A Work in Progress

Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith

My weekly essay post is being pushed back to the middle of the week as I've spent all my reading time this weekend finishing Stevie Smith's Novel on Yellow Paper for the Slaves of Golconda (I should already know this...just because a book doesn't look long doesn't mean it's a quick read).  It's turned out to be a very challenging novel for me, the type that is perfect to tackle in a group setting.  I have a feeling that had I picked this one up on my own, I might have abandoned it for something else fairly quickly.  But I do think it's good to read outside one's comfort zone sometimes and be exposed to different sorts of writing styles.

Stevie Smith was primarily a poet, but she also wrote three novels.  She seems to have drawn heavily on her life in her work and some of the same motifs appear in her novels and poems.  Born in Hull in 1902 she was named Florence Margaret though nicknamed Stevie after a famous jockey.  She died of a brain tumor in 1971.  There's a few of the basics out of the way, now on to the harder part. 

Novel on Yellow Paper is an unusual novel.  It's not exactly linear in its telling.  It's not really episodic either, though I suppose arguments could be made that it is.  The reader is treated to the thoughts in Pompey Casmilus's head on a variety of subjects--Love, Death, Sex, Religion, Politics to name a few.  She's quite playful in many ways--speaking directly to the reader, adding poems to the text or being creative with wordplay and there's lots of repetition.  In some ways it was almost sing-songy and I could imagine this being spoken.  There's a fair amount of text in other languages--French, German, Latin (unfortunately my edition gave no translations), and lots of literary and mythological references.  Per my book's introduction:

"The talking voice of Pompey Casmilus flirts and fools with its reader and subject-matter alike.  It stops and starts, it dodges and teases.  It picks up a person or an idea and drops them flat out of sudden boredom; it plays with words and speech-patterns.  It speaks different languages, puts on foreign accents and funny disguises; it quotes from the literature of remote countries and centuries and the trash of contemporary England." 

I'm not sure I can share with you any of the greater truths that she speaks about--the under the surface stuff, but I can at least share with you some superficial aspects of the story.  Pompey is the private secretary of Sir Phoebus, who's very good to her.  She's writing a novel on yellow office paper (so she doesn't get it mixed up with the regular correspondence).  She travels to Germany on her holidays, though she wonders why she bothers.  It's not like school holidays, as now you no sooner arrive than you must think of getting ready to return home.  She calls her aunt the Lion of Hull.  Her mother died when she was young and her father was absent during most of her life.  She has a romantic entanglement with Freddy, who she decides not to marry, and she seems very obsessed with death.

Although I can tell you all sorts of little bits and pieces about the story, part of my struggle with this novel was trying to understand just what Pompey really felt about things.  She (Pompey/Stevie Smith) expects the reader to work a little, but I had a hard time teasing out the inner feelings and grander meanings.  Let me give you a couple examples.   

"As a baby I was rather cynical.  I wrote a poem about it which I will now give you.  It will break up the page for you, and something fresh to the eye helps the tired brain and aids concentration.  I dare say you find it hard to concentrate?  Never mind, the great thing is never to mind.  Just keep on trying, and one day you may figure as a case-sheet in one of those books the smarties write, that have such high-up titles, they would look well on any drawing-room table, like one I have in mind at the moment--'The Economics of Fatigue and Unrest."

I appreciate her humor, she knew how I was feeling, so she must have known her story would be a challenge.  She tells the reader straight out that they had better be up for the challenge or maybe not even bother.  But I persisted (even though maybe I should have been one of those not bothering!).  It was how she often would segue from one thought to another (usually seamlessly, though not in any way less confusing) when she would lose me.  I would know she was telling me something important, and then...

"So what do I mean by this vulgarity and stupidity?  There was once a man that read Swinburne.  This boy had read Swinburne.  So?  So that's the boy that read Swinburne.  And by and by and by he was still never getting any further than being the boy that read Swinburne.  But by and by I remember he was also reading Kipling.  That gave him a line on the army.  And he remembered he read the Bible."

