01 April 2013

Notes - a lifetime of books / Brothers 16 completed


         Mid-morning. You were up early with the cats and could not go back to sleep and thought of a few more books/plays you have read but they are coming harder to find in you head on online links to 100 best books of whatever persuasion for fun reminders of: 'oh, I read that! I remember that book!' You are having a good time recollecting then as you go over the book titles a few are wrong or mistakes so you delete them.

         0928 hours. I am having fun. Sometimes a title pops up and I hope to remember until I can write it down. Mostly I think from now on it will be variances of titles from authors I already have. A few books/plays I have are not the correct translations but I am not going to be too fussy on that. What I hope is that some former students will read over them and find a book(s) for their sons and daughters to read. I have had a few makes some requests so hopefully it will serve a more worthwhile purpose. I am surprised too at the diversity in my reading over the years I never thought about it before. And, it is a tickle in the memory when I see a title I have not thought about for an age, such as Venus in the Half Shell by Kilgore Trout. Kilgore Trout is a fictional character in Slaughter House Five and other books by Kurt Vonnegut. I just see another one on the floor by the chair, The Quest for Merlin by Nikolai Tolstoy. I'll have to include this one too. I still do love to read.

         This is why the exercise is a valuable one. It helps to show who you were and who you are, a reader. - Post. - Amorella


         After noon. You got your hair cut, Mary Ann said it has been eight weeks, one of your longest stretches between cuts. When you came home Carol was working on tax forms for herself in four years when she turns seventy. You found two more books, the one from Doug and Nancy, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer and Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln to add to your FB collection. - Amorella

         1255 hours. I found two more read books: The Virginian and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I want to say the first was read in the 1960's, might have been required in American lit at Whitehall-Yearling and the second in the mid-70's. Seems like it was on my reading list for a quarter course at Indian Hill too though it wasn't required reading in my class. Others may have required it. Okay, I'm ready to work on Brothers 16.

         Let's go to it. - Amorella

         I am not sure of the setting. I would rather it be somewhere different than the house or car or even uptown Riverton.

         How about at the used bookstore? - Amorella

         That's good, the Village Bookstore on Dublin-Granville Road. I'll have to look it up for a photo. I can see it in my head inside and out, but not enough detail to make the setting more realistic.

         You downloaded four photographs from the website, let's use these two, Amorella




Village Bookstore (change name)


Interior corner

         2119 hours. I am almost done with Brothers 16 but I need a conclusion. I don't know how to end this.

         How about silence until the boys arrive at Richard and Cyndi's house. Cyndi walks out to greet them and to tell them that she is going to pick up Connie and go to the library. Robert mentions the problem with religion and politics and Connie tells Richard to just ignore it like it isn't there since many people are busy going about their business and not paying any attention to either one. - Amorella

         That's good. A bit depressing though.

         So, what else is new? Nothing much, you see. - Amorella

         2146 hours. Finished.

         Add and post. - Amorella

         Thank you, Amorella. It is still rather depressing.

         You don't want to write about people being left behind though boy. It's been done. Like your brother says, "It's been done to death." Post. - Amorella

***
The Brothers 16 ©2013 rho, draft

The brothers pulled up beside to the neatly white clapboarded and brown-trimmed Once-a-Church Book Store, climbed out of Richard's red GTI and walked over to the austere entrance below the copper clad roof of the bell tower. Once inside they made their way between mazes of mostly neat book filled rows and intermixes of interesting cubbyholes and wall fixtures to the back of the first floor.

Coming up the back corner they spotted two dark green overstuffed chairs midst a chaos of book cover colors which gave the simple framed backdrop walls the appearance of large abstract art forms stacked in various sized three-dimensional rectangular blocks of color. The two sat down haphazardly into the puffed chairs before perusing through nearby book sections then to the second floor and returning to the corner area on their own. Richard arrived first.

While other customers bustled about Richard grumbled to himself, "Other than my kindly Marsupial humanoids helping us out, God’s promise to Sarah and Abraham is the only hope I can come up."

He sat a few more minutes then spied a Hebrew Bible in English on the nearby table and thumbed through Genesis until he found Chapter 22:15 which reads, “And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, (16) and said: 'By Myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, (17) that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; (18) and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice.'” All nations, thought Richard, this is pretty inclusive, but how do I keep the religion out of it?

Robert came over from the nearby bookstand, “What did you find?” he asked.

“I found an old Hebrew-English Bible on the table, a 1917 edition, and I have the reference of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis.”

            "Don't bring in any miracles," commented Robert, "the book is fiction enough as it is. What do you think human beings would human beings do knowing they had help from God?"

            "Then I'll have to leave it to my marsupials," said Richard, who then paused and continued, "I agree wholeheartedly. I have to leave God out of this; no religion," he thought, "and no politics."

            "It is only reasonable," continued Robert, "you bring in God and Free Will disappears. You can't have both in the same operating room. He showed his brother a book, "I found this 1930's edition of Ezra Pound's works, I'm going to get it."
           
            Richard responded, "I can't leave politics out. Surely the rebellions were both political."
           
            "There's politics in King Arthur's Court too. So, you're stuck with politics, noted Robert, "And, what about the Druids and the Christians? You can't go deleting their religions either." He glanced at his poetry book, "This is $9.95, not bad. I thought your Marsupials have a religion also."

            "Mom always said to stay away from religion and politics."

            "You're stuck, my man. Are you going to get the book? I'm ready to go."

            "Might as well." He pushed himself up. "Old Bibles are rather classy in any case."
            "Some are worth a penny or two," remarked Robert.
            They paid for the books and to the car heading silently back to Riverton. "What are you going to do about the religion and politics?"
            "I don't know. I don't want this to become like the Left Behind series."
            "What about Earth Abides and I Am Legend?"
            "Well, see, it's been done. You've got The Stand and The Plague. And, in my original Braided Dreams I had a twin Earth almost wiped out. The apocalypse has been done to death."
            They rode in the mutual appreciation of silence and upon pulling in the driveway Cyndi came out the side door, waited for Richard to lower the window and said, "I'm going to pick up Connie. Rob do you want a ride?" He responded affirmatively then said, "Dickie has a problem related to religion and politics in his book, what do you think he ought to do?"
            He was hardly out the door when Cyndi replied, "Ignore them both. That's what most people do today anyway. People are too busy to put up with the crazies in either one."
            "There you go, bro. Listen to your woman. Avoid both like they were a plague."
            Shortly Richard was left in silence. Bible in hand he decided to sit on the front porch in the sunshine before going in the house.
794 words
***    

No comments:

Post a Comment