Baby Makes Three!

My friends Georgina and Anthony are expecting a baby! All the love in the world heading your way love cats!!!
Last summer after a hard day of circus performing...that's the nervous parents on the left...and below...

Renovating?

What a good idea for a design book. Other books by Jennifer Roberts.
Here is my design for a racoon free fountain and rainwater catcher for Mister Anchovy and Tuffy P's back garden using Brass defcon chicken wire

Or I could build you a telescope.

The Moveable Feast

1)Mithras had a supper and a kind of eucharist ritual where a bull is slain and eaten. In the two photos above, two versions of Mithras. The colourful one depicts Mithras with a cape of the universe with all the stars inside. The relief carving is from Iran and depicts Mithras on the left with radiant sun coming from his head. Other foods celebrating the new year in Iran are apples, wheat sprouts, bakalava, garlic, sumac berries, eggs and apples.



2) "If the tauroctony did not represent an Iranian myth, what did it represent? Starting in the mid-1970's, several scholars (including Roger Beck of the University of Toronto, Stanley Insler of Yale University, Michael Speidel of the University of Hawaii, Alessandro Bausani of the University of Rome and me) put forward new interpretations of the tauroctony (and of Mithraism) based on the hypothesis that the picture is actually a star map." from

Scientific American 1989.

Mithras temple in Capua, Italy.
3) "This remarkable explanation of the tauroctony is based on two facts. First, every figure found in the standard tauroctony has a parallel among a group of constellations located along a continuous band in the sky: the bull is paralleled by Taurus, the dog by Canis Minor, the snake by Hydra, the raven by Corvus, and the scorpion by Scorpio. Second, Mithraic iconography in general is pervaded by explicit astronomical imagery: the zodiac, planets, sun, moon, and stars are often portrayed in Mithraic art (note for example the stars around the head of Mithras in the carving of the tauroctony illustrated above); in addition, numerous ancient authors speak about astronomical subjects in connection with Mithraism. In the writings of the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, for example, we find recorded a tradition that the cave which is depicted in the tauroctony and which the underground Mithraic temples were designed to imitate was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." Given the general presence of astronomical motifs in Mithraic art and ideology, the parallel noted above between the tauroctony-figures and constellations is unlikely to be coincidence."

4) Sunrise in spring entering megalithic mounds in Ireland built to see dawn. Some mounds in Ireland have been dated inconclusively between 4300 and 3500BC.

5) Vishu, a predominantly Hindu celebration, when the zodiac enters Mesha/Aries occur dependant on astronomical calculations. For Vishu ritualistic food includes raw rice, golden cucumber, betel leaves arecanut and some ritualistic objects include fresh linen, a metal ball, mirror, yellow konna flowers and coins. These often recall prosperity or fertility. A sacrifice and sharing for prosperity in the coming new year. 6) A new year is a re-birth, a reincarnation of celestial personas and seasons. 7)A connection between ash wednesday(40 days before Easter) and Vishu is of note that some practitioners " put on their forehead the marks of ashes and sandal paste and go to the temple for worship. After worship, they prepare a feast which is moderate and elegant."

8) For Vishu there is another connection to Easter besides the date and ash. There is a morning surprise (like egg hunting?). To wake up and go to an altar and what you see forecasts your future year. The mirror, the abundant food symbolizing prosperity and abundance.(fertility?)

Does the following sound familiar?

9) Legend: The Kollam era is said to have begun on the day Parashurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, created Kerala by making the waters of the Arabian Sea recede. Parashurama had vowed to exterminate the Kshatriya caste from the face of the earth. In keeping with this oath, he went to war with Rama, who was a Kshatriya.

10) During the battle, he realised that Rama was none other than the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. He realised that the purpose of his own life had come to an end and decided to spend the rest of his life in meditation. For this, he wanted a place where he could meditate in total peace. The gods granted him a boon according to which, he was to throw his battle axe into the sea and land would rise along the distance it covered. This is how Kerala was created.

11) I find for me it recalls several stories. King Arthur, Hamlet, and Moses?

12) April was once called Eosturmonath: Easter being derived from Eostur/Ishtar-month. The date of our ritualistic eating for both Vishu and Easter is determinded by the moon...and often changes so that is why it is a moveable feast.

