The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne (365 Books, Day 64)

Now here is a book one should not read in a day. It is, as far as I can tell, all the best of the eighteenth century, meaning that it is brilliant and charming and witty, light on its feet and filthy in its humor and long as only an eighteenth-century author with the bit in his teeth can manage. I had seen the movie (which is extremely good, and successfully films an intrinsically unfilmable novel) and read various excerpts, including the chapter which is primarily a series of curving lines, but had not read the thing itself. I have spent vast portions of the day and night reading the thing itself, and loving every minute of it, but I do think it was unfair of it to keep growing another hundred pages every time my back was turned. I also think that it is unfair of the edition to begin its pagination over every time it gets to the end of one of the original volumes, as it means that you keep thinking that you have two hundred pages left, when in fact you have seven, or eight, or quite possibly twenty hundred. For as Tristram Shandy declares that he wishes it to be, I think this is the original expanding novel, which will eventually put out its tendrils and devour life as we all know it. He states that even if he produces two volumes a year till he dies, his memoirs will never catch up with himself, and this is a fair metaphor for the work it gave me as a reader.

I could, in terms of how high its quality is and how much I love it, wish it twice as long: but not in one day, dammit.

( Anyway, I digress, which is appropriate... )

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne (365 Books, Day 64)

Now here is a book one should not read in a day. It is, as far as I can tell, all the best of the eighteenth century, meaning that it is brilliant and charming and witty, light on its feet and filthy in its humor and long as only an eighteenth-century author with the bit in his teeth can manage. I had seen the movie (which is extremely good, and successfully films an intrinsically unfilmable novel) and read various excerpts, including the chapter which is primarily a series of curving lines, but had not read the thing itself. I have spent vast portions of the day and night reading the thing itself, and loving every minute of it, but I do think it was unfair of it to keep growing another hundred pages every time my back was turned. I also think that it is unfair of the edition to begin its pagination over every time it gets to the end of one of the original volumes, as it means that you keep thinking that you have two hundred pages left, when in fact you have seven, or eight, or quite possibly twenty hundred. For as Tristram Shandy declares that he wishes it to be, I think this is the original expanding novel, which will eventually put out its tendrils and devour life as we all know it. He states that even if he produces two volumes a year till he dies, his memoirs will never catch up with himself, and this is a fair metaphor for the work it gave me as a reader.

I could, in terms of how high its quality is and how much I love it, wish it twice as long: but not in one day, dammit.

( Anyway, I digress, which is appropriate... )

You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are comments over there.

the unexpected perks of participatory democracy

So one of the main political contests around here has been the District 17 House race between the incumbent, who is (inexplicably, but I'm happy about it) a Democrat elected by one of the most conservative districts in the country, and Bill Flores, who is the Republican. His campaign has been, well, I am not entirely certain what he actually stands for, because he has been mailing us things based totally around My Opponents Are Evil. Seriously, I have vague assumptions about what he probably stands for given that he sends postcards of Nancy Pelosi as the scarecrow on the porch of a haunted house, but he could also support having zombies conquer the planet and no one would know because he never says anything about it. I was almost inevitably going to support the Democrat anyway, but, you know, there are a lot of races around here where there is no Democrat option, and the way to get me to pick you in an all-Republican race is to actually have a platform that I can understand well enough to say whether I think it's less evil than your opponent's, just saying. Anyway, the mailings have bad Photoshop and have made me mildly hostile towards Bill Flores. Also, he seems kind of vaguely Tea Party-ish.

Today gaudior and I went to vote, at the Very Large Church near our house, and when we pulled up into the parking lot there was only one vacant space, which was being blocked by some people with video cameras and matching T-shirts. They moved aside and waved us into the spot, so we parked, and when we got out of the car the guy with the largest camera swung it towards us, and another man walked up to us, leading with his hand.

He and gaudior shook. "Hi," he said, "I'm Bill Flores, and I'm running for Congress. What's your name?"

"Hi," gaudior said, with her usual bright, friendly smile. "I'm gaudior and this is my wife, rushthatspeaks."

This is what they mean when they call someone's face a study.

I was actually rather impressed. He kept the professional, warm, cheerful face while nonetheless having what was obviously a moment of total and complete brain shutoff centered around the concepts of 'these people a) exist b) vote here c) oh God this is on video'. (Yes. Yes, we do vote here, thank you.) I had to start fighting with my own face right away, of course, but I think I managed. Total politeness was maintained on all sides as we headed into the building. I think he may have fallen back on 'y'all have a nice day' but I'm not sure because as I said I was fighting with my facial expression; I know we waved.

We did not collapse laughing until we were out of both eyeshot and earshot. I have been grinning and luxuriating in it ever since; it was the best moment of Zen I've had out of politics in basically ever.

They probably won't use that footage, but we could have been lucky-- it could have been a live feed. Not sure how I'd check.

Homosexual agenda for the day: ACCOMPLISHED.

the unexpected perks of participatory democracy

So one of the main political contests around here has been the District 17 House race between the incumbent, who is (inexplicably, but I'm happy about it) a Democrat elected by one of the most conservative districts in the country, and Bill Flores, who is the Republican. His campaign has been, well, I am not entirely certain what he actually stands for, because he has been mailing us things based totally around My Opponents Are Evil. Seriously, I have vague assumptions about what he probably stands for given that he sends postcards of Nancy Pelosi as the scarecrow on the porch of a haunted house, but he could also support having zombies conquer the planet and no one would know because he never says anything about it. I was almost inevitably going to support the Democrat anyway, but, you know, there are a lot of races around here where there is no Democrat option, and the way to get me to pick you in an all-Republican race is to actually have a platform that I can understand well enough to say whether I think it's less evil than your opponent's, just saying. Anyway, the mailings have bad Photoshop and have made me mildly hostile towards Bill Flores. Also, he seems kind of vaguely Tea Party-ish.

Today gaudior and I went to vote, at the Very Large Church near our house, and when we pulled up into the parking lot there was only one vacant space, which was being blocked by some people with video cameras and matching T-shirts. They moved aside and waved us into the spot, so we parked, and when we got out of the car the guy with the largest camera swung it towards us, and another man walked up to us, leading with his hand.

He and gaudior shook. "Hi," he said, "I'm Bill Flores, and I'm running for Congress. What's your name?"

"Hi," gaudior said, with her usual bright, friendly smile. "I'm gaudior, and this is my wife, rushthatspeaks."

This is what they mean when they call someone's face a study.

I was actually rather impressed. He kept the professional, warm, cheerful face while nonetheless having what was obviously a moment of total and complete brain shutoff centered around the concepts of 'these people a) exist b) vote here c) oh God this is on video'. (Yes. Yes, we do vote here, thank you.) I had to start fighting with my own face right away, of course, but I think I managed. Total politeness was maintained on all sides as we headed into the building. I think he may have fallen back on 'y'all have a nice day' but I'm not sure because as I said I was fighting with my facial expression; I know we waved.

We did not collapse laughing until we were out of both eyeshot and earshot. I have been grinning and luxuriating in it ever since; it was the best moment of Zen I've had out of politics in basically ever.

They probably won't use that footage, but we could have been lucky-- it could have been a live feed. Not sure how I'd check.

Homosexual agenda for the day: ACCOMPLISHED.

You can comment here or at the Dreamwidth crosspost. There are comments over there.