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Allegorizings
'Almost nothing in life is only what it seems.'Soldier, journalist, historian, author of forty books, Jan Morris led an extraordinary life, witnessing such seminal moments as the first ascent of Everest, the Suez Canal Crisis, the Eichmann Trial, The Cuban Revolution and so much more. Now, in Allegorizings , published posthumously as was her wish, Morris looks back over some of the key moments of her life, and sees a multitude of meanings.From her final travels to the USA and across Europe to late journeys on her beloved trains and ships, from the deaths of her old friends Hilary and Tenzig to the enduring relationships in her own life, from reflections on identity and nations to the importance of good marmalade, it bears testimony to her uniquely kind and inquisitive take on the world.
Hardcover
First published April 6, 2021
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About the author
Jan Morris
165 books480 followersJan Morris was a British historian, author and travel writer. Morris was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex, and Christ Church, Oxford, but is Welsh by heritage and adoption. Before 1970 Morris published under her assigned birth name, "James ", and is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City, and also wrote about Wales, Spanish history, and culture.
In 1949 Jan Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter. Morris and Tuckniss had five children together, including the poet and musician Twm Morys. One of their children died in infancy. As Morris documented in her memoir Conundrum, she began taking oestrogens to feminise her body in 1964. In 1972, she had sex reassignment surgery in Morocco. Sex reassignment surgeon Georges Burou did the surgery, since doctors in Britain refused to allow the procedure unless Morris and Tuckniss divorced, something Morris was not prepared to do at the time. They divorced later, but remained together and later got a civil union. On May, 14th, 2008, Morris and Tuckniss remarried each other. Morris lived mostly in Wales, where her parents were from.
In 1949 Jan Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter. Morris and Tuckniss had five children together, including the poet and musician Twm Morys. One of their children died in infancy. As Morris documented in her memoir Conundrum, she began taking oestrogens to feminise her body in 1964. In 1972, she had sex reassignment surgery in Morocco. Sex reassignment surgeon Georges Burou did the surgery, since doctors in Britain refused to allow the procedure unless Morris and Tuckniss divorced, something Morris was not prepared to do at the time. They divorced later, but remained together and later got a civil union. On May, 14th, 2008, Morris and Tuckniss remarried each other. Morris lived mostly in Wales, where her parents were from.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 22, 2023
So, this was supposed to be my year of reading Montaigne. I even joined a like-minded group promising to do so. But I've been a poor member, not following the reading schedule and rarely engaging in the dialogue; inattentive, if not quite recalcitrant. Still, I do plunge into the brick of a book occasionally and sample On Virtue, On Anger, On Glory; even, On Smells. Still, the Frenchman missed a few.
Here, in unintentional (I think) imitation of Montaigne, Jan Morris opines On Kindness, but also On Kissing, On Whistling, On Sex (and all that), On Hot Water Bottles, and even On Nose-Picking. She is, she confesses, an inveterate nose-picker, which leads, as it must, to On Shame:
I am not actually ashamed of shame, if you follow me. Shame can be a saving grace, and certainly a consolation. We feel better ourselves if we are ashamed of something we've done, and with luck a show of shame can reduce the sentence in the courtroom, where slow-witted justices can be persuaded that shame is synonymous with regret. "My client is truly ashamed, m'lud," counsel often successfully pleads, and he would have to be a moron to add "but, m'lud, he doesn't in the least regret it, and it would give him the greatest pleasure to do it again."
This book of essays, Morris tells us, started as letters to a daughter who died soon after her birth, but that isn't obvious in the reading. In any event, at Morris' insistence, this book should only be published after her own death, and so it was. I found my copy waaay in the back of a bookstore in the used and remaindered section. Lucky me for wandering back. I'll let Morris do most of the talking.
On Hypochondria. There are pros and cons to the equivocal condition of hypochondria. On the one hand it is generally harmless, except perhaps in over-indulgence. On the other hand it is incurable, because there is nothing to cure.