Okay, so I am taking this out of context, but do you see how circuitous things become?  I never did figure out what she meant by that vulgarity and stupidity.  No doubt it was there, but my mind had moved on and lost the thread.  But there are some very entertaining and clever passages as well that elicited a chuckle or two.

"...I will say now that William makes excellent coffee, and rightly prides himself on his coffee, so afterwards we were drinking a very great deal of this excellent coffee, and eating a very great many ginger biscuits, that were rather flabby I remember, but the ginger flavor was still left.  And if they had lost that hard brittleness that young ginger biscuits have, I did not say so, I was feeling very kind and mellowed myself by now, and I should not have been so unkind as to say: William, your biscuits are flabby.  No."

So, this was an interesting reading experience.  I'm glad I read it, but it was a struggle at times.  I'm not a poetry reader and I wonder if that is somehow tied up into my appreciation of it (she being a poet).  She uses a lot of imagery that I just couldn't quite get (also part of my problem reading poetry).  This is probably a book best understood (in my case anyway) as a reread after a little discussion or extracurricular reading.  And it probably didn't help that I rushed through the last half this weekend!  Now I'm off to see what the other Slaves have to say about it and hope that the discussion might shed further light on it.   

Busy Stitching . . .

I've been doing more stitching lately than I've done in the last two years.  As a matter of fact I think I stitched every day this past week, if only for fifteen or twenty minutes.  It's amazing how much you can get done in a small amount of time when you work on it daily.  I tend to stitch when I am watching the news before I go to bed and on weekends in the evenings when I'm watching a movie.  I can't decide whether it's cutting into my reading time or not.  I looked at my little (actual physical) reading journal to compare how many books I read last year during January and this January.  Two less this year, though I am hoping to still finish a book by the end of this weekend.  One less doesn't seem like a big deal, though I hope it won't become a trend.  Still, I don't imagine it matters really as long as I am reading good books--even if it means fewer than in past years.  Needless to say I am rarely bored!

 

I've got a couple more little projects lined up for February.  Birds of a Feather is one of my favorite designers (though they no longer make cross stitch charts).  They designed my Bee Skep and a few Halloween designs that I've shared in the past.  I stitched this once before and gave it away, but now I want it for myself.  I've got all the supplies ready to go and I hope to make a start on this one this weekend. 

 

And I have this one ready to go as well.  It's by Sheepish Designs and is called "Valentine Wabbit".  They have a whole series of these little heart rabbits.  If this goes well, maybe I will stitch the rest.  I don't like overly cutesy sayings or designs, so I will likely change what's written in the heart, though I'm not sure what I'll stitch there.  I'm really happy to be stitching regularly again, though the trap I don't want to fall into is buying more needlework stash!  I had to buy a few supplies for these two projects, and admit to buying a new design and the linen and floss (something to look forward to in the mail), but that was my big splurge.  I've already got plenty to stitch, so I don't need anything more.  (Once again, famous last words).  And have you noticed that much like books I can't just have one needlework project on the go at once?!

Earth, Air, Fire and Water: Ox Tales

Very occasionally I will come home and find a package that I don't recognize as something I've ordered.  On these rare occasions I might find a book (or this week, a set of four smallish paperbacks) that's been sent to me for possible review.  These came as a nice surprise, and as I think the premise is really cool and the proceeds go to a good cause, I wanted to mention them here.  The concept is explained in the preface:

"Ox-Tales: Earth is one of four original collections, featuring stories by leading British- and Irish-based writers.  Each of the writers has contributed their story for free in order to raise money and awareness for Oxfam.  The Four Elements provide a loose framework for the stories and highlight key areas of Oxfam's work: water projects (WATER), aid for conflict areas (FIRE), agricultural development (EARTH), and action on climate change (AIR).  An afterword, at the end of each book, explains how Oxfam makes a difference.  And in buying this book, you'll be part of that process, too."

