Giant

 Without really meaning to, this blog has turned into something of a meditation on what I really believe about Art, Literature, Poetry, and, especially in the case of cinema, "greatness".  Suppose I were to take this opportunity to  review where I'm at with each, and apply them to this work?

ART

A great deal of what I have come to think about Art comes from Giorgio Vasari, who seems to have come closer than anyone else to putting his finger on it.  My fairly faithful summary of his definition is that Art is the successful transmission of a truly human moment through honesty and mastery of a medium.  

Is Giant Art? At times, yes.  Three of the Artists involved deserve to be credited for their mastery and success in my opinion.  Two of them were at least acknowledged for their work: Ivan Moffat and Fred Guiol were nominated by the academy for their screenplay, which does most of the work here, especially in the dialogue.  A quick look at her other work and achievements make it likely that the real artist is Edna Ferber, who wrote the novel on which it is based.  In every scene, however, it is Elizabeth Taylor who is clearly the master.  Though Hudson and Dean were the ones recognized for their acting, it is Taylor who Vasari would have applauded: every moment both technically perfect, and excruciatingly human.  Though not recognized for her work here, it seems safe to say that her status as an artist, rather than a mere actor, is pretty universally recognized.

LITERATURE

My approach to this label is more practical and, perhaps, unique to me.  To be Literature in my mind, something need merely be literate, literary, to exist in communication with the body of human work that precedes and follows it.  This, like all of these labels, is a continuum; Literature is not a bar to be cleared, but rather an attribute.  Something is Literature "to the extent that . . . "

Is Giant Literature? Certainly.  Ferber has a place in that conversation, though not often by name.  And this work in particular gives more than it took, inspiring other works that have become inextricable from the fabric of culture.

POETRY

This definition is entirely my own, and completely unsupportable.  Poetry is more than verse; we often speak of poetic justice, or apply the term to music, visual art, or dance.  To me, and to any of my students who will listen, Poetry is layering, the act of doing many things at once with only what is necessary.  In verse, this means imagery, figurative language, texture, form, etc. all working together to create a unified moment, elegant and magical in its efficiency.  The opposite, of course, is Prose: one thing at a time, sequential, mechanical.

Is Giant Poetry? Perhaps the only element that could really qualify by my criteria is the art direction of Boris Leven and Ralph S. Hurst, for which they were duly nominated, though I can't argue with the ultimate victory going to  Lyle R. Wheeler and John DeCuir, and  Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox for The King and I. The one award Giant won, that for best direction, seems to be a nod to the more popular criterion that something be merely beautiful.  

GREATNESS

This is the definition that I have worked hardest to put into words.  In my current thinking, something is Great to the extent that it has a reason to exist, and then rises to the level of that reason in every facet.  It is the intersection of importance and mastery.  Truly Great things arise irresistibly from a collective moment, almost without the willingness of their respective creators.  The word itself has as many meanings as there are people, and could just as easily mean "enjoyable", but I am not known for being easily satisfied.

Is Giant Great? It certainly needed to be made.  Its criticism of Texas style capitalism, and the subtlety with which it strove to meet that need, are certainly noteworthy.  But that's the label I would give it, rather than Great: noteworthy.  The moment that called for its creation was approached, but not reached.  It remains specific, rather than universal, and is correspondingly liked, but not worshiped.

Ramón Gómez de la Serna: Las Proximas Greguerías hasta 800

700. El calzador es la cuchara de los zapatos.
The shoehorn is the spoon of shoes.

701.Abdicación es dejar la corona sobre la mesa y marcharse de viaje.
To abdicate is to leave your crown on the table and go on a trip.

702.Cuando aparecen tres perlas en  una  ostra es que el mar ha regalado al hombre una botonadura.
When three pearls appear in one oyster, it is as though the ocean has gifted a man an entire set of buttons.

703.Los bostezos son oes que humen.
Yawns are Os that have escaped.

704.Debajo de la almohada do los cochecitos de niño esconde la mamá sus ilusiones muerta.
Under the pillows of baby carriages, moms hide their own dead illusions.

