Reasons People Believe in Gods: Blood Mountain
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Author Archives: jdornan
My writing as music video
What I want my writing to be like.
That is, I want it to be immediately dark and powerful but also somehow sweet and you don’t quite know what’s happening but you want to know more.
What I think my writing is actually like.
That is, really slow building, interesting but also maybe a little treacly sweet at first and you basically have to get all the way to the end to find out how totally messed up it is. Though to be honest, I don’t think my writing is as luminous and beautiful as this video cause that might be ok then.
Stuff Worth Watching: The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover
Until a conversation last night, I had almost totally forgotten about this lush, amazing 1989 film starring Helen Mirren. It is one of the most beautiful set/costume designs I’ve ever seen. Plus there are a few haunting songs like wash me. It is very dark, fairly upsetting, sexy, luminous, and most definitely NSFW.
Truth, yo
Stuff Worth Reading: The Master and Margarita
Short Version: With a host of unforgettable characters (including Behemoth, a hard-drinking devilish black cat), this book is raucous, disconcerting, hysterical, genuinely moving, and creepy – sometimes all at once. It reminds me of the wave of noirish, urban fantasy coming out lately, a gritty and dark wild ride but also exploring some intense and beautiful topics.
I first read this book in my Russian Lit class back at New College (thank you Dr. Schatz) and it blew my mind then. I’ve read it a few times since and I have a new revelation every time. Set in 1930ish Moscow (with interludes in Jerusalem), Master and Margarita is really about the sensual world of magic, the search for truth, and intellectual courage.
Sadly I lent my copy to someone years ago (was that you? then send it back you book stealer!) but I’m looking forward to reading it again eventually.
In which I declare my love of Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Happy B’ak’tun 13!
Happy 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in! We’ve got a clean slate to create the new world however we would like – lets make it full of peace and joy.
Rather than making fun of those who thought this was the end of days, I will just recommend a fantastic book on the incredibly nuanced and complex ancient (and in some cases, modern) Maya conceptualization of time as something sacred. If you really want to understand the Maya calendar and the ways in which the ancient Maya viewed the passage of time across the cosmos, there is no better book than Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya by Miguel León-Portilla.
Reasons People Believe in Gods: Volcano Lightning
Reason # 746 that people believe there are supernatural forces at work.
Stuff Worth Reading: The Elephant Vanishes
The first in a series of books and/or things I think are really, really cool/good/strange/scary/funny etc.
Short Version: If you are looking for some bite sized magical realism, there is no better collection out there!
The Elephant Vanishes is a short story collection by Japanese surrealist author Haruki Murakami. These stories provide glimpses of the impossible, magical realism at its finest, the hidden glimmer of beauty and loss in the mundane. When I first read this back in ’93 (I think?) it was a revelation to me, the culturally Japanese world coupled with the style I previously associated only with writers from the Americas.
My firstest blog post ever
It is official, this is my first blog post. I’m starting this blog mostly to talk about reading and writing. But I will also probably talk about politics, dogs, video games, feminism, anthropology, my son, and anything else that strikes my fancy.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be learning how to drive wordpress and figuring out how to do this whole blog thing.
Let the games begin!