By chance I had just mentioned Oxfam's Talking Books blog, but I don't want you to think the books are pay-off for the mention.  I was just passing along a good, bookish link.  As the books are going to be published here in the US soon they happened to come from a publicist--so I promise this was all very random.  And as Oxfam does such good work helping people in need (like the earthquake victims in Haiti), I thought readers might be interested.  And just as importantly they look like marvelous collections of short stories and I look forward to dipping into them soon.

Ox-Tales: Earth - Stories by Rose Tremain, Jonathan Coe, Marti Leimbach, Kate Atkinson, Ian Rankin, Marina Lewycka, Hanif Kureishi, Jonathan Buckley, Nicholas Shakespeare

Ox-Tales: Air - Stories by Alexander McCall Smith, Helen Simpsn, DBC Pierre, Al Kennedy, Kamila Shamsie, Beryl Bainbridge, Louise Welsh, Diran Adebayo, Helen Fielding

Ox-Tales: Fire - Stories by Mark Haddon, Geoff Dyer, Victoria Hislop, Sebastian Faulks, John le Carré, Xialu Guo, William Sutcliffe, Ali Smith, Lionel Shriver, Jeanette Winterson

Ox-Tales: Water - Stories by Esther Freud, David Park, Hari Kunzru, Zoë Heller, William Boyd, Michel Faber, Joanna Trollope, Giles Foden, Michael Morpurgo

There are lots of authors here that I've read and more that I've heard about and now will get a sampling of their work.  A nice idea and nicely packaged.  I'll let you know more as I start reading!

Newest Acquisitions

I've really started out 2010 with a bang when it comes to book buying.  I wish I had the same sort of self control as Simon has.  He's limiting his book purchases to only two a month this year.  If it were me, I think I already would have met the limit.  The upside is that I only actually paid for the top two and the others were purchased with gift cards.  I tend not to get presents, I get bookstore gift cards.  In a good year I can stretch them out for months (and I expect I might just get a few more next month for my birthday), but at the rate I'm buying this year they'll be gone long before summer!  I have a few more still in the mail, but maybe after those I'll try and slow down?   Or maybe not.  I don't take all the blame, as a few of these came as recommendations (and you know who you are).  I think my essay reading is going to increase my book piles as well (first it was M.F.K. Fisher and next it was David Foster Wallace -- his is one of the books that is on its way).  And then there is just general browsing.  One thing leads to another and there  you go.  More new books.        

Their Finest Hour, Lissa Evans - This was longlisted for the Orange Prize, but it was Litlove's post that sold me on it.  Set during WWII the novel is about a woman who makes propaganda films.  Litlove calls it a "tragi-comedy" and it sounds like something that I'll love.

Sweet Poison, David Roberts - This is the first mystery in a series set in 1930s England.  The sleuths, Lord Edward Corinth and Verity Browne, are a bit unusual.  He's the son of a duke and she is a journalist and in the Communist Party.  I'm really looking forward to this one as well.

The Artificial Silk Girl, Irmgard Keun - I came across this book whilst browsing the Other Press website one day (actually the book below was discovered the same way).  It was originally published in German between the wars.  The LA Times calls it a "truly charming window into a young woman's life in the early 1930s."

Cracks, Sheila Kohler - This one is set in South Africa.  A young schoolgirl disappears and forty years later the other members of the missing girl's swim team gather for a reunion.  I expect lots of lies, secrets and deceptions.

Maid in Waiting, John Galsworthy - This is book #7.  I'm only on the first book, but I will feel better when I have the whole set (two more left to buy).  It's my hope to make steady progress through the whole set this year, but if it takes longer that's okay, too.  Having them all on the shelf together will hopefully spur me on to keep reading.  And I am really enjoying the first book, by the way.  I'm not sure the later stories as good as the earlier ones, but I guess I will find out.

