Ted is reading Middlemarch and I have so been loving his thoughts on the book. One of the main responses I had to the book was that it actually excited me. It was an exhilarating read. Omniscient and personal, at the same time.
I also loved Ted’s comment here:
But there is something I am finding satisfying about the contrast in the pacing of this book with the rest of my New York life. After a long day of school orientation and classes, I read just 20 pages before going to sleep last night, where I will usually read 60-80 in something from the pile by the bed.
I so know what he is talking about. It’s kind of like my experience with War and Peace
right now – a book I have almost no time to read … but that’s okay, because it’s so big, I feel like I can take my time. I am still only halfway through (just came to the astonishing cross-dressing scene – where Rostov realizes he loves Sonya – pretty much because she has a mustache on … it’s quite blatant … and I had actually gotten a kind of gay vibe from him earlier in the book – his hero worship of men which borders on sexual frenzy … But look at how Tolstoy makes it overt here! Rostov can’t take his eyes off Sonya, and the feel of kissing her lips with the fake mustache brushing against his own is intensely erotic to him. Brill!) But anyway, life lately has been crazy. I run from place to place, and I was telling my mother how forgetful I’ve been lately. I “forgot” to pay my electric bill. Sheila, losers forget to pay their utilities. So be it. I just CAN’T get organized right now. My mother reminded me of how up-in-the-air our lives are right now, and to never forget that. “There is no terra firma right now,” she said … “so be gentle with yourself, and remember to, you know, be careful when you’re driving, and to check if the oven is on when you leave the house. Because our minds are so taken up with this other thing that we’re going to be making mistakes.” Excellent advice. Which I am trying to follow. I have Post-its around my house, reminding myself to do the things I need to do … because from one moment to the next I forget my own name.
In the midst of this, is the slow majestic sweep of Tolstoy’s masterpiece … which I read a couple of pages a day … and it’s exactly what I need right now.
Ted and I went out the other night for Portugese tapas and wine at a great little joint on the Upper West Side (with the most awesome bartender known to man) … and talked our heads off at each other for a couple of hours. We talked about books and movies and neuroscience and the wedding and religious fanaticism … it was a necessary touching-base for me. A couple months ago, we said to each other that we want to see each other more – not just 2 or 3 times a year – and so far, we’ve been sticking to that promise. It’s great. A friend like Ted you don’t come by every day.
Read Ted’s post.
This was so good for me to read today. My life has been just like this, for months (if not years). I always think I “can’t” read a huge book because I have to wait until things settle down but after reading this I could feel my pulse slow a little with the vision of reading 10-20 pages a night of W & P or The Brothers Karamazov or another big lunker that collects dust while I wait for everything to slow down. Oh! Maybe Proust!…
ALso love the Post-It idea. We just got back from visiting my parents and my daughter was amused at my mother’s little sign that she keeps by the oven that reads, “TURN OFF OVEN!” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve left ours on overnight. But yeah, all these little details just pile up and they are SO heavy when combined.
Diana – it’s awful, right?? Bah – suddenly a To Do List becomes a massive lifelong project as opposed to small manageable tasks!
I have the same thing with “big” books – I feel like I need to clear a space for them – just time-wise first of all, and also emotionally. But I am really enjoying taking my time with War and Peace. Sometimes the pace of the book is really fast, sometimes it meanders … but it’s always just where I left it, when I pick it up. I don’t get lost. I don’t have to backtrack and remind myself what’s happening. It’s wonderful – kind of relaxing, actually!
Right back at you!! Getting together with you is like an island I love to visit, but not of calm, neither of us really qualify for that! I guess of ideas and passions. It’s soooo important to see our good friends. I can complain as much as anyone about quality of life issues in contemporary life or NYC life, but part of it is up to me and one of the ways I put that quality in my life is by seeing you.
I can’t wait to read your Middlemarch experience. I have such a chunk of reading for class this weekend (and my new computer came) that I’m not sure exactly when. I also went on a cleaning rampage. I literally (there’s that word) scrubbed the floors with vinegar and water. School is starting and I know I need space so I did my accounts. Threw out the garbage, vacuumed, dusted, mopped, I’m cleaning off my desk and giving myself new tiered paper bins, I even emptied the computer’s trash. I’m going crazy to relieve myself of clutter so that I feel I can think. I haven’t resorted to post-its yet. Instead I have lists that I keep making and then filling and not discarding so that there are now eight of them, one is two-sided. It’s a disgrace. Consolidation is in order.
Ted – as long as your lists are written in your trusty purple pen, I think you will be FINE! Ha!!