Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 175
“I say hello but no one listens except myself and you, of course. Maybe it’s my crazy two-tone Armani dance shoes, the fuchsia tights. Or maybe I just had Juantoomanys. Everywhere I look there is Juan, Can’t help it. It’s true. Can’t knock it, cant shake it. Everywhere I turn there’s Juan.
I find this quote interesting because he is saying how he wants to get away form himself that he cant shake himself, but why would you wan to get rid of yourself? Throughout the whole poem he add his name into words and then says that he cant get away form him self and he wants to stop obsessing over himself.
Pg. 186
“One quick flash of the hands. It was a mother thing. She blessed me one too many times. She crossed her tiny hands over my face so. I saw through the mountain furnace –this old road of lives and cross blossoms and unturned stones.”
This poem was the last of the book the title was How to Make a Chile Verde Smuggler. In this quote he is talking about his mother, and how no matter what he did whether he was right or wrong she would always forgive him and love him. He is also saying that even though he had made many mistakes she was always there to forgive him. He now was visiting his mother in a graveyard and telling how there are so many lives there that are blossoming to new places beyond.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 157
Wanna B: “how to use the fruit-of-the-loom T-shirt to divert attention from your bad credit.”
Sancho: contestant numero uno?
Contestant #1: Hispa-chute!
In the beginning of the chapter he shows a game show that is mixed between jeopardy and the wheel of fortune. While this is going on they are making fun of the Hispanics every answer to the questions starts with the word Hispa, when also in the game show they hit tacos instead of bells the whole setting of the stage is a cheap Mexican like taco curtains and etc. although he is making fun of Mexicans he is also making other realize that when the make racial slurs that more people realize them then you would think.
Pg. 166
“Of course chickens don’t talk – this is the first piece of common knowledge that had to be discarded. When Antoinne Saldivar Exclamado came back from Stanford, after a four year stint for a B.A in economics, the first thing he did was set the record straight for the rest of his familia.
This quote to me shows that someone who was close to them had left and gone to get a better education but while he was away from home for so long he had forgotten some things that to others, who deal with the same things all the time, are common sense. And they were just having a joke about it because to them its common knowledge.
Pg. 157
Wanna B: “how to use the fruit-of-the-loom T-shirt to divert attention from your bad credit.”
Sancho: contestant numero uno?
Contestant #1: Hispa-chute!
In the beginning of the chapter he shows a game show that is mixed between jeopardy and the wheel of fortune. While this is going on they are making fun of the Hispanics every answer to the questions starts with the word Hispa, when also in the game show they hit tacos instead of bells the whole setting of the stage is a cheap Mexican like taco curtains and etc. although he is making fun of Mexicans he is also making other realize that when the make racial slurs that more people realize them then you would think.
Pg. 166
“Of course chickens don’t talk – this is the first piece of common knowledge that had to be discarded. When Antoinne Saldivar Exclamado came back from Stanford, after a four year stint for a B.A in economics, the first thing he did was set the record straight for the rest of his familia.
This quote to me shows that someone who was close to them had left and gone to get a better education but while he was away from home for so long he had forgotten some things that to others, who deal with the same things all the time, are common sense. And they were just having a joke about it because to them its common knowledge.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 142
“How many make it out, brother? Out of the tile hallways, the paste-up rooms, into full meditations, into the upward mobile soul chew ladder of apocalypse or down into the plantation brown girl boy Spanish – speaking tunnel. So you gotta fight like the taxi driver from Poland, five years said you gotta make a little room.”
He had just came back form an elementary school where there were mixed races, Mexican, Italian, Latin Etc. there was going to be a name change but it was over ruled for there were different view from the different parents. He was asking which one of these children are actually going to make it out of that place alive and with their head on straight. Those children in order to get what they need they need to learn how to fight to get what is needed.
Pg. 144
“ I am that paper, I am those words now, the ink burns in every cell. When I look out to the trees, the long winding streets of Tortilla Flats, as they shoot to the hills and cut the electric rails of the Muni buses to the towers and Twin peaks, the fog and into the sky haze, I see your signs, I read your voice, now yes I do. Oyeme, Mamita, Oyeme- not that you are gone into the deep and silent luminous fallen side of the night. Oyeme.
He is more connected to his mother even though she has died he is feeling like she really is there for him and gives him more support. He now knows that she was also a writer and that even though she didn’t like him writing he thinks that could be because she wanted a better life for him than that. Even thought she is gone he can still feel her presence in different places such as the nature around him. He sees her hidden signs and becomes more connected with her.
Pg. 142
“How many make it out, brother? Out of the tile hallways, the paste-up rooms, into full meditations, into the upward mobile soul chew ladder of apocalypse or down into the plantation brown girl boy Spanish – speaking tunnel. So you gotta fight like the taxi driver from Poland, five years said you gotta make a little room.”
He had just came back form an elementary school where there were mixed races, Mexican, Italian, Latin Etc. there was going to be a name change but it was over ruled for there were different view from the different parents. He was asking which one of these children are actually going to make it out of that place alive and with their head on straight. Those children in order to get what they need they need to learn how to fight to get what is needed.
Pg. 144
“ I am that paper, I am those words now, the ink burns in every cell. When I look out to the trees, the long winding streets of Tortilla Flats, as they shoot to the hills and cut the electric rails of the Muni buses to the towers and Twin peaks, the fog and into the sky haze, I see your signs, I read your voice, now yes I do. Oyeme, Mamita, Oyeme- not that you are gone into the deep and silent luminous fallen side of the night. Oyeme.
He is more connected to his mother even though she has died he is feeling like she really is there for him and gives him more support. He now knows that she was also a writer and that even though she didn’t like him writing he thinks that could be because she wanted a better life for him than that. Even thought she is gone he can still feel her presence in different places such as the nature around him. He sees her hidden signs and becomes more connected with her.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 117
“Each one spoke in the narrow circle. Barlow read a poem & it was the first time I ever heard my tia Albina talk about my mother. When it was my turn, next to my mother’s ashes, at the open center believe me, camaradas, I began to cry. This was my beginning.”
His mother had been sick for a while but he had never really acted on it. He just went on with his daily life not paying attention to what could happen. Than when she finally died and the shock hit him like a wave. The sadness was more then he thought more because he didn’t cherish the time they had left and also she was the biggest influence on him and he loved her.
Pg. 119
“At sixteen, at midnight they came knocking. Said my father had died of complications. My mother shuddered. Fell. Something dropped inside of her and grew above us. A tiny flame of sweetness and black. For years, in that wild shadow, she smoked and kissed a stray that crossed our window.
When his father died there was sadness and confusion they didn’t know what had happen. His mother at first was more shocked then sad “my mother shuddered” and the special feeling inside her fell and was lost. The sadness had grown above them like a wave of darkness and sorrow. The sweetness was them noticing the love they had for him and the black was the morn of his loss.
Pg. 117
“Each one spoke in the narrow circle. Barlow read a poem & it was the first time I ever heard my tia Albina talk about my mother. When it was my turn, next to my mother’s ashes, at the open center believe me, camaradas, I began to cry. This was my beginning.”
His mother had been sick for a while but he had never really acted on it. He just went on with his daily life not paying attention to what could happen. Than when she finally died and the shock hit him like a wave. The sadness was more then he thought more because he didn’t cherish the time they had left and also she was the biggest influence on him and he loved her.
Pg. 119
“At sixteen, at midnight they came knocking. Said my father had died of complications. My mother shuddered. Fell. Something dropped inside of her and grew above us. A tiny flame of sweetness and black. For years, in that wild shadow, she smoked and kissed a stray that crossed our window.
