Diane B > Recent Status Updates

Funny and a bit surreal visit to a Floridian post-Covid world.

“Bassam and Rami gradually came to understand that they would use the force of their grief as a weapon.”

There is something about this writing that brings animation to mind. Early on people are introducing themselves and the “names pop like bubbles” over their heads. Someone adds an ‘I’ between the words of a sign:to let. Funny and very visual.

Love this line
Your mom can stop a bullet from lodging in your heart. She can prop you up when you can’t. Your mom is your blood and bone before your body even knows how to make any.

Sprawling. So many different threads and characters. Can see why this made such a scene when it was published more than twenty years ago. Definitely not an “easy” read.

Some chapters are like Sunday sermons, others like an academic paper. I enjoyed the more personal anecdotes and sharing from patient case histories.

I am loving this for the language and the choreography of the storyline. Great structure and a lyrical telling.

John Houston commissioned Sartre to write the screenplay for a biopic of Freud’s life. It was 7 hours long so Houston invited him to his house to rework.

And attended a book burning??

Heidegger became a Nazi???

I have high hopes

“Don’t forget that the awareness of an unread e-mail sitting in your inbox can effectively reduce your IQ by 10 points, and that multitasking causes information you want to learn to be directed to the wrong part of the brain” hmmmmm what was that?

“Don’t forget that the awareness of an unread e-mail sitting in your inbox can effectively reduce your IQ by 10 points, and that multitasking causes information you want to learn to be directed to the wrong part of the brain” hmmmmm what was that?

Ok so there is also an attentional switch and attentional filter... maybe these are what becomes engaged for meditation

Fascinating. The author has a way of relating complex cognitive systems in a way that you don’t need to be a neuroscientist to understand.
Right now I am early in and the chapter is talking about executive fiction and the daydreaming state. I wonder if and when he will get around to meditation.

This is one of those books I open randomly to take in words of advice on contemplation. Useful and ver practical.