It's been raining.
Entrée
On Observation and Imagination: Galway Kinnell's "The Gray Heron" - Nautilus
Soupe
Plat Principal
Does Who You Are at 7 Determine Who You Are at 63? - New York Times
From What I'm Reading
- Those kinds of memories--unpretentious, commonplace, but for me they are all meaningful and valuable. As each of these memories flit across my mind, I'm sure I unconsciously smile, or give a slight frown. Commonplace they might be, but the accumulation of these memories has led to one result: me. Me, here and now...
Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Funnies
I read Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle this year, and I was transfixed from beginning to end. It captured an indescribable something so effectively, and the novel as a whole felt like a solid punchline to a premise set by 20th century absurdism. I read Camus' L'etranger. I enjoyed Camus' L'etranger. Murakami shattered my expectation of what a languid, dream-like narration can accomplish. It was like if David Lynch wrote a novel with a point. Let me know what you think about What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, it's been on my radar :)
I finished reading it a couple of months ago. Really, really enjoyed it. It was sharp, witty, amusing, thoughtful, and I enjoyed the journey. Also has a hilariously evocative (and accurate) scene where he describes the kinds of people who run along the Charles River in Boston. I also read it as an audiobook, which I don't do too often but I had a decent-length commute this summer, so it worked out. Would say I still prefer reading print, but it was convenient! In terms of other Murakami, I've only read 1Q84 and I can't really say that I quite understood it. Suggestions for what Murakami to try next? The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?
I’ll share my opinion of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running once demure is done with book. I was a big fan of that one.
kingmudsy Okay I loved this book but I do think that a person gets an additional level of sympathy towards What I Talk About When I Talk About Running if they are somebody who is engaged in the tedious and passionate process of self-training. Be it through running, writing, knitting, or whatever that is to the individual. The learnings Murakami has made through running are self-evident in many of his novels. Take the following: Read through Norwegian Wood, for example, and you'll see this reflected in almost all of the characters. But, perhaps more importantly, the point of the linked passage and parts of his novels which I've read so far are around the "quality of experience". Time and ranking, writing in a certain manner, these are all expectations. To free yourself from those expectations, to begin and live in the process of the actions you are taking, that is where self-awareness and self-actualization occurs. One other aspect of this book I enjoyed is the imprecise nature of the language, when describing his running or triathlon training and experiences terms such as "pretty much" or "sort of" which when we consider the relative experience of training and self-awareness is an exercise of the imprecise nature of living. You don't have to be a runner to enjoy this book, but I do think it becomes a more enjoyable read if you have a certain level of dedication...obsession, maybe...to a passion.“It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.”
I guess I never did tell ya, huh? I ended up training for and running two half marathons this year! Set a time I was really, really, happy with on the second one. So yeah, even though I didn't train nearly as much as you do, it did resonate with me in certain ways.