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More random memery
Aug. 8th, 2006 11:06 pmHaving been meditative and depressive yesterday, today we do the meme. Gacked from flist:
1. Grab the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence (grab next nearest book if less than 7 sentences found).
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5.Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, Elaine Scarry. It was closest because I am in the middle of deciding whether to read on with it, or go back and reread the beginning again.
"So, too, the twentieth century litany of war deaths occurs in the same way: for the United States, the Vietnam War is not 57,000 names but names, bodies, and embodied culture - not Robert Gilray but Robert Gilray, from the left the artillery shell approached, entered his body, and began its dark explosion, exploding there, too, the image of the standing crowd that each week watched his swift run across the playing fields of Chatham; not Manuel Font but Manuel Font, around his fragile frame the fire closed in, burning into his skin, and skull and brain, burning even into the deep, shy corners where he studied at school. So the list would continue through tens of thousands of others. That the war deaths occured on behalf of a terrain in which pianos could be played and bicycles could be pedalled, where schools would each day be entered by restrained and extravagantly gesturing children alike, must be indicated by appending the direction of motive, "for my country," since the deaths themselves are the unmaking of the embodied terrain of pianos and bicycles, classmates, comrades, and schools."
Oh, look. Meditative and depressive again. Oh well. At least this time it's not me.
Long sentences. Scarry has an impressive intellect. I do not consider myself stupid, but I'm at page 60, and I think the desire to reread - to reread for comprehension, to internalise and examine the concepts she sets forth - is going to win.
1. Grab the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence (grab next nearest book if less than 7 sentences found).
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5.Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, Elaine Scarry. It was closest because I am in the middle of deciding whether to read on with it, or go back and reread the beginning again.
"So, too, the twentieth century litany of war deaths occurs in the same way: for the United States, the Vietnam War is not 57,000 names but names, bodies, and embodied culture - not Robert Gilray but Robert Gilray, from the left the artillery shell approached, entered his body, and began its dark explosion, exploding there, too, the image of the standing crowd that each week watched his swift run across the playing fields of Chatham; not Manuel Font but Manuel Font, around his fragile frame the fire closed in, burning into his skin, and skull and brain, burning even into the deep, shy corners where he studied at school. So the list would continue through tens of thousands of others. That the war deaths occured on behalf of a terrain in which pianos could be played and bicycles could be pedalled, where schools would each day be entered by restrained and extravagantly gesturing children alike, must be indicated by appending the direction of motive, "for my country," since the deaths themselves are the unmaking of the embodied terrain of pianos and bicycles, classmates, comrades, and schools."
Oh, look. Meditative and depressive again. Oh well. At least this time it's not me.
Long sentences. Scarry has an impressive intellect. I do not consider myself stupid, but I'm at page 60, and I think the desire to reread - to reread for comprehension, to internalise and examine the concepts she sets forth - is going to win.