When his father died there was sadness and confusion they didn’t know what had happen. His mother at first was more shocked then sad “my mother shuddered” and the special feeling inside her fell and was lost. The sadness had grown above them like a wave of darkness and sorrow. The sweetness was them noticing the love they had for him and the black was the morn of his loss.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 80
“What does he know? Knows nothing about my city of green winds and reddish skirt lust lights over market, reddish as in the fingers and rough elbows of the teen Latinas in search of a diamond, let me say it this way, in search of a kiss from the machine time-keeping unit. I stand-alone in the rubble ground of Tortilla Flats, warehouses of bound bedrooms. Fastened tongue prisons, only worker ants with an anteater noses live here in a tropical blast from inside saves us, at time saves our sexual wasp-shaped torsos from additional counts of suffering and loss and emptiness.”
I choose this quote because it is showing how he feels about being young. How the young girls are looking for some one to sweep them off their feet and take there had in marriage. That when you are young, you are curios wanting to explore all aspects of life and wanting to stay young forever. To stop time and stay in the young innocents of having fun with very little responsibility.
Pg. 89
“What is Mexico? Another fast stop for quasi-Beat U.S middle-class poets to photograph themselves on a literary burro on their way to a Managuan book fair and a backyard hut experience for 800$ so they can come back to their sanded-down desks somewhere overlooking the Bay area and write a feeble twenty-page stroke of masturbations and distortions? Believe it or not, this is what is going on. Look around.”
What he is saying is that when people from the united states, who have everything they want and a lot handed to them, come down to Mexico and try to look for the inner beauty they don’t know where to look because they haven’t had that experience before. When they come to Mexico to get inspirations on what to write about their poems but instead of fully embracing what they are experiencing they go to do what they need to and get out.
Pg. 80
“What does he know? Knows nothing about my city of green winds and reddish skirt lust lights over market, reddish as in the fingers and rough elbows of the teen Latinas in search of a diamond, let me say it this way, in search of a kiss from the machine time-keeping unit. I stand-alone in the rubble ground of Tortilla Flats, warehouses of bound bedrooms. Fastened tongue prisons, only worker ants with an anteater noses live here in a tropical blast from inside saves us, at time saves our sexual wasp-shaped torsos from additional counts of suffering and loss and emptiness.”
I choose this quote because it is showing how he feels about being young. How the young girls are looking for some one to sweep them off their feet and take there had in marriage. That when you are young, you are curios wanting to explore all aspects of life and wanting to stay young forever. To stop time and stay in the young innocents of having fun with very little responsibility.
Pg. 89
“What is Mexico? Another fast stop for quasi-Beat U.S middle-class poets to photograph themselves on a literary burro on their way to a Managuan book fair and a backyard hut experience for 800$ so they can come back to their sanded-down desks somewhere overlooking the Bay area and write a feeble twenty-page stroke of masturbations and distortions? Believe it or not, this is what is going on. Look around.”
What he is saying is that when people from the united states, who have everything they want and a lot handed to them, come down to Mexico and try to look for the inner beauty they don’t know where to look because they haven’t had that experience before. When they come to Mexico to get inspirations on what to write about their poems but instead of fully embracing what they are experiencing they go to do what they need to and get out.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 64
“My head is wet. Everyone is talking about growing the brain of age 1: grow the brain! I suppose the brain is the ultimate sale, product, frontier, capsule, coin, cow, chicken, river, horse, train, rubber, wheel, map, slope, over yonder there is a brain to plow to sell and sew, carry to the market! Who owns the market? That is the old .75 question. Bag it, baby.”
I chose this quote because I found it interesting how he uses brain as if it were a possession or something you can get anywhere, when really its part of you body, you are born with it and there is no way to get rid of it or to gain it. In a sense he could mean that a brain is just a useless brain until a person creates it to be their own by what they learn and how they act. Depending on the person and how they treat themselves the brain forms to many different ways.
Pg. 69
“Who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman’s neck twisted. No, she wanted to know “what writers”! she wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Artaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. There are the shadows –I should have told her.”
I chose this quote because it shows how society has such an influence on us. When he said that his mother was his favorite writer the interviewer almost didn’t know how to respond for she was looking for him to say some great novelist. Society has changes us so that instead of saying what we want to say we say what they want to hear.
Pg. 64
“My head is wet. Everyone is talking about growing the brain of age 1: grow the brain! I suppose the brain is the ultimate sale, product, frontier, capsule, coin, cow, chicken, river, horse, train, rubber, wheel, map, slope, over yonder there is a brain to plow to sell and sew, carry to the market! Who owns the market? That is the old .75 question. Bag it, baby.”
I chose this quote because I found it interesting how he uses brain as if it were a possession or something you can get anywhere, when really its part of you body, you are born with it and there is no way to get rid of it or to gain it. In a sense he could mean that a brain is just a useless brain until a person creates it to be their own by what they learn and how they act. Depending on the person and how they treat themselves the brain forms to many different ways.
Pg. 69
“Who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman’s neck twisted. No, she wanted to know “what writers”! she wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Artaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. There are the shadows –I should have told her.”
I chose this quote because it shows how society has such an influence on us. When he said that his mother was his favorite writer the interviewer almost didn’t know how to respond for she was looking for him to say some great novelist. Society has changes us so that instead of saying what we want to say we say what they want to hear.
Juan Herrera, Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg. 32
“And yet things and moments seem pliable, transformative, we move out into the open mix of coffee houses, homeless tenements, beaten down chartreuse movimiento rooms, past the old Victoria Restaurant, Gomez-Pena’s loft on Cesar Chavez Boulevard with velvet O.J. Simpson paintings on the walls, New Age gargoyle trilingual low riders, swamp art spaces, Kulingtan workshops & Pinay poetics, verse-riffs and performero doo-wop, mercados featuring papaya and jitomate sales, gentrified Victorians cutting through the old Irish, Mexicano, and Latino neighborhoods; things appear new, our poesy missions appear refurbished, then the fog from the Pacific rolls in again, homicide stats pile up on the curb, more death, then light, rain, more rain.”
This quote stood out for the fact that it explains from his prospective what the foreigners had when they came to America. In Mexico they would think of America as a better life a place where they can start over, but in reality when they came it was not like that at all they were the lower class had horrible jobs lived in the dumps, they did not have a good life style at all.
Pg. 50
“A writer must deal with big questions, big deepness, big heart, big fist. Big mind, how do we do it?
This quote brings up a good point, that to be a writer you must go big or don’t go at all. A writer has to compete with many different things; other books, movies, games etc. when writing a book you have to be careful that you don’t write the same thing as someone else and not to write a book that there are to many of. A book needs to grab some ones attention, be different from the rest, be bigger.
Pg. 32
“And yet things and moments seem pliable, transformative, we move out into the open mix of coffee houses, homeless tenements, beaten down chartreuse movimiento rooms, past the old Victoria Restaurant, Gomez-Pena’s loft on Cesar Chavez Boulevard with velvet O.J. Simpson paintings on the walls, New Age gargoyle trilingual low riders, swamp art spaces, Kulingtan workshops & Pinay poetics, verse-riffs and performero doo-wop, mercados featuring papaya and jitomate sales, gentrified Victorians cutting through the old Irish, Mexicano, and Latino neighborhoods; things appear new, our poesy missions appear refurbished, then the fog from the Pacific rolls in again, homicide stats pile up on the curb, more death, then light, rain, more rain.”
