Cybèle, Sacha-Cannelle, Ezra, Fritz, Perle, Isis, and Daisy — these are the names of just a few of the animals, both real and fictional — that I know and love. That particular menagerie is composed of cats and dogs and... an elephant, though I tend to take a shine to most every critter in the animal kingdom that I come across. This one up here is no exception. I’ve forgotten how he came to be mine, though I have faint recollections of a shop with beautiful artifacts having a closing sale. Yes, he’s just a small sculpture and I have no idea what kind of creature he’s meant to represent or if he’s the product of the artist’s imagination, but every time I look at him, he makes me smile. I am often tempted to sketch him, just for the pleasure of exploring his sinewy lines over and over again. The advantage this little guy has over many of the animals I know is that he can keep perfectly still for long stretches of time, unlike Fritz for example, who refuses to keep a pose more than 3 seconds at a time. This might explain why you are more likely to see drawings of this inanimate critter again before catching a glimpse of a drawing of Fritz; the little devil even manages to wriggle around when he sleeps.
May 12, 2008
Critter Love
May 11, 2008
This is for you...
... because you’re fierce
... because you’re my friend.
This is true everyday but Mother’s Day is
as good an occasion as any to tell you again...
I love you.
xx
Top photo: Nobert Rosing for National Geographic
bottom photo unknown
May 10, 2008
Quote & Drawing
“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.”
~ Albert Camus
Conté on dark paper
.
May 9, 2008
Mullah Nasrudin: Moon or Sun?
Nasrudin is sitting in a café. One of his neighbors says,
“Hey, which is more practical - the Moon or the Sun?”
“The Moon, of course!” Nasrudin says without thinking.
“But why?” “When do you think we need light more -
in the daytime or at night?”
Photo by miss insomnia tulip, Flickr
May 8, 2008
Thirteen Things About Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke [#22]
I just finished Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in the wee hours of the morning. It was a very satisfying read and I considered writing a book review of sorts, but then realizing that today is Thursday and that I hadn’t participated in the Thursday Thirteen last week, I thought I’d do a list of 13 Things about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell:
1. The book looks a little bit intimidating what with it’s 800+ pages, but you quickly forget how huge it is once you get into it — except for the wrist strain you might experience from holding it up.
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell are the two main characters of the book. We’re introduced to Mr. Norrell first, who quickly establishes himself as the only magician in England. Later on, he meets Jonathan Strange who becomes his pupil.
3. We’re repeatedly told that Mr. Norrell has the most comprehensive collection of magic books in all of England, with a library containing some four or five thousand volumes. These books are the only source of existing knowledge for anyone who wants to practice magic. One of the reasons Norrell’s collection is so large is that he’s acquired all the magic books on the market over the years — mainly to ensure that no one else has access to them — and he guards them jealously. He eventually lets Strange read some, but by no means all of them.
4. Norrell & Strange are much like Jekyll & Hyde. Where one is reclusive, insecure and intent on doing things “by the book” (Norrell), the other is gregarious, outgoing, and all too willing to experiment and push the envelope (Strange). They are like two sides of a coin alternatively enjoying each other’s company and openly engaging in feuds.
5. The book takes place in the early 1800's during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Norrell and Strange are eager to put magic at the service of the British army in order to defeat the French. Though they meet with much resistance at first, eventually the Duke of Wellington makes good use of Jonathan Strange’s growing talent (which is largely attributed to the forty or fifty books he’s managed to wrangle from Norrell as well as his own inventiveness).
6. It quickly becomes quite clear that the kind of magic that is performed by a “real” magician in this book has nothing to do with the kind of lame lounge acts that passes for magic in these parts; there’s not a hint of a playing cards, top hats or bunnies. The author has taken every liberty so that what is called “magic” is in fact more akin to the order of miracles.
7. One of the reviews on the front cover of the book says “Ravishing... superb... combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien” ~ Time
8. If you want to raise someone from the dead, all you have to do is summon a faerie who will demand as payment half the person’s remaining lifetime and a left pinkie finger.
9. Unlike what I learned from faerie books as a child, faeries can be male and can also be incredibly superficial, vengeful and bloodthirsty creatures who can and will make anyone’s life a living hell... just for the heck of it.
10. You don’t have to be English to appreciate English magic and/or this book. In fact, Susanna Clarke has done a brilliant job at recreating the scenery and settings, the clothes, the sights, the smells, that you are easily transported the 19th England, whether you’ve been there or not.
11. I enjoyed the storytelling, the prose, which read very much like a 19th century book, the overall pacing, the little details such as ancient spelling on some words and the use of “footnotes” which serve to further inform the reader about English magic, yet did find that all this sometimes weighed the story down.