Long Ago In France, M.F.K. Fisher - I really liked the essay I read by her.  This is a travel narrative of her life in Dijon, France in 1929.  I'm tempted to start it now as I need to jump start  my nonfiction reading.  I'm not doing very well so far this year and maybe a slim, quick read that this promises to be is just what I need.

The Gastronomical Me, M.F.K. Fisher - This is supposed to be her best work.  These are essays, or short pieces in any case, that are autobiographical. 

I don't know about you, but when I get a new stack of books I have to look through each one, read the back and maybe the first pages or preface--just generally check it out.  I may not start reading right away, but I do like to know what I'm in for!

January 27: Reading Notes

I've been peripherally following the controversy (probably controversy isn't the right term, maybe discussion?) over a new TV Book Club that's been airing in the UK.  Since I have no access to the actual shows (unless they've started popping up on YouTube?), it's only via the blogosphere that I've heard about them.  It seems as though there is a consensus that so far they've been disappointing viewing.  So in response a group of British bloggers have come together to form the Not the TV Book Group.  It sounds like fun and I hope to join in where I can.  You can read about it in more detail here.  The first two books are Philippe Claudel's Brodeck (in the UK: Brodeck's Report) and Ali Shaw's The Girl with Glass Feet.  I've been trying to patiently wait for a library copy of the Claudel novel (I'm first in line), and which I have heard excellent things about, and I've got a copy of the Shaw book on my TBR pile.  

Dorothy W. has passed along a link to a new blog, and now I want to pass it along, too.  Do check out Diversify Your Reading.  It "is meant to be a clearinghouse of blog reviews of books by authors underrepresented in English-language publishing today. It is not a traditional blog with regular topical posts."  It's a great idea and it looks as though a lot of work and thought has gone into the blog.  I'll be adding a link or two myself and checking it regularly for reading ideas!  

And I have a link to share, Talking Books: Oxfam is another new blog.  Oxfam is an international NGO, which looks to find "lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and injustice".  I had no idea they are also here in the US, though I am not aware of any Oxfam shops at least locally.  Apparently they are the largest second-hand book retailer in Europe  (I like the idea of book profits going for such good causes).  I often hear of wonderful book finds by British bloggers in Oxfam shops, and their volunteers have started a book blog, which I will be following with interest.  Do take a look. 

As for my personal reading notes--I've been concentrating on the same three or four books lately.  I am struggling a bit with Stevie Smith's Novel on Yellow Paper, which is the Slaves of Golconda's next read (must put in a good word for another online book group!).  It's an unconventional story, but one I think I am going to appreciate more as I discuss it with other readers.  I've also been reading Clare Chambers's In a Good Light, which is a reread.  It's not been overly long since I read it the first time, but apparently long ago enough that I've completely forgotten what happens in the story.  In a way that's good, as it makes for a read that's a little bit surprising but bad as it shows just how awful my memory is!  If you stop by regularly you'll already know I love Clare Chambers and this year I really am going to read something new by her (rather than reread the same two books over and over!).  And I've been trying to portion out Jacqueline Winspear's The Mapping of Love and Death, but I am to a point where I just don't want to put it down.  I'm going to try hard not to inhale the last half of the book!

One other note.  I am having this strange, overwhelming desire to start reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.  I have no idea what's provoked this desire to read such a hefty book, but I pulled it off my bookshelves and will take a peek at it later.  I usually have just one classic on the go most of the time and right now it's A Man of Property by John Galsworthy, which I am really enjoying.  I hadn't even thought of reading another classic at the moment.  Very strange.  But this is generally how I get myself into trouble.  Should I give in to my whim?

Teaser Tuesday: The Lie

I'm in sort of a weird reading mood at the moment.  Although I'm reading lots, I am not finishing many books.  I'm doing the equivalent of 'grazing', but with books.  Reading a little bit here, a little bit there, enjoying most everything but not settling down with anything specific.  But I find myself thinking about or picking up mysteries and crime novels more than anything else. 

