2TeaFlute

A Concord Tradition

2011-07-16T14:41:00.001-04:00

To celebrate summer, Paul and I met up with Amy for a Concord redux. After lunch at Walden Grille we had ice cream (great ice cream) at Main Streets Market & Cafe just down the street. One of the things we did last year was visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which is the final resting place of Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson Alcott. This year our inspiration was guided by the GPS. We set out to find to specific locations - the cemetery site of the first woman to receive a driver's license (which we did not find) and the cemetery site of the first kindergarten teacher, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. A contemporary of Bronson Alcott, Miss Peabody led quite the interesting and productive life.

Currently, she can be found near the bottom of a great hill, just off the paved path. There are steps coming down from this hill, and if it weren't for all the headstones, this would be a great place to go sledding!

Larz Anderson Cache

2011-05-30T19:16:00.003-04:00

It's Memorial Day - the beginning of summer. Paul and I set off to find two geocaches today in Larz Anderson Park, a former estate that was donated in 1951 to the town of Brookline. This is a beautiful location for a variety of year round activities. Architectural landscape pieces are great and the sledding potential on the hill is phenomenal! Not that I'm ready for winter so soon. . .

Our first prize is near a pond that has a small gazebo at one end. There is a fountain in the gazebo. Yes, in the gazebo. This cache was pretty easy to reach, and although there were quite a few folks around, we were able to sign the log without too much notice. We sat on a rhododendron shrouded bench to log our find and set the course for our next one.

The second cache, located near the aforementioned sledding hill, is well protected by poison ivy. But that didn't stop us - we found a way in without touching any of the evil vine. There are two circular stone benches nearby, one at the top of the hill, and one at the bottom. I can just imagine lounging here on a summer afternoon, eating strawberries and sipping champagne . . . with a seat cushion.

So Near, and Yet So Far

2010-10-10T21:16:00.001-04:00

Today Paul and I participated in Groundspeak's 10 years of geocaching anniversary celebration. All we had to do was log a find on 10/10/10. "Easy" thought I. We started off quite well. We found the information we needed at the first of two BBS (big box stores). We traversed to the opposite end of the parking lot and found the information we needed at the second of two BBS. But then when we entered the new coordinates into the GPS, we ended up driving about a mile away from the two BBS. That didn't seem right. When in doubt, double check your work. Aha! A miscalculation.

We drove back to the 2BBS and located where we thought the cache would be. Curses - foiled again! It was a busy Sunday afternoon and many a muggle was to be found. We had to come back later, which we did and found the cache. We each have our own Geocaching account so we each logged the find. Here's to ten years!

Washing Machine Vacuumed - check!

2010-08-02T21:53:00.006-04:00

This evening, I vacuumed the interior of the washing machine. Why? Because I foolishly washed the bathroom rug on which my sweet lovable 5 year old cat peed during an at home vet appointment. Yes, at home vet appointment. This is the little kitten I rescued from the parking garage at the Atrium Mall when she was about 4 weeks old. Today's appointment, relatively speaking went well. For Metro-Boston, I highly recommend At Home Veterinary. The vet is very calming and patient with challenging patients, and brings practically everything necessary for a routine exam and immunizations. He even met Nora Jones and cared her dog during an appointment in March. Very cool.

Anyway, about the bathroom rug. It's shredded. Not by the cat but by the washing machine. There were remnants of the non-skid backing all over the inside of the washer. Good think we have a shop-vac. The washer is cleaned out, the rug remains are in the trash and tomorrow we go shopping. For tonight, may we all sleep soundly.

Lanes & Folly Cove

2010-07-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

Here I combined two hobbies - geocaching and scuba diving. No, I didn't go searching for geocaches under water, although I suppose there are some like that. Paul and I frequent Cape Ann for scuba diving. A few weeks ago, after diving at Back Beach we stopped at Folly Cove to search for a cache (pre-Garmin Acquisition) but we were unable to get a signal from the iPhone. Fast forward about 3 weeks to diving at Folly Cove which is my favorite dive site, and voilá - success! A cute little container that had various trinkets to which we added a fish figurine. While posting my find to geocaching.com, I sat on a bench that is dedicated to another diver. Apparently Folly Cove was his favorite dive site also.

