I took the line "printing is the only thing stopping the revolution" from @shengwangtime's standup and applied it to literary and real examples of ways in which oppressors intentionally look the other way so the oppressed can blow off some steam.
https://t.co/bnYAsDLSaX
4/21 I attended @litrvk w/ Pedro Gunnlaugur Garcia who spoke about his book Lungu & translation: "There’s no joy in writing, in translating maybe. It’s like a game of Tetris. These words fall down and you need to translate them. When you put the blocks together, they disappear."
"The more detailed the grammar... the less likely it is to be of any practical use to most writers and speakers." Chicago Manual of Style. -- Didn't expect to find CMoS so accessible and unstuffy or to find "front matter" so fascinating 📖
Pablo Neruda: "el más fresco de todos / los planetas, / la redonda, suprema y celestial sandía." ("the coolest of all planets / crosses the sky, / the rounded, supreme / and celestial watermelon.) -- Never had I realized just how much a watermelon looks like a planet
“…let them take risks, for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches—that is the right & privilege of any free American.” –Edward Abbey’s vision for national parks visitors (Desert Solitaire). Not sure I could hang.
Desert Solitaire: "I hold no preference among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. (Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!)." —Edward Abbey would not approve of my potted plant collection, though I enjoy greenery in captivity.
Not endorsing the violence of this line, but it best exemplified John Dos Passos depicting accent/dialect in his WWI story: Three Soldiers. Bit of a challenge to understand at times, especially Americanized French when they’re near “the front.”
“Second breakfast”—yes! With waking up so early for runs, what I eat at 5 a.m. has no chance of lasting me until noon, especially with a 12 miler in between. I couldn’t be more excited to try the many tantalizing recipes in @ShalaneFlanagan + @ElyseKopecky’s Rise&Run cookbook.
@chaayekahani Kind of reminds me of the children’s books: A Series of Unfortunate Events. The narrator tells you to put down the book instead of reading all those unfortunate events in the story. Something about being told NOT to read something (or to skip it) that really makes you want to!
“The sediment of colonial rule lay deep in African society.” - The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith. Among many issues when establishing systems of gov, democracy was introduced to colonies too late. So, leaders were most familiar w/ officials wielding enormous personal power.
@spacebee@goodreads@neilhimself@terryandrob@michaelsheen Just read Ocean at the end of the Lane by Neil Gaiman for a book club & had never read anything by him before. Feels like the moment when you buy a red car & notice all the red cars on the road; fun to see someone mention another of his stories :) I’ll have to check this one out!
@goodreads I read Milkman by Anna Burns for a book club. Only the audiobook was available at the library, and I LOVED it. An Irish woman narrated. I think listening gave me a whole different perspective. People have some really mixed reactions to this book in general though!
“I did not know what to do when adults cried.… Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.” —The Ocean at the End of the Lane by @neilhimself. Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, who is still a great source of comfort♥️
“His green eyes shift back and forth as he searches for the right place, his fingers nimble, built for turning pages.” - Allegiant by Veronica Roth. I’d like to think my fingers were built for turning the pages of a book too.