After enjoying my first Bitter Lemon Press novel (see yesterday's post) I decided to pick up Petra Hammesfahr's The Lie (which came as an ARE and is due to be published in April).  She must be quite popular in her native Germany--she's written over twenty crime novels and has won a variety of literary prizes for her work.  I love books about doppelgängers.  There's something creepy about them to begin with, but in a crime novel there's an added layer of mysteriousness.  In The Lie Nadia and Susanne look uncannily alike, though their lives couldn't be more different.  Susanne agrees to take her place while Nadia goes off with a lover for a weekend.  Will Susanne be able to trick Nadia's husband into believing she's Nadia?

"She stared at the woman in the pin stripe suit who, for her part, looked her up and down in stunned  astonishment.  People pushed past them, grumbling or with irritated expressions because they were in the way.  No one seemed to notice that by the lift two women were facing each other who looked more alike than some pairs of identical twins.  Perhaps the difference in the way they were turned out meant it wasn't so obvious to others as it was to them."

"For, despite her painful experiences, Susanne well remembered the way she looked when she had still been in regular employment, suitably dressed with unobtrusive make-up.  And presumably Nadia Trenkler would have sen her own face in the mirror when she was going through a bad time herself."

"Nadia was the first to recover her composure.  With an exclamation of disbelief and a muttered, 'That's impossible,' she introduced herself and said, smiling, 'We must have a coffee and find out which of our fathers is responsible."

I've already raided my library's shelves for more Bitter Lemon titles and have a couple at home and a few others on my 'virtual list' for later.  Bitter Lemon is a British publisher, but I'm happy their books are also slowly being released over here as well.

Thursday Night Widows

Claudia Piñeiro's Thursday Night Widows is an interesting novel.  Published by the wonderfully named Bitter Lemon Press, which is now a favorite (I'll be taking a close look at their backlist), it's a crime novel with little attention paid for the greater part of the story, to the actual crime.  It opens with the deaths of three men, but there are no detectives, no investigation and almost no concern with who perpetrated the crime.  Rather this is a dissection of the small, tight-knit community where the deaths took place.  The story doesn't revolve so much around the discovery of the who as to an illumination of the why, very much reminiscent of Barbara Vine's exceptional psychological novels.   

Outside Buenos Aires The Cascade is a beacon to those upwardly mobile and affluent families with cash to burn and lavish lifestyles to pursue.

"Our neighbourhood is a gated community, ringed by a perimeter fence that is concealed behind different kinds of shrub.  It's called The Cascade Heights Country Club.  Most of us shorten the name to "The Cascade" and a few people call it "The Heights".  It has a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool and two club houses.  And private security.  Fifteen security guards working shifts during the day, and twenty-two at night.  That's more than five hundred acres of land, accessible only to us or to people authorized by one of us."

Ronie and Virginia Guevara were one of the first couples to invest in a posh property at The Cascade, and not just as a weekend retreat but as a permanent home.  The 1990s saw a financial boom that meant fortunes were made and families could lead lives of privilege completely unknown to those living outside those gates.  Over time more and more families, and it is always only families, move to The Cascade.  The Cascade is a community of elegant homes with perfectly manicured lawns.  Impeccably groomed husbands set off for the office early in their Land Rovers.  And their equally impeccably groomed wives spend their afternoons learning to paint pretty pictures and take classes in the arts of flower arranging and feng shui.  Their children go to the best school where they can learn to speak perfect English.  Weekends are spent playing rounds of golf or tennis doubles.  And everyone is friends.  By all appearances this is a picture perfect little community.  But there's a darker side.   

Soon after the opening of the novel, however, cracks begin to show on the shiny veneer of The Cascade and the lives of it's residents.  On Thursday September 27, 2001, just weeks after the Twin Towers fell in New York City, three men lay dead at the bottom of 'El Tano' Scaglia's swimming pool.  The widows of the novel are the wives whose husbands spend Thursday nights playing cards and drinking, though now ironically they are widows literally as well as figuratively.  Except Virginia.  Ronie came home from that last card game early.