13) Not only does our celebration of rebirth move each year because it is dependant on astronomical calculations but this spring festival has navigated between eras, belief systems, millenia and continents.

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Feel Like Reading Along?

I had no idea that Karen had set up a site for us to discuss reading Don Quixote...wanna check it out and join in?

Corbusier bound copy

Oprah's Readers Clock In

Earlier I posted how there is a bit of a "turf war" (thanks L.M.) on a Cormac McCarthy online book club I have participated in for ten years.

The discussion has been divided into camps...one seems to be predominantly that Oprah introducing the novel The Road is a boost because the novel is thoughtprovoking and maybe even important because it deals with an extinction level event...and a father and son trying to survive a dead world. The more people who consider the dangers of environmental or nuclear devastaion, the better we may prevent or be prepared in case of such an event. (the novel does not say how the devastation to the earth occurred...it is ambiguous to a degree). And most importantly, that Cormac McCarthy is an incredible writer and more people will be introduced to his work.

Another camp feels that Oprah's audience isn't savvy enough to understand McCarthy's novel. This group of people thinks housewives can't handle the truth. Or that the Oprah audience is a fluffy crowd. They wish McCarthy was doing an interview on PBS. Oprah is percieved as "the Man" or corporate...and has McCarthy "sold out"?

I posted some distilled comments from these two camps here.


First here are some readers guide questions posted at Oprah's book club:

ABOUT THE ROAD
Provided by Vintage Books, a division of
Random House, Inc.,New York, the publisher of The Road

1) Cormac McCarthy has an unmistakable prose style. What do you see as the most distinctive features of that style? How is the writing in The Road in some ways more like poetry than narrative prose?

2)Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of "the man" and "the boy" affect the way in which readers relate to them?

3)How is McCarthy able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying? Which descriptive passages are especially vivid and visceral in their depiction of this blasted landscape? What do you find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it?

4)McCarthy doesn't make explicit what kind of catastrophe has ruined the earth and destroyed human civilization, but what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is implied by the father's statement that, "On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world," [p. 32]?

Now here are some comments from Oprah's online book club:

"I am a librarian and I read this book a month ago. I could not put it down and was carrying at around the house, reading it as I made supper and did laundry; I was done in a day and a half. My kids kept saying, "That must be a good book, Mom." I wouldn't describe it as good; I would describe it as one of the most important books I have ever read. I have told anyone who would listen, "You've got to read this book," but only you, Oprah, could take it to the level of readership where it needs to be. This is a difficult and disturbing book, one that must be read again and again and again, for I believe it has many messages. Over all the years and all the books, this one is your best pick yet."

"I think McCarthy left the cause of the end of the world ambiguous so that the situation could apply to any number of causes, of which humanity is now flirting. My book club discussed this very issue at length and we couldn't come to an agreement. Most of us think it was a large scale nuclear attack that happened several years ago - hence the burnt landscape. The natural disasters and bleak skies are the result of a nuclear winter. A major meteor impact might also yield the same results."

"For those of you asking about the trout at the end...in mythology fish always represent rebirth and ressurection. (Joseph Campbell) Fish are also used as a symbol for Christ and thus, a symbol of hope. The ichthys (or fish) also symbolizes Christianity. Ichthus is an acronym of "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". And, of course, there is always the possibility that Cormac McCarthy happens to like trout. But my money is on rebirth and resurrection."

"After finishing the novel, I put it down and sighed. The novel shows that civilization is a thin veneer, and once that veneer is completely destroyed, humans' capacity for good and evil is revealed. Unfortunately, McCarthy shows the "bad guys" winning. The question is, do they ultimately win, or can the "good guys" somehow continue evade them and survive? Unfortunately, I think not."

"I have long been a huge fan of his and received "The Road" for Christmas. It is a very different genre for him but I had no difficulty identifiying his style and grace with literature. The first book I read of his was "Blood Meridien". I have gone back and read almost everything by him since.

I hear he will be appearing on the show and hope to be notified when that episode will air. What a treat to see the only TV interview the man has ever done! Probably that he ever will! I've never known many people who have read him, unless I force it on them, so it's nice to see him getting the recognition he so richly deserves.

