
Cultivating the Observant Eye
Mark Haddon on Timetables and France

Khaled Hosseini: Time Like a Piano Accordion

In his book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, author Khaled Hosseini, is musing on time:

“Laila had learned a fundamental truth about time: like the accordion on which Tariq’s father sometimes played old Pashto songs, time stretched and contracted depending on Tariq’s [her lover] absence or presence.”

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 2007), 98.

A review of this book can be found on my site:

Reviewing Books and Movies

Image: “like the accordion.” (an exceptionally long one!)

Billie Holiday: Prophetic Singer about Strange Fruit

Today’ posting from Delancey Place is another good reason for you to sign up and subscribe to their daily email. Read and reflect on this story and then follow the link to hear Billie Holiday singing a song that can be described as prophetic.

In today's excerpt--Billie Holiday (1915-1959), considered by some the greatest female jazz vocalist, introduces "Strange Fruit," a song about lynching, into a world of songs about love and romance:

"A few years back, Q, a British music publication, named 'Strange Fruit' one of 'the ten songs that actually changed the world.' Like any revolutionary act, the song initially encountered great resistance. Holiday and the black folksinger Josh White, who began performing it a few years after Holiday first did [in 1939], were abused, sometimes physically, by irate nightclub patrons--'crackers' as Holiday called them. Columbia Records, Holiday's label in the late 1930s, refused to record it. 'Strange Fruit' marked a watershed, praised by some, lamented by others, in Holiday's evolution from exuberant jazz singer to chanteuse of lovelorn pain and loneliness. Once Holiday added it to her repertoire, some of its sadness seemed to cling to her; as she deteriorated physically, the song took on new poignancy and immediacy. ..."Lynchings--during which blacks were murdered with unspeakable brutality, often in a carnival-like atmosphere, and then, with the acquiescence if not the complicity of local authorities, hung from trees for all to see--were rampant in the South following the Civil War and for many years thereafter.

According to figures kept by the Tuskegee Institute--conservative figures--between 1889 and 1940, 3,833 people were lynched; ninety percent of them were murdered in the South, and four-fifths of them were black. Lynchings tended to occur in poor, small towns--often taking the place, the famed newspaper columnist H.L. Mencken once said, 'of the merry-go-round, the theater, the symphony orchestra.' ... And they were meted out for a host of alleged offenses--not just for murder, theft, and rape, but for insulting a white person, boasting, swearing, or buying a car. In some instances, it was no infraction at all; it was just time to remind 'uppity' blacks to stay in their place. ...

"The night that she first sang 'Strange Fruit' [at Cafe Society in New York] 'there wasn't even a patter of applause when I finished,' she later wrote in her autobiography. 'Then a lone person began to clap nervously. Then suddenly everybody was clapping.' The applause grew louder and a bit less tentative as 'Strange Fruit' became a nightly ritual for Holiday, then one of her most successful records, then one of her signature songs, at least in those places where it was safe to perform."

Lyrics:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

David Margolick, Strange Fruit, Harper Collins, Copyright 2001 by David Margolick, pp. 8, 19-20, 3-4.

Listen to this Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday on YouTube

Image: Billie Holiday

Sign up or visit the Delancey Place web site here

Distilling a Lifetime into a Suitcase

In the heat of the Californian bush fires there are many stories emerging about what evacuees are choosing to take with them to a safe place.

LA Times reporters, Janet Eastman and Bettijane Levine say:

“The decisions are made in a scary, smoky instant. A wildfire is blazing toward the front door: What to take to safety? What to leave behind?”

“One woman in Malibu grabbed her old wedding ring and divorce papers. A Santa Clarita man showed up at an evacuation center with four suitcases but little memory of what he and his wife threw into them. ‘Probably not what we need,’ he said, clutching his pillow. An Escondido woman, her head cloudy with panic, rescued her $1,000 Christian Louboutin shoes.”

“Practical or sentimental, irreplaceable or as inconsequential as a carton of orange juice, the belongings that fire evacuees packed up before fleeing home speaks to the daunting task of distilling a life into a backpack, a suitcase or the trunk of a car.”

Police and emergency officials are using this opportunity to say that all people, everywhere, should prepare an evacuation plan to be followed in a time of emergency.

That is wise advice but an interesting thought rising from the Californian smoke is this question: “What do I have that is of value to me? If I had to “distill [my] life into a backpack, a suitcase or the trunk of a car, what things, people and animals would I take?

To read the entire article, follow this link:

Janet Eastman & Bettjane Levine, ‘Stuffing a Lifetime into a Suitcase’, LA Times, 25 October 2007.

