Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living — Bailey White

I was look­ing for some­thing more recent by White but she doesn’t seem to have done any­thing oth­er than a christ­masy book since her hey­day in the late 90’s. So I reread this because every­one needs to have an aunt who teach­es an alli­ga­tor to bel­low on com­mand and a moth­er who… well Ms. White is a force of nature but often that nature is most­ly with­out ref­er­ence to mod­ern mores and con­ven­tions. Continue read­ing “Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living — Bailey White”

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe — Fanny Flagg

(pub. 2002)
A mix of the con­tem­po­rary inter­views, in the moment sto­ry telling, and lit­tle bits from news­pa­pers make an inter­est­ing way of telling a story.
Much of the sto­ry is nar­rat­ed by Ninny Threadgoode — a woman who mar­ried in the to the Threadgoode fam­i­ly. She’s not exact­ly an unre­li­able nar­ra­tor but she has her own per­spec­tive on things. Other parts of the book are told in the present tense as the action hap­pens over the course of the years. Continue read­ing “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe — Fanny Flagg”

Pachinko — Min Jin Lee

(pub. 2017)
The game of pachinko is lit­tle like pin­ball and lit­tle like a slot machine. You don’t need to know much more about the game oth­er than to under­stand that the machines are manip­u­lat­ed in much the same way the slot machines are pro­grammed. To favor the house at all times but to allow enough win­ning to make the thing addic­tive. There is always hope. Continue read­ing “Pachinko — Min Jin Lee”

Women & Power: A Manifesto — Mary Beard

(pub. 2017)

Two essays pub­lished in the London Review of Books in 2014 and 2017
In the Public Voice of Women, Beard shows the depth and breadth of the prac­tice of the silenc­ing of women. She begins with the silenc­ing of Penelope by her son Telemachus in the Odyssey. When Penelope enters the hall to ask that the singer to lit­er­al­ly change his tune, her young son Telemachus tells his moth­er to be qui­et and go back up stairs, Continue read­ing “Women & Power: A Manifesto — Mary Beard”

Being Against the Eternal Now

I have been com­ing to Oaxaca for 16 years now. I come for weeks or even months at a time, and yet I am so far unable to mas­ter the lan­guage. In spite of all the time I’ve spent going to din­ner, rid­ing in taxis, and attempt­ing to deci­pher the labels in the gal­leries and muse­ums. Despite months of Spanish lessons at home, I speak like a stunt­ed tod­dler: in mono­syl­la­bles, two words at a time. I am unable to coher­ent­ly express so much as, “I came from Seattle yesterday.”

Here I have no tens­es but the present. I can say “I going out now,” but can­not man­age “I arrived on Tuesday,” or, “I went to the Toledo muse­um this morn­ing,” or, “I would like to ride the hors­es tomorrow”.

In Mexico I have few futures.  I can man­age a sort of “fur­ther tense” using the present tense of ir (to go) and an infini­tive — loose­ly “I am going to” [do this thing]. Voy a scriber mañana. I am going to write tomor­row. Continue read­ing “Being Against the Eternal Now”