705.El río cree que el puente es un castillo.
The river must think that the bridge is a castle.

706.En los cipreses retoñan los palos de los navíos naufragos.
Cypresses sprout the slats of sunken ships.

707.El que en la desgracia se oculta la cara con las manos parece que se está haciendo la mascarilla de su pena.
He  who covers his face with his hands in disgrace seems to construct the mask of his shame.

708.Los vegeterianos no admiten sino transfusiones de sangre de remolacha.
Vegetarians only allow blood transfusions from beets.

709.Una de las cosas más tristes de los trenes es que las ventanillas de la derecha no podrán ser nunca las ventanillas de la izquierda.
One of the saddest things about trains is that the windows on the right can neer become the windows on the left.

710.Entre las cosas que quedaan en las papelerías están las manos doradas para coger en su pinza los papeles que deben estar unidos y a la vista.  Esas manos doradas nos han emocionado siempre, porque tienen algo de manos de difuntas fuera de sus féretros, bellas manos de mujeres cándidas.
Among the things offered in stationery stores is gilt hands to clasp papers that must remain together and in sight.  These gilt hands make us emotional because they have something of the hands of the deceased outside of their coffins, beautiful hands of innocent women.

711.Esas cortinas cortas de algunas puertas son como cortinas de puertas embarazadas.
Those short curtains of some doors are like curtains of pregnant doors.

712.El compositor de música es el último negrero, por cómo acumula barcos de negros, en los mares del pentagrama.
The composer is the ultimate slave trader, for how he amasses boats of black notes in the seas of the staff.

713.El ruido más malagorero del cine es el de esa primera cortina que suena sus rodajas--pulseras subalternas y miserables--en cuanto chasquea el beso de la reconciliación final.
The most ominous sound of the theater is that of the first curtain sounding its panels--lowly and miserable straps--like the kiss of the final reconciliation.

714.El cinematógrafo da sólo una hora para que cenen los cómicos, los perritos y los chóferes y vuelvan a la pantalla.
The cinematographer gives only one hour, during which the comedians, puppies and chauffeurs dine and return to the screen.

715.Reminiscencia: rumiar recuerdos.
Reminiscence: chewing on memories.

716.Las violetas son actrices retiradas en el primer otoño de su vida.
Violets are retired actresses in the first autumn of their lives.

717.Lo peor del matrimonio de Adán y Eva es que no tuvieron anillos con la fecha grabada.
The worst part of Adam and Eve’s wedding was that they didn’t have rings with the date engraved.

718.El paisaje adora al molino.
The landscapes adores mills.

719.Cuando nos tardan en servir en el restaurante  nos convertimos en xilofonista de la impaciencia.
When we linger in a restaurant we become the xylophonists of impatience.

720.El amor nace del deseo repentino de hacer eterno lo pasajero.
Love is born from the sudden desire to make eternal that which is fleeting.

721.El cisne es la S capitular del poema del estanque.
The swam is the capital S of the pond.

722.El ciervo es el hijo del rayo y del árbol.
The deer is the child of a bolt of lightning and a tree.

723.La medicina ofrece curar dentro de cien años a los que se están muriendo ahora mismo.
Medicine offers to cure within a hundred years those who are dying right now.

724.Lo que más irrita a la Luna es que sea la Tierra la que le pone los cuernos, eclipsándola de ese modo grotesco.
The which most irritates the moon is that it would be the Earth that gives it its horns, eclipsing it in this grotesque way.

725.Al pasar la luna por la sierra de los ladrones la roban el reloj.
As the moon passes the thieves mountains, they steal its watch.

726.De lo único que no hay operador que opere al hombre es del túmulo.
The only thing which operates on man, but has no operator, is the tomb.

727.Después del eclipse, la luna se lava la cara para quitarse el tizne.
After an eclipse, the moon washes its face to remove the soot.

728.Hay quien se reserva para dar su primer limosna a los pobres que haya a la puerta del cielo.
There are those who are waiting to give their first charity to those at the door of heaven.

729.El que se despierta de la siesta al atardecer, nota que le han robado el día mientras dormía.
He who wakes from his nap at dusk realizes that he has been robbed of the day while he slept.

