We skipped Chatter, slept in. Trying to get over my cough/cold once and for all. Trying to make sure Bela has not really caught it. She walked lots yesterday, 4k? I walked lots too, around Old Town. Still had coughing bout around 2 am. Feels good though to chill today. Strange visit to the dentist at Salud on Atrisco. Indian dentist and assistant. Showed me it would cost $990.00 for the "deep clean" that Va's teeth clearly needed. After asking me politely if she were demented. Said no and we left.
So loving Handke's Slow Homecoming. Exciting and thrilling. Not so much Fosse. I dutifully read to the end, and carefully, The Other Name. The death of the boy was the unexpected point of danger, the car ride with the bald old man too predictable and somehow unconvincing, or maybe unmoving. Maybe the Latin prayers obstruct my view. The darkness shining and shining darkness are fine. Why could he not have been happy with that, stayed with that, left it at that. Modian and Handke are born in the "correct" years! Fosse I would group with "boomers" but then I would have to allow that Lentz falls into that chronological nonsense too.
Neighbor over the back wall removed the big blue and black plastic tarps from his patio yesterday. Sure sign of Spring? Feels nice and warm these days. Wrote various messages to Jonah Stephenson, hoping to hear from him about Roy. Paper card in mail, email and facebook message. Marilyn's cardiac inversion on Friday went well. Bela now enjoying book about Julia Child.
Back to Handke for me. Do I need to skim some 2-3 star comments in goodreads about Fosse? Had forgotten that Knausgaard was Fosse's student in writing course(s). Fosse's plays widely produced where silence does what stream repetition does in the narratives.
Ok, I read this one, and I read the Melancholy I. I can let him go. No need to read more even though in anticipatory enthusiasm, or anxiety hyped proto-enthusiasm, I bought copies of other titles.
Now sipping the newest ceremonial cacao to arrive in the house, this from Embue, Moses Draper who started the company in Brattleboro before moving to Costa Rica. Must be a lucrative cacao scam just like the others!! One email said he was sending me the new version of the golden spoon, but it wasn't in this first package. Do like the cacao in mixable form rather than the chunks provided by the other company. But the golden frother is not gold and has a three step power button that easily makes a big mess. The Zylo frother is just fine. Zulo, Pacho, ? all no doubt made in same shop in China.
Back to Handke. And in celebration I broke my chronological discipline by starting in on the collection of essays published much later in career than Slow Homecoming. Quiet Places. Opening essay about the crucial importance of time in the toilet to get away from people and listen to silence. At once I think of the toilet in the basement of the Grand Avenue store. First the low ceiling of the basement, almost everyone had to duck to avoid hitting one's head on the pipes and floor joists above. The toilet you had to step up into, two steps? it was up on the edge of the outer wall of the basement, also low ceiling, so you had to find a way to step up and stoop down, double over, and push your rear back onto the ring seat without falling over. Seated you could then squat comfortably and think in perfect embodiment of Rodin's muscled hero.
Handke lived in Berkeley 1978-79. There is no Northern Lights boulevard there, I wonder if he tweaked City Lights bookstore into that street name.
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