the frig blig

Is here. Read it and leap.

The thrill of marking up a library book (about thinking, no less) is reinforced by the startling sight of a black 8-sided asterisk penned into the margin on page 5 — yes!

Libraries empower by helping us share not just books but our ideas and feedback about those books…inside them, becoming part of those very books.

Yowza! Every book a blog!

S and I were lucky enough to view up close many original drawings and prints by R. Crumb, underground comix illustrator and more. I’m happy to report that he is still going strong! He even has a website: www.rcrumb.com where you can buy his books and stuff.

I discovered his work via Zap Comix in the early 1970s, spending countless hours engrossed over their mind-blowing pages. It was quite inspirational to me and my housemates at the time (Jeff & Dina & Bob & Janet & David: the Electric Flamingo gang).

Seeing his stuff again after so many years, the originals lifesize at the Frye museum, almost made me cry. He is a master illustrator and observer, and has no fear. He is my hero. He is weird and offensive and hilarious and shallow and deep. He has drawn/painted some true classics, for instance “A Short History of America”:

Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers! …

Tonight I read ‘Crossing Brooklyn Ferry’ (Whitman), culled from a reference in a review of Elizabeth Bishop by my friend T. A mighty fine poem, indeed!

http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/anthology/Whitman/Crossing.htm

Q: What color did I paint the music room?
A: bianco.

Q: What books am I reading now?
A: Enclosure Josekis (Takemiya), Intuition (Fuller), Angle of Repose (Stegner), Book of Longing (Cohen).

Q: What is the vegetable equivalent of anchovies?
A: Olives.

Q: Who do I love?
A: Suzan.

Q: Which animals did we see on the islands?
A: Quick silent deer, swooping circling swallows, a soaring shrieking raven, a row of seagulls on the rooftop, sheep herded along the road by 3 black dogs, an unfortunate slug, a fiddler on the pebbly beach, a mysterious pet.

Q: How long is the wooden boat Peter is fixing and when was it built?
A: 50 feet, 1954.

I recently read two sci-fi novels: Blindsight by Peter Watts (2007) and The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1970). The Watts book was an impulse buy at the bookstore; the Vonnegut book I had enjoyed reading some 30-odd years ago and picked it off my shelf upon hearing of the author’s death. I figured, age might give me different perspective since my first read. And, reading his work as hommage to a favorite author.

Since I found myself reading these two books simultaneously, I gave myself an assignment to contrast and compare the protagonists of each book, Siri and Unk. Similarities: both had mental issues; both were earth-born space travellers; both were tragic. Differences: Siri was a trained professional, Unk was an unskilled undisciplined man unaware of how he was used by others. Etc. But I cancelled this assignment, there is no need to complete it and turn it in.

Contrasting the two novels themselves, Watts’ book explores more scientific themes, and has a more serious tone. Vonnegut is funnier, and handles larger philosophic themes such as the purpose of life, what it means to be human, and religion.

I must note that Sirens of Titan bears several striking similarities to the later work Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, published nine years later. Gotta think Adams was inspired by KV, but it’s too late to ask him (he died in 2001).