So why not continue down the road a bit and search for another? Of course! Why not? We're in the neighborhood. Our next stop was Lanes Cove where we found a similar container with similar stuff. The hiding spot seemed to have been made for this container. To this one we added a duck figurine. Both caches are part of a "Gloucester 300 series", hence that recursive feeling. Lanes Cove is also a dive site, but given the rocks one has to clamber over I think I'd rather approach the site from the Atlantic. Very picturesque!

Walking on the Wall in the Woods

2010-07-29T12:18:00.007-04:00

While searching for a two stage cache in the Allendale Woods we came across a stone wall that is perfect for walking on. About two and a half feet high, and one and a half feet wide. What a surprise - what's this doing here? This is the part of geocaching I like - discovering the unexpected. While continuing on our quest, Paul and I speculated about the reasons why a wall would have been built in this wooded area. It follows the contours of the land, and to us appears to be about 100 years old. Marking a territory perhaps? We trekked on, found the cache and then continued with our day. For me, of course that involved solving the mystery of the wall - why this spot, why this height and width?

Apparently this wall in Jamaica Plain was built during the Depression, and marks what was once a property line between the city of Boston and a private estate. We went back the next day and walked along some of the trails in the woods, one of which leads to a vernal pool at the top of a hill. We also observed groups of people along the way who seemed to be doing maintenance on the trails. Not only that, but the Allendale Woods also includes the wooded area that is down the street from my house! Who knew?

3 In a Row!

2010-07-22T20:50:00.007-04:00

Quite the active geocaching week for Paul and me! On Tuesday, we went to Stony Brook Woodland Reservation, part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (MDC). We found two geocaches: "Scouter's Cache at Stony Brook" and "Blueberry (aka Bearberry) Hill". Both caches are hidden among wild blueberry shrubs in an infrequently used MDC park. Most of the blueberries are gone - hopefully because the birds ate them and not the geocachers/hikers. Blueberry Hill (the actual name on the topography map is Bearberry Hill) is located at the highest elevation in Stony Brook - around 246 feet. In the fall, winter or early spring, one could probably see quite a distance, but this is July, and there are lots of leaves on the trees. Both caches require a bit of bushwacking and climbing as they are located off of the paved trails, but are fun to find nonetheless.

Today we went to the Blue Hills Woodland Reservation, one of our favorite hiking areas. We usually hike around the Houghton's Pond area, but this time we hiked up to the Blue Hills Weather Observatory, located at the top of the Great Blue Hill (635 feet) . The observatory was established in 1885 by meteorologist Abbot Lawrence Rotch. The trail map and guide indicates that Rotch studied the winds and clouds with kites and balloons that were strung with piano wire.

"Mesozoic 3" is a multi-stage cache. We needed numbers from the plaques on the observatory building in order to find the actual longitude/latitude of the cache. We ~~followed~~ climbed the "red dot" trail until it intersected with the paved road that leads to the observatory, filled in the missing coordinates and then walked a little way back down the paved road until the GPS beeped. Then we hunted around until Paul found it! Both reservations are great ways to get away from the city without really leaving the city.

Garmin vs Hoover: Garmin wins!

2010-07-18T14:27:00.003-04:00

Being a tenacious sort, I continued my quest for caches using the iPhone - unsuccessfully. The problem, I concluded was not the app that I downloaded for the iPhone that lists caches nearby by, but rather the so-called GPS capability of the iPhone. Yeah, that pretty much sucks. So, I finally broke down and got a real GPS device. It's a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, and it's way cool. Mostly because of all the features that it has, even though I have no ideas what these features are for.

I tested it out by relocating a cache that had already been found, and not only did the Garmin continue to locate me, it guided me to within 20 feet of the cache which is under dense tree canopy. No more being told that I'm a mile and a half away from where I am - yippee!! Will I need it for urban caches? Probably not since the iPhone will have the ability to show streets via Googlemaps. If I have the cache description, the hints and a map, I am reasonably certain I will find it. Will I use it for car trips? No way - because I can figure out how to get somewhere! This Garmin apparatus is just a toy for exploring the off road areas around my neighborhood, around the places where I go diving, and maybe around the places to which I plan to travel.

Finally, a gadget that works!

The light - it's at the end o' that thar tunnel.