12. The critics part 1: “Clarke's narrative is a studious pastiche of leisurely, discursive 19th-century prose, complete with archaic spellings (...) and a copious use of faux-pedantic footnotes. The result is a sort of Jane Austen Powers. (...) If the book ends up as engaging rather than riveting, cosy rather rather than visceral, that represents a distinguishing mark of its sub-genre as opposed to a flaw in the author's craftsmanship.” ~ Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent
13. The critics part 2: “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is at heart a book about the present’s relationship to the past. In its pages Clarke takes the accepted fabric of English culture and inserts just a single new thread: that during the Renaissance, magic actually worked. (...) What makes the novel so impressive, however, is Susanna Clarke's flair for pastiche and her astonishing explanatory footnotes.” ~ Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
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May 7, 2008
The Tortoise And The Hare (epilogue)
The lesson of The Tortoise And The Hare as interpreted in the article which I posted yesterday is a valuable one — especially in an age where speed and efficiency are the most highly praised qualities — but it has always left me wondering what to make of those individuals who are alternatively faster or slower than most. I wonder about that because I myself have spent the better part of my life switching between turtle and hare behaviour, depending on where my energy cycles took me, or as the doctors would say, depending on which end of the bipolar spectrum I happened to be in. I’m wondering about all this because I find myself in a place that feels unnatural to me and which I suspect is in large part due to the medications I’m taking. It’s not so much that I think there’s anything wrong with being slow of body and mind, but lack of motivation is not easily overcome and I’m constantly expecting the energy surge to kick in as it always has before so I can get up and start making up for lost time, do all the things I want to do and get my self-esteem back. I could always count on that before, and now that it’s been taken away from me “for my own good” I find myself having to learn to function with only half of the tools that I came equipped with in the first place. No easy task.
My mum and I have had many exchanges about this since she knows me better than anyone, and even though I agree with her practical point of view, it doesn’t change the fact that I feel stuck. Like a dog tied to a pole after it’s spun it’s way around it to free itself, only to find it’s run out of chain and is choking stuck. How to explain to the dog that it’s tied down for it’s own good when the animal remembers the joy of running careless and free? How to explain to someone who is capable of being a turtle and a hare, and also a horse, dolphin, buffalo, eagle, frog, wolf, deer crow or antelope (among others) and isn’t bound to any of those creatures that from now on she must live solely as a turtle, and a particularly slow one even by turtle standards? With all due respect to the self-loving turtles out there, how do I make peace with the fact that someone else has chosen that I’m better off being slow when I’m happiest being fast (or at least free to roam)? I hope you forgive me for all this self-pity, and I know I’ll eventually surmount it but I guess I’m not done mourning the parts of me that I happen to love most.
May 6, 2008
Mullah Nasrudin - The Book
While on a trip to another village, Nasrudin lost his favorite copy of the Qur’an.
Several weeks later, a goat walked up to Nasrudin, carrying the Qur’an in its mouth.
Nasrudin couldn’t believe his eyes. He took the precious book out of the goat’s mouth, raised his eyes heavenward and exclaimed, “It’s a miracle!”
“Not really,” said the goat. “Your name is written inside the cover.”
The Tortoise And The Hare
The classic tale of the tortoise and the hare reminds us that different people take life at different speeds and that one way is not necessarily superior to another. In fact, in the story the slower animal ends up arriving at the destination first. In the same way, some of us seem to move very quickly through the issues and obstacles we all face in our lives while others need long periods of time to process their feelings and move into new states of awareness. For those of us who perceive ourselves as moving quickly, it can be painful and exasperating to deal with someone else’s slower pace. Yet, just like the tortoise and the hare, we all end up arriving at the same destination eventually.
People who take their time with things are probably in the minority in most of the world today. We live in a time when speed and productivity are valued above almost anything else. Therefore, people who flow at a slower pace are out of sync with the world and are often pestered and prodded to go faster and do more. This can be not only frustrating but also counterproductive because the stress of being pushed to move faster than one is able to move actually slows progress. On the other hand, if a person's style is honored and supported, they will find their way in their own time and, just like the tortoise, they might just beat the speedier, more easily distracted person to the finish line.
It's important to remember that we are not actually in a race to get somewhere ahead of someone else, and it is difficult to judge by appearances whether one person has made more progress than another. Whether you count yourself among the fast movers or as one of the slower folks, we can all benefit from respecting the pace that those around us choose for themselves. This way, we can keep our eyes on our own journey, knowing that we will all end up together in the end.
~ Adapted from a DailyOm article, from December 27, 2007
Every day I receive this kind of inspirational article from DailyOm. This one in particular spoke to me today. And while it’s an interesting article, they don’t mention anything about people who alternate between being tortoises and hares, as I have. Those individuals must be particularly rare. I definitely know what category I’m in right now. What about you?
Illustration from Project Gutenberg
May 5, 2008
May 4, 2008
Off-Kilter
Just a quick entry tonight. I went to bed with a headache last night and when I woke up this morning, the headache had worsened and I felt the symptoms of a cold. I hadn’t had a cold in the past 18 months at least, and seeing how isolated I keep myself and the amount of vitamin C I get, what with my freshly squeezed grapefruit juice every morning, have no idea how I could have caught it. To top it all off, it was grey and gloomy outside and the apartment was freezing, so I just stayed toasty under the covers and wafted back into sleep with Fritz lying on top of me. I was late afternoon by the time I woke up again, at which point I had every intention of doing something with myself, but soon realized my brain had turned to cottage cheese, a condition which apparently could only be alleviated with a long nap, again, with Fritz laying on top of me. After getting all that sleep, of course I felt out of sorts and the best I could manage this evening was to make myself a delicious salad and watch Dexter, Cold Case, and House reruns on TV. Can’t be a champ every day I guess (but my salads really do rock).