I'm sitting on the fence with this one. I think it's so short, and the shortest of all Pynchon novels that I can read it again. I don't know how much I like stories that don't tell you what the protagonist is after right away. I mean I understand, that you have to see how it is for her to be on the search for something she isn't sure about either, but it also doesn't help that Pynchon writes so descriptively that he's telling you what was on the TV in the same room the conversation is going. If what is on TV is significant to the story? I probably just missed it. I did like how post-modern it was, all the secret society snooping, and that the setting is in the Bay Area (up Telegraph, over the Bay Bridge, off of Howard, etc.) I don't get stories with coded meanings...

okay I'll get back to my homework now....

google quote of the day

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

-Christopher Morley's last words (whoever the hell you are).

I've been so distracted and all over the place lately. I think I realize that I have a big problem growing up.

So I don't know how I feel about this guy yet. Am I really going to try to explain what this thing is about? A mildly fantasy/ dream scape novel that switches back and forth between the main characters' parallel universes. The first half is that he's a part of some research/ experiment of the mind gone wrong. The second half sounds more like a dream of his where he is separated from his shadow and ponders being one with it again. It's confusing because you can't determine which is reality versus which is just a world in his conscious. I did like the pop culture references...["Bob Dylan sounds like a child singing to the rain"], the search to learn about unicorns, and lastly how the main character spends the last of his days. There is always something interesting about someone who knows that their world is going to end soon, and does what he wants to make it worthwhile. I also think that Murakami is a bit of a chauvinist, cause of all his random sex spiels with his character's librarian lover and spurts of having to talk about the character's being so well read (I read Balzac and Turgenev..'you don't read anything modern?' I've read Razor's Edge 3 times) uh yea. More or less a good read, and I just might be on of those who read everything by this guy. Okay probably not. The getting slit in the stomach was a bit much for me to handle.

The Politics of Happiness

lovely, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.

One common measure of how clean a mountain stream is to look for trout. If you find the trout, the habitat is healthy. It's the same way with children in the city. Children are a kind of indicator. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.

All this pedestrian infrastructure shows respect for human dignity. We're telling people, "You are important -- not because you're rich or because you have a Ph.D., but because you are human." If people are treated as special, as sacred even, they behave that way. This creates a different kind of society.

-Penalosa's thoughts via Bicycle Diaries

So I'm cheating and I'm blogging about this right before I finish the last 30 pages. I actually didn't expect that much and that is when things tend to turn out better. (I guess that's the way I see things in general anyway.) So the whole biking thing is pretty minimal compared to David Byrne's opinionated rants with everything that he comes across in his travels. He has a fold up bike that he packs with him almost everywhere and does include a tips and what to wear guide at the end. What really pulled me towards this book is that he writes about the places that I have been i.e. London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Manila, San Francisco-duh, and New York. Even though his biking insights were nominal, I really began to appreciate his perspective about things... his anti corporate, advocacy, music and art spiel (does insanity really make a good artist).. he's more down to earth and had some legitimate insight. He also really knew his history about Manila and the Marcos' and martial law.

"Language is primarily a useful tool born out of a need for control... What may have begun as an instrument of social and economic control has now been internalized by us as a mark of being civilized..." One of his ideas about why tribes in the Philippine had to begin to adopt a formal language.

It's good for a bit of personal philosophy (that at least I can say I agree with some of his pov) rather than a book about travels, biking, and music reference... It really is his stinking diary written for the masses. one thumb up.

Pavel: Are you going to blog about this?

Okay yea I'll blog about it. My thighs and calves are girthier and the ride was beautiful, until we got to Palo Alto. People are always nice and you can tell when you've reached city lines when the road is cracked and rocky. The cities in the "ghetto", 3rd st and East Palo Alto always have to the most character and look like they have the best places to eat. Santa Clara and anything around San Thomas, Central expressway are horrid and make you travel the most indirect way.

The hardest part was overcoming boredom on expressways, then tired arms, numb toes from the cold, and burning eyes and thighs. I am still soooooo thrilled about it, and it was the best way to spend my last Saturday of Spring break. Oh yea... all with a psi of 80. ouch.


P.S. - I love boathouses.

wierdo 1am

wierdo 1am, originally uploaded by ter -ri -fic!.