Not Offloading much (day 19)

 

Having worked the entire of July without a break I finally got the day off on Friday ... and spent it cleaning the house. I got up early, cleaned Tomoya's room (very thoroughly, even dusted the bookshelves) then hoovered my office and down the landing, bumped the tall mirror that stands against the wall and shattered it into huge lethal pointy bits and equally dangerous tiny shards. After cleaning it up very thoroughly I moved on to clean the bathroom, then hoover my room, down the stairs, the hallway, living room and kitchen. I cleaned my lovely new front door and hoovered the porch (considering repainting the blue as not sure it goes well with the red).

Then I unblocked all the drains, including removing the kitchen U-bend, ran the hot water cleaning cycle on the washing machine and cleaned the filter. I put the hall rug to soak in the bath and washed the sofa cushion covers. Finally I cleaned out the worms and gave them new 'bedding'. In between I chatted to both Monkey and my sister, handed my telly off to Curry's to fix the DVD player, went to the library and the garden centre for a washing liquid refill, then to Dunk's for afternoon cuppa. So I was pretty smug and satisfied with the result by the end of the day and am free to ignore all domestic chores for a month.

Tish came across 'The Living Sea of Waking Dreams' by Richard Flanagan (Booker prize winner, but not this novel) and recommended it to me, which is nice because it's not something she's done before, we have quite different reading tastes. More weird shit. But in a different way. I ached for Anna's mother through the whole book, and had quite a chat with Monkey about the whole 'assisted dying' thing, which is linked in with this whole notion of keeping someone alive by force rather than allowing death to come naturally, (though not the same thing of course). Anna's mother Francie has multiple health problems and one son, Tommy, (with different kinds of problems) who lives nearby and cares for her. Her other son Terzo and her daughter Anna live further afield and prefer to just throw money at 'the problem'. When the doctor tentatively suggests that keeping her 'comfortable' is the best way to go Terzo goes apeshit and uses all his money and influence to get them to keep his mother hanging on by a thread, suffering. I hated him. Anna seems to then drift in to this dreamlike existence of sitting with her dying mother, almost as an excuse to escape her stressful life. And then the weird shit starts, and bits of her body start disappearing. And people don't seem to notice. I thought at first it was her imagination, but the body parts seem to be really gone. Then other people start losing body parts, including her son, who eventually becomes just a few fingers that continue to play video games in his darkened bedroom (see what I mean ... weird shit). 

And ... then there's the social media addiction and the horror of the destruction of the natural world, wildfires and ... and ...

The chat with Monkey also veered into the value of human life. How all human life is equal, but not. Valuable but also cheap and disposable. People are dying all the time. Huge amounts of money might be spent to save one person, like a child fallen into a well, or millionaires in a submarine that might or might not have exploded, but people drowning in the Channel or dying of starvation in Gaza are somehow not saveable. This book raised all those questions as the reader watches this rich man demand that his mother is kept alive at all costs. 

One of several quotes that often read more like someone's brain racing through thoughts, loved the word, Solastalgia:

"She googled vanishings. Nothing. She posted a penguin meme she couldn't hold her thoughts she couldn't read she clicked through smoke sending people crazy it triggers anxiety a professor said it's like war the enemy is attacking the city we don't know where the enemy is. The planet's life support system may collapse flat earth believers now number millions new words for a new age, reads a meme. Pyro-cumuloniumbus giant fire-generating clouds sixteen kilometres high creating more fire through lightening, ember attacks, wind, fire tornadoes. Omnicide. Solastalgia emotion induced by the loss of everything. What is the image for nothing? Where is a language she thought she didn't she tried Insta again it loaded. So much joy! Instagram, blessed Novocaine of the soul! Foodholidayssmilinggroupsshopping. She had to get off. She knew it. She had to get off." (p.103)

A very 21st century book, all the world's modern day problems encapsulated here. Sometimes I find the stories of tiny, tiny wins against the massive destruction more depressing than uplifting. But like the anti nuclear movement previously said, Protest and Survive.

Stay safe. Be kind. Don't be a fascist.

Hiroshima Day

 

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In excess of 200,000 people were killed, in the immediate blasts, in the aftermath and of longer term radiation sickness and cancers. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remember, and so should the rest of the world.

Stay safe. Be kind. Never again.

Books

So 'The Coin' by Yasmin Zaher is due back at the library, and I am really struggling to get anything done so this is a whizz through a few books from July. This was some weird shit. Another Palestinian character (after Enter Ghost a couple of months ago), but living in New York and obsessed with cleanliness and designer labels. Note to self : try writing a note to yourself about when and why you request a book from the library; I have no idea why I ordered this. I reiterate, it was weird shit. Loved the flip book on the edges of the pages though, of a coin spinning: I tried to make a film of it but couldn't get the pages to run smoothly. 

'Your Neighbour's Table' by Gu Byeong-mo was the book club book for July. Interesting discussion was had as usual but I did not like this book. Originally in Korean, it is a strange tale of 'communal living', arranged by the government in subsidised accommodation to 'encourage' young couples to have more children. It didn't really tackle the issue of why people are not having children, nor what countries might do about low birth rates; maybe treat women with more respect springs to mind. A bunch of useless husbands and stressed wives share a block of flats and struggle to get to know each other, let alone like each other. 

'Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil' by Oliver Darkshire (who has no website) was bought for my granddaughter Aisla. A brilliant disturbing plot with magic and goblins (who appear to be a fungal based lifeform) and layabout husbands (I see a theme developing) and a pot of basil. Isabella is a heroine for our times indeed. Aspects of the humour are very Terry Pratchett but in no way a steal of his style. Particularly liked the footnotes. Totally loved it ... and hope she does too.

'Case Histories' by Kate Atkinson is my second foray into Jackson Brodie. I was rather snooty about him last time, back to 2009 but I loved this one. Engaging characters, convoluted plot that all pulled together believably. 

Little quote here:

"Julia embarked own a second cup of tea. It was too hot for tea; Jackson longed for an ice-cold beer. Julia's white teacup bore the imprint of her mouth in lipstick and Jackson experienced a sudden memory of his sister. she had worn a less strident colour, a pastel pink, and on every cup and glass she ever drank from she left behind the ghostly transfer of her lips. The thought of Niamh made his heart feel heavy in his chest, literally, not metaphorically." (p.157)

But the moment that caught my eye was this one, after a particularly grisly murder:

"If she could have one wish - if her fairy godmother (noticeably absent from her life so far) were to suddenly appear in the cold living room of the cottage and offer to grant her whatever she wanted - Michelle knew exactly what she would ask for. She would ask to go back to the beginning of her life and start all over again." (p.68)

Because this is the exact plot of 'Life After Life' that she published in 2013.

Stay safe. Be kind.