2010-06-17T19:23:00.002-04:00

Oh my - I haven't blogged for 6 weeks. Which means I haven't gone geocaching for 6 weeks. I even got an email from the Geocaching website. They mentioned that I hadn't logged any finds in a while. I resisted the temptation to let them know that I was bogged down by school work and I hadn't forgotten about them. Yes, about school work. I'm at the very end of the Moderate Special Needs program. I have made my assignment to do list and I have checked it twice. If everything goes well, and I hope it does, I should have Massachusetts teaching license number three - the one that will be the most fun and rewarding, and (hopefully) make me marketable. And when I have submitted my last paper, shared my last portfolio item, and written my last post on Blackboard, I will decide what to do first: diving, geocaching or reading some Newbery Award winners that I have in the house but have (gasp!) never read. Or maybe, go for a dive, and then I'll read a little on the beach while the dive buddy (aka the hubs) packs the dive equipment in the car. Then some lunch at a lobster place in Rockport or Gloucester, find a cache and drive home. It will be a full day.

Mesozoic Four or Don't Be a Math Phobe - Just Bring a Calculator!

2010-05-07T19:09:00.004-04:00

This was our first multi-stage cache. It required math - the kind for which you need paper and pencil or an incredible memory. Oh, and the walk through the Arnold Arboretum was nice too! The original coordinates at geocaching.com brought us to our first tree, in a section of the Arboretum that we don't usually walk in for some reason. Maybe because we have to cross Bussey Street to get to it? I know, lame excuse. Anyway, we had to find a tree. A specific tree. And on that tree is an info card that lists the scientific name, the family name and the common name, all of which are important tidbits information. You find the tree according to the family name (in Latin of course), then you look at the first word of the common name and from that you determine the coordinates of the next tree. There were four trees in all. The last tree provides the coordinates for the location of the cache. After quite a bit of math and a fabulous stroll, I found the cache - this was a fun weekend treasure hunt.

Putter Away!

2010-05-02T16:27:00.000-04:00

The official geocache count is up to 4. Yesterday we attempted to find the Scouter's Cache at Stony Brook. Stony Brook is part of the Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (dcr). It has a cute pond, and walking trails. It also has lots of trees, which are nice except for when you're trying to use a weak GPS device. I love my iPhone, really I do, but when it can't find where I am, it's kind of, well useless in a way especially for geocaching. Supposedly the iPhone uses a combination of satellite (that's the weak part) WiFi (in the woods? really?) and cell towers to determine your "exact" location. Exact my foot. At one point I noticed that there was no service at all! I haven't given up on finding this cache. I just can't find it with my current GPS device. Finding a new electronic toy is going to have to wait until my classes are over.

So instead, we went to find the one in Putterham Circle. Yep, right in the middle of a rotary, one I drive by/around all the time. It's about a mile from the house, so it was a nice after dinner stroll. Success at last!

Weld Woods - are you local?

2010-04-21T14:15:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm local, very local. I'm so local to this geocache, it's almost in my back yard. Growing up, my siblings and I referred to this site as "Papa's Woods", completely believing whole-heartedly that these woods belonged to my grandfather. On visits, the trees were the final landmark that meant we were almost there! I only know of one person, a second cousin, who is closer to this treasure than I am since he lives on the side street that borders these woods. The cache site is a very cute little spot with a creek of sorts nearby. It is frequented by people walking dogs, although we didn't meet up with any pooches that day.

Anyway, it was the last day of Terri and Dave's visit. Their flight was at 3:30. Everything was packed and ready to go and we were just sitting around when I said hey - let's go look for this thing. I can really see how easy it would be to get lost if you're not paying attention to where you're going, because once we got into the woods the four of us just sort of split off from each other. Not a good plan. Also why I chose this location for our first hunt as it would be easy to find our way out and get back home. We collected ourselves and worked together and found the cache - go teamwork! Feeling all proud of ourselves, we returned the cache to it's hiding spot, went home, had some refreshments (think Sam Adams Stony Brook Red) and then off we went to the airport to deposit the guests and their luggage at the appropriate departure gate.

Definitely a good time.

I'm back!

2010-04-19T08:50:00.010-04:00

It's been a really long time since I've even looked at this blog, almost a year. I started it as a final project for an online class, "Social Software in the Classroom". Then, when the class was over I thought - huh, what shall I write about? I let Paul write on it for a while about books and things (that was nice of me wasn't it?), but alas he needed more external involvement with his reviews (more readers) and so this blog has been in hibernation, yeah that sounds good. Until yesterday when we found our second geocache and voilá, a topic was born!

