I Am A Writer Who Reads

When I hear a person say, "I don't read..." it startles me and I wonder how, in this modern age, can that be? How can anyone make that statement? (especially the university graduate that I heard actually 'boast' about it?) So you might imagine my shock when I overheard a writer-wannabe say, "I never read... I want my writing to be fresh and original."

A writer that does not read?

That phrase is a moronic oxymoron, in my opinion.


I do read.

I've been a voracious reader since second-grade in 1946. That was when I got my first public library card and checked out my first book: Little Black Sambo.

voracious
(adj.)
1. devouring or craving food in great quantities
2. very eager or unremitting in some activity; voracious reading

I just ordered two books from Amazon.com and one of them is:

THE FOLLY OF FOOLS: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. This is a book written by Robert Trivers. Below is the Amazon book description:

Whether it's in a cockpit at takeoff or the planning of an offensive war, a romantic relationship or a dispute at the office, there are many opportunities to lie and self-deceive--but deceit and self-deception carry the costs of being alienated from reality and can lead to disaster. So why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday lives? In short, why do we deceive?

In his bold new work, prominent biological theorist Robert Trivers unflinchingly argues that self-deception evolved in the service of deceit--the better to fool others. We do it for biological reasons--in order to help us survive and procreate. From viruses mimicking host behavior to humans misremembering (sometimes intentionally) the details of a quarrel, science has proven that the deceptive one can always outwit the masses. But we undertake this deception at our own peril.

Trivers has written an ambitious investigation into the evolutionary logic of lying and the costs of leaving it unchecked.

The second book is:

AMERICAN SHORT STORY MASTERPIECES

The Amazon.com description:

This highly Acclaimed collection of short stories by American writers contains only the best literary art of the past four decades. With a bias toward realism editors Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks have selected fiction that "tells a story"-- and tells it with a masterful handling of language, situation, and insight.

But what is so special about this volume is that it mirrors our age, our concerns, and our lives. Whether it’s the end of a marriage, as in Bobbie Ann Manson’s "Shiloh," or the struggle with self-esteem and weight in Andre Dubus’s "The Fat Girl," the 36 works included her probe issues that give us that "shock of recognition" that is the hallmark of great art--wonderful, absorbing fiction that will be read and reread for decades to come.


Eclectic is probably not the precise word I would choose to describe my taste is reading material.

Erratic is probably better.

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I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries.
--Stephen King

Story, Myth, Fable, Legend

Tucson Weather Today

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Last night while I watching a PBS segment of Nature about Bears of the Frozen North I was struck by the number of poetically descriptive allusions to nature's seemingly human characteristics, such as the punishing winds of cruel winter at the top of the world. We know, of course, that the cold winds are really not punishing the creatures it blows against. And we know that the winter is not consciously cruel. Nor is this windy winter's event happening at the top of the world.

The simile, the metaphor, and the analogy undeniably enhance the portrayal of what would otherwise be a dull and forgettable listing of meteorological data: temperature, wind speed, and specific latitudes for regions at the arctic circle.

Figures of speech and active imagination have their uses.

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Grammarphobia as I've mentioned before is a website of which I am a great fan and I check out its blog section almost daily. From its pages I have learned a great deal about the English language, about its roots and about correct grammar.

The authors are Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman who have written five books about the English language and have more than half a century of experience as writers and editors. Just recently I finally got around to reading Stewart Kellerman's interview with Raymond Carver in the New York Times -- just a few months before Mr. Carver died... link below:

For Raymond Carver, a Lifetime of Storytelling

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I read, and I read, and I read again, and again, and again. I write, and I write, and I write again, and again, and again. I read and I write, but never am I satisfied; never do I read enough, never do I write enough. There seems no end to that twin endeavor this side of my final eternal nothingness.

In the words of Richard Wright:

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.

Richard Wright

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(a brief diversion, if I may)

The Chosen People

What is the true meaning of The Chosen People? Were the Israelites chosen by YHWH or was YHWH chosen by the Israelites? And what does it matter, anyway?

Below is reportedly from a letter Albert Einstein wrote in January 1954 to philosopher Eric Gutkind.

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilized interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them."

I admit that the above paragraph was lifted from monricks. but only after I had considered the meaning of The Chosen People and began to do some research on the concept.

The Chosen People.

Absolutely ridiculous.

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And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
--Sylvia Plath

As Always, Time Goes By . . .

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Tucson Weather Today

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Latest News!

