Book of Sand

FINAL DE AÑO Ni el pormenor simbólico de reemplazar un tres por un dos ni esa metáfora baldía que convoca un lapso que muere y otro que surge ni el cumplimiento de un proceso astronómico aturden y socavan la altiplanicie de esta noche y nos obligan a esperar las doce irreparables campanadas. La causa verdadera es la sospecha general y borrosa del enigma del Tiempo; es el asombro ante el milagro de que a despecho de infinitos azares, de que a despecho de que somos las gotas del río de Heráclito, perdure algo en nosotros: inmóvil, algo que no encontró lo que buscaba. ------------------------------------------------ END OF THE YEAR nor the symbolic detail to replace a three with a two* nor that wasteful metaphor that summons a period that dies and another that arises nor the fulfillment of an astronomical process stun and undermine the highlands tonight and make us wait the twelve irreparable chimes. the true cause is the general and blurred suspicion of the enigma of Time; it is the amaz...

 I didn't use to watch reels or go to Insta first thing in the morning, although I did sometimes check FB.  Now it is an everyday thing and multiple times a day, of just skimming through "tiktok" reels on IG and FB. (They are much worse of FB.) Starting and ending my day this way is unhealthy and even though there are many interesting or cute things, there are also too many stupid, pointless and random things.  Consuming random short form content destroys my ability to form and follow coherent thoughts.  IG and FB are just designed to fragment and incrementalize your day so that you have no drive, direction or confidence.  You feel perpetually lost in an endless scroll of stupidity and vacuity. (If something profound or meaningful intrudes, it is decontextualized and appears only for one reason, to get likes, views and retweets.  Even if it is from the Dalia Lama. Following that my morning routine includes checking CNN for the daily outrage and horrible atr...

Saw it in 3D, words fail.  Need to see in IMAX. Just spectacular visuals. I didn't find anything about the story to be overly cliched, apart for the obvious 'anticolonial' vibe throughout which was perfectly on target.  At one point I remember thinking that the whole 'now we must become sea people' - 'fish out of water' trope was a clever way to mirror with NaVi culture the passage that Jake went through alone in the first one. In some ways the conflicts between the kids being bullied and trying to fit in, etc. was a bit reminiscent of ever kind of high school outsider drama (Karate Kid comes to mind), but maybe that is just the way kids are. At least it never tipped over into "Sullys stick together and everyone else is a caricatural monster of total psychopaths." The bully kids were just being kids. The anti-whaling message was as powerful and effecting as I expected.  The big surprise to me was that Quarich came back as a Navi, but how else would...

Had a chat with ChatGPT about the glass bead game which I described as "concept association." Thought that rather than a hard push in November, it might be better to set aside some time each week with the goal of writing 52 short stories of about 1500 words, one each week.  This would be 75,000 words at the end of the year. Using Auster's Travels in the Scriptorium, I thought about a conversation in, among and between books in a place like the Library of Babel.  Each story could be a synopsis of a book, idea, story or manuscript, or a biography of its purported or actual author, or a comparative interpretation of its significance, its precursors or descendants, or even an adventure about the history of the book object itself and its provenance.  M.R. James devotes a fair amount of space to describing esoteric books and manuscripts and their Latin inscriptions, etc.  His characters are often catalogers of ancient collections, Cathedral chronicles, or other abstruse se...

 Started reading The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. I hadn't meant to, but was looking at books similar to House of Leaves, downloaded this one and was immediately hooked.  It reminds me of Neverwhere to be honest, I guess because British, but a very intriguing and clever idea. Feels like a Tom McCarthy novel, like Remainder, or even an early Alex Garland (Coma). Auster and Fight Club could also be references.  Jaws is obviously a big part of this. It was also mentioned when I was searching for material on S. by J.J.Abrams (aka The Ship of Theseus by V.M.Straka).  I guess because it has an unorthodox typography, but really it is just illustrated with images made up of letters. Strangely, there are scans of the S. book available (and also an audiobook) but they are 200+ MB, so I was reluctant to download. --- Finished it in 2 days and it was a compelling and enjoyable read. So in the end I would say it is not actually like House of Leaves, in the sense that the text ...

 Morning with Mike and Christina and some coffee, snacks and gifts, then over to Palmer's for a turkey dinner!  We watched the new BBC Ghost Story for Christmas - Count Magnus , which I liked a lot and enjoyed reading the story later. Also, watched Mr. Humphrey's and His Inheritance.  When I was home, I read that one as well as watched The Treasure of Abbot Thomas and The Stalls of Barchester.   Reading The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, I was struck by how much more was to be found in the text, as opposed to the BBC adaptation. (The adaptation however was top notch and the story contains a more thrilling set of discoveries and cryptic, coded puzzles than perhaps The DaVinci Code.) As was also the case with the Inheritance, in the detailed description of the Globe or Orb in the garden maze. Much of the occult, esoteric detail and scholarly references are omitted. It is clear from his stories that James speaks and reads Latin fluently and few of his stories lack at le...