The novel quickly sweeps backwards in time and the reader gets an accounting of the various families and how they came to end up living in The Cascade.  Claudia Piñeiro has an interesting narrative style, perhaps not so surprising since she was a journalist, playwright and scriptwriter.  She writes in a crisp, precise and direct prose and uses both first and third person perspectives.  Virginia tells much of the story in her own voice, and she knows a lot about The Cascade since she is an estate agent and sold most of the properties.  She knows their stories.  But the reader also learns about the other women and their families.  There's a long cast of characters, but Piñeiro manages to convey a distinct impression of the lives these people lead even if characters come and go.  Few of them are especially likable, but I found them intensely fascinating.  As the story progresses the lives of the characters begin spinning out of control.  Reading this novel was a little like being a fly on the wall privy to all that happens--good or bad, and the deeper you look under the surface, usually it was bad. 

Thursday Night Widows is really as much a contemporary morality tale as a crime novel.  Money doesn't bring happiness and every bubble must burst, which it did financially in Argentina beginning in 2001.  Piñeiro slowly reveals the truths behind the facade that The Cascade is.  The contrast between those in this wealthy gated community and those living in poverty just outside the barriers couldn't be starker.  Despite their outwardly idyllic appearance, the residents of The Cascade couldn't have emptier or more untruthful lives.  Perhaps morally bankrupt really is the best term, but not just morally but financially as well.  All the dirty little secrets begin coming out--indiscretions, infidelities, prejudices, jealousies and lies.  Piñeiro rips open and leaves bare the souls of these people.   

By the time the denouement is revealed I wasn't especially surprised though she does an excellent job building up to it, but that didn't in any way leave me disappointed.  Piñeiro manages to twist things around at the end just a little, which I found satisfying.  This is a story, or rather a lesson, that could easily be applied to any number of places in the western world today, but Piñeiro gives this story a decidedly cultural slant to it.  Although these events could happen anywhere, this particular story is set firmly just outside Buenos Aires, Argentina.  It was an interesting look at a place I know little about.

Thursday Night Widows won the Clarín Prize for fiction in 2005.  This has been made into a movie directed by Macelo Piñeyro.  You can see the trailer for Las Viudas de los Jueves here.  I'm hoping it makes its way to the US eventually, as the novel had a cinematic quality to it that would translate well into film.  I've already started reading German author Petra Hammesfahr's The Lie next, which is another Bitter Lemon title.  Hopefully all their books will be the same high caliber as Thursday Night Widows.  And hopefully more of Claudia Piñeiro's books will be translated into English.   

Consider the Lobster

After reading Dorothy's very thoughtful post on an essay by Jonathan Lethem about copyright in last years'  Best American Essays I decided I would grab my own copy and see what else was on offer.  However, a quick perusal of the table of contents in a previous edition of the book (Best American Essays 2005) brought my attention to an essay by David Foster Wallace.  I've had him in mind ever since a group of readers read his hefty Infinite Jest last year.  At the end of the year he ended up on so many top reads lists that I knew I wanted to try his work at some point, and what better introduction than an essay.  To be honest I'm a little in awe of him.  I've heard he's considered a literary genius and praise is generally heaped on his work.  Am I a good enough reader to appreciate his prose? 

"Consider the Lobster" originally appeared in the now-defunct Gourmet Magazine in 2004.  It is also the titular essay in a collection by Foster Wallace, which was published a year later (and that is now going to be in my next book order).  So what did I discover?  I need to stop being afraid of authors and just try them and learn from them what I can.  Wallace Foster is an intelligent writer, very witty yet self-effacing.  He's not a hard read.  On the contrary his prose is smart and well-informed and I think I'd enjoy reading more.  And I find his use of footnotes amusing and in many cases quite useful as little asides.     