So that's the teaser. After I'm done writing a paper for another class I'm taking, I'll tell more. Not sure how long it will take me, but the paper is due by 9pm tonight. The topic? We'll just call it self-reflection, suggested length 3-5 pages.

Prague by Arthur Phillips

2009-07-12T19:32:00.001-04:00

Sincerity. . . isn't it what life is all about? Are you who you say you are and can anyone tell the difference? And are you sincere to yourself about yourself?

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell

2009-05-14T10:46:00.002-04:00

American-born Jonathan Littell wrote this novel in French as Les Bienveillantes, and in France it won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in addition to much critical acclaim and high sales figures. It has also generated a great deal of controversy, which isn't surprising given its subject: The Kindly Ones is the fictional autobiography of an elderly former officer of the Nazi SS, and by any standard he is a very bad man. It is a difficult novel to read; the important ones, the best ones, often are.

"The Kindly Ones" may seem an odd title for such a book, as there is little kindness in either the man or his times. The title is a reference to classical Greek literature, specifically the Oresteia of Aeschylus. Orestes, who killed his mother and her lover in revenge for their murder of his father Agamemnon, is pursued by the Furies, euphemistically known as the Eumenides or "kindly ones". Author Littell engineers a complex intertwining of Oreses's story and that of Max Aue, the subject of this novel. And one of this novel's triumphs, in my opinion, is that it brings the harsh and uncompromising-- even savage-- tone of Greek tragedy to the modern world.

Oh my human brothers, let me tell you how it happened. I am not your brother, you'll retort, and I don't want to know. And it certainly is true that this is a bleak story, but an edifying one too, a real morality play, I assure you. You might find it a bit long--a lot of things happened, after all--but perhaps you're not in too much of a hurry; with a little luck you'll have some time to spare. And also this concerns you: you'll see that this concerns you. Don't think I am trying to convince you of anything; after all, your opinions are your own business.
Thus begins the first chapter of The Kindly Ones. The first words evoke Dante's Inferno, which seems appropriate enough. This introductory chapter is labeled "Tocatta"; each chapter (long sections, actually) is named like the sections of a musical work from the Baroque era. Philosopher / playwright Jean-Paul Sartre is referenced, even Sartre criticism; alienation, which is a fundamental theme in Sartre, pretty much defines The Kindly Ones's Max Aue. What all this intellectual referencing leads up to of course is the central, eternal question left by Nazism and the Final Solution: how could a cultured, highly educated nation of Germans commit such horrors? While The Kindly Ones does not pretend to provide an answer, it does provide a worthy and uncompromising exploration of the question. Read it, if you dare.

...the dead can't hear our crying, and remorse has never put bread on the table. I am not pleading Befehlnotstand, the just-obeying-orders so highly valued by our good German lawyers. What I did I did with my eyes open, believing it was my duty and that it had to be done, disagreeable or unpleasant as it may have been. For that is what total war means: there is no such thing as a civilian, and the only difference between the Jewish child gassed or shot and the German child burned alive in an air raid is one of method; both deaths were equally vain, neither of them shortened the war by so much as a second; but in both cases, the man or men who killed them believed it was just and necessary; and if they were wrong, who's to blame... genocide in its modern form is process inflicted on the masses, by the masses, for the masses.

Moby Dick

2009-03-15T19:07:00.002-04:00

Moby-Dick is a book that gets better every time I read it. First time around, it was just strange. Second time, it was a good story about whaling, spoiled by a lot of stuff that should've been edited out. The third time... well, I think I'm beginning to get it!

It's a helter-skelter, messy work of fiction, a "modern novel" from the mid-19th century. Parts of it are brilliant. Parts read like poetry. It is political, metaphysical, factual. I can understand why teachers love to teach it, because it is filled with easily tagged metaphors. What does that white whale represent? Is Ahab God? Is he the devil? The book can be read from so many angles....

It is political, in that much of it about authority. Ahab, despite his precarious sanity, is tuned in to the question of whence comes his authority. He has mastery over his men, but his authority hangs by a thread. The question of mutiny keeps coming up via ships they meet, most strangely in the person of a shipboard prophet. These ships seem to be hovering in a neverland between the absolute authority of a monarchy in the person of their captain and a democracy as embodied in their crew. Moby-Dick is very much a paean to the common man. It also recognizes how beholden the common man is to mere commercial interest. And how susceptible he is to a demagogue, or a religious zealot.