In the most recent PowerBall lottery drawing (Wednesday night) I won three dollars for picking the Power Ball, which was 39, short form for the year of my birth, 1939.

Glory be!

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Today the end of the first leg of my fitness walk proved to be the Fry's Supermarket (formerly Kroger) where I found that an item on their Super-Special Sale was one of my favorite foods (a 5-count tube of refrigerated bake in ten-minutes at 400 degree biscuits) -- which was only 25 cents per tube (usually 79-cents.) Well... let me tell you, I bought 12 tubes ($3 total) of those taste-tempting, mouth-watering puffed-up rounds of pure delight... potent reminders of the biscuits Grandma Morris used to bake from scratch on her old black wood burning flat-topped kitchen range back in the early 1940s.

Imagine that! Five pipin' hot buttery-flavored biscuits for a quarter. A nickel per biscuit. Mn-mm! What a deal; can't beat that with a big stick.

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Now for something completely different:

For Raymond Carver, a Lifetime of Storytelling

By STEWART KELLERMAN

Reprinted from the New York Times, May 31, 1988

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Three or four days ago I read a statement containing questionable grammar on the Sargento Cheese Company's website and, being the grumpy old busy-body I am, I volunteered an email comment to Sargento concerning their grammar. Here is the comment I sent them:

In the section of your website titled Our Company I read the following:

Sargento Foods Inc. is a family-owned company comprised of three business divisions: Consumer Products, Food Service and Food Ingredients.

The term "comprised of" is incorrect grammar. The correct usage would be "... is a family-owned company comprising three business divisions:" because the word of is never used with comprised -- and you can look it up if you don't wish to believe me.

Just trying to be helpful... I LOVE your cheese and buy some of it at the grocery store every week.

. . .

Yesterday I received the following reply:

Dear Mr. Chambers -- Thank you for your e-mail. My boss and I usually pride ourselves on being the "grammar gurus" at Sargento, but this one got by us. You'll be happy to know that we made the change you suggested. Thanks for caring!

Pat Lombardo
Sargento Consumer Affairs Department

Oh my goodness! Was that not most gracious of them? I am sincerely touched.

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Last night, after watching the first disc of a Stephen King DVD movie titled Rose Red, I went to sleep at ten-thirty o'clock, but woke up a little after midnight and could not get back to sleep, probably because I had foolishly ingested great quantities of caffeine throughout the day -- or perhaps because I had napped for a couple hours that afternoon.

Whatever the cause, I could not sleep so I got out of bed and went into the living room, reclined back in my recliner, and read two selections from The Best American Essays of the Century: Pamplona In July by Ernest Hemingway and The Hills of Zion by H.L. Mencken.

Hemingway gave me no trouble; he never does; I understood his every word. But, Mencken was another story. Below are four of the words I encountered in his essay that gave me some pause:

antinomianism
noun
1. the understanding that under the gospel dispensation of grace the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation
2. rejection of a socially established morality'

exegesis
noun
exposition, explanation; especially an explanation or critical interpretation of a text.

cosmogony
noun
1. a theory of the origin of the universe.
2. the creation or origin of the world or universe.

aurochs
noun
the ancestor of domestic cattle, aurochs was a type of huge wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct.

My goodness... Mencken certainly does make the unschooled among us (me) strive mightily for complete comprehension. It is well worth it though. He sure can write some outrageously humorous stuff.

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Well, it seems that a spending bill for 2011 has at last been passed by Congress. Yesterday, being happily subscribed to their news reports, I received the following email from NASA:

April 14, 2011

David Weaver
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 11-112

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES BOLDEN'S STATEMENT ON THE 2011 SPENDING BILL

WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden issued the following statement Thursday about the passage of the 2011 spending bill:

"We appreciate the work of Congress to pass a 2011 spending bill. NASA now has appropriated funds to implement the 2010 Authorization Act, which gives us a clear path forward to continue America's leadership in human spaceflight, exploration and scientific discovery. Among other things, this bill lifts funding restrictions that limited our flexibility to carry out our shared vision for the future. With this funding, we will continue to aggressively develop a new heavy lift rocket, multipurpose crew vehicle and commercial capability to transport our astronauts and their supplies on American-made and launched spacecraft. We are committed to living within our means in these tough fiscal times - and we are committed to carrying out our ambitious new plans for exploration and discovery."

-end-

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Time in its aging course brings all things to pass.
--Aeschylus