On how Stuff is all allegory. In my view, dedicated as I am to the proposition that nothing is only what it seems, many inanimate objects around the house have their own mystiques, inviting us to stroke them (oak beams), fondle them (golf balls), abuse them (recalcitrant can openers), throw them across the kitchen (recalcitrant milk cartons), marvel at them (wall clocks controlled by radio waves from distant nuclear establishments), or simply cherish them as dumb friends (almost anything sufficiently old, shabby and no longer manufactured).
On the Perils of Aging. I try to evade the inevitable exchanges with my contemporaries about the inconveniences of age. I dismiss the awful possibilities of Alzheimer's--"well, dear God, don't we all sometimes forget what we've come upstairs for?"--and I make the comic most of my tendency to fall over.
On Princess Diana Having dined at the Ritz that summer night in 1988, the poor girl died with her playboy in the back of a Mercedes limousine--far too soon, but not an unsuitable end for her.
Morris has opinions.
She weighs those that believe in an afterlife against those that see death as a finality to it all: For myself, as one who has vastly enjoyed the mortal span, and greatly loved my loves, I hazily suspect that when we die all our essences return unknowing into the fructifying compost of life.
I found these essays paired well with Montaigne and, indeed, led me back to him. But staying with Morris yet, there is much here about seeing the end and still looking back. This thin bit of poetry:
But age, alas, is age is age. . . .
Cheers!
Here, in unintentional (I think) imitation of Montaigne, Jan Morris opines On Kindness, but also On Kissing, On Whistling, On Sex (and all that), On Hot Water Bottles, and even On Nose-Picking. She is, she confesses, an inveterate nose-picker, which leads, as it must, to On Shame:
I am not actually ashamed of shame, if you follow me. Shame can be a saving grace, and certainly a consolation. We feel better ourselves if we are ashamed of something we've done, and with luck a show of shame can reduce the sentence in the courtroom, where slow-witted justices can be persuaded that shame is synonymous with regret. "My client is truly ashamed, m'lud," counsel often successfully pleads, and he would have to be a moron to add "but, m'lud, he doesn't in the least regret it, and it would give him the greatest pleasure to do it again."
This book of essays, Morris tells us, started as letters to a daughter who died soon after her birth, but that isn't obvious in the reading. In any event, at Morris' insistence, this book should only be published after her own death, and so it was. I found my copy waaay in the back of a bookstore in the used and remaindered section. Lucky me for wandering back. I'll let Morris do most of the talking.
On Hypochondria. There are pros and cons to the equivocal condition of hypochondria. On the one hand it is generally harmless, except perhaps in over-indulgence. On the other hand it is incurable, because there is nothing to cure.
On how Stuff is all allegory. In my view, dedicated as I am to the proposition that nothing is only what it seems, many inanimate objects around the house have their own mystiques, inviting us to stroke them (oak beams), fondle them (golf balls), abuse them (recalcitrant can openers), throw them across the kitchen (recalcitrant milk cartons), marvel at them (wall clocks controlled by radio waves from distant nuclear establishments), or simply cherish them as dumb friends (almost anything sufficiently old, shabby and no longer manufactured).
On the Perils of Aging. I try to evade the inevitable exchanges with my contemporaries about the inconveniences of age. I dismiss the awful possibilities of Alzheimer's--"well, dear God, don't we all sometimes forget what we've come upstairs for?"--and I make the comic most of my tendency to fall over.
On Princess Diana Having dined at the Ritz that summer night in 1988, the poor girl died with her playboy in the back of a Mercedes limousine--far too soon, but not an unsuitable end for her.
Morris has opinions.
She weighs those that believe in an afterlife against those that see death as a finality to it all: For myself, as one who has vastly enjoyed the mortal span, and greatly loved my loves, I hazily suspect that when we die all our essences return unknowing into the fructifying compost of life.
I found these essays paired well with Montaigne and, indeed, led me back to him. But staying with Morris yet, there is much here about seeing the end and still looking back. This thin bit of poetry:
But age, alas, is age is age. . . .
Cheers!
