Debi Cates > Recent Status Updates

Allen is losing me. Not because I don't understand what he is saying, but because he is speaking only a fraction of Truth, ignoring everything outside of our control as if it doesn't exist. What if you live in Gaza? What if masked men take you to a foreign gulag? Sure, sure, I know I can think better quality thoughts, but flat out ignoring reality is not helpful. I'm reading with a friend. We may bail.

I know Keillor the man has run into disfavor. But Keillor the writer and narrator about his "hometown" is good for my soul. This audio book reminds me of what America was like, before this current lawless fascist takeover.

Half way through, the last few chapters things have gotten pretty awful, not all that different from Hitler's Germany. Our hero Doremus is getting ready to print a criticism of a recent incident involving the M.M. It will put him squarely in the cross-hairs.

"The Giant Okab" quite the mix: Yusof visits Arabia. There he is nabbed by the annual giant bird, makes a deal to give him his first son on his wedding day. Son is nabbed, then Yusof pleads to be taken instead, then his wife, then their daughter, and finally a silent poor girl. Her silence breaks the spell and Okab becomes a handsome warrior. Girl willing sacrificed herself for Yusof's son. They instead married.

unpaused. thru chapter 8-10 today

"Miss Cockroach and Mr Mouse"
"Miss Cockroach learned her lesson, and from that day onwards she always wore black, and learned to work hard and be sensible and live simply, with her father, in the crack in the kitchen wall. And this is why you will never see a cockroach wearing an aubergine cloak with almond slippers, and you'll never find a silly one, either"

That's sad!

end of chapters
PICTURING "PICTURING"
FICTIONS
OPENINGS
TIME
Wow. What a lot of fascinating concepts! Things we just naturally accept and do while reading, but here are under a microscope of understanding the intersection of how novels work and how we readers work to make it all seem seamless, complete, vivid, revelatory.