Image: ‘Stuffing a Lifetime into a Suitcase’

Hillary Clinton on Marriage

"I know the truth of my life and of my marriage, my relationship and partnership, my deep abiding friendship with my husband. It's been enormously supportive to me through most of my life. Now obviously we've had challenges as everybody in the world knows. But I never doubted that it was a marriage worth investing in even in the midst of those challenges . . . and I'm really happy that I made that decision. Again, not a decision for everybody. And I think it's so important for women to stand up for the right of women to make a decision that is best for them."

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), responding to a question about her marriage in an interview with Essence magazine, excerpted online yesterday. Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Image: Hillary and Bill Clinton

Three Cups of Tea in A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Pakistani and Afghani custom of drinking three cups of tea, that is told by Greg Mortensen and which makes the title of his book is wonderfully reflected in Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Maraiam and Laila are the wives of Rasheed and for many reasons they are not getting on with each other. In particular, childless Mariam is jealous of the younger wife, Laila, who has produced a baby called Aziza. The two women exist in this Kabul house avoiding each other.

In the middle of one night there are signs that the relationship is thawing and this becomes the turning point for a bond that grows very strong.

When Laila gets up and goes down to the kitchen she finds Mariam still hard at work. Despite the anxiety the two of them feel, Laila makes a conciliatory move. She says:
“The Chinese say it’s better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.”
Mariam gave a half smile. “It’s a good saying.”
“It is.”
“But I can’t stay long.”
“One cup.”

They sat on folding chairs outside and ate halwa with their fingers from a common bowl. They had a second cup, and when Laila asked her if she wanted a third Mariam said she did. As gunfire cracked in the hills, they watched the clouds slide over the moon and the last of the season’s fireflies charting bright yellow arcs in the dark. And when Aziza woke up crying and Rasheed yelled for Laila to come up and shut her up, a look passed between Laila and Mariam. An unguarded, knowing look. And in this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew that they were not enemies any longer.

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 2007), 223-224.

A review of A Thousand Splendid Suns is at this link.
A review of Three Cups of Tea is at this link.

Image: Preparing the tea in Afghanistan.

The Taliban: How Fundamentalism Takes the Fun out of Life

Khaled Hosseini’s poignant book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, tracks the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 1996 the Taliban had become a powerful ‘guerilla force’ that conscripted young men to uphold their law and discipline the dissidents.

The words of this flyer give an example of how far distorted religion can become and how effective a means it became of sucking the life out of a people:

Our wantan, is now known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. These are the laws that we will enforce and you will obey:

* All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time and you are caught doing something other, you will be beaten.
* All men will grow their beards. The correct length is at least one clenched fist below the chin. If you do not abide by this, you will be beaten.
* All boys will wear turbans. Boys in grade one through six will wear black turbans, higher grades will wear white. All boys will wear Islamic clothes. Shirt collars will be buttoned.
* Singing is forbidden.
* Dancing is forbidden.
* Playing cards, playing chess, gambling, and kite flying are forbidden.
* Writing books, watching films, and painting pictures are forbidden.
* If you keep parakeets, you will be beaten. Your birds will be killed.
* If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again, your foot will be cut off.
* If you are not Muslim, do not worship where you can be seen by Muslims. If you do, you will be beaten and imprisoned. If you are caught trying to convert a Muslim to your faith, you will be executed.

Attention women:
* You will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. If you are caught alone on the street, you will be beaten and sent home.
* You will not, under any circumstance, show your face. You will cover with burqa when outside. If you do not, you will be severely beaten.
* Cosmetics are forbidden.
* Jewelry is forbidden.
* You will not wear charming clothes.
* You will not speak unless spoken to.
* You will not make eye contact with men.
* You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten.
* You will not paint your nails, if you do, you will lose a finger.
* Girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately.
* Women are forbidden from working.
* If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death.
Listen. Listen well. Obey. Allah-u-akbar.

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns (Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 2007), 245-246.

A review of A Thousand Splendid Suns is posted at this link:
Reviewing Books and Movies.

Image: “You will cover with burqa when outside.” A woman walking in Afghanistan.

Charles Schulz: A Life Transforming Experience

In today's excerpt--Charles Schulz, creator, author and illustrator for nearly fifty years of the cartoon strip Peanuts, which at its peak was read by over 300 million people:

"When called on to discuss his life, Charles 'Sparky' Schulz never began at the beginning, never with his birth, on November 26, 1922, or his early years, but always with his mother's death on March 1, 1943, his own departure for the war, and the merciless speed of it all: in that week, Dena Halverson Shulz had died on a Monday, she was buried Friday, and by Saturday the army had taken him away. ...

"As early as his sophomore year in high school, Sparky had come home to a bedridden mother. Some evenings she had been too ill to put food on the table; some nights he had been awakened by her cries of pain. But no one spoke directly about the affliction; only Sparky's father and his mother's trusted sister Marion knew its source, they would not identify it as cancer in Sparky's presence until after it had reached its fourth and final stage--in November 1942, the same month he was drafted.

