bookmoth

I'm at home. Kind of. I'm in A home. No, that's not right. The conjures images of nightgowns and ill containers filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

I grew up moving from house to house. The house I'm in now is the house I lived in for 2 years before it caught fire. A year later, all was fixed, but I was already in college. I saw the (renovated) house only on the holidays. And after college, I got my own apartment.

I'm in what was (is?) the kids' study. There is a long white panel desk that stretches 15 feet, maybe 2/3 the length of this (basement) room. The desk has two chairs and places for two computers, a private set of drawers on each end, and a common set in the middle (for printer paper, etc.). I never studied down here. I studied in my room. But this room also functioned as the family library.

My parents have two houses now, and many books have traveled to the other house. I've long since taken "my" books from here. But my mom said that no one looks at these anymore. So I'm thinking of taking more.

Mostly I want the tourist photo books we bought when traveling. Partly for the memories, partly because I really want to have a record of what Japan looked like in 1987 and so forth.

I haven't seen many of these SINCE my family bought them - which means 1987 and thereabouts.

You can never step in the same river twice, because you aren't the same person and it isn't the same river. Cities change. My reading ability changes. And my perspective on each book changes.

These books are memories of memories.

A (Not So) Complete History of Literary Tattoos

I'll say straight up that I know I'm working from a skewed sample. I'm looking not at the entire population of people who have tattoos of literary quotes but only those who choose to post pictures of said tattoos on the internet and on particular blogs or zines.

But I have reached a conclusion anyway, and it interests me.

Three authors are clearly the most popular. And of these authors, I've only seen one or two quotes from each. In order, the authors are
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Dr. Seuss
- Chuck Palahniuk

Vonnegut is by far the most popular, with two quotes from Slaughterhouse-Five. The most common is "So it goes." The other is "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt." See here and here and here and here.

Dr. Seuss's fan's have an image of the Lorax and the line, "I speak for the trees." Sometimes the quote itself is missing, and the tattoo is just of the Lorax. Like this.

One Chuck Palahniuk quote is a long speech my Tyler Durden. Here.

I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables – slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

And there's this.

I’m breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions, because only through destroying myself can I discover the greater power of my spirit.

One or two people had a simple, "Nevermore."

Many tattoos were in Sindarin, or at least in Tolkien's Elvish. e. e. cummings made a good showing, and so did Shel Silverstein. And the Little Prince. Lots of pictures of him.

And of course, there's Shelley Jackson's project, "Skin," a short story written on flesh instead of paper. Almost 3,000 words, almost 3,000 people, and each person volunteered to have a single word tattoos somewhere on his or her body. They could not choose the word (though they knew the word before they got the tattoo - I mean that once they got their word, they couldn't ask for a different one). I don't think any of them yet know the story.

(I got all the links from contrariwise.org but chose to link to the images the site links to.)

I wonder now what words would be worth writing on my skin. I've written on my skin plenty in ink and in Sharpie permanent ink (and other things) but nothing that's lasted. Only symbols - life, movement, strength, love. No, once faintly the word "loved" in Ogham 0 only the lo--d remain, just barely visible.

When I got married, I thought of a tattooed wedding ring. I wondered how I could shorten the Hebrew line "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." אלִול I think, instead of אני אהובי, ואהובי שלי. "Our sages have told us that Elul is the acronym for "ani l'dodi v'dodi le," says Avi Lazerson. But I don't know Hebrew, and I wouldn't want to rely on the Internet for a translation for something I'd get as a tattoo. (Here's why. The page shows people who wanted tattoos in Japanese, but end up with tattoos in gibberish.)

I think:

- Parachute over me. or How much strength does it take for exploration, a split decision, or are you stronger to remain?

- Dis alter visum.

- I miss Saturn very much.

I've also got a sketch of a book that would look nice on my inner elbow, opposite my anhk...

http://www.contrariwise.org

I have spent an hour exploring this site and I am about to return to it.

Some of you will be fascinated. Others will wonder the purpose.

I wonder if there are words that define me enough that I would want them tattooed on me. "Quod me nutrit me destruit" is a prayer I'm trying to get away from. "Love is the law, love under Will" feels too powerful to bind myself to. "Alis volat propiis?" "Sometimes when you fall, you fly?"

The only line that really stays with me, though, to the point where I may try it with a pen and then henna to see:

I finally realized
A parachute over me

I have, rounding up, 10,000,000 recommendations to read this.

It's next in the stack.

I'm at home. Kind of. I'm in A home. No, that's not right. The conjures images of nightgowns and ill containers filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

I grew up moving from house to house. The house I'm in now is the house I lived in for 2 years before it caught fire. A year later, all was fixed, but I was already in college. I saw the (renovated) house only on the holidays. And after college, I got my own apartment.

I'm in what was (is?) the kids' study. There is a long white panel desk that stretches 15 feet, maybe 2/3 the length of this (basement) room. The desk has two chairs and places for two computers, a private set of drawers on each end, and a common set in the middle (for printer paper, etc.). I never studied down here. I studied in my room. But this room also functioned as the family library.

My parents have two houses now, and many books have traveled to the other house. I've long since taken "my" books from here. But my mom said that no one looks at these anymore. So I'm thinking of taking more.

Mostly I want the tourist photo books we bought when traveling. Partly for the memories, partly because I really want to have a record of what Japan looked like in 1987 and so forth.

I haven't seen many of these SINCE my family bought them - which means 1987 and thereabouts.