730.Al inventarse el cine, las nubes paradas en las fotografías comenzaron a andar.
When the cinema was invented, frozen clouds in photographs began to walk.

731.Si no fuésemos mortales, no podríamos llorar.
If we were not mortal, we would not be able to cry.

732.Lo que ve el alfamado en su fama es su propia muerte anticipada.
That which the famous person see in his fame is his own impending death.

733.Cuando el banderillero y el toro se citan, queda en supenso una única cuestión: quién clavará a quién.
When the banderillero and the bull have a date, one question remains: who will stick it to whom?

734.El reloj no existe en las horas felices.
The clock does not exist in happy hours.

735.La X es el corsé del alfabeto.
The X is the corset of the aphabet

736.Si la realidad es apariencia, resulta que la apariencia es la realidad, eso si no es la realidad la apariencia de la irrealidad.
If reality is appearance, then appearance is reality and it must follow that the appearance of unreality is not real.

737.A asomarnos al fondo del pozo nos hacemos un retrato de naúfragos.
When we peer into a well, we make the portrait of a castaway.

738.La almohada siempre es una convaleciente.
The pillow is always a convalescent

739.En las huellas digitales está ya el laberinto del crimen, pero falta quien las sepa descifrar antes de que sea irreparable.
In fingerprints there already exists a labyrinth of crime, but there is nobody who can decipher it before it becomes irreparable.

740.Catálogo: recuerdo de lo que se olvidará.
Catalog: a record of that which will be forgotten.

741.El arco iris es la bufanda del cielo.
The rainbow is the scarf of the sky.

742.Las velas de cera gotean camafeos.
WAx candles rip camoes.

743.La luna es la lápida sin epitafio.
The moon is a tombstone without an epitaph.

744.Las algas que aparecen en las playas son los pelos que se arrancan las sirenas al peinarse.
The seaweed that appears on the beach is the hair that mermaids pull out while combing.

745.Sólo al morir nos acordamos de que ya morimos otra vez al nacer.
Only upon death do we remember that we died already when we were born.

746.Los cuervos se tiñen.
The crows dye themselves.

747.Lo mas dificil que hace un jinete es sostenerse en la imagen de su caballo reflejada en el agua.
The most difficult thing for a rider is to remain in the image of his horse reflected in the water.

748.La jirafa es el periscopio para ver los horizontes del desierto.
The giraffe is the periscope used to see the desert horizons.

749.Lo malo que La Bruyére es que tiene nombre de queso.
The worst thing about Bruyere is that he has a cheesy name.

750.El arco iris es como el anuncio de una tintorería.
The rainbow is like a dyeworks’ advertisement.

751.Quien sugirió al hombre la sopa de tortuga fue la propia tortuga, por llevar la sopera a cuestas.
It was the turtle himself who suggested turtle soup to man, to bring the tureen on his own back.

752.Al dar a la llave de la luz se despierta a las paredes.
Flipping the light switch awakens the walls.

753.La nieve se apaga en el agua.
The snow extinguishes itself in the water.

754.Se tocaba un bucle como si hablase por teléfono con ella misma.
She twirled her ringlets as if talking on the phone with herself.

755.Lo malo es cuando los glóbulos rojos se quedan en calzoncillos, conviertiéndose en glóbulos blancos.
The worst is when red blood cells stay in their underwear, becoming white blood cells.

756.Un papel en el viento es como un pájaro herido de muerte.
A paper in the wind is like a mortally wounded bird.

757.El agua no tiene memoria: por eso es tan limpia.
Water has no memory; thus is it so clean.

758.Lo primero que hace el sol es pegar en la tapia el cartel del día.
The first thing the sun does is put up the poster of the day.

759.Nunca queda posada una hoja sobre el cisne: la sería mortal.
A leaf never perches above a swan; it would be fatal.

760.El piano refleja en su espejo negro la llegada de la música al puerto una noche lluviosa.
The piano reflects in its black mirror the arrival of music at the door on a rainy night.

