“Never in all human history has there been such glory; never have the eyes of mortals beheld such royal pageantry! Trappers and hunters have perished in the icy wastes of the arctic to bring the ermines and sables in which these queens are robed; divers have been torn by sharks to bring up their pearls from the depths of tropic seas, and miners have been crushed in the deep earth to dig their blazing diamonds; chemists have blown themselves up in search for their cosmetics and dyes, and seamstresses have grown blind embroidering the elaborate designs which twinkle upon their silken ankles. All this concentrated in one brief glory-march— do you wonder that heads are high and glances regal? Or that the crowd surges, and rushes wildly, and women faint, and ambulances come clanging?”
—Oil! - Upton Sinclair
June 2013
5 posts
“Verily, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the feelings of the disinherited.”
—Oil! - Upton Sinclair
“It was a world in which some people worked all the time, and others played all the time. To work all the time was a bore, and no one would do it unless he had to; but to play all the time was equally a bore, and the people who did it never had anything to talk about that Bunny wanted to listen to. They talked about their play, just as solemnly as if it had been work: tennis tournaments, golf tournaments, polo matches— all sorts of complicated ways of hitting a little ball about a field! Now, it was all right, when you needed exercise and recreation, to go out and hit a little ball; but to make a life-work of it, to give all your time and thought to it, to practice it religiously, read and write books about it, discuss it for hours on end— Bunny looked at these fully grown ment and women, with their elaborate outfits of “sport clothes,” and it seemed to him they must be exercising a kind of hypnosis upon themselves, to make themselves believe that they were really enjoying themselves.”
—Oil! - Upton Sinclair
“But human beings were miserable, millions of them, and why could they not learn to be happy in such a world? It was springtime all over the country, and yet everybody was preparing to go to war, and form vast armies, and kill other people, also groping for happiness! Everybody said that it had to be; and yet something in Bunny would not cease to dream of a world in which people did not maim and kill one another, and destroy, not merely the happiness of others, but their own.”
—Oil! - Upton Sinclair
“Yes, life was strange— and cruel. You lived in the little narrow circle of your own consciousness, and, as people said, what you didn’t know didn’t hurt you. Your Thanksgiving dinner was spoiled, because one poor laborer had slid down into a well which you happened to own; but dozens and perhaps hundreds of men had been hurt in other wells all over the country, and that didn’t trouble you a bit. For that matter, think of all the men who were dying over there in Europe! All the way from Flanders to Switzerland the armies were hiding in trenches, bombarding each other day and night, and thousands were being mangled just as horribly as by a grab in the bottom of a well; but you hadn’t intended to let that spoil your Thanksgiving dinner, not a bit! Those men didn’t mean as much to you as the quail you were going to kill the next day!”
—Oil! - Upton Sinclair
May 2013
1 post
January 2013
11 posts
“Mihail Fyodorovitch speaks evil of everything. Katya listens, and neither of them notices into what depths the apparently innocent diversion of finding fault with their neighbors is gradually drawing them. They are not conscious how by degrees simple talk passes into malicious mockery and jeering, and how they are both beginning to drop into the habits and methods of slander.”
—A Dreary Story - Chekhov
“One is shy of asking men under sentence what they have been sentenced for; and in the same way it is awkward to ask very rich people what they want so much money for, why they make such poor use of their wealth, why they don’t give it up, even when they see in it their unhappiness; and if they begin a conversation about it themselves, it is usually embarrassing, awkward, and long.”
—A Doctor’s Visit - Chekhov
“I understood that when you love you must either, in your reasonings about that love, start from what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, or you must not reason at all.”