This quote stood out for the fact that it explains from his prospective what the foreigners had when they came to America. In Mexico they would think of America as a better life a place where they can start over, but in reality when they came it was not like that at all they were the lower class had horrible jobs lived in the dumps, they did not have a good life style at all.
Pg. 50
“A writer must deal with big questions, big deepness, big heart, big fist. Big mind, how do we do it?
This quote brings up a good point, that to be a writer you must go big or don’t go at all. A writer has to compete with many different things; other books, movies, games etc. when writing a book you have to be careful that you don’t write the same thing as someone else and not to write a book that there are to many of. A book needs to grab some ones attention, be different from the rest, be bigger.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Juan Herrera, Notebook of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Pg.5
“Show Mama my right big toe infected and swollen. Ven aqui, she says. Ok, mom. Just put your foot in this pan of hot water. Hold the toe up, Juan, come on. Ok, now, give me that razor. What razor? Your papi’s brand new Gillette. It’s not brand new, Mama. ‘S ok, the hot water and the salt will burn the germs. You ready, Juan?
This was an interesting and new way to set the scene. This raises many questions to what kind of life style this boy had. Most likely in poverty, also they are Mexican. I choose this quote for I thought it was unique how he started the book off with such little words but yet it shows a lot about what the person and the family was like, with out any description.
Pg. 20
“The Father guitar cuento song eternal
The mother no longer sacrificial, yet holy
The son, now walking, always walking
The house, gone up in tribal ashes, gone
South to emptiness
Gone to the earth sky river melody
No chain
No shame
No name. “
This was said after he was talking about his mother, being pregnant. This short quote shows the life of that family, how the relationships of the mother, father, son and house interrelated. As time progressed the family has grown up too and many things had changed, the son was on his own, the mother was no longer having children, the father found a hobby and the house had burned. The family had moved on to the rest of their lives.
Pg.5
“Show Mama my right big toe infected and swollen. Ven aqui, she says. Ok, mom. Just put your foot in this pan of hot water. Hold the toe up, Juan, come on. Ok, now, give me that razor. What razor? Your papi’s brand new Gillette. It’s not brand new, Mama. ‘S ok, the hot water and the salt will burn the germs. You ready, Juan?
This was an interesting and new way to set the scene. This raises many questions to what kind of life style this boy had. Most likely in poverty, also they are Mexican. I choose this quote for I thought it was unique how he started the book off with such little words but yet it shows a lot about what the person and the family was like, with out any description.
Pg. 20
“The Father guitar cuento song eternal
The mother no longer sacrificial, yet holy
The son, now walking, always walking
The house, gone up in tribal ashes, gone
South to emptiness
Gone to the earth sky river melody
No chain
No shame
No name. “
This was said after he was talking about his mother, being pregnant. This short quote shows the life of that family, how the relationships of the mother, father, son and house interrelated. As time progressed the family has grown up too and many things had changed, the son was on his own, the mother was no longer having children, the father found a hobby and the house had burned. The family had moved on to the rest of their lives.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
My questions:
1. What got you interested in Buddhism? Or how did you start
2. Is and was your religion always Buddhist?
3. What is your daily life like?
4. How much time in a day do you take to meditate?
5. How long have you been a Buddhist mediator?
6. What do other people (friends, family) think of your life style?
7. What is your opinion on the mainstream society? And why
8. Have you ever had doubts on what you do?
9. Who are the people who have had a great influence on you?
10. Do you think what you do is rewarding?
1. What got you interested in Buddhism? Or how did you start
2. Is and was your religion always Buddhist?
3. What is your daily life like?
4. How much time in a day do you take to meditate?
5. How long have you been a Buddhist mediator?
6. What do other people (friends, family) think of your life style?
7. What is your opinion on the mainstream society? And why
8. Have you ever had doubts on what you do?
9. Who are the people who have had a great influence on you?
10. Do you think what you do is rewarding?
Monday, May 7, 2007
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Pg.747
“But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks were crumbling in pieces, and the frost door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don’t own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side”
In her parents stories and dreams they described the house that they wanted to move into as an elegant white house, in a good neighbor hood, with many rooms and bathrooms and room so spare. But when it came down to moving at the last minute they had to settle with the house on Mango Street. The way she described the house with the swollen door and windows that cant breathe shows that the house is small and old a place where she feels trapped. Everything she says about the house makes it seem small and uncomfortable.
Pg. 745
“Once when we were living in Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The Laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE’RE OPEN so as not to loose business.
Where do you live? She asked.
There, I said pointing up to the third floor.
You live there?
There. I had to look where she was pointed the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.”
Since she had lived in this place for a while and if not other places that were similar to this situation, she hasn’t realized what living condition she is in. She’s not poor because she is not living on the street and she is not rich because she can’t afford her own house, but she is somewhere in-between. When the nun points out that where she lives in is a shameful place, not on purpose, but the tone of her voice makes her feel self-conscious. This is when she starts to realize that the house her parent’s talk of is just a dream and might never be reached.
Pg.747
“But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath. Bricks were crumbling in pieces, and the frost door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don’t own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side”
In her parents stories and dreams they described the house that they wanted to move into as an elegant white house, in a good neighbor hood, with many rooms and bathrooms and room so spare. But when it came down to moving at the last minute they had to settle with the house on Mango Street. The way she described the house with the swollen door and windows that cant breathe shows that the house is small and old a place where she feels trapped. Everything she says about the house makes it seem small and uncomfortable.
Pg. 745
“Once when we were living in Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The Laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE’RE OPEN so as not to loose business.
Where do you live? She asked.
There, I said pointing up to the third floor.
You live there?
There. I had to look where she was pointed the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.”
Since she had lived in this place for a while and if not other places that were similar to this situation, she hasn’t realized what living condition she is in. She’s not poor because she is not living on the street and she is not rich because she can’t afford her own house, but she is somewhere in-between. When the nun points out that where she lives in is a shameful place, not on purpose, but the tone of her voice makes her feel self-conscious. This is when she starts to realize that the house her parent’s talk of is just a dream and might never be reached.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 227
“Well I don’t care all I want is to be alone up there this summer. You’re saying that now but you’ll change your tune soon enough. They all talk brave. But then you get to talkin to yourself. That ain’t so bad but don’t start answerin yourself, son.
Ray is talking to Happy the muleskinner about his trip over the summer when he will be alone. Happy is telling him to go, take it all in but stop when necessary. For if Ray needs to stop and leave, not for him to stay out there just to prove he can. Go until you know the time for him is right to sop.
Pg. 235
“In fact I realized that they were upside down and I was upside down! There was nothing here to hide the fact of gravity holding us all intact upside down against a surface globe of earth in infinite empty space. And suddenly I realized I was truly alone and had nothing to do but feed myself and rest and amuse myself, and nobody could criticize. The little flowers grew everywhere around the rocks, and no one had asked them to grow or me to grow.”
Ray is on top of a mountain standing on his head looking at the other mountains realizing that he is entirely alone now, defending for himself. He was in complete serenity and enjoying it, he had come a long journey to get to this point where he was alone in total comfort. The mountains surrounding him were all the peaks that had alarming names, while he was upside down it seemed as he looked at the mountains the looked like “bubbles” they seemed harmless and new because they were in a different perspective.
Pg. 227
“Well I don’t care all I want is to be alone up there this summer. You’re saying that now but you’ll change your tune soon enough. They all talk brave. But then you get to talkin to yourself. That ain’t so bad but don’t start answerin yourself, son.