"On February 28, 1943, with a day pass from Fort Snelling, Sparky returned from his army barracks to his mother's bedside. ... She was turned away from him in her bed against the wall, opposite the windows that overlooked the street. [Late that evening] he said he guessed it was time to go.

"'Yes,' she said, 'I suppose we should say good-bye.'

"She turned her gaze as best she could. 'Well,' she said, 'good-bye, Sparky. We'll probably never see each other again.'

"Later he said, 'I'll never get over that scene as long as I live,' and indeed he could not, down to his own dying day. It was certainly the worst night of his life, the night of 'my greatest tragedy'--which he repeatedly put into the terms of his passionate sense of unfulfillment that his mother 'never had the opportunity to see me get anything published.' "

David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts, HarperCollins, Copyright 2007 by David Michaelis, pp. 4-5, xii.

This story is today’s excerpt from Delancey Place. If you are a regular communicator this web site and the daily excerpts that can be emailed to your inbox, are a wonderful resource that I am glad to recommend.

Image: Charles Schulz and a cartoon.

Lesson in Origami Illustrates the Value of Teaching by Doing

An English teacher shared a highlight from her 35-year teaching career and revealed some important keys for teachers and anyone in the communication business.

Dorothy Fletcher copied a page of instructions on making birds from origami, gave her students sheets of paper and told them to get on with it.

Sounds simple enough but the instructions were in Japanese and none of the students were fluent in that language. After a flood of protests, the students surprised themselves as before long, paper cranes were flying around the classroom!

Fletcher was eager to illustrate one of life’s challenges—making sense out of difficult instructions on tax forms and computer manuals, even when they are written in your first language.

The effective teacher said this was one of her most memorable lessons and news of the origami class quickly spread through her school.

Why was it so remembered by her students? Because it involved these important ingredients:
* Learning by words and visuals
* Learning by helping each other
* The importance of asking for advice
* Enjoyment in learning and
* Much more

To read this fascinating story, see:
Dorothy Fletcher, ‘What do Paper Cranes Have to Do with English Class?’, CSM, 22 October 2007.

Image: Visual Aids

Jerry Seinfeld: If You Don’t Use it…

Ever wondered what’s become of actor/comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, after he blew the final whistle on his ‘Seinfeld’ television sitcom?

A New York Times journalist catches up with the star, traces the gigs he has got in these last nine years including the project he has buzzing at the moment.

Speaking about the value of a one-hour stand-up show that he currently does, Seinfeld feels that he’s not performing enough at the moment saying: “No matter how many times you’ve done it in the past, it’s got to be polished or it goes away…The act just packs up and starts walking away.”

There’s much more to this interesting update that can be read at this link:

Dave Itzkoff, ‘What Do You Do After Nothing? New York Times, 21 October 2007.

Image: Jerry Seinfeld, ‘That’s All Folks!’ Or is it?

Margaret Forster on Childhood Memories

In her superb novel, The Memory Box, the main character Catherine, is revisiting her childhood memories:

“Everyone says that two is too young to be sure a memory is ‘true’, and that it is more likely that what is recalled is an adult’s telling of the memory, but I believe mine to be what I myself do remember.”

Margaret Forster, The Memory Box (London: Penguin Books, 2000), 140.

Image: Front Cover of The Memory Box.

Robert Dessaix on Rituals and the Longing for the Unnatural

In his novel Corfu, Robert Dessaix has this to say about the impact of rituals upon him:

“The most dispiriting thing about failing to be moved by others’ rituals is that it brings you face to face with your own ordinariness. And, if you’re feeling even slightly oceanic, that ordinariness swamps everything in sight.”

“Who doesn’t long at times, in the midst of piles of washing or slumped in front of the television set, for something utterly unnatural to happen?”

Robert Dessaix, Corfu (A Novel) (London: Scribner, 2003), 49.

Image: Eucharistic ritual.

Nick Hornby on Growing Up and Developing a Critical Faculty

“A critical faculty is a terrible thing.”

“When I was eleven there were no bad films, just films that I didn’t want to see, there was no bad food, just Brussel sprouts and cabbage, and there were no bad books—everything that I read was great.”

“Then suddenly, I woke up in the morning and all that had changed. How could my sister not hear that David Cassidy was not in the same class as Black Sabbath? Why on earth would my English teacher think that The History of Mr. Polly was better than Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie?”

“And from that moment on, enjoyment has been a much more elusive quality.”

Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch (London: Victor Gollancz, 1992), 29.

Image: “there was no bad food, just Brussel sprouts and cabbage…”