Reading: A Princess of Mars by Burroughs
Also reading: The City We Became by Jemisin
Also reading: The Face in the Frost by Bellairs
Listening to: The hum of the dehumidifier
Drinking: Lemon water
Category: input update (Page 2 of 4)
I should really make these, like, a weekly thing…
Listening to: Macroblank on Bandcamp (I know nothing about this artist other than I really like listening to him while I work)
Reading: A Princess of Mars by Burroughs
Also Reading: Bright Lights, Big City by McInerney
Watching: Out of the Past and some other old noir (for inspiration)
Drinking: Lots of tea (iced, hot, Darjeeling, herbal)
Listening to: Kokoroko’s debut album Could We Be More
Reading: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Also Reading: 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl
Drinking: Water (for reasons yet unknown)
Listening to: All my R.E.M. albums
Watching: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Reading: Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
Also reading: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Vol. 2: The Door to Saturn
Writing: The penultimate chapter of my novella, Gates to Illvelion
Listening to: Tangerine Dream stuff
Listening to: Michael Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in D
Reading: “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Drinking: Magners Cider
My reading list grows ever longer. The Coleridge came about because I was rereading How to Be Idle, and there’s a little anecdote about how Coleridge probably got the idea for the poem after walking in the countryside and taking some opium. Does not surprise me. I hadn’t read “Kubla Khan” in awhile, but reading it again was fabulous. Very DCC RPG in a lot of ways.
Other books currently reading or in the queue: The Two Towers, Labyrinth (yes, the movie novelization), On Lying in Bed and Other Essays (by G.K. Chesterton), Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers, and Jack of Shadows (this one is in the queue). Plus, I have about a dozen more I really want to start reading in earnest. Too many books. I really need a week off from everything just so I can read. It will never happen, but a girl can dream.
Reading: The Right to Useful Unemployment by Ivan Illich
Listening to: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #1
Watching: The Last Blockbuster
I have thoughts about nostalgia, video rental stores, Blockbuster Video, the documentary referenced above, etc. that I might riff on in another blog post. Overall, the best parts of the documentary were in watching Sandi the Blockbuster store manager do her thing, and seeing how a humanely-run and community-oriented business can be such an important part of people’s lives (the humanely-run and community-oriented business in question is specifically the franchised Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, not Blockbuster stores in general).
As far as the Illich book, I don’t know what to think. I was very excited to read it, and it’s the first of his books I’ve tried, but I’m worried that I’m not intellectually up to the task (i.e.: I’m not a good enough reader/not smart enough).
I feel like maybe I’m not getting the nuances of Illich’s points. Based on my reading so far (about 2/3s through), his ideas would fit right in with today’s Covid anti-vaxxers and denialists. And yet, thinkers I admire like Sam Rocha and L.M. Sacasas are Illich guys (as is Mr. Idler Tom Hodgkinson) so I’m not sure if I’m just reading Illich wrong, misunderstanding him, or being too quick to lump him in with the “Free Michigan” people who stormed my state’s capital last spring. Or maybe my reading of the book is right, and Illich would be very much against the vaccine and masks and everything related to slowing the spread of Covid, things I consider to be necessary for the common good and do out of concern for my fellow humans. David Cayley’s piece on Illich and Covid seems to indicate that I am reading him right, which is kinda… bleh.
I was very excited to dive into Illich’s writings because I’ve become more and more disillusioned with our current meritocracy, with our hyper-Capitalist society, and with the ways in which we devalue work that doesn’t contribute to the GDP. But in reading this book and seeing Illich argue against things like gynecology and giving birth in a hospital just seems insane to me. I and/or my daughter probably wouldn’t be alive today without modern obstetrics. His weird swipe against breast self-exams and mastectomies was jarring too. Like, why are you against women getting treatment for breast cancer, Illich?
Anyway, maybe I’m not following his argument or I’m missing some important details. I’m planning to give Tools for Conviviality a try next.
