Ummagumma

Note:  Spoilers Abound Around the summer of 2004 I was browsing a bookstore in the Atlanta area for something new to read.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.  After scanning the shelves for a half-hour or so I came across a thick paperback entitled A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin .  I was familiar with Martin’s work (mostly short stories I read in the early 1980’s) but did not own anything by him. Long-time readers know I am a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien .  I have read other science-fiction and fantasy works such as the Earth-Sea Trilogy , the Dragonriders of Pern , the Night’s Dawn Trilogy , and the Otherland series.  But I never felt that these works were as gripping as Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.  They were fun reads but nothing worthy of much consideration after reading.  They felt like unsatisfying imitations or wannabes of Tolkien’s immense literary creation. Thumbing through the novel I noticed that each chapter was written from a different character’s poi

I recently reached the milestone of my 60th birthday.  In most ways I feel better at 60 than I did at 50 .  In other ways I definitely feel my age.  But aging is not for sissies.  I don’t complain (much) and keep as mentally and physically active as possible.  There was no huge celebration with family that day.  We usually wait until Memorial Day and wrap my birthday up with another in our family.  One grill session, one cake; makes it easier on everyone getting together. At any rate, my plan on my actual birthday was to come home from work, maybe have a run, relax, perhaps drink a ceremonious scotch or two while sitting on my front porch watching the sunset.  But that was not to be. Jennifer called about mid-afternoon while I was at work to inform me that a ‘big’ dog was dead on my property.  Since we live practically in the middle of nowhere, one has to usually take care of these things oneself; no city or county services to assist.  I could have loaded the dog up on my truck and

In Search of Lost Time is a highly metaphorical work.  Thus far, I have only briefly touched on the myriad of themes and symbolism contained within the novel.  But here I will give a couple of examples so the reader will know that there is a lot more to Proust’s literary vision and lyrical, long-winded sentences than simply moving the plot forward at a glacial pace.  In The Guermantes Way , Proust uses fog and darkness as metaphors for what the narrator experiences in book three of the novel. He takes his first steps toward becoming a player in proper society and with that comes a great deal of confusion and lack of clarity. Let's start with the fog. It is introduced at Doncieres in Robert de Saint-Loup's room when the narrator awakens and opens the window to the morning. Proust uses windows a lot throughout the novel for various representational reasons and I'm sure someone somewhere has written extensively about how this metaphor is employed and what it might mean a

Book three of In Search of Lost Time is the longest of the novel, weighing in at 819 pages in  the Enright edition .  The Guermantes Way picks up an undetermined amount of time after where Within a Budding Grove left off.  The narrator is a bit older, around 20.  The title serves as a kind of contrast to Swann’s Way .  In the first book, that “way” was one of two walking paths near Combray, the other being called “the Guermantes Way.”  The latter is only mentioned in passing in the first novel, as the narrator spends much more time along the way by Swann’s country estate. Here the “way” is not near Combray, however.  It refers to the way of life of Parisian high society in the form of the Guermantes family’s aristocratic manner and social being.  The book begins with the narrator’s family moving into “a flat forming part of the Hotel de Guermantes” seeking improved conditions for the narrator’s grandmother, who has taken ill.  The book is divided into two parts of near equal lengt

For this Mother's Day Jennifer got a new backyard terrace.  Actually, it was planned back in February but, due to a very rainy spring among other obstacles, construction was delayed until recently.  The original terrace was made at the time the house was built back in 1993.  (I accidentally ran over the ties with my - then - new mower back in 2008 .  Not my finest hour but it gives the reader a good look at the original terrace.)  The cross-ties were all rotting, of course.  It was time for an upgrade. What transpired was about two weeks of semi-chaos, with the ripping up of the original feature and a great deal of high-impact activity by heavy equipment.  Our gravel driveway was more or less destroyed, but was put back together again in the end.  For a few days the whole project was a great annoyance.  Usually I freak out during such intrusive occurrences on my property.  But this was tolerable because I knew it wouldn't last long. The end result thrilled Jennifer.  I

I have mentioned before how much I enjoy reading National Review as a representation of conservative views.  The publication has been frequently critical of the Trump administration and has published articles and op-ed pieces featuring more moderate candidates. But, its attempt to articulate the perspective of what I would call "Eisenhower Republicans" is nevertheless housed in a regressive mindset, as is the nature of conservatism.  Which is fine, I like to consider issues from all points of view. Conservatives generally try to preserve policies and institutions.  Conservatism is not inherently innovative.  It is, in fact, the antithesis of innovation. The distinction between preservation and innovation is a topic I think deserves more attention in the future.  It can go a long way toward better framing the polarity in American politics today.  But, for this post, I want to focus simply on an example of how regressive thinking works.  A case in point is the recent artic