—About Love - Anton Chekhov
“I reflected how many satisfied, happy people there really are! What a suffocating force it is! You look at life: the insolence and idleness of the strong, the ignorance and brutishness of the weak, incredible poverty all about us, overcrowding, degeneration, drunkenness, hypocrisy, lying… Yet all is calm and stillness in the houses and in the streets; of the fifty thousand living in a town, there is not one who would cry out, who would give vent to his indignation aloud. We see the people going to market for provisions,eating by day, sleeping by night, talking their silly nonsense, getting married, growing old, serenely escorting their dead to the cemetery; but we do not see and we do not hear those who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind the scenes… Everything is quiet and peaceful, and nothing protests but mute statistics: so many people gone out of their minds, so many gallons of vodka drunk, so many children dead from malnutrition…And this order of things is evidently necessary; evidently the happy man only feels at east because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible. It’s a case of general hypnotism. There out to be behind the door of every happy, contented man some one standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people; that however happy he may be, life will show him her laws sooner or later, trouble will come for him—- disease, poverty, losses, and no one will see or hear, just as now he neither sees nor hears others. But there is no man with a hammer; the happy man lives at his ease, and trivial daily cares faintly agitate him like the wind in the aspen-tree— and all goes well.”
—
Gooseberries - Anton Chekhov
Although I didn’t particularly like this story, these lines practically reached out of the book and slapped me in my face.
I am so guilty of this, as are we all. As we leave the holiday season where we might send some toys to a shelter, or clothes to the homeless, or food to the food bank, please, pray that we don’t wipe our hands and smugly think of a job well done. Looking at the kids I work with, I realize that the need will ALWAYS be there, 11 other months of the year.
Much as Hallmark and other holiday companies make us feel obliged to buy, buy, buy, I fear that service work is typically only done around this time of year because “‘tis the season.” There is so much desolation in our world, so much sadness, and injustice, and hunger, that we all need to be working 7 days a week 365 days a year for others!
My challenge to myself this year is that each time I hear about some type of injustice or oppression and think, ‘Aww, that’s sad,” to not let that be the end of it…to DO something. Whether it’s writing a check, donating time, or simply just taking a second to LISTEN to someone, this year I’m trying my hardest to really live as a Christian and give myself to others.
2012 books
Well, I’m a little late, but as the year drew to a close I took a look back on the books I’ve read. It was a weird year… As I think back to this time last year, I remember sitting at the kitchen table at my boyfriend’s parents’ house for HOURS with infinite amounts of coffee crying because I couldn’t get a job. Now I have two, my own place, a dog and an extra cat we are fostering, and a better grip on life lol. Eh shit, that’s a different post for a different time, so without further ado, here is my books o 2012 list
The Lincoln Lawyer - Connelly
The Shut Down Learner - Selznick ( actually a really great quick books on kids with ADHD or kids who are more visual and spatial learners).
The Book of Awesome - Pastricha ( I got this as a Christmas present last year and loved it. It’s super cute and will make you smile, but I also use it to teach descriptive writing to kids. There are plenty of little things that the kids have experienced and they can relate to, so it helps to jump start their creative thinking. Plenty of burping and farting references they’ll love too).
Nine Dragons - Connelly
The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - Griffith (gotta love the free books app on the iPad).
War of the Worlds - Wells
The Beautiful and the Damned - Fitzgerald
Great Expectations - Dickens (UGH. First and last Dickens novel I’ll ever read. I tried).
The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories - Tolstoy
The Possessed - Dostoevsky ( best book ever to travel with! Took it to Boston with me and it was perfect for layovers and long plane rides.)
Wuthering Heights - Bronte (just…..no.)
Main Street - Lewis (and thus begins my love affair with Sinclair Lewis.)
Red Badge of Courage - Crane
The Three Musketeers - Dumas ( I was actually expecting the style to be very dry due to when it was written but I actually really enjoyed it! I will be reading more Dumas this year.)
Just After Sunset - King (okay, I have to admit… I am a closet king fan. I used to buy his paperbacks at the grocery store and read them in high school instead of doing anything productive, but damn, I’ve just never found anyone who can get me with thrillers like he can. This was a collection of short stories— which most king fans know are the best work. Cracking it open was like the first time you drink cold grape soda as an adult…refreshing and taks you back to a good ass time in life.)