February 21, 2022
(2.5) To manage expectations: this is a set of disparate, somewhat frivolous essays written mostly pre-2009, or in 2013, and kept in trust by her publisher for publication as a posthumous collection. So it ended up being most like her last two volumes, In My Mind’s Eye (worth reading) and Thinking Again (not so much), yet is strangely frozen in time. She was old but not super-old; thinking vaguely about death but not at death’s door. The organizing principle, that everything can be understood on more than one level and so we must think beyond the literal, is interesting but not particularly applicable to the contents. There are mini travel pieces and pen portraits, but I got more out of the explorations of concepts (maturity, nationalism) and universal experiences (being caught picking one’s nose, sneezing). And I did a lot of skimming of the rest. Completists will want to have a look, but everyone else should choose one of her earlier, more in-depth works.
June 22, 2024
Morris has style. No matter what she writes, she revels in language, and I delight in her skill. The tone is tart, knowing, witty. This posthumous volume, however, is not one of her best; there are too few of her marvelous travel essays. Sometimes the emphasis is a bit precious. But overall, there is a sense of valiant grappling with the meaning of an adventure-filled life and its ending.
On the French town of Tournus: “Those civic sentimentalists maintain that when the Saône overflows its banks here, as it often does, it is not punishing the town but embracing it: I prefer to think that when the river passes under the bridge it is celebrating, with a sensuous welling of its waters, just the complicated frisson that I am feeling too, as I walk out of one sensibility into another.”
On the French town of Tournus: “Those civic sentimentalists maintain that when the Saône overflows its banks here, as it often does, it is not punishing the town but embracing it: I prefer to think that when the river passes under the bridge it is celebrating, with a sensuous welling of its waters, just the complicated frisson that I am feeling too, as I walk out of one sensibility into another.”
September 3, 2024
No.
You know when you talk to an 80+ year old sometimes and they babble on about random shite that no-one's interested in? This is that!
Jan Morris was 80+ when she wrote this book and it really shows. We get a chapter on the pleasures of sneezing! Sneezing????? Wtf??
Her observations are whimsical and trite.
I had misgivings about this book before reading but thought I'd give it a go. I should have listened to my gut.
Really really bad. I'm just glad this was a library loan.
You know when you talk to an 80+ year old sometimes and they babble on about random shite that no-one's interested in? This is that!
Jan Morris was 80+ when she wrote this book and it really shows. We get a chapter on the pleasures of sneezing! Sneezing????? Wtf??
Her observations are whimsical and trite.
I had misgivings about this book before reading but thought I'd give it a go. I should have listened to my gut.
Really really bad. I'm just glad this was a library loan.
July 30, 2023
Amazing opinions on everything ever. Such a cool person with a great story.
April 17, 2022
My 4* review of this final set of essays, travel writings, reflections and musings from Jan Morris is more a token of my appreciation for a life spent observing the world, it’s history and peoples from a unique perspective. Her books on Venice, Trieste and Hong Kong remain classics, as does the Pax Brittanica trilogy about the Victoria British Empire. I enjoyed this final chapter, which reflected its being written in old age as a final set of thoughts to leave behind. RIP Jan Morris.
January 29, 2022
This beautiful book of short essays by a wordsmith is filled with her memories of places, events, people. Jan Morris was originally a man, born James Morris; then went through a gender change, operations and all, and through it all has been a writer. She wrote about the gender change in her book, Conundrum, one of the first openly identified transgender people. She was once thought of a travel writer because she seemed to write so much about places she traveled. In her later years she wrote more about feelings, thoughts, events and just places, especially her home place in northern Wales. She has won many awards and been honored by the queen of England, even though she considers herself Welsh. She wrote these essays in the latter part of her life and gave them to her editor with the direction that they only be published after her death. She died in 2020 so we finally have the book of her last 50 short essays. They are beautiful, personal, interesting. I have loved her writing for a long time. She sees things that I do not see, she moves more slowly than I do through life and then writes about it. This is a one-of-a-kind book - not morbid, just interesting events she has attended or interesting people she has met though out her life. I got this from the library and now I want it. One more I need on my shelf. I feel certain that I will go back to it again and again.
