gonna make a brand new start of it
Last evening of the last break to waste, and I must say I'm doing a wonderful job. Have managed to discover Dvorakian opera (Rusalka), finish Tales of the South Pacific, have dinner with daddums, and watch Trading Places and Revenge of the Nerds. Lest my goofing off impress you too much, I also did get a presentation for tomorrow put together, though it may be a moot point as I am losing my voice.
I spent the bulk of the break in NYC staying at a friend's, eating and sleeping and wandering around. It was relaxing, and made doubly so by witnessing the hubbub that I wasn't a part of in that city. I saw Grant's Tomb, a planetarium show narrated by gravelly Harrison Ford, the UN, and a lot of coffee/bakery/fancy food stores. Grant's Tomb is about the quietest place in New York, it seems, and worth a trip. Had really good vodka in Little Odessa in a store called "L'Chaim," ate meat to bursting at a Brazilian Grill, and learned all about Sarah Bernhardt at the Jewish Museum. I did a lot, but very sedately, and mostly enjoyed sitting back, maxin' relaxing and cooling. Or whatnot.
Came back early to work on my thesis, which blew up shortly before break. The lid's back on now, and I'm on schedule to finish even if I procrastinate some this week. The very nice thing is, I can continue this seclusion I enjoy so much for the next two or three weeks by telling people I can't do anything due to my thesis.
I've been waiting to write until I finished the Tales on purpose. I also finished Death in Berlin by MM Kaye and Ordinary Men by Browning. I've written a little about the Death in ___ series before, I think- with the young, beautiful, financially independent and adequately educated girls who find themselves in the middle of a killing spree and genteel English people and are neatly fished out of it by a tall, silent, capable-type man who then marries them. I only have Death in the Andamans left, and I'm saving it for a post-thesis treat. Ordinary Men was mentioned before. I was clued into it at, of all places, a particularly good party, by a history major type friend. It's all about the older men who were assigned to kill entire villages one shot at a time, and "clean out" ghettos in Poland during the height of the Final Solution. It was a bunch of history, then the final chapter was a summary of studies on how easy it is for people to rationalize hurting each other, and how easy it is to do cruel things if you don't think very hard about it. Said something good about not enough heroes and too many perpetrators and victims in that war. It's hard to point the finger afterwards when everyone seemed to have had some actions fit to be ashamed of during the thing. Death in Berlin was a fortuitous read after- cheerier, as much as a murder mystery can be, it was set in Berlin in 1953, and the repercussions of the war in Germany and the collective guilt were touched upon. Tales made it a WWII triple threat, and was really a fantastic set of stories. All the short parts add up in storyline to one big novel, but each is good enough to read alone. Taken together they're magnificent. It's all about heroes and ordinary men and the effects of war and prejudice and getting wiser and courage and waiting and doing a good job. I've never read any of Michener's other stuff- it always seemed from his section of the library that he was going for quantity rather than quality of output. Of everything I've written about here, this is the only thing I'd recommend without hesitation to anyone.
Had a chance to start Anatomy of Revolution. To the point so far. I probably ought to dig up a history of the French Revolution too, it seems I know nothing about it.
I spent the bulk of the break in NYC staying at a friend's, eating and sleeping and wandering around. It was relaxing, and made doubly so by witnessing the hubbub that I wasn't a part of in that city. I saw Grant's Tomb, a planetarium show narrated by gravelly Harrison Ford, the UN, and a lot of coffee/bakery/fancy food stores. Grant's Tomb is about the quietest place in New York, it seems, and worth a trip. Had really good vodka in Little Odessa in a store called "L'Chaim," ate meat to bursting at a Brazilian Grill, and learned all about Sarah Bernhardt at the Jewish Museum. I did a lot, but very sedately, and mostly enjoyed sitting back, maxin' relaxing and cooling. Or whatnot.
Came back early to work on my thesis, which blew up shortly before break. The lid's back on now, and I'm on schedule to finish even if I procrastinate some this week. The very nice thing is, I can continue this seclusion I enjoy so much for the next two or three weeks by telling people I can't do anything due to my thesis.
I've been waiting to write until I finished the Tales on purpose. I also finished Death in Berlin by MM Kaye and Ordinary Men by Browning. I've written a little about the Death in ___ series before, I think- with the young, beautiful, financially independent and adequately educated girls who find themselves in the middle of a killing spree and genteel English people and are neatly fished out of it by a tall, silent, capable-type man who then marries them. I only have Death in the Andamans left, and I'm saving it for a post-thesis treat. Ordinary Men was mentioned before. I was clued into it at, of all places, a particularly good party, by a history major type friend. It's all about the older men who were assigned to kill entire villages one shot at a time, and "clean out" ghettos in Poland during the height of the Final Solution. It was a bunch of history, then the final chapter was a summary of studies on how easy it is for people to rationalize hurting each other, and how easy it is to do cruel things if you don't think very hard about it. Said something good about not enough heroes and too many perpetrators and victims in that war. It's hard to point the finger afterwards when everyone seemed to have had some actions fit to be ashamed of during the thing. Death in Berlin was a fortuitous read after- cheerier, as much as a murder mystery can be, it was set in Berlin in 1953, and the repercussions of the war in Germany and the collective guilt were touched upon. Tales made it a WWII triple threat, and was really a fantastic set of stories. All the short parts add up in storyline to one big novel, but each is good enough to read alone. Taken together they're magnificent. It's all about heroes and ordinary men and the effects of war and prejudice and getting wiser and courage and waiting and doing a good job. I've never read any of Michener's other stuff- it always seemed from his section of the library that he was going for quantity rather than quality of output. Of everything I've written about here, this is the only thing I'd recommend without hesitation to anyone.
Had a chance to start Anatomy of Revolution. To the point so far. I probably ought to dig up a history of the French Revolution too, it seems I know nothing about it.
posted by meg at 11:57 PM
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