761.Bar pobre: una aceituna y muchos palillos.
A dive bar: one olive with a lot of toothpicks.

762.Somos lazarillos de nuestros sueños.
We are the blind guides of our own dreams.

763.Gracias a las gotas de rocío tiene ojos la flor para ver la belleza del cielo.
Thanks to the morning dew, the flower has eyes to see the beauty of the sky.

764.La luna está subvencionada por la Policía.
The moon is subsidized by the police.

765.Al levar el ancla parece que el barco, vista la hora, se mete el reloj con leontina en el bolsillo y parte.
Raising its anchor, the boat seems to see the time, put its watch and chain in its pocket, and depart.

766.El colador está harto de pepitas.
The colander is filled with seeds.

767.El león tiene en la punta de la cola la brocha de afeitar.
The lion has a shaving brush at the end of his tail.

768.¿Dónde está el busto del arbusto?
Where is the shrub’s bust? [untranslatable pun]

769.En el esternón está el camafeo del esqueleto.
The skeleton’s cameo brooch is in the sternum.

770.Laura sigue saliendo de misa bella y joven todos los domingos.  Quien desapareció fue el Petrarca.
Laura comes out smiling and young every Sunday.  It is Petrarch who disappeared.

771.Lo único que tenemos de porcelana son los ojos.
The only porcelain thing we have is our eyes.

772.Nos muerde el ladrido de los perros.
The dogs bite us with their bark.

773.Es más fácil quitar el traje o desollar a un cordero que desnudar a un niño dormido.
It’s easier to fleece and skin a lamb than to undress a sleeping infant. [liberties taken]

774.Parece que en sueños se nos va a morir el corazón, como un obrero que se rebelase a cumplir sin descanso una jornada de día y noche en el fondo de una mina lóbrega y húmeda, húmeda de sangre . . .
It seems that in dreams we kill our hearts, like a worker who rebels against journaling day and night in a gloomy and humid mine . . . of blood.

775.La tragedia de la gota de agua cayendo en el cubo del lavabo toda la noche es una tragedia de asunto lacónico, pero espeluznante, que conocen los pobres criaturas humanas, en las que no todo ¡ni mucho menos!, es heroico . . .
The tragedy of a sink that drips all night is that of a matter terse but terrifying, that all humans know that not everything--indeed, very little--is heroic.

776.Se tiene un poco de pánico a los papeles que giran en las calles de invierno, movidos por el fuerte viento de la estación, como si fueran perros que quisieran morder . . .
There is a bit of panic in the sheets of paper, turning in the winter streets, driven by the wind of the station, as if they were dogs who would like to bite . . .

777.El que se casa trata de solucionar con la expiación su deseo de mujer.
He who gets married tries to absolve himself of his desire for women.

778.Los rayos propenden al agua porque no tienen más deseo que refrescarse.
Lightning bolts are drawn to water because they have no other desire than to cool down.

779.Entre las cosas que ofrecía aquel gran hotel estaba: «Garaje para las moscas.»
Among the things offered by that grand hotel was “A garage for the flies”.
780.¿No os dice nada el que tantos grandes hombres hayan muerto? A mi me dice más que lo que ellos dijeron en vida.
Does it tell us nothing that such great men have died? To me, it says more than whatever they said in life.

781.El dedo gordo de pie asiente o deniega impaciente lo que decimos a lo que oímos.
The big toe confirms or denies impatiently what we say to what we hear. [wtf]

782.Cada tumba tiene su reloj despertador puesto en la hora del Juicio Final.
Every grave has an alarm clock set to the hour of the final judgdement.

783.En la Guía de teléfonos todos somos seres microscópicos.
In the telephone book, we are all microscopic orgamisms.

784.El polvo está lleno de viejos y olvidados estornudos.
The dust is full of old and forgotten sneezes.

785.La lluvia es triste porque nos recuerda cuando fuimos peces.
The rain is sad because it reminds us of when we were fish.

786.Los paraguas son viudos que están de luto por las sombrillas desaparecidas.
Umbrellas are widowers dressed in morning for lost parasols.

787.Aburrirse es besar a la muerte.
To be bored is to kiss death.

