Waugh Abroad Page: 1063 Finished

Northanger Abbey Page: 130

I finished Waugh and intended to work on finishing Genji which has been languishing. But Northanger Abbey came in the mail today and reminded me that our new book club is supposed to be starting Thursday and I needed to read for it. Fortunately Austen’s novel is only about 200 pages long so I’ll easily be done with it but for a moment I panicked.

Today was my sister Quinn’s birthday and we threw a party for her this evening at Veritas. Supposedly it had a grand theme; she’s single so it was supposed to be an “Old Maid” party. She got lots of gag gifts and we ate pints of Ben & Jerry’s but other than that it was just a typical party…lots of people gabbing. As usual I ended up just watching the boys upstairs and didn’t get to visit much. Alex gets hyper pretty easily with the noise and sugar flying around but EmBee and Cole were there so we did have one nice long visit. Alex took a header off a chair too ending the night with a nice long screaming fit. Poor kid. He and Luc are both sleeping peacefully now so I’m off to sleep too.

Waugh Abroad Page: 1000

Today’s post will be more interesting than usual. I give you Evelyn Waugh.

Referring to shorts: “…the craven preference for comfort over dignity.”

While on board ship: “I got through two books a day…”

On an mid 19th century shipping incident: “It is wrong to represent bureaucracy as an evil contrived soley by socialists. It is one of the evidences of original sin.”

On revolutions: “Unremitting effort is needed to keep men living together at peace.”

On the barrenness of Marxism: “Altruism does not long flourish without religion.”

On why the splendor of the churches in Mexico is not wrong: “For the impulse to adorn is a part of love, and those who see in the glories of Mexican decoration only the self-advertisement of a clerical caste and the oppression of a people, do not know love.”

Waugh Abroad Page: 787

Another day off. Another blissful dip into ‘normal’ life. Quinn continues to handle Veritas on Sundays and we have now been to church twice, picnicked once and worked on the yard together twice. I’ve napped every week and we’ve taken several walks. Good times.

Reading Waugh is now giving me an education on Mexican history, politics and culture. Who knew they were Socialists in the 30’s? Not me anyway and I’m enjoying learning all these things. I can’t imagine Waugh’s views are terribly popular these days but I ca’t help but think that he was a keen observer even if all his conclusions weren’t perfect. Popular or not they are quite decided and fascinating and educational to read. Throughout this collection, I’ve enjoyed seeing non-fiction connections to his novels and that pleasure continues.

Waugh Abroad Page: 722

I marked my first book today. Page 584 of Waugh Abroad. In pencil. Highlighting the original of a passage in one of his novels. I feel slightly dirty and very exhilarated. I’m thrilled to think that I can thumb back through the book at any time and find that little paragraph noted; it’s reference to Waugh’s Scoop duly obvious. I hope to find myself annotating only when it is beneficial, commenting only when I truly have something worthwhile to remember and underlining only those things that are actually noteworthy. We’ll see how it goes.
My reading has changed over the years. Obviously, since I’ve been reading for 22+ years and many of those were as a child. But I think that some things shouldn’t change, at least not all that much. I was originally both omnivorous and uncritical. I consumed anything and everything and I did so innocently, openly, assuming that every author knew more than me and therefore was irrefutable. Imagine my consternation when they contradicted one another! I still believe that a childlike humility is appropriate when reading but that it should be mixed with what wisdom you have managed to gain. One attitude it is necessary to outgrow is the simple minded reading of only enjoyable books. Reading great books is the least expensive and most effective method of education for the literate. With a small budget or a library card and a modestly inquiring mind one can obtain all the learning available to humanity but the attitude that must be constantly combated is the idea of leisure time for entertainment. Tickled ears (or eyes) do not lead to wise minds.