Ray is talking to Happy the muleskinner about his trip over the summer when he will be alone. Happy is telling him to go, take it all in but stop when necessary. For if Ray needs to stop and leave, not for him to stay out there just to prove he can. Go until you know the time for him is right to sop.
Pg. 235
“In fact I realized that they were upside down and I was upside down! There was nothing here to hide the fact of gravity holding us all intact upside down against a surface globe of earth in infinite empty space. And suddenly I realized I was truly alone and had nothing to do but feed myself and rest and amuse myself, and nobody could criticize. The little flowers grew everywhere around the rocks, and no one had asked them to grow or me to grow.”
Ray is on top of a mountain standing on his head looking at the other mountains realizing that he is entirely alone now, defending for himself. He was in complete serenity and enjoying it, he had come a long journey to get to this point where he was alone in total comfort. The mountains surrounding him were all the peaks that had alarming names, while he was upside down it seemed as he looked at the mountains the looked like “bubbles” they seemed harmless and new because they were in a different perspective.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Annie Dillard, Seeing
Pg. 693
“The world is fairly studded and strewed with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But -and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? ... It is poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigue that he wont stop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, than since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.
When Annie is talking about is how the world has come to stop appreciating the little things in life such as pennies. As generations past money has become less valuable, there were days where saving pennies was a gift because you could buy “penny candy” and if you collected enough it would turn into bigger amounts of money. Now the penny to people is worthless, people now get rid of small change for it is useless to them. Items are more expensive and pennies have no meaning anymore. She is saying that the penny has lost its value to people, but the penny really hasn’t lost its value at all.
Pg. 694
“It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open. Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot?”
Nature has a way of changing, unlike the broad statement of the world nature has ways to manipulate what it looks like to the surrounding areas. When you look at something in nature such as a tree you can either see a tree as it stands or if you look closer you can make out different things, which make it unique. Nature is able to hide some of its interesting beauties like Annie was saying about with the puzzles of making something seem as it is but having another item hidden. Being able to find these items takes concentration and patients to look that long. When finding hidden items you are in the moment and taking everything one-step at a time to take in what is around you and what you are looking at. By putting yourself in the moment it helps to find those unique hidden figures.
Pg. 693
“The world is fairly studded and strewed with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But -and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? ... It is poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigue that he wont stop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, than since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.
When Annie is talking about is how the world has come to stop appreciating the little things in life such as pennies. As generations past money has become less valuable, there were days where saving pennies was a gift because you could buy “penny candy” and if you collected enough it would turn into bigger amounts of money. Now the penny to people is worthless, people now get rid of small change for it is useless to them. Items are more expensive and pennies have no meaning anymore. She is saying that the penny has lost its value to people, but the penny really hasn’t lost its value at all.
Pg. 694
“It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open. Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot?”
Nature has a way of changing, unlike the broad statement of the world nature has ways to manipulate what it looks like to the surrounding areas. When you look at something in nature such as a tree you can either see a tree as it stands or if you look closer you can make out different things, which make it unique. Nature is able to hide some of its interesting beauties like Annie was saying about with the puzzles of making something seem as it is but having another item hidden. Being able to find these items takes concentration and patients to look that long. When finding hidden items you are in the moment and taking everything one-step at a time to take in what is around you and what you are looking at. By putting yourself in the moment it helps to find those unique hidden figures.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 206
“Japhy began to shriek and hoot and whistle and sing, full of pure gladness. Nobody around to hear him. This is the way you’ll be on top of Mount Desolation, this summer, Ray. Ill sing at the top of my voice for the first time in my life.”
Japhy and Ray have just climbed mount Desolation. Once they are at the top Ray notices the peacefulness and the isolation of society. When Japhy is up there he feels free with no worries and is able to act anyway he pleases and feels with no one judging him. Japhy has come to spots like this where he can feel completely free, not that Ray has had some of these experiences with Japhy he will be able to go out on his own and feel total freedom.
Pg. 209
“Try the meditation of the trial, just walk along looking at the trial at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by.”
Ray and Japhy are walking while so Japhy yelled back to Ray this to show him that you can find meditation anywhere around you and with in you. You don’t have to be sitting in a quite place but that even watching the trail’s twists and turns has a way to clear the mind and give you total peace.
Pg. 206
“Japhy began to shriek and hoot and whistle and sing, full of pure gladness. Nobody around to hear him. This is the way you’ll be on top of Mount Desolation, this summer, Ray. Ill sing at the top of my voice for the first time in my life.”
Japhy and Ray have just climbed mount Desolation. Once they are at the top Ray notices the peacefulness and the isolation of society. When Japhy is up there he feels free with no worries and is able to act anyway he pleases and feels with no one judging him. Japhy has come to spots like this where he can feel completely free, not that Ray has had some of these experiences with Japhy he will be able to go out on his own and feel total freedom.
Pg. 209
“Try the meditation of the trial, just walk along looking at the trial at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by.”
Ray and Japhy are walking while so Japhy yelled back to Ray this to show him that you can find meditation anywhere around you and with in you. You don’t have to be sitting in a quite place but that even watching the trail’s twists and turns has a way to clear the mind and give you total peace.
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 206
“Japhy began to shriek and hoot and whistle and sing, full of pure gladness. Nobody around to hear him. This is the way you’ll be on top of Mount Desolation, this summer, Ray. Ill sing at the top of my voice for the first time in my life.”
Japhy and Ray have just climbed mount Desolation. Once they are at the top Ray notices the peacefulness and the isolation of society. When Japhy is up there he feels free with no worries and is able to act anyway he pleases and feels with no one judging him. Japhy has come to spots like this where he can feel completely free, not that Ray has had some of these experiences with Japhy he will be able to go out on his own and feel total freedom.
Pg. 209
“Try the meditation of the trial, just walk along looking at the trial at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by.”
Ray and Japhy are walking while so Japhy yelled back to Ray this to show him that you can find meditation anywhere around you and with in you. You don’t have to be sitting in a quite place but that even watching the trail’s twists and turns has a way to clear the mind and give you total peace.
Pg. 206
“Japhy began to shriek and hoot and whistle and sing, full of pure gladness. Nobody around to hear him. This is the way you’ll be on top of Mount Desolation, this summer, Ray. Ill sing at the top of my voice for the first time in my life.”
Japhy and Ray have just climbed mount Desolation. Once they are at the top Ray notices the peacefulness and the isolation of society. When Japhy is up there he feels free with no worries and is able to act anyway he pleases and feels with no one judging him. Japhy has come to spots like this where he can feel completely free, not that Ray has had some of these experiences with Japhy he will be able to go out on his own and feel total freedom.
Pg. 209
“Try the meditation of the trial, just walk along looking at the trial at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by.”
Ray and Japhy are walking while so Japhy yelled back to Ray this to show him that you can find meditation anywhere around you and with in you. You don’t have to be sitting in a quite place but that even watching the trail’s twists and turns has a way to clear the mind and give you total peace.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Jack Kerouac, “The Dharma Bums”
Pg. 189
“I got the overwhelming urge to get drunk and feel good. I bought a poorboy of ruby port and uncapped it and dragged Japhy into an alley and we drank. “You better not drink too much” he said. “You know we gotta go to Berkeley after this and attend a lecture and discussion at the Buddhist Center.” “Aw I don’t wanta go to such a thing, I just wanta drink in alleys.” “But they’re expecting you, I read all your poems there last year.” “I don’t care. Look at the fog flying over the alley and look at this warm ruby red port, don’t it make ya feel like singing in the wind?” “No it doesn’t. You know, Ray, Cacoethes says you dinks too much.”