788.Los orgullosos dicen «columna vertebral», y los modestos, «espina dorsal».
The haughty say, “spine”, and the modest “backbone”.

789.El león daría la mitad de su vida por un peine.
The lion would give half of his life for a comb.

790.La pipa no se quema; luego si la Humanidad hiciese las casas con madera de cachimba, sobrarían los bomberos.
The pipe does not burn itself.  If humans had made their houses out of the same wood, bombs would have been useless.

791.Era de esas mujeres que, al hablar, se dirigen a nuestras solapas como si tratasen de seducir a nuestro traje.
It was from [or perhaps “the age of”]those women who, speaking, directed themselves to our lapels as if to try and seduce our suit.

792.Si os tiembla la cerilla al dar lumbre a una mujer, estaís perdidos.
If the light of a match on a women makes us tremble, we are lost.

793.El que lleve mucho el reloj al oído es que es corto de vista de la suposición.
He who often brings his watch to his ear is short-sighted in making suppositions.

794.El coleccionista de sellos se cartea con el pasado.
The stamp collector carries on correspondence with the past.

795.Las cebras son directamente caballos nacidos para los carrouseles.
Zebras are horses born directly for the carousel.

796.El erudito pone las manos crispadas en la librería, como el pianista en el teclado, y arranca veinte libros para sacar veinte notas.
The scholar puts his tense hand on the bookshelf, and pulls out twenty books to play twenty notes.

797.La sandía es una hucha de ocasos.
The watermelon is a repository of sunsets.

798.El cantar rabioso del gallo quiere decir, traducido: «¡Maldito sea el cuchillo!»
The furious song of the rooster is translated, “Cursed be the knife!”

799.En la gruta bosteza la montaña.
The mountain yawns in the cave.

800.Si hubiese habido fotógrafo en el Paraíso, habría sido bochornoso el retrato de bodas de Adán y Eva.
If there had been a photographer in Eden, Adam and Eve’s wedding portrait would have been embarrassing.

At-Tawbah

 Already this book has taken an ominous tone by the omission of the invocation of the compassion and mercy of the divine بَسْمَلَة.  

1-2: And no wonder: it is identified immediately as an ultimatum to the polytheists or, as Hulusi names them, the dualists.

3-5: It is not until after their death sentence has been given that the possibility of commutation is offered and the compassion and mercy of Allah is invoked.

6-12: This is justified with the explanation that these dualists would do the same if the roles were reversed--a rather petty argument.

13-15: And furthermore, they always have the option to reverse course.  In this respect, at least, the god of the Quran is more merciful than the god of the Hebrew scriptures.

16-18: There is some disagreement among the translators how to render مَساجِدَ.  The word itself invokes the act of worship, though it seems to be inextricably tied with the non-translation "mosque".  For my part, I prefer Hulusi's rendering "place of prostration" for it's thematic consistency.

19: There is a theological principle here that could bear comparison with similar concepts in other religions: the interplay between faith and works, with clear preference here being given to the former.

20-22: The admonition that the particular place of worship is not of utmost importance seems to be lost on modern Muslims.

23-27: A nice moment of thematic consistency here: the reality of things is not connected to their physical form.  Attachment to physical things, including particular holy sites, is not to be confused with actual faith.

28: Which makes this command inexplicable

29: Likewise the command in one breath to fight the unbelievers, and to fulfill the duty to protect them implied in the collection of  الجِزيَةَ .

30-32: Hulusi makes a rather uncharacteristic point of transliterating the entire phrase لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا هُوَ, which he usually does only for words he considers holy in their very pronunciation.  One wonders if there is a connection to the very peculiar orthographic features of the character لا, the only one in Arabic that might be considered syllabic rather than alphabetic.

32-33: I don't know if this is an accurate characterization of the Jews and Christians of the time.  It is rather the Muslims who are interested in abolishing other religions, in this very same breath.

34-35: This, at least, is fair--even poetic.

36-37: Rather a difficult sentence to parse, as reflected in four very different translations.  Hulusi renders it in a way that indicates a one-year period for the creation.

