mundane and my theme song.

quoted from Robert Hass - Twentieth Century Pleasures

One way to come at this is through the philosophical traditions of the Gnostics themselves. They had devised elegant demonstrations that creation was evil. Like this: evil is the absence of a good; since everything in the material universe is relative---hot is the absence of cold, salt the absence of sweet, sour, bitter---then everything is evil. Limitation itself is the evil of existence. Very few Cathar texts survived the destruction of this great religion of medieval Europe; one of them is a fragment of a sermon: "If the world were not evil in itself, every choice would not constitute a loss."
For everything that is, there is something that cannot be.

I've been skimming through Twentieth Century Pleasures, mostly because my attention is currently divided between five novels, one poetry anthology, and several academic texts (homework? What is this homework you speak of?) - but I originally picked it up for this quote - "Images haunt. There is a whole mythology built on this fact: Cezanne painting till his eyes bled, Wordsworth wandering the Lake Country hills in an impassioned daze. Blake describes it very well, and so did a colleague of Tu Fu who said to him, 'It is like being alive twice.'"

And I said yes, yes that's exactly why I do this, this is what I can not explain to my mother, this seeing through words and retelling it for someone outside of myself - that is why I write and want to be a writer. A good one.

I think this summer will be a hazy dream full of Russian novels and frenzied job hunts, half-jobs and feeling the air outside my car window.

In writing other peoples' characters and universes, after watching "Home" last night, I was attacked by a rather insistent ficbunny, and after talking it over with my twinkie today, I'm convinced it is going to be either monstrous or just okay. But Mr. Hass' quote has a lot to do with it. I'm excited about it in a way I haven't been excited about the original subject matter in a long while.

( fic characterization meme )

Many moons ago, I was advertising for want of a personal theme song. Something that just went up to you, tapped you on the shoulder and said, "Hey, Good looking, would you spare a dime?" And I think I've finally found mine.( Themesong! )

Other productivity news: flirted in anniesj's LJ. I need to review "You've Got Mail" and "The Shop around the corner" one last time for my final Am. Comedy paper, and then re-watch "Bedrooms and Hallways," which is my new favorite movie. More on B&H later - just know this: Hugo Weaving portrays a sex-mad real estate agent in it and ties Tom Hollander to the bedpost. It's directed by Rose Troche, whose previous film "Go Fish" was a film I had a lukewarm relationship with, but I'm now reconsidering.