July 1, 2022
I had no idea this book existed until I saw it on the shelf of my local bookshop this week. I loved Morris's last two books, they helped calm me during the early days of Covid and lockdown. I love her sense of humour and was delighted that there was one more book. It is a bit like Forest Gump's box of chocolates, short essays on this and that. She makes a great companion anyway no matter what she is writing about. She simultaneously entertains and teaches - the best kind of nonfiction writer, I think.
March 5, 2023
If you like the travel writing of Jan Morris (as I do), you may want to avoid this one. In the travel books she comes across as a perceptive, thoughtful observer who effortlessly imbues her writing with the joys of seeing new places and revisiting old ones. In this book she comes across as a rather egotistical and selfish child of privilege who doesn’t have an awful lot to say.
May 4, 2023
a journey through one of the most interesting lives you can live through bits of rambling about everything from ships to sneezes to undying love for Wales, with some great quirky writing and allegories that stick to your head. I can only hope I live a life as interesting as Jan Morris'.
February 18, 2022
Beautiful, intelligent musings on the trivial, the profound, travel and personal identity best enjoyed with a cup of tea or a white burgundy.
August 21, 2023
At once cozy and stylish, a gathering of parting essays…
March 12, 2025
Profoundly beautiful. Elegant, witty, and profoundly humane, Allegorizings stands as a fitting final testament to Morris's remarkable literary career and her lifelong curiosity about the complexities of identity and society.
Jan Morris's posthumous collection, Allegorizings, concludes with a poignant reflection on her life: "Nevertheless, I can selfishly say that for myself at least, Life has been one long fascination, sprawling, peculiar and generally kind." This sentiment perfectly captures the spirit of Morris's writing—deeply introspective yet infused with warmth and curiosity. Throughout these essays, Morris thoughtfully examines how societal perceptions evolve over time. In "Travels with an Old Dog," she candidly describes her internal experiences while journeying through Europe in 2004, subtly paralleling her internal struggles with the shifting identity of the continent itself. Morris also challenges rigid notions of nationality: "So I think that nationality is inorganic nonsense, referring not to nations, but to nation-states. Nation, state, race, country - they've all got mixed up, and the confusion has tainted public emotions of loyalty and community." This nuanced exploration of identity is echoed humorously when she discusses marmalade-making as symbolic of her own complex identity—caught somewhere between Welsh and British.
Yet she remains optimistic about contemporary culture, seeing our era as marked by a wider diffusion of beauty and creativity: "Only cranks and Oscar Wilde once spoke out against hunting; now you are socially suspect if you threaten to shoot some of the bloody squirrels... We care more for our countrysides, when we are not trying to make too much money out of them. We take better care of our heritage, when we are not demeaning it for tourism... You may laugh, but I think ours will also be remembered, if it is remembered at all, as an age of beauty. There may be fewer sublime artistic geniuses than there were in earth's supreme creativity periods, and perhaps more artistic charlatans, but to my mind there is a more general diffusion of beauty."
Morris's embrace of contemporary culture is refreshing; she sharply rebukes those who dismiss modern art or nostalgically praise old melodies: "I loathe the smile of superiority that crosses elderly 21st century faces when they hear some familiar sentimental melody of the 1930s... just as I despise the old dogmatists who refuse even to understand contemporary art."
Jan Morris's posthumous collection, Allegorizings, concludes with a poignant reflection on her life: "Nevertheless, I can selfishly say that for myself at least, Life has been one long fascination, sprawling, peculiar and generally kind." This sentiment perfectly captures the spirit of Morris's writing—deeply introspective yet infused with warmth and curiosity. Throughout these essays, Morris thoughtfully examines how societal perceptions evolve over time. In "Travels with an Old Dog," she candidly describes her internal experiences while journeying through Europe in 2004, subtly paralleling her internal struggles with the shifting identity of the continent itself. Morris also challenges rigid notions of nationality: "So I think that nationality is inorganic nonsense, referring not to nations, but to nation-states. Nation, state, race, country - they've all got mixed up, and the confusion has tainted public emotions of loyalty and community." This nuanced exploration of identity is echoed humorously when she discusses marmalade-making as symbolic of her own complex identity—caught somewhere between Welsh and British.