38-39: The call to battle is altogether incompatible with a detachment from earthly concerns.

40: The intersection of muddy pronoun reference and shifting listener require a level of dialectic mastery I will never attain.

41-47: A rare rebuke of The Prophet here, and a bit inexplicable.  In 40, the assurance is that those who stayed behind were not necessary, and in 47 that they would even have been a hindrance.  Why is The Prophet scolded for allowing it?

48-50: It certainly sounds like leaving these individuals to their own devices was the right choice.

51-55: A nice parallel with 19-22 here, and a reversal of the corresponding concept in James 2:26.

56-59: If these verses were followed today, the result would be world--or at least regional--peace.

60: The only thing that stands out about this seemingly apostrophic verse is the inclusion of those who collect the charity in the list of recipients.  I can see how that would go south very quickly.

61-66: The Surah that these chatterers feared is this very one.

67-68: I suppose it is the behavior in 62 that qualifies them as hypocrites, rather than just disobedient or greedy.

69-70: The stories of عادٍ and ثَمودَ were seemingly as familiar to the audience as those of Noah and Lot, but I find very little specific narrative of those stories, here or elsewhere.  Maybe in a future surah we will get details.

71-72: The fact that the promised rivers flow under paradise, rather than through it as in Judeo-Christian texts, is no doubt a regional accommodation.

73-79: The list of charges here draws attention to something that is not present (so far) in the Quran.  The defendants here are guilty of muttering, conspiring, and withholding charity.  The god of the Israelites would have rained death upon them for even one of these charges, but this version of the divine is content to punish them in the hereafter.  

80: A contrast with Abraham's experience of mercy.  Despite caveats in 66 and elsewhere, forgiveness does not seem to be an option for these hypocrites.  The plea deal has been withdrawn, so to speak.

81-93: And Allah has not forgotten that they stayed behind during the battle either, though his instructions to The Prophet regarding them are contradictory.  The fact that Allah has "sealed their hearts" remains troubling theologically.

94-96: The sudden change in tense here is difficult to integrate.  Indeed, the book retains traces of its character as a surah that has been pieced together after the fact.

97-99: The mention of a still existing specific ethnic group here would seem to have modern implications.  I wonder how modern Bedouins feel about these verses.

110-104: Even the Prophet does not know the heart, and this book returns to the position that it is best to mind one's own work and not worry about others . . . lovely, but in contrast to the rest of this book.

105: One of my favorite verses in the entire Quran so far.  

106-110: A fascinating side tale, but one wonders about a few things: since the details of the episode are not mentioned here, how were they retained?  Is there some adjunct book that gives the narrative?  The earliest surviving account seems to have been written 200 years after the fact.  Also, the directions in 108 are seemingly a rare moment of direct and specific revelation to The Prophet alone.

111: I don't know if it is accurate to say that the directive to kill and be killed is also in the Gospel.

112-114: This is not the story of Abraham I was thinking of in 80, but I look forward to learning more about it in future surahs.

115-117: There might be some resolution to the tension between mercy, repentance, and free will here.  It seems that the principles operate differently in groups than in individuals--something akin to the statistics being useless in individual cases.

118-119: It is assumed that these are Ka’b ibn Mâlik, Murarah ibn Rabi’, and Hilâl ibn Umaiyah, mentioned in 106.  More evidence for the gradual revelation of this surah, and possibly a key to unraveling confusing passages in other surahs.

120-122: A distinct minority report exists in the interpretation of these verses, and for once it is not Hulusi who is the dissenter.  Of the four translations I am referencing, three interpret this to refer to the fight at Tabuk, but https://al-quran.info/#9 interprets those who "march forth" to be going to Medinah.

123-125: I can certainly imagine that some grew suspicious or weary of the timing of these revelations.  The writing of this text even as it was happening gives it a unique structure and character among holy books.

126-129: I don't recall another instance of the Prophet himself being given the descriptor رَحيمٌ, elsewhere used almost ritually to describe Allah, and especially in the invocation that begins every surah but this one.