Waugh Abroad Page: 528

Tonight Veritas hosted Steve Olsen-Smith’s Melville Marginalia presentation. This meant two things to me. An opportunity to interact with people who love and understand books and an opportunity to fizzle on my daily reading. I started the day on the note by failing to get up at 7. First I “forgot” to set the alarm and then when I woke up a bit late I excused further sleep by reminding myself that I had to close tonight and so would be up and working extra late. Anyway the day managed to be fruitful intellectually despite continuing to lose ground in the reading department. I’ve officially reversed positions on annotating, underling and margin-noting. I will henceforth be marking my books as I deem appropriate. I’m sure you can gather why I had the change of heart today. I will only be a cautious advocate, continually reminding people that every thought that leaps into their head is not for committing to paper…that’s what blogging is all about.

Waugh Abroad Page: 385

Another day, another crappy page count. I got up at the crack of 7 as planned this morning and after grabbing a glass of orange juice and reading about a page and a half Luc woke up. I eventually managed to soothe him back to sleep and get in about five more pages before spilling my oj all over the floor. After I cleaned that up I read a few more minutes and then Alex woke up. Not exactly the peaceful quiet reading time I had planned. Oh well. I did get to this: “Politics…are not an exact science but, by their nature, a series of makeshift, rule-of-thumb, practical devices for getting out of scrapes.”

Waugh Abroad Page: 280

I had been expecting humorous commentary and was consequently somewhat disappointed in Waugh’s more straightforward reportage. Their have been a few amusing and snarcastic asides but on the whole he’s been fairly serious. Well today I’ve seen what that seriousness is good for. Waugh observed a remote African monastery’s Mass and took the opportunity to reflect on the spiritual and evangelical benefits that come from Catholicism’s openness regarding it’s rites. Good stuff though not hilarious.

I continue to fall behind in my page count and am considering doing something sacreligious. I’m going to get up early. Normally I sleep every moment possible, waiting until one or the other of the boys wakes up and demands breakfast. Now I think I will start rising at 7 every morning instead of holding out for the extra 10 minutes to one hour they usually give me. I could get between 15 and 100 pages read every morning before the day starts. We’ll see if I can survive without that extra fragment of sleep.

Waugh Abroad Page: 152

Sorry about yesterday’s short post. Sometimes I end up completely brain-dead at the close of the day. I enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale yesterday although I think it was a bit much to take in one sitting. I’d recommend reading it’s 300+ pages over the course of a few days interspersed with something a bit cheerier. Like Erin (as she commented over on the “List” page) I had twisted dreams last night but as they were kinda confused I can’t explain them. I’m not sure what Atwood’s purpose or philosophy are but I found her writing less angry than I had (half-irrationally) expected. I thought her imaginary theocracy strongly resembles current polygamist cults (now in the news). And while I’m a Christian and theoretically should be sensitive to a negative portrayal of theocratic rule I thought her creation quite indicative of the kind of corruption that evil brings to the Church. Anyway it was an interesting book but be cautious if you’re particularly sensitive to foul language or sexual situations. Those were never gratuitous but definitely part of the book.

There is a lot of Waugh on my reading list for the year and while I loved reading some of his fiction earlier this year I’m less thrilled with this travel writing. Either I’m denser than normal or he’s less clever in his travel writing. There are a number of clever asides and a satirization or two but so far this simply isn’t as consistently amusing. I wonder if the rest of his novels on my list will be as funny as I hope. He has made me want to pack up and go on a cruise though…something I thought David Foster Wallace had forever opposed me to.

The Handmaid’s Tale By Margaret Atwood Page: 350

I worked hard to get extra reading in today. And of course I ended up with no mental energy left to write an interesting post. Also being completely emotionally drained from the dystopian vision of Atwood I’ve got nothing.

One thought though. Why don’t any of these 20th century writers have the capacity to imagine a hero?

Guess who didn’t read today. I’ll give you three tries.

Busy day of course, as if that justifies things. We went to breakfast with friends, to church, napped, delivered lunch to Quinn, cleaned up the backyard and made dinner. Now we are settling in to watch a movie and finish our bottle of wine. Tentative plan for tomorrow involves working quickly and coming back home to spend the whole afternoon reading. We’ll see how that works out.