h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That fits my mood today, too, Hypatia.

And I love e.e. cummings, he's da man...want to be subversive? Get a copy of 'The Enormous Room' for your library, or spread the elink around...

http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/memoir/cummings/roomTC.htm

Read the foreword by his father. That was 1917. Nothing ever changes.

I've read that before. It's wonderful! Thanks for reminding me about it.

Maybe some of your other readers here will enjoy it.

Lately I'm not sure I have any other readers. I've bored them all.

'Tis cold everywhere, and the grey cells are firing slowly.

I've just been re-reading cummings, inspired by your quote. How I love that man. If he were around today, he'd be on h2g2.

cummings truly engaged with every person he met. And what a window into another time that book is...I wish more people wrote like that.

Agreed. He was brilliant. Had a way of seeing the obvious. He also could turn absolutely anything into poetry. The banal things we just ignore.

Which is exactly the subject we've been discussing over at the AWW.

There are two ways to approach this idea: One is the comment somebody made about one of my journal entries, to the effect that I was making a great deal out of nothing...I think it was a cat on the table, that time...

The other is what you just said.

Speaking of that facility, last night, we discovered a wonderful film by the Coen Brothers, 'Barton Fink'. It was made in 1991. Have you seen it? Just amazing. They had Flann O'Brien rolling over in his grave (with laughter).

No, I haven't seen it. So many movies...so little time.

I haven't written anything for the AWW for years. Got very upset with the UG and pretty much told everyone to bite me. I have a remarkable talent for cutting off my nose to spite my face. Same thing happened with although at a later date. It would pretty much take an act of Parliament to get me to submit anything there again. So, since I don't do nonfiction articles except at gunpoint, I have no reason to write for h2g2 any longer.

Forgot to mention that I have a sound recording of Cummings reading 50 of his own poems.

Oh, about the recording.

Aweel, as I say, over at the AWW, we're not doing UG these days, just writing for each other and livening up (I hope). At the risk of sounding like the politician KB got mad at (for saying he wasn't in the government when it all went down), we aren't, er, the same people at that you got mad at, at least, I hope we aren't, er......er, anyway....

We do welcome contributions. And the AWW folks are currently inspiring one another to write short-short fiction you might actually like...

Anyhoo, do try 'Barton Fink', if only for the thinly-veiled portrait of William Faulkner in Hollywood.

Yes, well it is also a question of time. That is something I have less and less of these days. But I might give the AWW a wee peek one day soon. At least to see who is and isn't there anymore.

Do that thing. (Since I know you will enjoy the company. )

I believe a particular monkey goddess hangs out over there these days. And yes, that sort of company I definitely enjoy.

Come and add to the Brecht appreciation.

Okay, I'll check it out. Not promising to write anything again. My muse has been on holiday, and lord knows where the heck she's at. She doesn't call me unless she needs money.

Miss E. Muse or Miss B. Muse?

I think that's from a Kaufman play, wait...no, I tell a lie, it was Thornton Wilder...'The Skin of Our Teeth'...lovely play, though Elektra pronounces it 'dumb'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njz88qVDjGs&feature=related

I won't call it dumb, but it is certainly silly. Sometimes we need a bit of silliness. Perhaps Elektra didn't the day she watched it.

Here's something that goes along with yesterday's discussion.

Saturday, December 4.

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

- Mary Jean Iron

And there's this about finding interest in the ordinary.

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth it's riches."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

'The Skin of Our Teeth' is a good play. They used to make students read it in school. (I'm sure they don't, anymore.) I liked it better than 'Our Town'.

Although 'Our Town' certainly matches this quote of yours, doesn't it?

The appreciation of space/time is an underused talent...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnPx22NLWe4

I thought you meant that Elektra thinks the You Tube clip is dumb. My response was to that, not to Wilder's play which is thought provoking, to say the least. Isn't that the one that won the Pulitzer? I must get in the habit of googling before I chat with you!

"Our Town" is probably more familiar to the average person. The first time I read it, I was very touched. I can't remember if it was 10th grade English or 11th grade. One or the other. It makes one wonder if the purpose in life is not achievement of any kind but just to experience and appreciate life itself.