You can never step in the same river twice, because you aren't the same person and it isn't the same river. Cities change. My reading ability changes. And my perspective on

He was a good author, and he was only 66 (he died of cancer). I read only a few of his books and found them like bubblegum (the later books were bubblegum with an aftertaste - there was substance that stayed with you). I read Jurassic Park in 10th Grade. It was my first exposure to chaos theory, a subject I'm still obsessed with through today. Thank you, Mr. Criton. And thank you for a lifetime of entertaining books. You earned your money.

It's official, because American Farmer agrees with me. Today's kids books aren't as good as from my time. My books had plot and characters. Todays books lack plot. Nothing happens.

Last night, as I was reading some books to the kids, I had a revelation. I finally figured out what bothers me about modern children’s literature.

There’s no story to most of these books.

No protagonist, no antagonist, no dramatic tension, no conflict, no resolution, no climax… nothing at all. Typically just animals talking to each other, doing cute yet utterly pointless things.

I've never talked about graphic novels here before. But there's no time like the present. Here's a run down of some good titles, some very recent, some not-so-much.

After the Fall, vol. 1. 2008. Angel, the Joss Whedon TV series that was a spin-off from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (and my prefered show, I think), ended after 5 seasons. Buffy ended after 7. But just as Buffy is continuing into a Whedon-approved, in-the-official-canon Season Eight in graphic novel form, Angel Season 6 is being released in graphic novels. The first arc is a set of three books, entitled After the Fall. Only volume 1 has been released. If you were an Angel fan, pick up this book. Feel free to wait until it is in paperback, of course. But this book is a very solid continuation of the epic. The themes of fighting in the face of overwhelming odds against unstoppable evil and of the search for black and white in a world of gray feature prominently. Characterization and dialogue is spot-on. Art is great - and it's even good as art based on actual people, something few comics based on TV shows or movies are able to pull off. This is a book that, like all of Whedon's work, benefits from multiple viewings (or rereadings). Previous Angel graphic novels (some better than others) pale in comparison, I think because the long story arc allows the artists to really draw the reader back into the moral ambiguity and the desperation of an unwinnable war. The story begins not at the cliffhanger ending of Season Five. The TV series ended at the start of a battle, the four standing heroes against an army of hell ("You take the 30,000 on the right."), but the comic starts weeks or months after the conclusion of that battle. Gradually you learn how the battle went, who survived and what they've done afterward, and how they are dealing with a Los Angelos that has been literally sent to hell. The heroes have fallen into separate paths, and the book details Angel's attempts at finding help (if any is available) in yet another stand against the demon lords. That's as much as I'll say, plot wise. The book is funny, horrifying, evil, and a perfect continuation of what fans grew to know of the show.

The Crow, J. O'Barr. (1981, first release). This is the book the movie was based on. The movie took the liberties it needed to, in order to create a story with a plot and conflict. The comic doesn't have an interesting or novel narrative structure - it is a pounding, plotting story of revenge: Eric and his girlfriend are accosted on an abandonded highway by a carload of men neither of them know. The movie gives a reason for the men to target Eric, but the comic doesn't bother - this is a random crime, with only the goal of physical pleasure through distruction. The men, high on crack and whatever else, shoot Eric to get to his fiance. They rape and kill her as he lays dying on the road. Somehow, he is brought back by the Crow to right the wrongs, to kill the men who took everything from him. And he does, methodically, one after another. None stand a chance. There is no loss of invincibility at the worst possible moment as in the movie, no doubt as to the ending. This story is brutal, vicious, and violent. This is a story of monsters and one man seeking vengence without becoming a monster himself. Powerful.

Kabuki: Circle of Blood. (1997). This is the beginning of David Mack's Kabuki books and by far the most accessible. Setting is a near-future Tokyo. Kabuki is a member of a circle called the Noh, who try to keep some control on the violence of the gangs and warlords by maintaining a contstant TV presence and targeted assassinations. Kabuki's main enemy is Kai, her father. Her mother was a WWII comfort woman. A Japanese general fell in love with this comfort woman and planned to marry her. On the day before the wedding, the general's son, Kai, furious over this disrespect of his dead mother (his father marrying a whore?), rapes the woman. She becomes pregnant and dies giving birth to Kabuki. When Kai realizes that he has a daughter, he attempts to kill her. Somehow, she survives, and her adopted father, the general, sends her to live with martial artists and to the Noh, not knowing what else to do with her. As Kabuki grows up, Kai becomes more and more powerful in the underworld.

More later, maybe, if anyone is interested in hearing about graphic novels.

A friend in need's a friend indeed. A friend who bleeds is better.

Ugh, it's been a slow morning getting started. I almost have a post done on the book Trauma and Addiction and I'm working through Party of One, which is a manifesto in praise of loners and introversion. I have a couple new (used) Whedon-verse novels, the kind I can read in a day, for when I feel really really uggy.

I need to spend an hour on Amazon looking up sales rankings for books, but I'm just not in a data entry mood. But higher-level though processing structures are not online.

I am feeling down and a bit lost. There's a book that I love, that makes me cry when I read it, because I feel so much like the narrator. It's a memoir. She and I are very much alike, have faced and are facing similar struggles, and have the same intellectual interests and coping patterns. I remember I told someone I love to read this book, in hopes that this person would read it and understand me. Understand the challenges life has presented me, and how this author had overcome similar challenges to become one of the most successful people in her field. To understand this book is to understand me, though I didn't say that - I just suggested to this person that she read it. she said she had, and thought the author was "whiny." That was a punch in the gut - this author I identified with and admired and thought of as a role model, this person I loved thought was not worth being around. So what did she think of me?

Sigh. I need to go read some Emerson.