Ahab is a marvellous character. Starting with his delayed appearance on deck-- here, a remarkably effective device to build suspense. He is described as "scorched"-- how wonderful is that? Lightning-struck, blasted like a tree, damned. His long, iron-grey hair and his missing leg are mere icing on the cake after that. Lightning, electricity, and magnetism keep recurring in this strange novel. Lightning plays around the ship during a typhoon, and the immortal Ahab holds the grounding chains in his hand, as if daring God to strike him dead. (God demures.) The ship's compass becomes demagnetised, and Ahab restores it with a kind of self-conscious magic trick, as if he loves playing the devil for his men's enjoyment. It's Ahab who gets all the best lines, soliloquizing alone in his cabin like a character from Shakespeare.

And the whale, Moby-Dick himself? I submit that for Ahab, at least, he represents Death. Ahab is irresistibly drawn to it-- fascinated, horrified, obsessed:

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I grapple with thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

The old man Ahab will not go gently into that good night....

Two Books by Adrian Goldsworthy

2009-01-24T14:33:00.005-05:00

Caesar: The Life of a Colossus and
In The Name of Rome

History writing can be as dry as dust, and that maybe goes double for ancient history. Adrian Goldsworthy's books are the exception, they are lively and as readable as a good novel. It's particularly remarkable that he achieves this without compromising the quality of his scholarship and without pandering to a modern audience. He never tries to "update" the past, and is content to present the world of two millennia ago on its own terms. It is a fascinating world.

I know practically nothing about the ancient world, a gap in my education that I frankly find embarrassing. It's a little strange that modern education has mostly abandoned ancient history, because for centuries being an "educated person" meant knowing Latin and Greek. Now it's more important to know Windows. I can't help but feel we have maybe lost something in the trade off....

Fortunately I stumbled across Caesar: The Life of a Colossus, Goldsworthy's wonderful biography of Julius Caesar. I think biography is a great introduction to history; concentrating on a single person lends focus to the story. And I do think of history as story telling-- at least the kind of history that I'm interested in. What particularly fascinated me about the biography of Caesar is that the man never set out to be emperor; in fact the idea of one-man rule was repugnant to Romans, who prided themselves on their long-standing republican ideals. Caesar was granted power (imperium) by the elected Roman Senate, granted supposedly as a temporary thing, just as it had been granted to all the consuls who preceded him, and just as it would be granted to his successors Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula. In time, allowing that much power in the hands of a single charismatic man had terrible consequences, and the all-powerful Senate gradually became a tool of the executive and then finally became a tragic joke. It is a story that perhaps has relevance for our own time.

Reading Goldsworthy's biography of Julius Caesar left me hungering for context. What were these Punic Wars? Where the heck is Carthage, anyway? And what about the guys who came after Caesar, the ones who really did consider themselves emperor? The author's In The Name of Rome begins at the beginning and ends at the end, with the fall of the Empire. Its method again is biography, filled with lively anecdote. Like this gem about the consul and general Caius Marius, as his legions faced an army of Germanic tribesmen:

one warrior hoping to win great fame shouted out that he wished Marius to come forth and meet him in single combat. The consul suggested that the man should go and hang himself if he was so eager to die.

This story actually illustrates a point, about a transition period in history, as personal bravado and individual heroics on the battlefield gave way to cool-headed strategy and planning. And of course diplomacy. The Romans were masters of dogged persistence-- they practically invented it. Eventually, it would make them masters of the known world.

Wall-e

2008-12-24T08:54:00.001-05:00

Truth be told, this seemingly cute Disney Pixar animated flick is very strange. The hero of the piece is a plucky little mobile trash compactor that is engaged in a Sisyphian effort to single handedly clean up the mess left behind by humanity in a New York-sized city. This impossible task will of course take longer than forever, and he survives by cannibalizing the countless similar units that have "died" on the job. Perhaps his ant-like and unthinking enthusiasm for useless work is meant as inspiration for the rest of us, but in truth isn't it... well... more than a bit terrifying? After all, Sisyphus eternally rolling a boulder uphill was the ancient Greek vision of Hell.