Ray still has a drinking problem but unlike before he is now in denial about his addiction. Japhy being a good friend he is trying to look out for Ray, but ray doesn’t accept. Although Ray trusts Japhy with his life drinking makes him feel good and happy and that is an addiction that is much harder to break then by telling him to stop. Ray seems to have it all together but the drinking is a big issue that stems from personal problems in which he turned to drinking and now he is stuck.
Pg. 199
“Boy I am drunk!” I said. “Wake up! Wake up!” I yelled. “The goat of day is butting dawn! No ifs or buts! Bang! Come on, you girls! Gimps! Punks! Thieves! Pimps! Hangmen! Run!” Than I suddenly had the most tremendous feeling of the pitiful ness of human beings, whatever they were their faces, pained mouths, personalities, attempts to be gay, little petulance, feelings of loss, their dull and empty witticism so soon forgotten: Ah, for what? I knew that the sound of silence was everywhere and therefore everything everywhere was silence. Suppose we suddenly wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that aren’t this and that at all?
Ray is at the going away party and he is drunk, once again, while he is drunk and stumbles back into the cabin to have a snack, ray sits down to eat and recognizes that he is drunk again but this time was different he came to figure out there are so many people with the same sadness and uncertainty, but some of them instead of turning to drinking and numbing them selves out they find other outlets to make them feel happy. And that getting drunk to be happy isn’t really being happy at all it’s a false sense of happiness, and maybe one day he’ll wake up and everything that he thought was to be would then be not.
Pg. 189
“I got the overwhelming urge to get drunk and feel good. I bought a poorboy of ruby port and uncapped it and dragged Japhy into an alley and we drank. “You better not drink too much” he said. “You know we gotta go to Berkeley after this and attend a lecture and discussion at the Buddhist Center.” “Aw I don’t wanta go to such a thing, I just wanta drink in alleys.” “But they’re expecting you, I read all your poems there last year.” “I don’t care. Look at the fog flying over the alley and look at this warm ruby red port, don’t it make ya feel like singing in the wind?” “No it doesn’t. You know, Ray, Cacoethes says you dinks too much.”
Ray still has a drinking problem but unlike before he is now in denial about his addiction. Japhy being a good friend he is trying to look out for Ray, but ray doesn’t accept. Although Ray trusts Japhy with his life drinking makes him feel good and happy and that is an addiction that is much harder to break then by telling him to stop. Ray seems to have it all together but the drinking is a big issue that stems from personal problems in which he turned to drinking and now he is stuck.
Pg. 199
“Boy I am drunk!” I said. “Wake up! Wake up!” I yelled. “The goat of day is butting dawn! No ifs or buts! Bang! Come on, you girls! Gimps! Punks! Thieves! Pimps! Hangmen! Run!” Than I suddenly had the most tremendous feeling of the pitiful ness of human beings, whatever they were their faces, pained mouths, personalities, attempts to be gay, little petulance, feelings of loss, their dull and empty witticism so soon forgotten: Ah, for what? I knew that the sound of silence was everywhere and therefore everything everywhere was silence. Suppose we suddenly wake up and see that what we thought to be this and that aren’t this and that at all?
Ray is at the going away party and he is drunk, once again, while he is drunk and stumbles back into the cabin to have a snack, ray sits down to eat and recognizes that he is drunk again but this time was different he came to figure out there are so many people with the same sadness and uncertainty, but some of them instead of turning to drinking and numbing them selves out they find other outlets to make them feel happy. And that getting drunk to be happy isn’t really being happy at all it’s a false sense of happiness, and maybe one day he’ll wake up and everything that he thought was to be would then be not.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Jack Kerouac, “The Dharma Bums”
Pg. 154
“Stay away from that yard son, I thought. I went up a dry arroyo and in the starlight and sand ad rocks were white, I climbed and climbed. Suddenly I was exhilarated to realize I was completely alone and safe and nobody was going to wake me up all night long. What an amazing revelation! And I had everything that I needed right on my back.”
After a long trip from Carolina Ray was exhausted and needed a place to sleep, instead of a hotel he finds a wonderful mountain. When he gets to the to he looks around and the view is beautiful, its all Mexico. Ray has been home for a while and has forgotten the feeling of silence and being alone. When he gets out here he finds himself again and realizes how wonderful it feels to be more connected to his surroundings and be back on the road.
Pg. 154
“All I had for companionship was that moon of Chihuahua sinking lower and lover as I looked, loosing its white light and getting more yellow butter, yet when I turned to sleep it was bright as a lamp in my face and I had to turn my face away to sleep. In keeping with my naming of the spots with personal names I called this spot Apache Gulch, I slept well indeed.”
I fell like before his experiences he would have never noticed something like this before or appreciated it as much as he does in this passage. Ray gets both sides of the coin he knows what its like to live in regular society, when he goes home he see what it could be like for him is he didn’t choose this life of solitude and Buddhism. By getting both side of the coin helps him appreciate what he enjoys more so then if he was living one path not knowing the other side and becoming curious about it.
Pg. 154
“Stay away from that yard son, I thought. I went up a dry arroyo and in the starlight and sand ad rocks were white, I climbed and climbed. Suddenly I was exhilarated to realize I was completely alone and safe and nobody was going to wake me up all night long. What an amazing revelation! And I had everything that I needed right on my back.”
After a long trip from Carolina Ray was exhausted and needed a place to sleep, instead of a hotel he finds a wonderful mountain. When he gets to the to he looks around and the view is beautiful, its all Mexico. Ray has been home for a while and has forgotten the feeling of silence and being alone. When he gets out here he finds himself again and realizes how wonderful it feels to be more connected to his surroundings and be back on the road.
Pg. 154
“All I had for companionship was that moon of Chihuahua sinking lower and lover as I looked, loosing its white light and getting more yellow butter, yet when I turned to sleep it was bright as a lamp in my face and I had to turn my face away to sleep. In keeping with my naming of the spots with personal names I called this spot Apache Gulch, I slept well indeed.”
I fell like before his experiences he would have never noticed something like this before or appreciated it as much as he does in this passage. Ray gets both sides of the coin he knows what its like to live in regular society, when he goes home he see what it could be like for him is he didn’t choose this life of solitude and Buddhism. By getting both side of the coin helps him appreciate what he enjoys more so then if he was living one path not knowing the other side and becoming curious about it.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Jack Kerouac, “The Dharma Bums”
Pg. 129
“And you know I say funny but there’s just sumpthin so darn sensible about ‘em. Here I am killing myself drivin this rig back and forth from Ohio to L.A and I make more money then you ever had in your whole life as a hobo, but you’re the one who enjoys life and not only that but you do it without workin or a while lot of money. Now who’s smart you or me?”
Ray’s new friend, Beaudry, the truck driver is a great kind man. As he was on his way to Ohio he was going to drop Ray off in Tucson, where Ray cooked him a steak and they sat and chatted. Beaudry decided to take Ray all the way back to Ohio because he was so interested about Ray’s life style, he practically was a hobo but yet he seemed to be one of the happiest person he has met. There was Beaudry who had a house, wife, and children, made a good amount of money but he wasn’t happy because he had no freedom. There he was with this great family and house but he wasn’t able to see them because he was spending so much time working.
Pg. 132
“And I thought of Japhy as I stood there in the cold yard looking at her: Why is he so mad about white tiled sinks and “kitchen machinery” he calls it. People have good hearts whether or not they live like Dharma Bums. Compassion is the heart of Buddhism.”