The Men Who Stare at Goats - Ronson
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - McCullers ( okay I cheated, I’ve read this before. I remember it being so sad and haunting and depressing when I first read it at 18. Going back through it I had a chance to focus more on her writing style than simply being wrapped up in the plot, but this still tops my list of must read for everyone!)
The Member of the Wedding - McCullers
Clock Without Hands - McCullers ( this is the first time I read this story and it made me feel much the same way as Heart is a Lonely Hunter did. The characters were so diverse….at one point you fuckin hated them but then found yourself pitying them for some subtle reason. Probably my second favorite story from her.)
Babbitt - Lewis
The Stranger - Camus
Later Short Stories - Chekhov
Schindler’s Legacy - Brecher (really interesting book that was written right around the time Spielberg came out with Schindler’s List. Basically a biographical look at those who were working in that factory and how they adjusted to life after the Holocaust. Some editing bloopers and inconsistencies but all around a fascinating read. It truly is amazing to think of the resilience of the survivors as they just went on to build new lives)
So there it is…my list. Now…what should I read this year? Suggestions?
“
I am beginning to forget the old house, and only sometimes when I am painting or reading I suddenly, apropos of nothing, remember the green light in the window, the sound of my footsteps as I walked home through the fields in the night, with my heart full of love, rubbing my hands in the cold. And still more rarely, at moments when I am sad and depressed by loneliness, I have dim memories, and little by little I begin to feel that she is thinking of me, too — that she is waiting for me, and that we shall meet…
Misuce, where are you?
” —An Artist’s Story - Anton Chekhov
Such a beautiful ending to a sad love story… this was definitely one of my favorites in the entire collection.
“Scientific men, writers, artists, are hard at work; thanks to them, the conveniences of life are multiplied from day to day. Our physical demands increase, yet truth is still a long way off, and man still remains the most rapacious and dirty animal; everything is tending to the degeneration of the majority of mankind, and the loss forever of all fitness for life.”
—An Artist’s Story - Anton Chekhov
“Having been dragged reluctantly from one of these watering-places to another, I have been more and more struck by the inconvenient and niggardly life led by the wealthy and well-fed, the dulness and feebleness of their imagination, the lack of boldness in their tastes and desires. And how much happier are those tourists, old and young, who, not having the money to stay in hotels, live where they can, admire the view of the sea from the tops of the mountains, lying on the green grass, walk instead of riding, see the forests and villages at close quarters, observe the customs of the country, listen to its songs, fall in love with its women….”
—Ariadne - Anton Chekhov
“Why did people in general hinder each other from living? What losses were due to it! What terrible losses! If it were not for hatred and malice people would get immense benefit from one another.”
—
Rothschild’s Fiddle - Anton Chekhov
One of the sadder stories in this collection.
I truly believe that laziness is the reason we all hate. If we all took a minute and searched for commonalities between ourselves and others (and believe me, they aren’t that hard to find) I genuinely believe that hate would end.
December 2012
33 posts
“We are unjust, we slander one another and spoil each other’s lives, we waste all our powers on trash which we do not need and which hinders us from living; and that frightens me, because I don’t understand why and for whom it is necessary. I don’t understand men, my dear fellow, and I am afraid of them. It frightens me to look at the peasants, and I don’t know for what higher objects they are suffering and what they are living for. If life is an enjoyment, then they are unnecessary, superfluous people; if the object and meaning of life is to be found in poverty and unending, hopeless ignorance, I can’t understand for whom and what this torture is necessary. I understand no one and nothing.”
—
Terror - Anton Chekhov
Speaks for itself. When you look at all the extra bullshit we pine for and surround ourselves with, it makes you wonder WHAT IS IT FOR?
“And thinking about his life, he came to the conclusion he had never said or acted upon what he really thought, and other people had repaid him in the same way. And so the whole of life seemed to him as dark as this water in which the night sky was reflected and water-weeds grew in a tangle. And it seemed to him that nothing could ever set it right.”
—
Neighbours - Anton Chekhov
Problem the best three ending lines I have ever read in a short story….