Where are the people who have left behind this mess? We of the future are idling away our lives on an interplanetary mega cruise ship, where "we" have become so fat and idle that "we" are unable to rise from our motorized lounge chairs. Now, I myself have done the cruise ship shuffle, and I have to admit that there is a certain comic truth to this image of hedonistic gluttony. After all, the only work for a cruise passenger is working up an appetite for lunch, and the average weight gain per passenger per cruise is in the seven pound range. I just find it odd that Disney Corp., which is in the cruise ship business, should portray its clientele as a bunch of fat useless slobs. Seems bad for business. Anyway, this is all in service of the obvious environmental message of the movie, so the humiliating portrayal of mankind is in a good cause. I just find it, if I think about it-- which is clearly something I'm not supposed to do-- more than a bit mean-spirited.

Ah, the environmental message. It seems that the Earth of the future is unable to sustain life (yes, a real yuk-fest, that...) Except, that is, for a single green sprout that Wall-E stumbles upon while sifting through all that trash. He plants the seedling in an old boot, with an animated sigh of joy. This small act has great consequences and is tied in to his amorous adventures with a futuristic robotic probe named Eva. This budding romance plays out in typical Disney fashion, a wordless arc of blissful innocent discovery, angst-filled separation, and bittersweet reunion. Precisely because they are so childlike though, I can't help but find something disturbing about this romance. It just seems, well... underage, and icky. Maybe that's because by this stage I had become jaded by the whole enterprise. Or maybe it was the dialogue: "Ev-a." "Wall-E." "EEE-va!" "WALL-E!" "Ev-a?" "Eeee-vaaa??" "Waaaa-Leee!!" After about twenty minutes of that, I wanted to smack the both of them.

News of the sprout reaches humankind in space, who stir themselves to act. A comic battle with Otto the autopilot ensues (the name is about the only genuinely clever bit this movie has to offer). They return to earth, where they stand (unsteadily) upon their own two feet, plant the sad (and by now enfeebled) little seedling, deluding themselves that they are "farming" now and apparently all expecting that it will feed their large clamoring bellies. Perhaps Nature will do them a favor, and another sandstorm will appear on the horizon (two of these cataclysms have already appeared in the movie) and wipe them all out.

For humanity is really just a blot on the landscape. Lost in wasteful and gluttonous idleness, we have lived in sin and deserve to reap the whirlwind. So we better clean up our act, and we better be quick about it. This appears to be the message of this curious, misanthropic little animated comedy. It's a kind of environmental Puritanism that has become familiar-- "we" have too much stuff, "we" have lived it up heedlessly and far too long. And I give "we" the quotation marks of irony because the toiling masses of brown and yellow people, plus all the poor white folk-- the ones who have never had the problem of owning too much stuff or having too much food to eat-- are conspicuously absent from the picture.

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Charles Martin translation

2008-11-07T15:56:00.001-05:00

This is a very lively work, much more amusing than what I expected. Not at all dry. Some of these tales were familiar to me (King Midas, Atalanta and the apples), most were new. I was surprised that this work begins with a creation myth that's virtually identical with the one found in the Bible. Also the "Biblical" flood. And the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has a lot in common with the tale of Lot and his wife. It's obvious that the two works draw on the same ancient sources. Interesting.

Most of the Metamorphoses is a somewhat loosely organized collection of magical transformations. A fair number of these involve some horny god or other chasing after a reluctant virgin. Said virgin may be transformed into a tree, rock, or bird to avoid divine ravishment, or she may be granted a transformation afterwards, as a favor. These pagan gods may not be moral exemplars, but they sure are amusing. And it's not all male domination, not by any stretch, since the women get their licks in too, as in the story of Actaeon and Diana. Actaeon is a hunter who is transformed into a stag and torn apart by his own dogs, after stumbling upon the goddess bathing.

Some of the tales involve trans-gender shenanigans, like Caenis, a girl who cared for none of her suitors. Neptune transforms her into a young man, Caeneus, who then

spent his days in masculine pursuits,
wandering in the fields of Peneus,
delighting in his new phallicity.

I think my favorite story of all is that of Baucis and Philemon, an aged couple living in an isolated marsh, who in return for a simple act of piety and hospitality are granted any wish. They ask only that when the time comes, they both die at the same moment, so neither will have to bear the sorrow of losing their mate. Jove grants them their wish, and when their days come to an end, they are transformed into two trees standing side by side, / sprung from a single trunk.

Aww...