Thanks Oprah, Bravo!!!"

"McCarthy cleverly avoids the specifics of the devastating event so that the reader can't pick holes in any facts regarding the post-catastrophe environment. I agree that the nature of the event is irrelevant in the face of such loss, but for what it's worth it bears all the hallmarks of a progressing nuclear winter. 'Watching distant cities burn' - nuclear warheads, if detonated over flammable terrain such as that of a city, result in masses of smoke spewing into the atmosphere and blocking out the sun's light.

McCarthy does allude to it being the whole world that has become void of life - 'By day the sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp'.

If you can judge a book's quality on how much it affected you, then this is probably the greatest book I have ever read, even though there are times when I wish I hadn't.

The unique punctuation style makes each word feel heavy, like they're all carved from the same piece of rock. The nameless characters, dispossessed of identity, further bring this believable world into sharper focus. There is not a moment in this book that doesn't resonate.

These stripped down, bear bones techniques suit the shear hopelessness of the story. I've never read a book like it and probably won't again.

It is fair to say that today's world could perhaps lead to a tomorrow like the one described in The Road; it's stuff people give thought to now perhaps more than at any other time in our history.

The Road makes you worry not only about what will happen to its tragically small family, but also about what will happen to us.

nb. For those who are interested, the story will be turned into a film with John Hillcoat as director."

"I must say that this is the first time I have ever read this author. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read his special style. I did enjoy the book despite the grimm subject matter. It was engaging and thought provoking. Many of you have read other books by Cormac McCarthy so I would like to know if he has written anything with a more positive perspective. Suggestions for my next read by him would be helpful. Oprah is wonderful exposing us to all sorts of literature."

"Mr. McCarthy gripped my very soul, heart and mind; making the realization that we humans who have come so far(but capable of our own desruction) can very quickly lose everything but our instinct for survival. My imagination assumed 'mankind at some time of war' finally destroyed the earth and what few survivor existed were compelled to survive at a daily pace of hopeless fear desolation and distrust. In some cases cannibalism. The good guys 'carring the fire' only have hope if they should stumble onto a part of then earth where vegetation reappears and there is some life other than human. Otherwise when all resources are spent the only thing left is continued cannibalism. Mr. McCarthy knows how to grip the very soul."

"Oprah, how could you put this book on your list? After learning about the law of attraction, how could you recommend this book? I've studied the law of attraction (metaphysics) for 30 years and I'm shocked that you made such a choice. Yes, it's a great book. God had blessed Cormac McCarthy with enormous talent. But you have set the wheels in motion for millions of people to focus their attention on a dying, savage world, albeit a fictitious one. The law of attraction shows us that even when we focus on fiction, we attract that energy into our world. This energy could set things back on our planet. "What we focus on, we attract!" I've read your message boards...many readers are depressed and crying from reading "The Road". Please, Oprah, talk to the experts on metaphysics about this if you don't believe me. "People are affecting reality with their thoughts and beliefs every day"..Dr.Fred Alan Wolf, a physicist who conducts research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness and author of 7 books on metaphysics. Dr. Candace Pert; author of "Molecules of Emotion".."The external world is a mirror of our beliefs and expectations." I know a lot about human emotion; my great uncle, Dr. Charnly McKinley, created the MMPI, the most widely used psychological profile test in use today. As you know, many people are highly suggestible. Ask Dr. Christiane Northrup about this. She won't even watch the 10pm news because the violence is so overwhelming, it affects her on a physiological level. This is going to take a lot of damage control"

"What were you thinking, Oprah? This is such a stupid, poorly written book that I cannot believe you picked it. I don't have to worry about being invited to the Book Club dinner/discussion to gush over any great writing. Were the commas and apostrophes lost in the constant rain, snow and ash? Lack of attention to this detail is a poor literary device. Even science fiction books ought to have a plausible underlying story. This does not. So how did the man and his son survive all those years in cold temperatures before it eventually occurred to them to move south toward the ocean for a warmer climate? Even if two people are together a long time, they sometimes use the name of the child in conversation, but apparently they forgot that. Why would anybody come upon a bunker with survival gear and then decide to move on? There is so little dialogue and then many times the words are all about whether the son is still talking to the father! Boring! Good plots do not hinge on coincidence, but in this book, yup, after seeing nobody trustworthy or mentally competent for years, suddenly the minute Dad dies, they appear to take the boy with them. This is a rotten book and I was mad I spent the money for it. Usually, I like Oprah picks, but this is a big time clinker."

