Murray > Recent Status Updates

Roy is a leather-hided old man with gray hair, red nose & yellow teeth; he is kind, gentle, well-meaning, but worries too much, takes things too seriously. He’s afraid of having a heart attack, falling off the horse, dying there on the sand, under the sun, among the flies, weeds & indifferent cattle. Seems to me like a decent, clean way of taking off, better than the slow rot in a hospital with bedsores & bedpans.

McMurtry called him “the Thoreau of the American West.” I’ve read some of his work but really I’ve only scratched the surface. I live and breathe the wilds so I should have dug into more of his works a lot sooner.

Typically I eschew “best of” collections however he put this together himself and declared it damn tight or something like that ☺️ so I grab my pack and bottle and Bowie and head out.

When she looked at herself in her wedding photographs, Ammu felt the woman that looked back at her was someone else. A foolish jeweled bride. Her silk sunset-colored sari shot with gold. Rings on every finger. White dots of sandalwood paste over her arched eyebrows. Ammu's soft mouth would twist into a small, bitter smile at the memory. She had permitted herself to be so decorated before being led to the gallows.

Day 10, Conclusion
Buona notte ✨✨

They all cheerfully joined together in singing. When they were done, they did a few little dances and then, a portion of the short night having already passed, the Queen was pleased to proclaim that the end of the first day had been reached. Having called for torches to be lit, she ordered them all to go to bed, and after returning to their rooms, that is what they did.

Day 1, Story 10
An Old Man in Love 💕

At 70, Alberto was attracted to a beautiful widow and just like a young man, felt his breast burn with fire and was unable to get much sleep that night. He began spending time around the lady's house, on foot or on horseback. She laughed with her friends to see a man of such great age and wisdom ensnared by love, thinking it could only blaze in the hearts of the young.

Ammu was asleep and looked beautiful in the barred-blue streetlight that came in through the barred-blue window. She smiled a sleepsmile that dreamed of dolphins and a deep barred blue. It was a smile that gave no indication that the person who belonged to it was a bomb waiting to go off.

Day 1, Story 9
Courage

A noble lady from Gascony went on a pilgrimage and having arrived in Cyprus on her return journey, was raped there by a band of ruffians. Grieving inconsolably, she decided to seek redress from the King. She was told that her efforts would be wasted - he was so faint-hearted he not only permitted the wrongs done to others to go unpunished, but also allowed countless wrongs to be done to him.

Day 1, Story 8
Generosity

From that day forward, the word spoken by Guiglielmo had such a powerful effect that Ermino became the most liberal and affable of gentlemen, and for the rest of his life, he entertained foreigners as well as his fellow citizens more honorably than any other man in Genoa.

[Guiglielmo says Cortesia. In Boccaccio's time, an aristocratic virtue that included generosity or liberality]

Day 1, Story 7
Avarice

"Bergamino, you've given an apt demonstration of the wrongs you've suffered, while at the same time showing us your virtues, my miserliness, and what it is you want from me. Never before have I been afflicted with the avarice I felt today on your account, but I will beat it away, using the stick you yourself have provided." So the lord dressed him nobly in one of his own suits of clothes.

Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.

-WORDS OF MUAD'DIB
BY PRINCESS IRULAN

Princess Irulan who betrays her husband Muad’Dib
🌒🌒🌒

When Ammu listened to songs that she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world like a witch, to a better, happier place.

There was something restless and untamed about her. As though she had temporarily set aside the morality of motherhood and divorceé-hood. Even her walk changed from a safe mother-walk to another wilder sort of walk.

“I've got to have a talk with Pop.”
"What are you gonna tell him," Cork asked, “you want to be a gangster?"
"I am a gangster," Sonny said, "and so is he. Only difference is he pretends he's a legit businessman."
"He is a legit businessman," Cork said.
"And every grocery store in the city better carry Genco Pura Olive Oil or else take out fire insurance."
“So he’s a ruthless businessman. What one isn't?"

Giuseppe considered Rosario's other son for a heartbeat before his thoughts shifted back to Jake LaConti and how the kid couldn't be beaten into betraying his father.

"You know what?" he said to Tomasino. "Call the mother and tell her where to find him." He paused. “They'll get a good undertaker, they'll fix him up nice, they can have a big funeral."

Tommy said, "I don't know about fixing
him up, Joe."

Day 1, Story 6
A Wine Good Enough For Christ🍷

A man foolishly remarked he had a wine so good that Christ himself would drink it.