Ovid's Metamorphoses is not just a collection of tales, though. It all comes together, with the story of the founding of Rome. Rome is founded as a consequence of the destruction of Troy and the exodus of Aeneas. Like the rebirth of the phoenix and Pythagoras's teachings on reincarnation of the soul, it is all part of a grand cosmic cycle.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

2008-10-12T07:10:00.001-04:00

War and Peace was my summertime read, and it turned out not to be such an odd choice for a beach book after all. It is in fact surprisingly lively and entertaining, with only a few core characters to keep track of. Tolstoy has none of the grim, somber, and moralistic tone of Dostoevsky, which was my chief fear in beginning this book. True, War and Peace is long, but it is broken down into manageable sections; it was neither written nor published all at one go, and it need not be read that way either. There are of course novels that are longer: Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, Richardson's Clarissa, Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. And let's not forget that Harry Potter series...

My favorite character in War and Peace is hapless Pierre. He sort of drifts through life, amiable (mostly) and directionless. He's a big lovable bear of a man, who never loses the enthusiasms of an adolescent. Pierre, as a character, is the perfect observer. He is so charmingly earnest, so enthusiastic, as he searches for the Meaning of Life-- in the nonsense of Freemasonry, among other schemes. Fired with progressive ideas and the love of mankind, he decides to free his serfs, who promptly resent him for it. For although Tolstoy has great admiration for the wisdom and virtue of the ordinary peasant, he never lost sight of how crafty and suspicious these supposedly simple people can be.

This is a vast novel in the best sense of the word, a detailed exploration of the lives of people from various social classes, of various temperaments, of both genders, religious to atheist, the capable as well as the bungler. It is truly no longer than it need be, and it really is a ripping good read.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago

2008-09-21T11:06:00.004-04:00

Ricardo Reis is one of the multiple personae of 20th century poet Fernando Pessoa (d.1935). Pessoa not only wrote poems under the assumed name Ricardo Reis, he actually endowed Reis with a complete identity, a complete biography, and a separate and distinctive poetic style and voice.

In Jose Saramago's strange and wonderful novel, Reis is returning to his native Lisbon after the death of the poet Pessoa. This is of course impossible and absurd, since Reis is Pessoa's invention. But hey, this is fiction!

Reis's recollection of his native city is vague and spotty. This is understandable, since he has never been to his native city. These are another man's memories, and that man is dead. He checks into a hotel, and there begins a year of dreamlike wanderings and strangely impersonal, detached encounters with people. Ricardo Reis is nothing if he is not a close observer.

"All I ask of the gods is that I should ask nothing of them", runs a line of Reis' poetry. A poem that he does not remember writing, although it must be his, he reasons, because it is written on a scrap of paper on his table in his hotel room. It's a line that eloquently sums up Ricardo Reis, who is an Epicurean and a follower of the pagan gods of the ancient classical world. As an Epicurean, his goal in life is the avoidance of pain, the avoidance of turmoil.

This is a problem, for Reis has come to the nation of Portugal just as Fascism is raising its ugly head. As a man who does not believe in democracy, who does not believe in the republic, it does not disturb him that a dictatorship is being established; Reis is not a political man. This does not however stop the police from taking an interest in this odd foreigner adrift in the city of Lisbon. Unwilling to get involved, he is involved; asking only to be left alone, he is not left alone. He is a ghost, but a ghost that other men can see.

This is a novel that asks fascinating questions about involvement and non-involvement and about the nature of the self.

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera

2008-08-30T18:14:00.002-04:00

We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in lives to come... There is no means of testing which is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?

This is an idea that Milan Kundera returns to repeatedly, coming to this problem from various angles. Tomas, the central character, becomes involved with Tereza. Is he in love? He does not know. What is love? He is unsure of his emotions, they are untrustworthy. He knows he is not adept at love, and he suspects he may be deluding himself, in order to have at least the simulation of love in his life. He feels a deep affection and compassion for Tereza. Compassion itself-- like love-- is complex, and an emotional minefield.

Tomas, in his rational and somewhat cold male mind, has worked out a system he likes to call "erotic friendship". When Tereza finds out about this, and about Sabina, his partner in erotic friendship, she is hurt and feels betrayed. Tomas genuinely feels awful about this, and attempts to explain. Predictably, he fails. In the hands of a lesser novelist, this character might simply be dismissed as a dick. But Tomas's feeling of compassion for Tereza is too genuine. We are forced back to his central dilemma: he does not know what he wants, because he cannot know. For the rest of the novel, these three characters are inextricably bound together, whether they want to be or not.

