My Mother Is A Container of Yogurt

[mallorys_camera]

I joined a book club.

I didn't join it because I need to talk about books.

I joined it because I need to troll for casual acquaintances. People to have lunch with.

Figure there are two types of friendship. There are those people with whom you will always feel connected because they live in your heart – a cute little garden apartment in the pueblo complex right above your right aorta.

Then there are the people with whom you form connections because circumstances throw you together. There's a slot in your life marked "Best Buddy At Work." Somebody's got to fill it. And you can end up feeling great affection for that person, those people, but you know you're not going to take them with you when you move on.

I've always been very good at the first connection, rather rotten at the second: I don't have a talent for acquaintance. Acquaintance, though, forms the majority of one's social interactions, particularly when one gets to my advanced age. So I need to buff up my supply of them: I've been feeling rather isolated as of late.

Which is why I joined a book club.

First book we're reading: As I Lay Dying. Book club meets tonight so naturally I started the novel yesterday afternoon.

I must say there's a reason why I managed to avoid Faulkner all these years. The book is excellent but it's squicking me out seriously – reading it is kind of like the literary equivalent of standing naked in the Mojave desert at high noon. The brilliance and pitilessness of the prose is depleting. I could be struck blind by it at any time.

In other news, indifferent repast with the lovely and talented Marybeth dernier soir. We ate at a Mexican place called Zocalos. They served me my flautas with a kind of yogurt sauce. I could just hear Gordon Ramsay saying, "Well, fuck me – what kind of crap is this?"

When I got home I described the meal to Ben who wrinkled his nose and said, "Well they do serve flautas with yogurt in Mexico. Well – not yogurt exactly. A very heavy sour cream, crema."

"This wasn't crema, Ben," I said. "It was Dannon's that sat in the fridge too long."

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm reminded of a Letterman "Top Ten" list. I think it was something like "Top Ten Scary Things You Hear At McDonald's."

One of them was:

"The manager lifts the bun from your Big Mac and says: 'Uh, this might NOT be special sauce...'"

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Heh!

[a1icey.livejournal.com]

1:31:23 PM alice: they live in your heart – a cute little garden apartment in the pueblo complex right above your right aorta.
1:31:35 PM alessandra: i loveddd that
1:32:20 PM alessandra: and then i tried to decide what your apartment in my heart looks like

we're interior decorating our residences in each other's hearts

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Heh! I like to think of yours in shades of ocean foam blue and bright yellow; bel_ebat's in a kind of Jackie Kennedy pink and black.

Faulkner

[redcupper.livejournal.com]

Every English college professor I had insisted I read FAAAAAULKKKKNER said with a very southern accent! I read The Bear about 15 times. I was really, really ready for the boy to come of age and move away. I put my foot down with the Sound and the Fury. Want to try some insanity try that one???

Re: Faulkner

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

No, thank you! :-)

I've reconciled myself to the fact that at this point I'm a very lazy reader. I need a certain kind of pay-off for the time investment -- generally it has to be something that makes me laugh.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I call the second kind 'activity partners' and I'm just the opposite of you; I have tons of activity partners and not much in the way of friends.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Is that by yr own choice?

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

no, not really; just haven't found a lot of people to be close friends with. However, there's a hell of a lot of people who would help me if I were in trouble, and that's a good thing.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

And you would help them if they were in trouble too. That's one thing I've always admired about you -- I used to read yr To Do lists in the Well owl conf with awe! -- you really reach out to people with practical help.

My Mother is a fish

[ch.livejournal.com]

Oh! One of my most favorite books!

(I am a Southerner by birth, so perhaps I am not to be trusted on the merits of Faulkner.)

Re: My Mother is a fish

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

The book is excellent -- don't get me wrong. Faulkner was right to call it a tour de force -- it's poetry.

I'm a lazy reader when you get right down to it.

Re: My Mother is a fish -- PS

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was the length of As I Lay Dying? Short novel but still... novel. I read (and enjoy) a lot of short stories that are difficult. I'm good for 10,000 words of difficult prose. But after that, my mind just gives out.

But questions for you, since you're the Faulkner expert: why is Addie's only chapter positioned where it is, halfway through the book? Also, who is Dying? Addie's dead throughout most of the book. Which of the other characters does the title refer to? All of them?

[banocrates.livejournal.com]

I joined a book group recently for much the same reason ... altho I enjoy the discussions as well ... how did it go? Any interesting prospects??

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Too soon to tell. Maybe one. :-)