In the Middle of Things...

I haven't written much in the last week because I have been working on my work website. Also, I couldn't come up with a single thing to say about "Writers on Writing, volume 2." I read the essays with great interest, but they continued to strike me as too fancy; that is to say, a bit on the inflated side. (I had the same reaction to volume 1). I suppose that those writers can say more about it because after all they are published authors. I think the essay about 9/11 and what that event did to the process of imagination and creativity was the best of the bunch. The main idea is that creativity came to a halt after that day because writing fiction might have seemed like a leisure when so much needed to be done. I think everyone pretty much felt this way.

I got trapped between two books and did not make head way on either one until I decided on just one of them. I started out with Pankaj Mishra's "An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World," and with Buzz Williams' "Spare Parts." I decided on Mishra's and it has paid great dividends. It is, without doubt, the most insightful historical perspective about the Buddha written up to date. Despite the fact that Mishra is a very young writer, he blends his travels around the world with historical perspectives of the Buddha, the political and racial history of India, and a gamut of other perspectives that even include Nietzsche and nihilism. Mishra is the author of a little known novel entitled "The Romantics." I had read a review about it once and it caught my eye, but it wasn't until some years later that I got a first print copy of it at a discount rack and it turned out to be one of the greatest books I've ever read. In the Buddha book, he writes about an experience with an American Buddhist named Helen, which turns out to be particularly close to that of the relationships depicted in "The Romantics." So pick up Mishra if you get a chance.

My friends from Holland are in town visiting. Ilse and Eugene are just as lovely people as they were 14 years ago when we first met in college. My trip to Holland in 2001 was one of the greatest holidays I've ever had. Here's a picture of last night's banquet by Eugene, our chef:

I have decided to abandon my efforts to write about my experience in Al Khafji. It seems to me that after the years the unhealthy obsession I've had with my memories is not worth the time and the ink. Also, a passage by Joseph Conrad reminded me:

"Why I longed to go grubbing into deplorable details of an occurrence which, after all, concerned me no more that as a member of an obscure body of men held together by a community of inglorious toil and by fidelity to a certain standard of conduct I can't explain. You may call it an unhealthy curiosity if you like; but I had a distinct notion I wished to find something." -- Joseph Conrad.

I am not quite sure yet of what to read next. I definitely have many choices to pick from. I am leaning heavily towards the Didion collection, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

D.H. Lawrence, David Mamet, and Pankaj Mishra

I read voraciously last night and finished the book. Again, I do have to mention the artistry of the language; how well developed and employed it is! The complications that Lawrence introduces the reader to add so much to the plot. The return of Mellors' wife complicates things while Lady Chatterley is in Venice. One can feel her stress as she reads the letter from her husband explaining all the gossip. The subtle letter has a hint of malice, and the reader is compelled to side with Connie. For the Mellors part, one can only feel so much. The penultimate chapter is really an indictment to the rapidly expanding industrial complex, as it is the letter from him to Connie that ends the book. That was perhaps the only part of the book I really didn't enjoy much. Lawrence was indeed making a statement against some social injustice when he wrote about the colliers, the mines, the industry, etc. Somehow, however, it seemed rather forced in the latter stages of the story. I can truly say I enjoyed the book very much. It was a book that left me feeling so much love for literature. These are the strange moments when I feel gloriously alive in literature, wanting to devour all I can and get lost in all the emotions and feelings. I want to live the life of the mind constantly and surrender to the words completely.

I began reading "Writing in Restaurants" by David Mamet. It is not at all a book about writing instruction, but rather a collection of dated essays (written in the mid-1980s) regarding the dramatic theater and other aspects of dramaturgy. I am only about 30 pages into it and it is rough going. Some parts are over theorized, I believe. Here's an example: "The pursuit of Fashion is the attempt of the middle class to co-opt tragedy." This is the first sentence of an essay I could hardly decipher. I am going to force myself to finish the book, although I would much rather be reading some thing else. Oh well... can't win them all.

I purchased "An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World" by Pankaj Mischra. This is a book I am dying to read but it will have to wait until later on this year. He is also the author of "The Romantics," an incredibly under-rated novel that caught my attention in a newspaper review in 2000. Later in 2001, I got the book on the discount rack for $6.00. It was a tour de force as far as I am concerned, and one of the best books by contemporary authors I have read. So my reading list is getting larger by the week. I won't go over my yearly total, really; what with work and trying to write I may not have time for them all.

As an effort to clarify my ideas before I put them in the blog, I am going to start writing the entries on paper first and then typing them up. I have been typing them directly from my head to the computer and I miss the feel of the pen on the paper. For this purpose I have selected 3 Moleskine cahiers that I will be taking with me to work. I will write even if I only have 5 minutes to do so. I will not waste any time and will try to keep the ideas flowing. I will give this experiment this week.