Words, Music, & Outdoor Adventures

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

I just finished this book. It takes place in Prague, a place I’ve never been, but now would love to visit.

“They never understood each other, Edwige and he, yet they always agreed. Each interpreted the otheris words in his or her own way, and there was wonderful harmony between them. Wonderful solidarity based on lack of understanding. He was well aware of it and almost took pleasure in it.”

“Jan is mistaken in thinking that the border is a line that crosses a manis life at a specific point, that it marks a break in time, a particular second on the clock of a human life. No. I am certain, on the contrary, that the border is constantly with us, irrespective of time and our stage of life, that it is omnipresent, even though circumstances might make it more or less visible. “

From Amazon: The novel’s artful and philosophical prose meanders through a flurry of 1970’s contemporary ideas including democracy, fear, sexual roles, and are intertwined by Kundera’s poetical portrayal of memory in the varying degrees of propoganda through personal interpretation of past experiences. Additionally, as the title suggests, laughter plays a part, suggested by the author first as the devilish opposition of order, and as the natural feminine influence.
Kundera recognizes his themes contained in the vignettes that makeup the novel, and exploits them by assimilating them into a single body of work. I’ve heard some people say about the book that they felt they didn’t pay close enough attention, and that they couldn’t tightly tie the fragments of this novel, but I disagree. Yes, Kundera attempts to distort the linear art of prose into the multi-dimension of the mind. The novel sometimes creates a feeling of deja-vu, sometimes a more obvious trick than others. This is skill of Kundera’s that he might have mastered in his later work, Immortality. But here it is experimental and ambitious, albeit a confident delivery… it’s a pleasant and stimulating discourse. So my advice is, get this book and relax …let this grand storyteller carry you.

It’s the birthday of novelist Wallace Stegner born in Lake Mills, Iowa (1909).

His novels were mostly set in the American West: Angle of Repose (1971-Pulitzer Prize); Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943); The Spectator Bird (1976-National Book Award); and Crossing to Safety (1987).

He also wrote several works of historical nonfiction set in the Western United States, including Mormon Country (1942) and Beyond the Hundredth Meridian (1954). He died in Santa Fe in 1993.

He said, “I may not know who I am, but I know where I’m from.”

http://www.cateweb.org/CA_Authors/Stegner.html

“My life has always been crude, unfinished, raw, tenative; and so have the lives of people I have known well.

This raw, unfinished quality in my life was precisely what was valuable in it and I should hold fast to it.”

It’s the birthday of novelist William S. Burroughs born in St. Louis, Missouri (1914). He’s known as one of the founding fathers of the Beat Movement, and for his novels about drug addiction and drug culture, including Junky (1951) and Naked Lunch (1959).

Burroughs kept a daily journal with three separate columns in it.

In one, he would write what he was doing,

in the second he wrote what he was thinking, and in the

third he wrote about what he was reading.

He used to carry around big files with notes, pictures, and news clippings wherever he went. He thought of scrapbooks as his writing tools, and also usually had with him scissors, paste, and a tape recorder.

Today was the best day ever. I skied in 14 inches of fresh powder on untracked runs with friends and an Olympian!

The snow was perfect! Then snowshoed at Fish Creek Falls with the dogs in untracked powder. During the snowshoe the sun came out. Amazing.

I fell hard a few times while skiing and it was a good excuse to go to the Health and Rec and soak in the medicinal hot springs. Then swam in the outdoor lap pool; I’ve never swam laps in a outdoor pool in winter - pretty cool.

I finished the book a few days ago. I read it many years ago but reading it as an adult was different. Here are some favorite passages from the book:

iAll of us are what we have to be and everyone lives the kind of life itis in him to live.i

ieverything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. Itis growing out of sour earth. And itis strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way.i

iShe read a few pages rapidly and almost became ill with excitement. She wanted to shout it out. She could read! She could read! From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.i

iSeptember 18. I asked Momma could I get a Castle Clip and she said no that hair was a womanis crowning beauty. Does that mean she expects me to be a woman soon? I hope so because I want to be my own boss and get my hair cut off it I feel like it.i

ilet me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay, let me be sad. Let me be cold, let me be warmOeOnly let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.i