When this was reported to the Inquisitor he retorted: "So, you've made Christ a drinker and a connoisseur of fine wines, like one of your other lushes and drunks and tavern crawlers? You deserve to be burned for it when we decide to take action against you, as we must."

Day 1, Story 5
The French King & the Italian Marchioness

The Marchioness started wondering what it meant that such a great king would come to visit her when her husband was not at home. Nor did she deceive herself when she reached the conclusion that he had been drawn there by her reputation for beauty. Nevertheless, like the worthy woman she was, she prepared to receive him.

Day 1, Story 4
A Love Affair

A young monk was walking by himself about the monastery grounds when he caught sight of an extremely beautiful young woman. She was going through the fields collecting greens of various sorts, and as soon as he laid eyes on her, he was fiercely assaulted by carnal desire.

He approached the girl and struck up a conversation. One thing led to another and they reached an understanding.

I wanted to clarify as I go ahead that 1) these snippets are not intended to offer a summary of each story & 2) they are not intended to be reviews.

They are meant to give you a general impression & whet your appetite for an actual reading.

Think of me as the dude with a stall in the grocery offering you samples of pizza spaghettini capicola & Chardonnay🍷

A taste my friends 🥹🫶🏼

Paul caressed her arm. Climbed from the bed, crossed to the balcony window, opened the draperies. The desert could not intrude here except by its odors. A windowless wall climbed to the night sky across from him. Moonlight slanted down into an enclosed garden, sentinel trees and broad leaves, wet foliage. He could see a fish pond reflecting stars among the leaves, pockets of white floral brilliance in the shadows.

The three of them ate their bread and cheese. They watched darkness rise up the mountain from the sea. They made their bed of cloaks and slept, Therru next to Tenar next to Ged.

An owl was calling nearby, a sweet repeated note like a bell, and far off up the mountain its mate replied like the ghost of a bell. Tenar thought, I'll watch the stars set in the sea, but she fell asleep again at once in peace of heart.

Day 1, Story 3
A Contest

“You're a worthy man," said Saladin, "and many people have told me about your great wisdom and your deep knowledge of the ways of God. So, I would gladly learn from you which of the three laws - the Jewish, the Saracen, or the Christian - you think to be the true one."

The Jew, who was a wise man, knew only too well that Saladin was looking to catch him making some verbal slip.

The Man Who Became Giovanni
Day 1, Story 2
Told by Neifile, a beauty


Abraham
I saw no holiness [in Rome] no devotion, no good works or models of life or of anything else in any member of the clergy.

Lust, avarice, gluttony, fraud, envy, pride, and worse had such power over everyone that I consider the place a forge of diabolical works rather than divine ones.

[A man tries to convert his friend to Christianity]

A conspiracy forms to dethrone Paul, the mighty Muad’Dib, hero of the first and original Dune tale.

Conspirators include his beautiful wife Irulan, infuriated that Paul is only interested in her as a bride of necessity who seals his acquisition of the throne. The woman Paul loves and sleeps with is another.

This book’s publication met fierce resistance. Readers wanted their hero back. Not his overthrow.

It’s beautiful to be reading a book about India.

I’ve been looking forward to this.

Her writing is amazing and unbelievably poetic and free flowing.

Day 1 Story 1
The Man Who Played the Saint

Ser Cepparello da Prato, although his life was wicked and depraved [the monks thought otherwise] it is possible that at the very point of death he became so contrite that God took pity on him and accepted him into His kingdom. However, since this is hidden from us, what I will say is that he is more likely in the hands of the Devil down in Hell than up there in Paradise.

After prologues to prologues of the actual prologue - I never read forwards till afterwards - the tales begin with a description of the Black Death.

Those who isolated and behaved in a pristine manner, as well as those who took an eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die approach, all fell to the plague regardless. Death had no specific favorites.

All were favorites

All fed the ravenous hunger of the Beast.

The fire danced in her eyes. The flames swam, flared up, sank away, brightened again against the sooty stone, against the dark sky, against the pale sky, the gulfs of evening, the depths of air and light beyond the world. Flames of yellow, orange, orange-red, red tongues of flame, flame-tongues, the words she could not speak🔥🔥🔥

“You have a fire around you, a shining of fire all about your head. I cast the spell to find the child, but it didn't go right. It went its own way somehow, and I don't know yet if it's ended.

I'm bewildered. I saw great beings. I sought the little girl but I saw them, flying in the mountains, flying in the clouds. And now you have that about you, like your hair was afire. What's amiss, what's wrong?"