Yet she remains optimistic about contemporary culture, seeing our era as marked by a wider diffusion of beauty and creativity: "Only cranks and Oscar Wilde once spoke out against hunting; now you are socially suspect if you threaten to shoot some of the bloody squirrels... We care more for our countrysides, when we are not trying to make too much money out of them. We take better care of our heritage, when we are not demeaning it for tourism... You may laugh, but I think ours will also be remembered, if it is remembered at all, as an age of beauty. There may be fewer sublime artistic geniuses than there were in earth's supreme creativity periods, and perhaps more artistic charlatans, but to my mind there is a more general diffusion of beauty."
Morris's embrace of contemporary culture is refreshing; she sharply rebukes those who dismiss modern art or nostalgically praise old melodies: "I loathe the smile of superiority that crosses elderly 21st century faces when they hear some familiar sentimental melody of the 1930s... just as I despise the old dogmatists who refuse even to understand contemporary art."
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May 16, 2023A collection of short essays by Jan Morris, a woman with a very full life, these came out posthumously, saved as they were to be published after her death. Most of them were written around 2009, but fortunately she lived much longer than that, only dying at the end of 2020 at the ripe age of 94.
The life of Jan is something worth reading about, and most of these essays are remembrances of her life, as a journalist covering Edmund Hillary's first climb of Everest, tagging along with him, being a soldier in WW2, a mother to five children and a loving wife to her wife, Elizabeth, Jan was a pioneer in more than one way.
Jan was a trans woman, who had to divorce her loving wife after her transition, only to eventually remarry her when that became possible, an out trans woman since the early 1970s, with a high profile in the UK is something rare, but it is refreshing to see how her memories are not at all tinged with any bitterness or sense of loss. This is a fulfilled, strong and funny woman, who like most women in their 80s is a bit of a small c conservative, but one who retained a fierce sense of joy and what one gets from these essays is a portrait of a life well lived, in her own terms. That's all we can hope for in our lives. This makes it doubly unfortunate that this Tinta-da-China edition insists on deadnaming her and being all around insensitive to her identity in the short bio in the inside cover. A pity.
The life of Jan is something worth reading about, and most of these essays are remembrances of her life, as a journalist covering Edmund Hillary's first climb of Everest, tagging along with him, being a soldier in WW2, a mother to five children and a loving wife to her wife, Elizabeth, Jan was a pioneer in more than one way.
Jan was a trans woman, who had to divorce her loving wife after her transition, only to eventually remarry her when that became possible, an out trans woman since the early 1970s, with a high profile in the UK is something rare, but it is refreshing to see how her memories are not at all tinged with any bitterness or sense of loss. This is a fulfilled, strong and funny woman, who like most women in their 80s is a bit of a small c conservative, but one who retained a fierce sense of joy and what one gets from these essays is a portrait of a life well lived, in her own terms. That's all we can hope for in our lives. This makes it doubly unfortunate that this Tinta-da-China edition insists on deadnaming her and being all around insensitive to her identity in the short bio in the inside cover. A pity.
August 9, 2022
Mildly enjoyable, eclectic collection of short pieces. My favourite was the chapter imagining if Princess Diana had not died but had instead been given a ship to travel about as a British ambassador - it sounds so much like a fun and doable thing. I also enjoyed the chapter about the unsuspected depths of a furrier, and the musings on "nationality".
The pieces on celebratory re-visiting of old favourite places though, I found quite self-indulgent and very privileged.
Having said that, I guess when you get to a certain age, you are allowed to indulge yourself if you have the means...literally revisit places you loved before you die.
I did expect more from this book, but it's ok as a posthumous publication. Jan Morris had a long and interesting life, and seems to have died with few regrets, leaving behind a faithful life partner of 70 years. I would like to read Elizabeth's reflections, but I guess I won't get the chance.