"I was rather surprised that Oprah selected this book for her book club and it has garnered such rave reviews. I read this book last September when it was first released after hearing about it on the Glenn Beck radio show. I am a huge fan of books written in this genre, that being post apocalyptic fiction. Maybe it is from growing up in the 70’s and 80’s with movies like Red Dawn and The Day After.

In any case, the book is a short read and I knocked it out in one evening\late night. I was disappointed with the lack of character development in the book. The author spent the majority of words detailing the absolute hellish conditions that existed for the characters. I kept waiting for something to happen to the characters but nothing really did and then the ending did nothing more than to anger me. I just thought, I stayed up reading until 3am and this is the end? In my opinion it was more like a rough draft or a piece of a novel rather than the finished product. I was really blown away by all of the deep meanings people seamed to draw from this book when I simply felt depressed and empty."

"When I purchased and began to read this book, I was so enthralled that I finished it in 8 hours. Of the many volumes of books that I have read over the years, none have affected me like this. I am the father of a 2 year old, and all I could think about when I finished was holding him in my arms. This book inspires the reader to look inside and evaluate who you are, and what values you hold dear."

"The messages I've read so far do not mention God or His commandments, or our survival in every way depending upon our choice to obey these commandments and laws of God. The first and most important law is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength; and to love others as you love yourself. If we can fully obey this law we will automatically obey every other law God has ever given to us. In obeying, we survive in every way that matters, and we do so joyfully, no matter what comes. What will come is already known by God. All you can do in the face of that which God has already revealed is to get your part right, be obedient, trust, and be joyful so that you set a good example for others to follow."

"I inhaled this book. His prose is remarkable, and the characters amazing. I felt such a total lack of color throughout, reminding me of the people crossing the bridge, September 11. We are so close to this."

"I am an ardent fan of Cormac McCarthy and am elated that The Road was selected for the Book Club.

I found The Road to vary from some of his earlier writings. His sentence structure has become a little simpler in both No Country for Old Men and The Road. Yet, he still makes wonderful use of the language to convey his story. Yes, he still does not use conventional punctuation, and is not afraid to use a wonderfully varied vocabulary throughout.

I find it very interesting that at the end, the boy survives carrying the fire on with the couple. To me, he symbolizes hope for the future. He keeps the Father from being as brutal as the other people that they meet in their travels. His faith is simple and childlike.

This ending is very unlike the ending of Blood Meridian where the totally amoral Judge kills the youth in an outhouse.

I look forward to seeing the interview with him and following the discussion here."

"I've been carrying this book with me for months, encouraging others to read it. It's the closest thing to a life-changing experience I've ever had with a book and I have a degree in Comparative Literature! With Oprah, it will get the readership it deserves."

A Year In Film: Landscapes.

These are my favourite photos I took in the last year of scenes.

Class War

Oprah chose one of my very favourite writers for her latest book club selection!!!!

I am ecstatic!!!! I've been so hyper and excited since last week thinking about a vast new audience for one of my literary heros, Cormac McCarthy.

Last week, Oprah returned to contemporary literature after a couple of years of choosing classics for her book club and audience participants. When Oprah first introduced her book club, it was with contemporary novels she loved and that inspired her. She began with Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Oprah began a small revolution. Not only were people reading, but especially parents, who had long given up on personal time, or had lost focus on allowing themselves to sit down and enjoy their imaginations. Her online book forum has thousands of participants during each book slection, it's is really something to behold.

I've read at least half of the Oprah picks over the years, either by coincidence or choice, or I had already been familiar with the book.

I belong to a few book clubs online. Although McCarthy reached mainstream audiences many years ago with his novel All The Pretty Horses there are many fans who felt that he was their special cult writer. Like Thomas Pynchon and J.D. Salinger, McCarthy doesn't give many interviews. Two or three as far as I know over the last 40 years. As a matter of fact, Mister Anchovy and I, discovered him over twenty years ago when he was still relatively unknown. I remember the surprise when he had optioned a novel for Hollywood. It was quite exciting.

