i enjoy what Meredith wrote in her post on chapter 4 of Ani.Mystic (is that what we’re up to in book club?): time is not just number, time is not clock time, time is a feeling what does it feel like, then, to be in relation to time? Gordon White writes of a 260-day Mayan… Continue reading bigger than thou
Category: book club
counting
“Our numbers have meaning when they describe the duration of a cycle“, writes Meredith. chapter 3. the duration of reading pages 1-81 may vary. i have to go back and find where my mind was when i read this chapter, there’s been a break in between as i attended to life’s mundane and wonderous duties.… Continue reading counting
even the dead are some kind of living
“Removing the distance between doing and thinking” inspired a string of thoughts from my co-conspirator in this book club. This made me think of a recent email from my sister, who noted how many of my past actions didn’t match how I thought of myself, or how I projected what I thought of myself. It… Continue reading even the dead are some kind of living
upon a stone altar
This year (it’s been a year since our last book club, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness.–a year!) Meredith and i are reading Ani.mystic by Gordon White from Rune Soup (both of us got the nice hardback edition, because, book nerds). i have read none of Gordon’s books, and i am excited to… Continue reading upon a stone altar
crying in the void
it has been a long while since i was so devastated upon finishing a book. i have a new title to add to my list of books i truly, deeply adore: The Left Hand of Darkness, my Ursula LeGuin. i wish i had read it in late teens, in my twenties, thirties… once a decade seems… Continue reading crying in the void
muffled
Mr. Ai is hosted at a member of the Orgota elite, with his room warmly “…piled with furs, the rugs, drapes, wrappings, mufflings”. What seemed designed to ensure his comfort becomes, after a brief conversation with Therem Harth, “stuffy and cloddish”. Who might want to muffle Ai? The above oil painting by the Danish painter Hammershøi reminds… Continue reading muffled
double trouble
mounting tensions between Karhide and Orgoreyn… and between what we think we know, and what the author is slowly teasing, revealing. are we on the Envoy’s side? do we trust Estraven? what is trust? trust means something reliable, predictable: i trust that you will act and think in alignment with who you are. your intentions… Continue reading double trouble
in a rut
yes, Meredith, the frame is broken–we’ve been dancing around the kemmer topic for six chapters and now, finally, we’re focused explicitly on sex. chapter 7, Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. in Karhide, sex only happens when two individuals (sometimes two+, seems like orgy is a minority even but still occurs) are both in kemmer. a hormonal change that… Continue reading in a rut
by Meshe’s sweet milk
i have to take a moment to fangirl: LeGuin is masterly. in Chapter 6, One Way into Orgoreyn, she has managed to shift me from an Estraven-skeptic to an Estraven believer. the subtle changes in language, cadence, and diction separate us from the narrative voice of Genly Ai, but not such a shift that it… Continue reading by Meshe’s sweet milk
i’ve got a hunch
“hunch” had a meaning related to a push or thrust (source), centuries ago. a hunchback has a spine thrusting up. a hunch is never certain, rather a general feeling towards a possible future. “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”— Faxe to Genry, Chapter 5, The… Continue reading i’ve got a hunch