These are treasured volumes and it took a bit of doing to find and procure at least some of them. All are considered important works here in the Rockhouse except "Worldwalk" was a gift from Cadillac Man and "Outland" was a suggestion from Kannafoot so the critique is still out for those.
There's only one music manual but he got in there inadvertently and there are multiple others around the place. These kinds of volumes don't constitute 'real books' in this context. There's also a Canon manual for a Vixia HF-G10 viddiecam, another non-real book.
Since titles may be difficult to read, there's Noam Chomsky on "9/11" and that will be the only comment on Ithaka on that matter today.
"Outland" remains an unknown.
"The Mote in God's Eye" is an exceptional statement on uncontrolled reproduction, war-like tendencies, and the inevitability of things. "The Gripping Hand" is the sequel and it's checked out just now while I read it.
"Worldwalk" also remains an unknown.
"Brave New World" is important for reasons people don't seem to remember too much.
"Triumph" was written in the sixties about some filthy rich types trying to survive a full-out nuke war. Almost sixty years later it plays almost exactly the same except is only the filthy richie of the richiest who build bomb shelters now. As before, if they're the only ones who live then we don't care to survive. Should they actually be capable of pushing the button, it will trigger a reverse eugenics program in which we will remove ourselves from the gene pool if any of us remain. Such a world does not deserve Sensitives. Note: see Zenna Henderson regarding Sensitives. "The People: No Different Flesh" is another in my category of important works.
"Childhood's End" is a wild vision of things from Arthur C. Clarke and he was typically more staid than that but he goes off the wall with a worldwide case of autism and the result of that is an exceptional transformation, explanation of nightmare dreams, etc. Brilliant work.
"Heredity, Genes, and Chromosomes" was my ol' Dad doing one of his best tricks in bringing ultra complex science in his own research to a level of understanding at an undergraduate level. It's easy to talk 'smart' to affect a measure of intelligence but it's a tad more difficult to make smart things comprehensible to those who do not study that particular discipline or do not as yet.
"The Forest People" is about an exceptionally gentle culture of Pygmies in Africa and the study is a long-time reference in Anthropology courses.
"Yanomamö, the Fierce People" is about a native culture from the Amazonian region and their behavior is wildly different from that of "The Forest People."
Note: there are still some pending volumes for the cultural anthropology set because I want one on the Ulithi who are South Pacific islanders and they're the ones who set a place at a dinner table for deceased relatives. There's also another survey volume for "Indians of North America" which is fantastically comprehensive.
Note 2: I can remember all these things but sometimes I go to retrieve something from the microwave after the alarm beeps but will instead open the refrigerator. Evolution in action.
The perplexing mystery is what happened to the last book I read as it's almost impossible to lose anything in here since the room is small (i.e. small for a studio) but there's clutter as there always will in such a place so it's got to be here somewhere. "Lucifer's Hammer" should be here somewhere along with several others so there's a mystery.
The house as a whole has another library but many of the volumes are concerned with genealogy which is interesting like reading about tide changes when you don't care about surfing or fishing. That's a frustration for Yevette since she can talk with expertise on the matter ... but nobody wants to hear it. She also has information about her witchy potions but the same frustration arises since I won't try them and the Texas Tallboy comes by from time to time but he won't touch them either. I can tell you this much for sure, they did not kill her although I'm not sure if they cured anything so, try it if you like, it probably won't kill you (larfs).
Sorry, Yevette. I know you take it seriously.
"Childhood's End" just arrived yesterday and I found a copy of "Wind in the Willows" but I'm not positive on the illustrations. It's just a paperback but some are illustrated and the search continues. I'm not really sure how there can be any free jingle for this since there was a whole lot of time when there was just nothin' to eat but there's been the opportunity to get a few books lately ... so I'm going for it and there's such a delight in any of them.
The interest in "Childhood's End" and autism is, in part, narcissism because it's likely I've been carrying some measure of autism all my life. That would explain the acute shyness, the loathing at the idea of being touched, and a great many things. I can act out like hell when I'm inside a role such as on-stage or running a meeting in the bank but that's not the little wimp inside who really doesn't want to be there ... except for the stage as it's always surprised me how natural that felt.
The touching aspect may seem peculiar but sexual touching in a typical man / woman relationship is not the same, gladly, as basic human touching, socializing, etc. Chimps pick fleas from each other as part of their socializing and we're not all that different. Maybe you brush your daughter's hair or you brush your wife's hair if you feel romantic instead of Heya Mama, I'm a' feelin' horny. I know I'm saying things you already know but the reason is clarity since that circuit is not present in me.
After shaking hands with someone, my only thought is now I need to wash my hands and it makes my skin crawl, say, in a meeting when someone shakes hands and puts an arm around my shoulders. My only thought behind that is, so, you wanna fuck or what? Corporate types do that all the time and it would creep the living hell out of me.
Even today when I'm highly wrecked, Yevette may try to stroke my back a little just for simple comfort but I have to ask her to stop because it's kind of nerve wracking. Note: don't even think I bark at her as it hurts to say it to her because I know that kind of hurts her to hear it. It's easy to play an asshole on-stage and it's the best part to play but off-stage ain't that way and y'all know how that plays in your own lives.
After all, a William who really mattered told us already, "All the world's a stage."
Unknown about you but I've never seen it as anything else and I still don't. Call this theme of autism an affectation as you may but it explains a lot of things to me, particularly why I didn't think anything was real. Maybe it makes no sense to hear I didn't believe the Army was real but that was really what was happening. It might have been better to figure it out, oh, decades ago but finding some sense in it now gives some satisfaction.
(Ed: how do you know anything is real now?)
I don't. That's not a depressive note, it's simply a view of things which don't make sense and, like the Army, they're not supposed to make sense.
So back to the library where things do make sense.
3 comments:
I came across "Wind In The Willows" some time ago--at a big box arts and crafts store. It was only a dollar, and a poor quality paperback. I was thinking about getting it at the time and coloring the illustrations in it to send to you...but the quality was so poor. I hope you can find a good copy. I could look at or call Half Price Books to see if they have a copy. They may get them from time to time.
Interesting observation--the Autism.
ML
Found this edition--nice one! Did not know there were so many editions. This one looks like a nicely illustrated one. Another olace to look---the "teacher stores"--can't think of the name..they may have a swell copy!
"Wind in the Willows" has such a big place in my family and I hope that was similar in others but maybe that's a transplanted Limey thing so it was mostly Australia. I didn't read other children's books too much but my sisters enjoyed "Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web" and others of that nature. All of us read about the Willows, tho, as that was the first for each of us.
Be careful in searching as there are two primary illustrators who are regarded well by readers and then there are the others who are not regarded quite so well. They bring out pitchforks if anyone mentions Disney (larfs). As to the names of those illustrators, see above (or somewhere or other) about short term memory since those names aren't in it. I'll look around some more and I may have a hit but payday isn't until tomorrow and that will make the search real.
Here's another really dim one: do you remember "Water Babies" as I don't remember the story but it had exceptional illustrations and it's for the quite young. Willows is the only one I need to find but there's a mystical spot for that one as well although not so much to buy it.
The autistic aspect is something which makes the parts seem to fit a bit more sensibly especially when some parts didn't seem to make sense at all. There's nothing to do or change as a result of the observation, it's more of an aha, so that's how it goes.
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