— I’m trying to figure out what I want to read this year. I have a TBR book stack a mile long. Books carried over from not only last yeaer but 3rd grade. I have 2 books from Lisa for my birthday that I am dying to read – I started them over Christmas, but then got distracted from them because it was hard to read that Christmas week. More to be read: I think I’m finally going to read War and Peace<\/a> But now finally the Sun, on Monday the 4th of May, has risen;–unconcerned, as if it were no special day. And yet, as his first rays could strike music from the Memnon’s Statue on the Nile, what tones were these, so thrilling, tremulous of preparation and foreboding, which he awoke in every bosom at Versailles! Huge Paris, in all conceivable and inconceivable vehicles, is pouring itself forth; from each Town and Village come subsidiary rills; Versailles is a very sea of men. But above all, from the Church of St. Louis to the Church of Notre-Dame: one vast suspended-billow of Life,–with spray scattered even to the chimney-pots! For on chimney- tops too, as over the roofs, and up thitherwards on every lamp-iron, sign- post, breakneck coign of vantage, sits patriotic Courage; and every window bursts with patriotic Beauty: for the Deputies are gathering at St. Louis Church; to march in procession to Notre-Dame, and hear sermon.<\/p>\n Yes, friends, ye may sit and look: boldly or in thought, all France, and all Europe, may sit and look; for it is a day like few others. Oh, one might weep like Xerxes:–So many serried rows sit perched there; like winged creatures, alighted out of Heaven: all these, and so many more that follow them, shall have wholly fled aloft again, vanishing into the blue Deep; and the memory of this day still be fresh. It is the baptism-day of Democracy; sick Time has given it birth, the numbered months being run. The extreme-unction day of Feudalism! A superannuated System of Society, decrepit with toils (for has it not done much; produced you, and what ye have and know!)–and with thefts and brawls, named glorious-victories; and with profligacies, sensualities, and on the whole with dotage and senility,–is now to die: and so, with death-throes and birth-throes, a new one is to be born. What a work, O Earth and Heavens, what a work! Battles and bloodshed, September Massacres, Bridges of Lodi, retreats of Moscow, Waterloos, Peterloos, Tenpound Franchises, Tarbarrels and Guillotines;–and from this present date, if one might prophesy, some two centuries of it still to fight! Two centuries; hardly less; before Democracy go through its due, most baleful, stages of Quackocracy; and a pestilential World be burnt up, and have begun to grow green and young again.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Read the passage again. And then read it again. The ENTIRE BOOK is like that. Every page<\/i> a lament of horror, a cry for justice, a howl of grief – in that type of language. You never get a break. It is a deep rich historical pool – full of terrifying Dante’s Inferno images … anyway. But still. It is slow-going, man! I am determined to finish it.<\/p>\n — I’ve got some political books I’m reading. The more strident the better. I have been so … well, whatever. I can’t take introspective writing right now. I’ll move in that direction again … but for now, I need to hear some screams of outrage – from both political parties. Even if I think those who are screaming have screws loose all over the damn place, I find their frenzy strangely comforting. It’s refreshing to be around stupid people sometimes.<\/p>\n — When I’m ready to leave the shrieking politicos behind, I’m going to re-read James Salter’s A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel<\/a> — A couple pictures I have always loved below the jump.<\/p>\n Paul Newman in class at The Actors Studio<\/p>\n \n Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, newlyweds<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" — Rented Zodiac. It’s fantastic – just as good as everyone says. See it. — Had another one of my 700 dollar hair cuts and colors on Saturday (only, you know, I got it for free, cause of the whole … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thesheivari-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1400079985\")
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