David Foster Wallace was asked to cover Maine's annual lobster festival, which is quite a tourist draw.  I wonder if the editors of Gourmet had any idea what they were getting into when they asked him to write about it?

"The 2003 Festival highlights: concerts by Lee Ann Womack and Orleans, annual Maine Sea Goddess Beauty Pageant, Saturday's big parade, Sunday's William G. Atwood Memorial Crate Race, annual amateur Cooking Competition, carnival rides and midway attractions and food booths, and the MLF's Main eating tent, where Maine lobster is is consumed after preparation in the World's Largest Lobster Cooker near the ground's north entrance." 

Foster Wallace goes on to talk pretty straightforwardly about lobsters--their biology and history.  In the 1800s they were thought of as low-class food that only the poor and institutionalized ate.  There was an overabundance of them at times and they were referred to as a "smelly nuisance", though now they are considered a delicacy.  Now the MLF does everything they can to promote it as a healthy food choice, which it might just be until it's dipped in all that melted butter.  Lobster is also one of the freshest foods there is--no decomposition between harvesting and eating.  But then Wallace Foster turns things upside down and the essay takes a new tack.

"A detail so obvious that most recipes don't even bother to mention is that each lobster is supposed to be alive when you put it in the kettle." 

Now I'm not a fan of seafood and I've often contemplated this fact as well.  Foster Wallace gives a detailed explanation of the various methods to cook a lobster--what works well and what doesn't.  How you can tell if it's ready to eat ("try pulling on one of their antennae--if it comes out of the head with minimal effort, you're ready to eat").

"So then here is a question that's all but unavoidable at the Wold's Largest Lobster Cooker, and may arise in kitchens across the United States: Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?  A related set of concerns: Is the previous question irksomely PC or sentimental?  What does 'all right' even mean in this context?  Is it all just a matter of personal choice?"

This did make me fairly uncomfortable, so I can just imagine what the readers of Gourmet must have thought.  But Foster Wallace is never preachy about the questions he asks or the answers or information he gives.  Apparently there was only so much he could write about the MLF and on the fringe of the festival he noted the presence of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which caused him to ponder the harder questions about just what it means to prepare and eat lobster.

"The more important point here, though, is that the whole animal-cruelty-and-eating issue is not just complex, it's also uncomfortable for me, and for just about everyone I know who enjoys a variety of foods yet does not want to see herself as cruel or unfeeling.  As far as I can tell, my own main way of dealing with this conflict has been to avoid thinking about the whole unpleasant thing.  I should add that it appears to me unlikely that many readers of Gourmet wish to think hard about it, either, or to be queried about the morality of their eating habits in the pages of a culinary monthly.  Since, however, the assigned subject of this article is what it was like to attend the 2003 MLF, and thus to spend several days in the midst of a great mass of Americans all eating  lobster, and thus to be more or less impelled to think hard about the lobster, it turns out that there is no honest way to avoid certain moral questions."

David Foster Wallace deals with these questions with a light touch and in a fair manner.  He mentions that at least people who eat lobster know what they are getting, whereas other meats come prepackaged and the consumer has little idea of the journey a steak takes between cow and plate.  He asks hard questions, but in a thoughtful way, not in any attempt to bait the reader.  He genuinely is someone interested in knowing the answers to the troubling questions that came about through the writing of this essay.  He doesn't come to any concrete conclusions, but it's interesting to see how he works through what he's thinking and the questions he asks.  He doesn't assign blame, but as someone who has a vested interest (he enjoys eating some of these foods as well), he like to work out a personal ethical system that's "defensible and not just selfishly convenient."

I'm really curious to read more of his essays now.  You can read "Consider the Lobster" here.  And listen to an interview with David Foster Wallace here.  He was an articulate speaker and it's obvious much thought went into his answers.  I can see his reputation was well earned and look forward to reading more.  