Ray is on his way home from his long travels; he stops in his yard and takes a hard look at his surroundings. He notices his mother working in the kitchen with a worry looked upon her face wondering where her son was and why he had to hitchhike. Ray is excited to be coming home for Christmas, but doesn’t understand why Japhy doesn’t like the “kitchen machinery” or the facade of the house life Ray realizes that you don’t have to practice meditation or be a Dharma Bums to be a compassionate person who has a great heart, but that only matters on the type of person you are.
Pg. 129
“And you know I say funny but there’s just sumpthin so darn sensible about ‘em. Here I am killing myself drivin this rig back and forth from Ohio to L.A and I make more money then you ever had in your whole life as a hobo, but you’re the one who enjoys life and not only that but you do it without workin or a while lot of money. Now who’s smart you or me?”
Ray’s new friend, Beaudry, the truck driver is a great kind man. As he was on his way to Ohio he was going to drop Ray off in Tucson, where Ray cooked him a steak and they sat and chatted. Beaudry decided to take Ray all the way back to Ohio because he was so interested about Ray’s life style, he practically was a hobo but yet he seemed to be one of the happiest person he has met. There was Beaudry who had a house, wife, and children, made a good amount of money but he wasn’t happy because he had no freedom. There he was with this great family and house but he wasn’t able to see them because he was spending so much time working.
Pg. 132
“And I thought of Japhy as I stood there in the cold yard looking at her: Why is he so mad about white tiled sinks and “kitchen machinery” he calls it. People have good hearts whether or not they live like Dharma Bums. Compassion is the heart of Buddhism.”
Ray is on his way home from his long travels; he stops in his yard and takes a hard look at his surroundings. He notices his mother working in the kitchen with a worry looked upon her face wondering where her son was and why he had to hitchhike. Ray is excited to be coming home for Christmas, but doesn’t understand why Japhy doesn’t like the “kitchen machinery” or the facade of the house life Ray realizes that you don’t have to practice meditation or be a Dharma Bums to be a compassionate person who has a great heart, but that only matters on the type of person you are.
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 94
“I put my arm around her waist but way around with my fingers digging into her belly and she said, “Oooh, I can’t stand that!” and almost fell down on the sidewalk and but my shirt just as an old lady was coming our way ogling us angrily and after she passed us we clinched in a big mad passionate kiss under the trees of the evening.”
Ray’s feelings towards Princess have changed. Earlier on he was more satisfied that there were no attachments between them and they were able to have sex, but still have to feelings. Now he is in puppy love and so is she, they have been doing less then sex but the feelings toward each other are more satisfying then before. They feel more connected have they both have true passion for one another.
Pg.97
“Cheer up slaves, and horrify foreign despots, he means that’s the attitude for the Bard, the Zen Lunacy bard of the old desert paths, see the whole thing is a world fill of rucksack wanderers, Dharma bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage can.”
Japhy is reading Walt Whitman and comes across the quote “Cheer up slaves, and horrify foreign despots” from this Japhy realizes that those who are not on their own path have to work hard to achieve things that are unnecessary and are to be thrown away sooner or later to make way for the next big thing or upgrade. But people like them, or the Bard they notice this cycles and are aware enough to make their own paths and achieve the things that are most important in like such as moral success and any great accomplishment.
Pg. 94
“I put my arm around her waist but way around with my fingers digging into her belly and she said, “Oooh, I can’t stand that!” and almost fell down on the sidewalk and but my shirt just as an old lady was coming our way ogling us angrily and after she passed us we clinched in a big mad passionate kiss under the trees of the evening.”
Ray’s feelings towards Princess have changed. Earlier on he was more satisfied that there were no attachments between them and they were able to have sex, but still have to feelings. Now he is in puppy love and so is she, they have been doing less then sex but the feelings toward each other are more satisfying then before. They feel more connected have they both have true passion for one another.
Pg.97
“Cheer up slaves, and horrify foreign despots, he means that’s the attitude for the Bard, the Zen Lunacy bard of the old desert paths, see the whole thing is a world fill of rucksack wanderers, Dharma bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage can.”
Japhy is reading Walt Whitman and comes across the quote “Cheer up slaves, and horrify foreign despots” from this Japhy realizes that those who are not on their own path have to work hard to achieve things that are unnecessary and are to be thrown away sooner or later to make way for the next big thing or upgrade. But people like them, or the Bard they notice this cycles and are aware enough to make their own paths and achieve the things that are most important in like such as moral success and any great accomplishment.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 73
“Up out of the orange glow of our fire you cold see immense systems of uncountable stars, either as individual blazers, or in low Venus droppers, or vast Milky Ways incommensurate with human understanding, all cold, blue, silver, but our food and our fire was pink with goodies. And true to what Japhy had predicted, I had absolutely not a jot of appetite for alcohol, I’d forgotten all about it, the altitude was too high, the exercise too heavy, the air too brisk, the air itself was enough to get your drunk ass drunk.”
Ray has filled the void. Finally Ray doesn’t feel the need to drink, but instead he is doing something that he enjoys which not only fills the void but it also positive and healthy.
Pg. 83
“ I nudged myself closer into the ledge and closed my eyes and thought, “Oh what a life this is, why do we have to be born in the first place, and only so we can have our poor gentle flesh laid out to such impossible horrors as huge mountains and rock and empty space.” And with horror I remembered the famous Zen saying, “When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing.”
Ray is climbing the higher mountain with Japhy, as Ray gets closer to the top the path becomes smaller and steeper. He then decides to stop and just let Japhy continue. Ray stops at a spot where there was a place to sit a little further back from the edge, as he is sitting in the crack of the mountain wall he thinks about his accomplishment for the day. Ray knows that throughout life you are meant to have challenges that are going to be hard and some you might not think you will make it, but those challenges are what shape your character and give you strength for later. In life even though the obstacles are hard you need to push through them and even when you reach your highest point and feel secure where you are at if you push further the next accomplishment will feel even better then the one before.
Pg. 73
“Up out of the orange glow of our fire you cold see immense systems of uncountable stars, either as individual blazers, or in low Venus droppers, or vast Milky Ways incommensurate with human understanding, all cold, blue, silver, but our food and our fire was pink with goodies. And true to what Japhy had predicted, I had absolutely not a jot of appetite for alcohol, I’d forgotten all about it, the altitude was too high, the exercise too heavy, the air too brisk, the air itself was enough to get your drunk ass drunk.”
Ray has filled the void. Finally Ray doesn’t feel the need to drink, but instead he is doing something that he enjoys which not only fills the void but it also positive and healthy.
Pg. 83
“ I nudged myself closer into the ledge and closed my eyes and thought, “Oh what a life this is, why do we have to be born in the first place, and only so we can have our poor gentle flesh laid out to such impossible horrors as huge mountains and rock and empty space.” And with horror I remembered the famous Zen saying, “When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing.”
Ray is climbing the higher mountain with Japhy, as Ray gets closer to the top the path becomes smaller and steeper. He then decides to stop and just let Japhy continue. Ray stops at a spot where there was a place to sit a little further back from the edge, as he is sitting in the crack of the mountain wall he thinks about his accomplishment for the day. Ray knows that throughout life you are meant to have challenges that are going to be hard and some you might not think you will make it, but those challenges are what shape your character and give you strength for later. In life even though the obstacles are hard you need to push through them and even when you reach your highest point and feel secure where you are at if you push further the next accomplishment will feel even better then the one before.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 54
“Grass grows out between crowded rocks and boulders; distant sweeps of scree can he seen making gashes down the sides of the morning, his eyes shine with joy, he’s on his way.”
