1. My library card has been found! It was in a bag that I had already thoroughly searched, so CLEARLY the villain who absconded with it (in my mind, he looks like the hamburgler) is trying to gaslight me with some replacement shenanigans.
2. Wildlife as good omen: Saturday I saw a bald eagle and last week a pair of hawks flew right over my head in the middle of the city. I don't know why, but these seemed like good things to me, especially the hawks. Oh, and the butterfly!
3. The Handler/Meloy reading was such fun! (despite the fact that parking is WORSE in suburban mall parking lot Beaverton than it is downtown.) more details soon. Here is a quote (re: Edward Gorey) to give you an idea of the tone of the discussion. "In my dreams, I killed him." (it was funny, I swear!)
4. I have a library nemesis. Well, okay, maybe he's just a competent adult volunteer who has been working the same time as I have the past couple of Sundays... but I'm the competent adult who works for free on Sundays! I am spoiled and accustomed to doing my own thing and he's horning in on my projects... I'm getting some quality muttering in, let me tell you. (truthfully, the worst part is that I was thrown for such a loop at the interruption to my routine and assumed that they brought him in because somehow I wasn't good enough. LUNACY! I am apparently quite happy to be the imagined center of the universe, but only if I can put some sort of negative spin on it. I'm better now. Mostly.) In other news, my library nemesis was at the Handler/ Meloy reading, which was hilarious to my companions because I had been regaling them with tales of his villainy on the way over ("and then he PUT ALL THE BOOKS AWAY!").
Ah, to have a nemesis again. My imagined celebrity nemesis (Oprah) is no fun, because she NEVER shows up at the book readings I go to.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I see from you all consuming that you are reading Kleist. I love Kleist! Does it have Earthquake in Chile in it (I think that's probably what it's called in not German)? That is my favorite, especially the line about the pious daughters of the city gathering on their balconies to picnic and watch public executions. It's a REALLY good story. Plus, I'm really fond of it, because it is the novella that wasted 10 minutes of my oral Master's exam when two of my committee members got into a fight over a question one of them asked me. It was AWESEOME (and delightfully time frittering)! You'll have to tell me how you like him.
I will have to check and see if this collection has that story -- I hope so! I found Kleist because Francine Prose recommended The Marquise of O in "How to Read Like a Writer" (which I think you would like.) I had just gotten started then had to take it back to the library, so this is my second time around with it. (it's upstairs or I would check right now.) I am very excited to know that it inspired Committee Member fighting! Were blows exchanged?
ReplyDeleteupdate: The Earthquake in Chile is there! Is it a novella? it looks like a really short story to me. Maybe I got some kind of jive abridged version (!outrage!) or maybe it's longer in German? Anyway, I look forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteNo, it is definitely a novella. It's not super long, but maybe you did get an abridged version. In the cobwebbed German lit section of my brain, is that memory that the genre in that tradition is not so much about length as it is about focus(single event, unexpected turning point). I remember reading this whole arousal/tumescence/release article on it back in the day, but mostly only because of the discussion afterwards, which featured a glimpse into just how giddy only a middle aged prof can get about comparing literary form to orgasms. I'll stop there before I veer into WC territory. Whatever you call it, it is one of my faves.
ReplyDeleteOooh -- thanks for the novella 411. I'd only heard about them in the context of length (not really long enough to be a novel, etc.) rather than in terms of focus, but of course that makes perfect sense! I haven't gotten to Earthquake yet, but I am looking forward to it. I looked again and I don't think this is abridged, but it is of course in English which I'm sure changes things a fair amount.
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