One of the most curious passages in Kundera's novel is when the narrator informs us that Tomas, the womanizer, is afraid of women. It took me two readings of this novel, but I think I'm beginning to understand what Milan Kundera is getting at...

All of this is set against the backdrop of the Prague Spring of 1968. There has been a spontaneous relaxation of restrictions by the Communist government, a brief thawing that, as it turns out, the Soviets are not going to permit. The dilemmas of these three character's personal lives are mirrored in the choices they face of exile, defiance, or submission. All three choices are equally impossible. Because once again, we can never know what we want. Some choices are irrevocable, and there are no do-overs.

"Day" a novel by A.L. Kennedy

2008-08-24T09:39:00.002-04:00

Day isn't your typical war novel, a genre which tends to fall into two categories. One being the guts and glory type, something which isn't to my taste at all. The second being the anti-war novel, focusing on the absurdity and waste, such as Catch-22. Even the second type though can fall into mere convention, and be just as formulaic as the first type. A.L.Kennedy has written several novels prior to this one, dealing with relationships and family life in contemporary Scotland. It's a surprising departure, then, that her latest effort is a historical novel and a story of WWII to boot.

What a fine job she has done! This novel is, in my opinion, nothing short of unique. Alfie Day is in a mock prison camp as an extra in a movie. Not long ago, he had been an actual prisoner of war. So he clearly is a man obsessed with the past-- as well he might be, given what he has lived through. He escaped a dreary-- and Oedipal-- childhood by joining the Royal Air Force. His diminutive stature, that made it physically impossible for him to stand up to his brutal, domineering father, makes him the ideal tail gunner. Stuffing himself into the cramped rear gun turret of a Lancaster bomber, he views the world backwards as it recedes behind the plane.

Alfie is not particularly heroic, and there is no attempt on the author's part to make him exceptional. Yet this story of a perfectly ordinary man opens up profound questions of morality. Issues of hatred and love and of just getting by, day to day. And the most difficult questions Alfie faces have little to do with the unique place in history he occupies taking part in the air war over Germany.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

2008-05-01T19:29:00.003-04:00

I knew the story--or thought I did--but had never read the original. What a surprise! This ain't the Disney version. First of all, Victor Hugo's title for his novel is Notre Dame de Paris: 1482. The cathedral and the year are far more important to his story than is the hunchback, who actually has quite a small part to play. If there is a central character in the novel, it is the writer Pierre Gringoire, who is with us from beginning to end.

The second surprise is that this novel is not a nice story for the kiddies, about inner beauty and happy endings. Quasimodo does indeed save Esmeralda from the hangman (temporarily), but she doesn't exactly overwhelm him with gratitude for it. She can't bear to look at the poor bugger, he's so ugly and deformed. He horrifies her. Anyway, she only has eyes for the handsome, vain, selfish Captain Phoebus. The good Captain for his part only ever regarded the gypsy girl as a one-night stand at best. Meanwhile, there's a priest lusting after the sixteen year old Esmeralda. He makes a couple of attempts on her maidenhead, interspersed with abject pleas for her forgiveness. This priest has a whiff of sulfur and brimstone about him... literally so, since he dabbles in alchemy. He has a ne'er do well brother, who the ape-like Quasimodo murders, along with a good percentage of a torch-bearing mob that he (mistakenly) thinks is after Esmeralda. This happens in a scene on the dizzying heights of the cathedral's facade, a scene that surely inspired the movie King Kong.

It's a rollicking tale. Unabashedly romantic, unexpectedly filled with black humor. The episode where a deaf judge "questions" the deaf Quasimodo, before sentencing him to a public flogging, is one of the funnies (and saddest) things I have ever read.

Night and Day by Virginia Woolf

2008-03-31T19:32:00.003-04:00

Night and Day is all about delightful miscommunication. The characters tend to have the best and most satisfying conversations inside their own heads, usually when walking alone down a dark street and well away from the confusion of actual human company. It's a state of affairs that I would expect to be tragic, but in this early novel of Woolf's it is the opposite of tragic.

Woolf's women are unsure of themselves but more capable than they know. Woolf's men are boys really, overconfident in their insecurity, a bit petulant and willful, and charmingly ineffectual. Many years ago I read To The Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, and I remember them as considerably darker than this book. I'll have to revisit them.