Japhy as soon as he sees the mountains his expression is as if he is a little child coming home form a long trip. Japhy feels at home when he’s near the mountains he is the most comfortable. Japhy uses the mountain as an out let from civilization, a place where he had no pressure to do anything but what he pleases. Also while his out there on the mountain he has no need to create voids and drink but to be there in the moment with himself. Ray sees this is tells Japhy that he is grateful that they met because now Japhy can teach Ray to be more inspired by life.
Pg. 62
“This is the way I like it, when you get going there’s just no need to talk, as if we were animals and just communicated by silent telepathy. So huddled in our own thoughts we tromped on, Japhy using that step, which was short steps slowly patiently going up the mountain at one mile an hour, so I was always thirty yards behind him and when we had any haikus now we’d yell then fore and aft.”
Japhy and Ray were hiking the mountain to find a campsite before it got dark. While they were hiking Morley forgot something and walked back down the trail to fix the car so it didn’t freeze, this gave Ray and Japhy to get to know each other better. Ray was thrilled to learn more about Japhy and how he works. They were both making haikus while they were hiking but soon they stopped talking but not for awkward reasons but they were really taking in the scenery and living in the moment. They both realized how beautiful this mountain was and appreciated it more. This moment of silence was their time to be able to connect with what was around them and go to their own pace.
Pg. 54
“Grass grows out between crowded rocks and boulders; distant sweeps of scree can he seen making gashes down the sides of the morning, his eyes shine with joy, he’s on his way.”
Japhy as soon as he sees the mountains his expression is as if he is a little child coming home form a long trip. Japhy feels at home when he’s near the mountains he is the most comfortable. Japhy uses the mountain as an out let from civilization, a place where he had no pressure to do anything but what he pleases. Also while his out there on the mountain he has no need to create voids and drink but to be there in the moment with himself. Ray sees this is tells Japhy that he is grateful that they met because now Japhy can teach Ray to be more inspired by life.
Pg. 62
“This is the way I like it, when you get going there’s just no need to talk, as if we were animals and just communicated by silent telepathy. So huddled in our own thoughts we tromped on, Japhy using that step, which was short steps slowly patiently going up the mountain at one mile an hour, so I was always thirty yards behind him and when we had any haikus now we’d yell then fore and aft.”
Japhy and Ray were hiking the mountain to find a campsite before it got dark. While they were hiking Morley forgot something and walked back down the trail to fix the car so it didn’t freeze, this gave Ray and Japhy to get to know each other better. Ray was thrilled to learn more about Japhy and how he works. They were both making haikus while they were hiking but soon they stopped talking but not for awkward reasons but they were really taking in the scenery and living in the moment. They both realized how beautiful this mountain was and appreciated it more. This moment of silence was their time to be able to connect with what was around them and go to their own pace.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Pg. 5
“He ate the cheese and bread and drank the wine with gusto and gratitude. I was pleased. I reminded myself of the line in the Diamond Sutra that says, “Practice charity without holding in mind any conceptions about charity, for charity after all is just a word.”
While Ray Smith was traveling on a train to Santa Barbara he met this bum in the box. When they stopped Ray went and got some food when he came back he noticed that not only did the bum look cold but he also looked hungry out of compassion Ray offered to share his food and drink. By helping this person in need it was like charity but instead of doing it for the feeling of he helped someone out for later satisfaction towards God, Ray did it out of the goodness of his heart, no where in his mind was he thinking of what satisfaction it would bring to him later but that the bum was in need and he had the supplies to help him out. From the beginning of the book there is already characteristics about Ray that are pleasant and friendly.
Pg. 24
“Nobody knows, some monk, or monks, long ago. But there is a definite mysterious form in the arrangement of the rocks. It’s only through form that we can realize emptiness.”
When Ray went to visit Japhy, he found him trying to translate Han Shan’s poem called Cold Mountain, which was written one thousand years ago while they were there Ray saw arrangements of rocks that were in shapes of stories or poems. From the form of which the rocks were aligned you can figure out a story that is personal to the one who made it.
Pg. 5
“He ate the cheese and bread and drank the wine with gusto and gratitude. I was pleased. I reminded myself of the line in the Diamond Sutra that says, “Practice charity without holding in mind any conceptions about charity, for charity after all is just a word.”
While Ray Smith was traveling on a train to Santa Barbara he met this bum in the box. When they stopped Ray went and got some food when he came back he noticed that not only did the bum look cold but he also looked hungry out of compassion Ray offered to share his food and drink. By helping this person in need it was like charity but instead of doing it for the feeling of he helped someone out for later satisfaction towards God, Ray did it out of the goodness of his heart, no where in his mind was he thinking of what satisfaction it would bring to him later but that the bum was in need and he had the supplies to help him out. From the beginning of the book there is already characteristics about Ray that are pleasant and friendly.
Pg. 24
“Nobody knows, some monk, or monks, long ago. But there is a definite mysterious form in the arrangement of the rocks. It’s only through form that we can realize emptiness.”
When Ray went to visit Japhy, he found him trying to translate Han Shan’s poem called Cold Mountain, which was written one thousand years ago while they were there Ray saw arrangements of rocks that were in shapes of stories or poems. From the form of which the rocks were aligned you can figure out a story that is personal to the one who made it.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Raymond Carver, Are These Actual Miles?
Pg. 585
“He goes for another drink. He adds ice and sees that his hand trembles. He holds the hand over the sink. He looks at the hand for a while sets down the glass and holds out the other hand. Then he picks up the glass and goes back outside to sit on the steps.”
Leo is not getting his first drink of the day in this quote he is probably on around his third and it is late afternoon. Leo instead of doing some thing productive he chooses to drink and wait for Toni to make money from selling a car. Leo while getting a drink notices that his hand is shaking it is from either too much to drink or he is nervous and stressed about his kids being gone. What ever the problem is he still chooses to continually drink to hide his problems and not have to address them.
Pg. 588
“Near dawn he hears footsteps on the porch. He gets up from the couch. The sat hums, the screen glows. He opens the door. She bumps the wall coming in. she grins. Her face is puffy, as though she’s been sleeping under sedation. She works her lips, ducks heavily and sways as he cocks his fist.”
Late that night, after Toni had been out to dinner with the guy who was buying the car, she arrived at home very drunk and tired. Leo did not have a warm welcome for her. As she came in the door he goes to hit her, but some how even though she is very drunk she manages to get out of the way. Toni and Leo’s relationship has seemed to have gone downhill from what the story tells they have kids and more then one so, they must of had some love for each other in the past, but as of lately they have not been too friendly to each other.
Pg. 585
“He goes for another drink. He adds ice and sees that his hand trembles. He holds the hand over the sink. He looks at the hand for a while sets down the glass and holds out the other hand. Then he picks up the glass and goes back outside to sit on the steps.”
Leo is not getting his first drink of the day in this quote he is probably on around his third and it is late afternoon. Leo instead of doing some thing productive he chooses to drink and wait for Toni to make money from selling a car. Leo while getting a drink notices that his hand is shaking it is from either too much to drink or he is nervous and stressed about his kids being gone. What ever the problem is he still chooses to continually drink to hide his problems and not have to address them.
Pg. 588
“Near dawn he hears footsteps on the porch. He gets up from the couch. The sat hums, the screen glows. He opens the door. She bumps the wall coming in. she grins. Her face is puffy, as though she’s been sleeping under sedation. She works her lips, ducks heavily and sways as he cocks his fist.”
