14 March 2008

stunned and tired

Tired and stunned. Maybe the course of antibiotics I finished last week scrambled my synapses. Maybe I'm so sick of my job that I'm too distracted to bat the emotional vampires away. Maybe I just want a toy. Whatever. The cause is almost irrelevant. The effect is not.
I just read a review of a new book,
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind, by Gary Marcus. From Booklist:
  • "Whether it's memory, rationality, language, or free will, our noble human traits are hopelessly entangled with our baser drives, which have survived the dynamics of evolution."
I ask you, isn't that a perfect expression of our shared dilemma? It certainly expresses mine. I want to be compassionate, but the world keeps throwing things at me that challenge good intentions. (Eliot Spitzer, what the hell...?) I love to learn and read and think, but my professional world has succumbed to the imperative of survival of the fittest, and I now buy almost every book I wish to read. (I've had to fight to keep more than one or two titles by Henry James on the shelf, away from those who would weed based only on circulation statistics. "Fittest," in the library world, doesn't mean what it used to.) Well, here's what I want right now. I want to finish two pairs of socks. I want to read Pamela and finish Madwoman in the Attic. I want to listen to the last disk of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and begin a Miss Marple or two. (Thank goodness for audio books. Suns made me cry so much that it would have been impossible to read with my swollen eyes.) I want a good Greek salad with plenty of cheese, but no onions (since onions are not food). I want to listen to the Goldberg Variations in a darkened room, with ice in back of my neck. At least I don't want anything unattainable in the short term, anyway, eh? Have a good, peaceful weekend, everyone. And be sure to have some Peeps.

15 comments:

amy said...

I hope you get some of what you want this weekend. Food for your soul, sounds like. I like a good Greek salad, too. I'll take the onions; hold the olives. (I know, I know, but the feta makes it Greek too, right?)

Maven said...

Peeps make some kick-ass S'mores.

Roggey said...

I hope you get some of the things on your want list! And that your weekend goes better than your week.

Stephanie said...

Mmmmm - Greek salad!! I think you need some yummy food and a feet up type weekend. Don't let the bad eggs get you down. The good eggs are out there - they just don't get the same publicity. :(

sunt_lacrimae_rerum said...

You really need to get as much of your list to come true as possible. Yes, you do. The outer world will continue to disappoint so make your inner world splendidiferous.

Maybe that's not a word.

I know that if I suggested to some of my colleagues with Ph.D.'s in literature that they read Henry James they'd be incapable of meeting the challenge. They are wrapped up in American Idol studies.

I hope that you feel better soon.

Carrie K said...

Onions aren't food? lol. Beets land on that list in my world.

That's such a true sentiment in that quote. Sentiment? Thought? Gah.

I want to finish Madwoman too. Darn it, I haven't picked it up since the RAL.

Jennifer said...

Let's hope you get some of what you want off that list. I want a decent night's rest, and to fight off for good the cold I got from the kids.

meg said...

Really? Really? But The Portrait of a Lady is one of my most favorite books. :(

I hope your weekend holds happy things.

SimplyMe said...

ROFLMOA. Totally understand how you feel. May your weekend be full of balance that stablizes your world.

Donna Lee said...

What a thoughtful bit on a book review. My library seems to carry popular rather than interesting literature. I have no problem finding John Grisham but trying to find Abraham Low ( a psychiatrist from the 50's that had some amazing thoughts about recovery) is impossible. I have to buy the book if I want to read it. I have no problem with that. It means that I have a good library at home. I just bought some peeps for Easter. One color for each person. No fights that way.

Larjmarj said...

You can have my share of peeps...all yours.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

Mistrmi said...

Unfortunately, neither our noble human traits nor our baser instincts seem much entangled with our brains at times. . .

Nana Sadie said...

I so hope you're better by today (Monday).
Life seems to be careening off into lala land, carrying us willy-nilly along with it.
:(
Socks and Peeps? Sounds like as good a remedy (with the Goldberg Variations and ice pack in the dark) as any I could come up with...
Let me hear from you, okay?
(((Hugs)))

Penny said...

hope things are better this week!

Unknown said...

Weeding is a menace. Should we be glad people are reading? The mind boggles at letting go of classics.

Raw onions are invaders which hide in food until I unwittingly bite into them; cooked onions are fine.

You take the Peeps, I'll take the Cadbury Eggs!

Take care
:)