The pieces on celebratory re-visiting of old favourite places though, I found quite self-indulgent and very privileged.
Having said that, I guess when you get to a certain age, you are allowed to indulge yourself if you have the means...literally revisit places you loved before you die.
I did expect more from this book, but it's ok as a posthumous publication. Jan Morris had a long and interesting life, and seems to have died with few regrets, leaving behind a faithful life partner of 70 years. I would like to read Elizabeth's reflections, but I guess I won't get the chance.
June 22, 2023
"Perpetramos coisas horríveis, nós, os filhos mais velhos da era cibernautica, mas se algum de nós vier a ser lembrado depois do Dia do Juízo Final, talvez nos concedam algum benefício da dúvida divina. Somos assassinos, racistas e malcriados, mas simplificámos a aparência da vida, livrámo-nos de algumas das suas crueldades, nivelámos algumas das suas discrepâncias, esforçámo-nos por preservar-lhe os méritos e, no geral, adorámos os nossos gatos"
Livro de crónicas póstumo de uma das escritoras de viagens inglesas mais influentes do século XX. Destaque para a crónica "A bordo de um ícone" onde a partir de uma viagem a bordo do icónico (e ultrapassado) Califórnia Zephyr, Jan faz uma reflexão sobre a humanidade ocidental actual, pondo a nu tudo aquilo em que somos ainda defeituosos, mas realçando a nossa evolução para uma comunidade mais empática que pareceria inimaginável há duas gerações atrás.
Livro de crónicas póstumo de uma das escritoras de viagens inglesas mais influentes do século XX. Destaque para a crónica "A bordo de um ícone" onde a partir de uma viagem a bordo do icónico (e ultrapassado) Califórnia Zephyr, Jan faz uma reflexão sobre a humanidade ocidental actual, pondo a nu tudo aquilo em que somos ainda defeituosos, mas realçando a nossa evolução para uma comunidade mais empática que pareceria inimaginável há duas gerações atrás.
January 12, 2022
I picked this up by chance having heard casually about her, and as it was short and in nice bite-sized chunks there was little risk attached to giving it a go. She has a wonderful voice and turn of phrase, and this combined with her interest in things, people, places just made it such a peaceful meander through life. Every time she mentioned another author, or book, I immediately looked it up and thought that I should give it a go: if she liked it its probably worth it. You don't have a chance to get bored or frustrated with a topic you maybe are a little less interested in, because in the next page she's on the Orient Express, or denouncing zoos, or talking about her poetic cat Ibsen. I'll take a breather, but I will be back to her books before long.
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May 7, 2024This is a great little collection of Jan Morris’s random musings, thematically and loosely linked by allegory, ‘nothing is ever [only] what it is’ (I paraphrase). The book was posthumously published, Morris knew this would happen, which is reflected in the ‘pre-mortem’ and ‘pre-mortem’ parentheses and the rather wistful feel to a lot of the writing about her life & times, her travels (revisiting), philosophies, and thoughts about growing old and her own demise. There is some repetition of ideas, which I guess would be difficult to ‘edit out’ post-mortem, as it were, but it still works as a coherent work and tribute to Morris.
Ps. I particularly liked the Ulysses/Bloomsday article, “The most prolonged and affecting of literary allegories …”
Ps. I particularly liked the Ulysses/Bloomsday article, “The most prolonged and affecting of literary allegories …”
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July 26, 2021Hmm. Didn’t grab me. Not sure why it needed to be posthumous? Doesn’t make me want to read more by this author …. though I started “A Writers House in Wales” while waiting to get this for book club, and found it more interesting.
September 20, 2025
A collection of short pieces, posthumously published. These are musings of an old person, albeit one with a fascinating life. There were some I really enjoyed, but not enough - perhaps ones for those who have read a lot more of her work.
July 10, 2021
Another great book from Morris - and her last. I've enjoyed her writing for many years.
July 17, 2021
What an incredible writer and person. This last book of Jan Morris makes me want to read everything she ever wrote.
May 15, 2022
An important read to embrace a gender neutral world. Read Jan Morris’ memoir.