Late that night, after Toni had been out to dinner with the guy who was buying the car, she arrived at home very drunk and tired. Leo did not have a warm welcome for her. As she came in the door he goes to hit her, but some how even though she is very drunk she manages to get out of the way. Toni and Leo’s relationship has seemed to have gone downhill from what the story tells they have kids and more then one so, they must of had some love for each other in the past, but as of lately they have not been too friendly to each other.
Friday, March 30, 2007
John Updike, The Persistence of Desire:
Pg. 563
“Clyde wondered if with that sarcasm she intended to fetch his eyes to the brink of tears of grief. Probably not; premeditation had never been much of a weapon for her, though she had tried to learn it from him.”
Clyde seems to be a man who is still stuck on his old love Janet who is over him. Even though he is not over her, she has moved on to having a husband and thinking about kids. Although Clyde doesn’t fully realize that he is still in love with her until he is at the doctors office he sees her walking down the street and his emotions become stirred, Clyde had not had this feeling since they used to be together back in the day. Having this mixed feeling made him realize that his relationship with her was exciting and something he should cherish. This quote make me wonder if deep down she wants him too because she is being catchy and wants him to feel as though he is missing out now that they split.
Pg. 570
“This glimpse, through the skin of the paper, of her pain self quickened and sweetened his desire more the touching her had. He tucked the note back into his shirt pocket and its stiffness there made a shield for his heart. In this armor he stepped into the familiar street.”
His love for her was strong she loved him more then his family seemed to. Knowing that what he had with her was so special it makes him want what he cant have which was her. This stirs his emotions and makes him want her even more than she knows.
Pg. 563
“Clyde wondered if with that sarcasm she intended to fetch his eyes to the brink of tears of grief. Probably not; premeditation had never been much of a weapon for her, though she had tried to learn it from him.”
Clyde seems to be a man who is still stuck on his old love Janet who is over him. Even though he is not over her, she has moved on to having a husband and thinking about kids. Although Clyde doesn’t fully realize that he is still in love with her until he is at the doctors office he sees her walking down the street and his emotions become stirred, Clyde had not had this feeling since they used to be together back in the day. Having this mixed feeling made him realize that his relationship with her was exciting and something he should cherish. This quote make me wonder if deep down she wants him too because she is being catchy and wants him to feel as though he is missing out now that they split.
Pg. 570
“This glimpse, through the skin of the paper, of her pain self quickened and sweetened his desire more the touching her had. He tucked the note back into his shirt pocket and its stiffness there made a shield for his heart. In this armor he stepped into the familiar street.”
His love for her was strong she loved him more then his family seemed to. Knowing that what he had with her was so special it makes him want what he cant have which was her. This stirs his emotions and makes him want her even more than she knows.
John Cheever, The Swimmer:
Pg. 1490
“He was a slender man – he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth –and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room.”
Neddy Merrill seems to be stuck in childish ways; he acts as if he is much younger and immature then he is. Neddy is influenced by the residents at the pool and became more into alcohol then living in the moment. In the beginning of his journey he was more of a man who was excited and was able to acknowledge his feelings, instead as time passed he then his emotions with alcohol.
Pg. 1496
“Looking over head he saw that the stars had come out, but why should he seem to see Andromeda, Cepheus and Cassiopeia? What had become of the constellations of midsummer? He began to cry. It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life he had felt so miserable, cold, tired and bewildered.”
Neddy has been so stuck on the dependence of alcohol that he has pushed his feelings aside so that he had lost himself and hasn’t been able to cry or let out his emotions. Over the process of this story Neddy slowly realizes that time is going to pass anyway and there is no control. He eventually comes to his emotions and is able to cry when he noticed that time had passed unnoticed while he was drinking. Neddy wasn’t able to live in the moment, but now those moments are gone he know that he has to accept and move on in a better direction.
Pg. 1490
“He was a slender man – he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth –and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room.”
Neddy Merrill seems to be stuck in childish ways; he acts as if he is much younger and immature then he is. Neddy is influenced by the residents at the pool and became more into alcohol then living in the moment. In the beginning of his journey he was more of a man who was excited and was able to acknowledge his feelings, instead as time passed he then his emotions with alcohol.
Pg. 1496
“Looking over head he saw that the stars had come out, but why should he seem to see Andromeda, Cepheus and Cassiopeia? What had become of the constellations of midsummer? He began to cry. It was probably the first time in his adult life that he had ever cried, certainly the first time in his life he had felt so miserable, cold, tired and bewildered.”
Neddy has been so stuck on the dependence of alcohol that he has pushed his feelings aside so that he had lost himself and hasn’t been able to cry or let out his emotions. Over the process of this story Neddy slowly realizes that time is going to pass anyway and there is no control. He eventually comes to his emotions and is able to cry when he noticed that time had passed unnoticed while he was drinking. Neddy wasn’t able to live in the moment, but now those moments are gone he know that he has to accept and move on in a better direction.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Death of Justina:
" I won't go to the common place symptoms of withdrawal, but I would like to point out that standing at my window in the evening watching the brilliant after light and the spread of darkness, I felt, though the lack of these humble stimulants, the force of some primitive memory in which the coming of night with its stars and its moon was apocalyptic."
This quote shows how he wonders what death is like instead of most people who have no curiosity or wonder of what happens after for fear of some thing undesirable they go into denial and choose not to think about it. He instead embraces his wonder and compares what will happen when the world ends to the night sky, which is also full of wonder and unanswered questions.
"When I abstain from sin it is more often a fear of scandal then a private resolve to improve on the purity of my heart."
This quote shows he is telling it like it is, he is not going to act as though the reason he doesn't do something wrong because he wants to be a better person, but he is afraid of what the consequences could be. he also shows a real person instead of putting on a act of someone who wants to be deep into making them self into a better person he knows what his real opinion to making a sin is and he embraces what he feels.
"I am obliged to contain myself in the role of a man who can do no good in spite of the piles of congratulatory mail that my eloquence sometimes brings in."
This quote shows how he gets no credit for what he does. If his work is wrong the blame goes to him, but if the work he does is great then the credit goes to someone else. no matter what he does he gets no applaud, just criticism. He is forced to fake his ease with the situation, there is no room for complaints. For the people he works with he is forced to put on a face and act like everything is ok, when deep down he knows that he is getting the shaft.
" I won't go to the common place symptoms of withdrawal, but I would like to point out that standing at my window in the evening watching the brilliant after light and the spread of darkness, I felt, though the lack of these humble stimulants, the force of some primitive memory in which the coming of night with its stars and its moon was apocalyptic."
This quote shows how he wonders what death is like instead of most people who have no curiosity or wonder of what happens after for fear of some thing undesirable they go into denial and choose not to think about it. He instead embraces his wonder and compares what will happen when the world ends to the night sky, which is also full of wonder and unanswered questions.
"When I abstain from sin it is more often a fear of scandal then a private resolve to improve on the purity of my heart."
This quote shows he is telling it like it is, he is not going to act as though the reason he doesn't do something wrong because he wants to be a better person, but he is afraid of what the consequences could be. he also shows a real person instead of putting on a act of someone who wants to be deep into making them self into a better person he knows what his real opinion to making a sin is and he embraces what he feels.
"I am obliged to contain myself in the role of a man who can do no good in spite of the piles of congratulatory mail that my eloquence sometimes brings in."
This quote shows how he gets no credit for what he does. If his work is wrong the blame goes to him, but if the work he does is great then the credit goes to someone else. no matter what he does he gets no applaud, just criticism. He is forced to fake his ease with the situation, there is no room for complaints. For the people he works with he is forced to put on a face and act like everything is ok, when deep down he knows that he is getting the shaft.
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