A Start, a Finish and a Little Progress

First my little finish.  This is only about 1" x 2", so it's fairly small.  I started it ages ago (doesn't that refrain sound familiar), and decided it was time to finish it.  It's called "A Giving Heart" and the designer is Drawn Thread.  It's actually a pin, but as I don't wear pins I will leave this in a little basket where I have lots of little finished needlework accessories on display.  The nice thing about small projects is the instant gratification that comes with finishing them quickly.

 

Here's progress on current project #1.  It's called "Toccata" and is also by Drawn Thread.  Toccata is a musical term and has something to do with a free style compositions--much like this design, which is a showcase of various needlework stitches--some quite challenging.  The one above is called "couching" which uses a gold thread (not fun to work with) and Soie Perlee (also not fun to work with) to hold down the gold thread neatly.  I had a lot of trouble working with these materials, so this project has been sitting untouched for a while.  Next stitch?  The same thing, only the gold thread is horizontally laid down!  Maybe I'll just jump ahead to the next motifs and come back to it later.  Do you like my scissors?  They're French and one of my most favorite pairs! 

 

And progress on project #2.  This is by "Goode Huswife" and is called "The Sampler Farm".  I'm enjoying working on it, but if you see the tiny sunflower?  That's stitched over one thread of linen.  Very tiny.  I'm not a very adept over-one stitcher and find the work a little bit tedious.  In the end it will look really good, if I don't mess up the over one stitching.  I'm hoping to intersperse the smaller stitches with the rest (which are easy--plain cross stitch).  And I'm hoping to stay focused because if I get too frustrated it will end up in a bin under my bed not to be seen for years!

 

And here's my newest project.  It's a freebie from Piecework Magazine, a simple Quaker heart.  I'm not big on Valentine's Day as holiday's go, but I do like a lot of the cross stitch designs that are out there for it.  Something else small that seems like it will stitch up quickly--hopefully more instant gratification.  I was going to get creative and choose a really colorful floss to work with but in the end I decided on plain red, though this has a bit of variegation to it.  Nothing else seemed quite as nice against the linen I chose.  The back has more little Quaker motifs.  Maybe if it really does stitch up fast I will make another with different floss to give away!

A Few Good Mooches

I've spent an inordinate amount of time on the computer this week--particularly on my days off.  I'm trying to revamp my stitching blog and have finally switched all my subscriptions from Bloglines to Google Reader (which I've been using with much success for my book blog reading for a while now).  This took a really long time as I wanted to make sure the links on my blogroll were still active and one thing led to another and you know how you can whittle away time quickly when you start doing things like that!  So, tonight I just want to sit and read, wrapped up in a nice, cozy blanket.  What will I be reading?  Wonderful Clare Chambers and maybe a mystery novel or two.  More about those later.

So, to make things simple I thought I'd share a few new books with you.  The top one is from The Book Depository where you can buy more of Rumer Godden's novels than are available here in the US.  The rest are lucky mooches.

Coromandel Sea Change, Rumer Godden - Isn't the cover yummy looking?  All those pinks and oranges and yellows and greens.  So much nicer than the current weather, which I will refrain from complaining about (though I've never seen so many foggy, gray days in a row--but like I said I'm not going to complain about it).  The novel is set in India on a couple's honeymoon.  It's been compared with E.M. Forster..."social comedy slowly spiraling into personal tragedy."

On the Edge, Peter Lovesey - "A post WWII novel of murder and suspense".  Perfect in light of yesterday's post.

Tamburlaine Must Die, Louise Welch - This "is the gripping, seventy-two-hour adventure story of a man who dares to defy both God and his queen--and discovers that there are fates worse than damnation."  And all in one slim novel.

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Alexander McCall Smith - I've yet to read any of his mysteries, but I have a couple on hand now.  I'm especially interested in these Isabel Dalhousie mysteries.  They are set in Edinburgh.  I'm always looking for novels that have a convincing sense of place.  Do you think this will fit the bill?

Happy reading all!