June 29, 2022
Well observed essays and articles - posthumously published.
Want to read
July 4, 2022Who recommended it to me: Travellin' Penguin
July 18, 2022
It's very much a collection of odds and ends. One or two very good essays in this but very lightweight musings for the most part. Quite a degree or overlap between pieces into the bargain.
February 12, 2023
It is interesting to read these essays, years after they were written. The essay on Kindness reads differently now, than it would have three years ago.
The essay on Auckland is fascinating.
The essay on Auckland is fascinating.
April 21, 2024
A few insightful stories - the rest - Blah
December 15, 2024
This is a collection of a number of short essays Jan Morris put together in her last years, coupled with instructions that they be published only after her death (she died last November at the age of 94). Most of them relate to her travels, revolving around her favorite places with reminisces about her experiences there and what the spots meant to her; with a good deal of reflection on aging, the world, and life in general.
I skimmed some of the entries for lack of background or interest, but I also found many of her reflections very interesting, especially the latter ones where she dwells on the state of the world, life, and what it all is about - befitting for one facing the upcoming end, and especially those of us approaching our own denouement.
Just a few of the spots/thoughts I find worthy of noting here:
--on Ulysses by James Joyce, "Have they all read the book, cover to cover? I very much doubt it. Most people who say they have are evasive when pressed, and all who claim to have read and understood it without a crib are lying through their teeth."
--on America, "gone the certainty that what was good for America was good for mankind. The enduring youthful swagger has become a paunchy strut."
--"I am sick to death of nationality, too, and I think it is a dying concept anyway.... As for the Nation-States, which have done so much evil in their time, and bring out the worst in us all, fuck 'em all."
--"Gossip is smiled indulgently upon by senior citizens...but often it contains within itself an endemic seed of bile."
--"We can never know the truth about the afterlife, so I see no point in worrying about it"
And her reflection I found most appealing - "potentially uniting us all, as a force of incalculable strength, is the power of kindness...I believe kindness to be a vastly potent asset, for anyone who can harness its energies." Reiterated later, "If I had any moral principles to declare, I came to realize, they were extremely simplistic. First, there was the supreme importance of kindness as a universal guide to life, by-passing all the mumbo-jumbo of organized religion: secondly the conviction that almost nothing is only what it seems - everything, in fact, is allegory."
And lastly, her reflections on the ridiculousness of our social self-consciousness about picking one's nose and other bodily functions seemed both amusing and right on.
I skimmed some of the entries for lack of background or interest, but I also found many of her reflections very interesting, especially the latter ones where she dwells on the state of the world, life, and what it all is about - befitting for one facing the upcoming end, and especially those of us approaching our own denouement.
Just a few of the spots/thoughts I find worthy of noting here:
--on Ulysses by James Joyce, "Have they all read the book, cover to cover? I very much doubt it. Most people who say they have are evasive when pressed, and all who claim to have read and understood it without a crib are lying through their teeth."
--on America, "gone the certainty that what was good for America was good for mankind. The enduring youthful swagger has become a paunchy strut."
--"I am sick to death of nationality, too, and I think it is a dying concept anyway.... As for the Nation-States, which have done so much evil in their time, and bring out the worst in us all, fuck 'em all."
--"Gossip is smiled indulgently upon by senior citizens...but often it contains within itself an endemic seed of bile."
--"We can never know the truth about the afterlife, so I see no point in worrying about it"
And her reflection I found most appealing - "potentially uniting us all, as a force of incalculable strength, is the power of kindness...I believe kindness to be a vastly potent asset, for anyone who can harness its energies." Reiterated later, "If I had any moral principles to declare, I came to realize, they were extremely simplistic. First, there was the supreme importance of kindness as a universal guide to life, by-passing all the mumbo-jumbo of organized religion: secondly the conviction that almost nothing is only what it seems - everything, in fact, is allegory."
And lastly, her reflections on the ridiculousness of our social self-consciousness about picking one's nose and other bodily functions seemed both amusing and right on.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews