READING NOTES AND COMMENTARY #READING

Ah, how the year progresses. September is now done and we are entering fall. Here is my reading notes and thoughts for the month of September. As always taken from memory and impressions. 1. Proust. I have read all but the last 40 pages of Vol IV of Remembrance of Things Past. Titled "Cities of the Plain". In the revised edition, which I am not reading, it is called Sodom and Gomorrah". It follows the story of M and the other characters of the novel as they continue to pursue their desires through society. Here are my observations on this volume: Proust definitely is exploring homosexuality in society and the degree to which it is hidden and yet everywhere. The beginning with the observation of the "courtship" of Charlus and Jupien is wonderful. The obsession with "secret lives". Various sexual tastes. The idea of desire and when you attain its object it is disappointing is carried on in this volume. M is not capable of happiness because when he ...

As July ended my reading notes for the Month. I am almost done with Gone With The Wind. Thoughts so far: it is an artifact of the time. Truly racist in its view of history and race in America. It reflects most of the thinking of a majority of Americans in the 1930's I am sure. Good Points: Scarlett O'Hara was one of the first real feminine Anti-Heroes. It is a surprisingly feminist novel that did not have a lot of good things to say about men. Good story over a period of time. Bad Points: Racist with slaves portrayed as childlike, sub human (lots of monkey references) and either loyal "darkies" or free issue "N******". Theory from this woman who knew no more about slavery in 1930's than she did about moon landings is that slaves were treated well, more like honored servants than property, never really sold, never sexually abused and never murdered unless they were "uppity". Klan was a group of patriots who defended women from the uncontro...

I finally finished Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. All 8 volumes of the Folio Society Edition. Gibbon was the exemplar of the idea of the artist/scholar and his life masterwork. Others have labored a long time over one major work: Boswell, Proust, Cervantes. But Gibbon seems to me the epitome of this act of creation. A long tale, told with many asides and anecdotes. He takes us on a tour of what he calls "the greatest, perhaps, the most awful scene in the history of mankind". Was it? In many ways yes. It was the formal end of "classical" civilization. But it was also the beginnings of modern civilization as well. Europe, the Mideast, Asia as we know it came from the ashes of this fall. Lets provide a few notes: 1. First the Question: Was it the greatest and most awful scene in the history of mankind? We know so little of the actual history of mankind it is hard to judge. To each person's end it is the most awful. When the last population o...

Well I finished the story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. It was quite a read. Some thoughts: MM view of history is informed by being a Southern Woman in the 1930's. This was approximately 65 to 70 years after the Civil War. There were still a few around who were alive during that time. The South of her girlhood and adulthood was still smarting from the defeat. The Lost Cause school was going strong among popular historians and During the 20 and 30's the new medium of The Movies. Birth of a Nation gave popular voice to this view to millions of small town rural Americans and it became received wisdom to many. Slavery was mainly a benign institution, "the Negro" was not fully human and was more childlike and actual loved their masters, that it was Northern abolitionists, who for their own gain, "stirred up" the slaves. After the war the freed slaves and the Northern Carpetbaggers aided by Southern "scalawags" oppressed the south. And the...

I love to read. Both for pleasure and to learn something. Which has its own pleasures. I read to escape. I read to help clarify ideas that have been bouncing around in my head. For fun, for knowledge, for wisdom. To commune with minds long gone from the earth but whose thoughts and ideas and emotions and passions still resonate with me. Readers all know each other. We are all of the same tribe. We might read different things and we might read for different reasons but we all love to read. And reading has its sibling passions: books and book collecting, libraries and reading rooms, spoken word and writing. Journals, dairies and notebooks. When I met my wife I knew that we both loved books and reading. We bonded over shared authors, great stories and a passion for books. How do I read? We all have our favorite ways to read. Some do it on the commute, some sitting in the park. Travel reading, bathroom reading, quiet middle of the night, early morning, sleepy afternoon reading. Some li...