And Thus it Begins

I've officially started. To the right of my bed is the traditional smattering of folded shirts, discarded clothes once worn, but not dirty enough to advance to the laundry bin, a set of cones used in ultimate frisbee, and, oh what is that? Is that Cannery Row by John Steinbeck? Why it is. How quaint. Cannery Rom is the story of a group of vagabonds and the daily events and people that surround them in their quest for comradary, (along with the occasional free meal and drink). It is very similar, thus far, to Tortilla Flat, another Steinbeck work, but with a little more wisdom and darkness.

But that's not what I really wanted to bring up. Over the weekend, I finished a book of poetry by, and brief biography of, Khalil Gibran. It is titled "The Procession," which refers to the movement one's mind takes as they mature. It went hand-in-hand with a topic that came up in my Thursday night Bible study, regarding dreams and hopes. For in "The Procession" there are two voices, that of the sage, and that of the youth, that bring up their viewpoints regarding different topics such as: The Illusory World, Life and Sorrow, Religion, etc. Here's a sample entry:

Of Life and Sorrow

Sage:

Life is but a sleep disturbed
By dreaming, prompted by the will;
The saddened soul with sadness hides
Its secrets, and the gay, with thrill.

Youth:

In the forest no one sorrows,
Nor is one downcast by grief.
Zephyrs carry but compassion
When they whisper to the leaf

Give to me the reed and sing thou!
Let the song erase the sorrow,
For the plaint of reed remaineth,
When the past rejoins the morrow.

There is an argument going on between the Youth's opinion of nature being the preeminent educator of life's potential, and the Sage's stance that life itself is the greatest teacher. Here we seem to have the Youth arguing that there is no reason to be sad: in nature you just live. While the sage is saying emotions are a masque for the heart's true feelings.

I don't want to get too far into the interpretation of this work, and I thought this section was one of the weaker ones (or I understood it the least), but I hope it gives a brief overview of the book's setup, which I found thought-provoking and intriguing. I would give it probably a three and a half out of five. It is a great conversation starter, and challenges the mind. But I'm excited to add the first piece of this summer's reading to my bookshelf: it is a rather cathartic experience for me.

Back to Steinbeck. I bought East of Eden today. Until then, read. And share.

A pretentious voice leading the masses

Yesterday a divulgance was made at a used book store. $49.50 was spent purchasing a stack of eight books ranging from Kahlil Gibran to Tim O'Brian. One problem with this whole ordeal is that I've become a unflinching numericist: I cannot purchase a book without gauging its font size, page length, whether or not it will be an attribute or detriment to this challenge. It's a habit I'm trying to rid myself of, or at least hinder it enough so that it doesn't get in the way of quality book purchases. But really, do Dover thrift editions really have to be so thrifty? Or Norton's Anthologies try to cram 7,485,209,309 words onto every page?

Let us not be deterred though, fellow 9000-pagites, and begin to the pressing in of pagination. I 'spose we'll count May 1st as the official start date (forgive me all of you whose colleges don't end as soon as UD's) and hopefully the postings are fast and furious. The first discussion's date will be Saturday, May 29th at a currently fiestly debated location (Laura K. and Anna S. are the leading candidates, but perhaps a coffee shop shall trump all) at 5 P.M.

Let us postulate for a while, what that will mean. X amount of people will have been through, perhaps, Steinbeck's greatest work, along with approximately 2300 pages of work. Matt Finn will be halfway through Atlas Shrugged, becoming more and more objectivist. I'll have read the sufist works of Gibran, existentiality of Dostoevsky, and balanced them all against (hopefully) the Pentateuch, while Aaron has learned 234 new ways to catch fish.

That's all folks, this was a study break for me. I'm looking forward to hearing from you shortly.

A General Challenge

Hey everyone. I've returned the world of blogging. It is to issue a general challenge for this coming summer, which I will approximate as mid-May to mid-August: see if you can read one hundred pages a day for 90 days, or 9000 pages. There will be no specifics as to the genre or type of materials; it is just for the purpose to share what literature is relevant and affecting you at the moment. Right now today, I'm going to try to read the Bible (1283 pages), East of Eden, and a plethora of smaller works. I probably won't post anything before graduation (May 8th) but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Until then....work on your lists.