Ocean Vuong: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

 I feel within me lately an idea developing, a new way of looking at works of narrative fiction.  Reading this author concurrently with Konstatin Paustovksy, two very different styles and eras, served to highlight the contrast in what I am tentatively thinking of as the writer's gaze.  Every word the writer makes is a choice, and the choices Vuong and Paustovsky make are so divergent that my naturally tendency to systematize things kicked in and I began to look for a taxonomy of their choices, and the choices of prose writers in general.  

The first choice the writers makes, or at least the most basic one, is what to look at, what to attend to.  Why does the writer tell us about this passerby rather than that one, this detail of the landscape instead of another.  There are infinite choices available to her or him in any scene, but, although experience is had in parallel, writing is done in series, and the writer must tell the reader what specifically is worthy of notice.  Vuong reveals himself thus to be interested in words, weather, faces, death and the dead  in ways that Paustovksy, for example, is not.  

The second choice the writer makes is how to describe these things, what and how many judgements to put on them with adjectives and adverbs.  One effect of these choices is a tacit choice of how much to lead the reader, if at all.  Mark Twain famously abhorred telling the reader what to think or feel about the things to which he directed their attention,, saying, "when you see an adjective, kill it."  Vuong seems to feel the opposite: that adjective always need a friend and furthermore that they should make clear through connotation what the reader is to think and feel about the noun in question.  One method is not superior to the other by nature, but Twain's method allows the reader to inhabit the world of the writing, and Vuong's forces the reader to inhabit the narrator's body instead.

And this tendency of Vuong's to commandeer the reader's experience is even more present in the third set of choices he makes as a writer: what connections to make for the reader through allusion, comparison, and figurative language.  He does not seem to think a paragraph is complete without a metaphor or three in stark contrast to Paustovsky and his realist influences: Flaubert, Pushkin, Gogol, etc..  The effect in Vuong is appropriate to the narrator that he forces the reader to inhabit.  The Little Dog of this novel is indeed too poetic for this world, and if the reader occasionally grows a bit weary of his poetic flights, it only serves to suggest that the narrator himself may be sick of them too.  This choice, combines with his extensive descriptions, make it no surprise that the writing feels most natural when he occasionally breaks into something resembling verse.

The fourth choice a writer makes, and it is this that might be considered a mark of youth and immaturity in Vuong, is when to mandate meaning.  Paustovsky, and I'm sure I'll have more to say about this when I eventually finish his 800-page epic, says what something means so rarely that the reader is allowed time to forget the eyes with which they are forced to look, and the rare moments when she or he is reminded that the writer has a point to make are the more effective for their rarity.  Vuong does not allow the reader this freedom.  What to look at, how to feel about it, and what it invokes are all choices that I am comfortable ceding to the writer.  If I am also constantly told what it means, however, I begin to resent it.  Literature is a conversation, and this one was a little bit one-sided.  And just as in a conversation in which it is difficult to get a word in edgewise, I felt by the end that my partner was a little bit insecure in what he was saying, and overcompensated accordingly.  A gifted young man, filled with passion and poetry.  I wonder what he'll write in twenty years when he calms down a little and settles into himself.

David F. Vennells: Beginner's Guide to Reiki

 Well, I guess I've found my new thing.  There are books in my life that I enjoy, not because they are masterful works of literature, but because as I am reading them, they are reading me back.  the works of Philip K. Dick are a key example of this: they are not particularly well-crafted, but whenever I pick them up they speak to something deeply personal and eerily real in my life at that moment.   

It is similar with this book.  It is not particularly well-written, and didn't contain any deep and profound truths that changed the way I think about or see things.  nonetheless, every time I picked it up to read a few chapters, a feeling of peace and energy came over me, as if to say, "This is the path for you right now.  Keep going."  

So I did.  I don't know that this book is even that good of an introduction to Reiki, just as I have my doubts about the level 1 Reiki course I took while reading it.  In these cases, however, the medium is not the message.  The words and exercises themselves were almost incidental to the experience of simply being on a path that feels right.  The question remains, however: where to go from here?  And even as I write it, the answer comes to me.  "Don't worry. You are already going there."