That one Spanish guy I know had a birthday party a couple Saturdays ago, so I got to go and meet a lot of his friends from the Romance language department.
I ended up talking to the (Mexican?) artist wife of this Mexican-looking literature student, and I made sure to speak slowly, but genuinely try to engage her.
Like I always do, instead of asking people how they're doing (since that way you just set yourself up to hear complaints), I asked her to tell me about something happy or interesting that had happened to her this past week.
"Oh wait," she was like, "I must uh think, I cannot say now."
"Oh," I was like, "Did nothing happy or interesting really happen to you this past week?"
"No no," she was like, "Many things such as this did happen, there are so many! I must uh think," and then she told me about a good job evaluation from her day-job, and then some great response she got to an art piece of hers.
"And," she was like, "On Wed-nes-day, I enjoyed a sex party with my husband, it was very much fun."
. . .
Later, I was talking with an Italian student and was asking him if he had to make everyone in the world read one book, which book would it be, and he immediately said that he thought that no one should ever be forced to read a book, so I re-phrased it and asked him to name the one book that he thinks it would be better if everyone in the world had read it.
He said the Iliad, since Homer is so foundational to all of Western culture.
Like a few minutes later, the Spanish host came up, and I asked him the same question, and he also said the Iliad, since (he said this part in different words, though) it is so foundational to all of Western culture.
(He had been no-where near us, he really had the same response!)
Anyhow, I was kind of disappointed with their thinking. Why make a book requirement an intellectual pissing match kind of thing, when you instead you could have everyone read a book that would maybe change their lives? I myself would require that everyone read Miriam Williams's "Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult".
Too many people think "not me" when they hear about people who get into really fucked up religious groups, and I think it's important to hear from someone who's not accusatory about how their youthful idealism and over a decade of the most productive years of their lives got sucked up into positively insane shit, and the extremities of human behavior that that led to.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Sometimes talking slowly really pays off.
The Iliad is so overrated.
Heaven's Harlots is expensive even used. Does no one want to give up a copy?!
I think I bought up the cheaper used copies to give to people - it's my second most-common present I give - but even then they weren't that cheap.
I should really re-read the book... Except I don't own a copy myself, actually.
I found several cheap copies ($1.00 each, $3.00 shipping!) at www.abebooks.com. I'm running off now but I'll order a copy for myself when I'm back home. L.
It's posts like this one that make me say "Long Live el blogador!!
I think half the books I read are sympathetic but titillating accounts of vulnerable women debasing themselves.
I also think that "Heaven's Harlots" is ten times a better book than that "Education of Henry Adams" book everyone always gushes about (I read it once, it was bourgeios ennui, whereas Miriam Williams certainly lived).
I love how all the $1 copies at abebooks are being sold by religious groups.
Also, why are none of the copies in good condition? One description: "page edges little dirty, worn spott inside back cover by bottom binder."
The Family responded to the book!
Post a Comment