The Cormac McCarthy Forum began in the 90's as a resource and discussion board primarily used by academics. It has changd and grown a "lay reader" participation as well as a university crowd since then...and the announcement of Cormac McCarthy as Oprah's book brought some interesting responses, especially that she said he will make his first television intereview ever with her.

The announcement produced hundreds of posts at the Cormac McCarthy forum with a wide variety of emotional and cultural insights into a quiet riot of what might be called a "class war"?


Here are SOME "anti-Oprah" comments (to be followed by SOME anti-academic comments)

"brain dead housewives"
"stereotyping their clothing"
"normally I'd feel like this was a punch in the groin, but this means a tv interview"
"a stupid Oprah sticker on a McCarthy book"
"hope it doesn't become studio fodder"
"Wait, what? I'm sorry, what? Of all the---now, wait a minute--- Who picked who for the what now? This is like the kind of hideous, self-negating logic games that make your brain hurt while you play them"
"what would make him appear on Oprah? his wife and son, probably wants to set them up financially"
"I got adeath threat, for real no kidding. Be careful what you say about the almighty Oprah. Her minions are heading to our homes as we speak."
"she must not have heard about Lester"
"hmmm I wonder why Oprah didn't pick Blood Meridian. I ask this with an ironic wink"
"I cringed a bit when I heard the announcement"
"this is surreal"
"McCarthy won't discuss his childhood traumas, sexual and/or substance abuse. He won't buy new clothes for the interview or wear makeup"
"Wonder if Del Monte will get in on the action and pass out cans of pears to the audience with their free copies?"
"my head is going to explode. It is a shame he has so little regard for his legion academic fans who would kill for an interview"
"what a cream-cheese interview"
"as cheese-a-riffic as Oprah is...she does a lot of good with her (enormous) wealth and did bring herself up from a pretty low place. She gets my respect for sure."
"ha, my stomach feels quesy when thinking about yelling out"Will someone tape Oprah for me.Ha"
"Reactions while reading this thread:No. No."
"Well, it's all over. They even got to McCarthy."
"nobody ever lost a penny by underestimating the taste of the American public. Mencken"
"bored housewives and spinsters"
"imagine nice sweatered housewives asking what is a catamite"
"and now its as if Oprah stole my thunder"

SOME "anti-academic" comments:

"Ms Winfrey may not ask the same questions as a professor of literature(thank goodness?)"
"perhaps McCarthy is using this as a means to increase his readership and sell more books (so far academia hasn't inspired people to read McCarthy?" my aside)
"you bloody snobs"
"Oprah fans talk about a lot more shit and heavy shit than you realize, rape, survival, stalkers, war, death, harrassment, sexism, forgiveness, spirituality, love, intolerance, mental illness, murder...in fact by the sound of it...the real people in the dark of culture and literature have shown their faces here"
"this reaction just confirms my theory about the negative aspects of the cultishness of McCarthy readers"
"(The Road...hopefully)...will ride the wave of populism and become a fixture in high school American Literature classes for decades to come, instead of the vacuous crap they make kids read today."
"that would be like saying all Cormac McCarthy fans are smart. I certainly know that ain't the truth."
"As if someone needs credentials to read a book and those who read it have to be a certain sort, and the splendiferous insights and readings here are somehow almost always profound and above and beyond the range of the average literate reader of books."
"there is also a lot of nonsense and crap posted here as well. It's not like our shit doesn't stink."
"crossing a border in society with exposure on Oprah"
"housewives are way better people than politicians and soldiers and artists and writers and systems analysts and English professors"
"I'm inclined to believe that the insecurity at work here is the fear that the resulting cumulative interpretation won't be palatable. The fear of losing control, of losing 'ownership' of McCarthy's senantic existence"
"I think this sense of a loss of ownership is the best thing that could've happened for everyone, certainly McCarthy, and maybe most of all this society. His capability to mean something, and whatever it might be, to alot of people, to alot of people that would never read the works in the bibliography on this site, is more important than the bibliography on this site."
"you sound like a bunch of groupies"