Francesca Forrest > Recent Status Updates

And he could not stay awake.

He wanted an answer to the question about the pie and the things that made a pie, because it seemed important to know how to take many things that aren't so good and make one good thing with them.

But the small sounds of the song toook him and he could not think any longer.

Not two whiskers from the boy's fingers the chipmunk stopped and sat up again, looking directly into the boy's eyes, watching him, waiting for him to move.

And when the boy didn't move, when he held as still as a piece of wood, the chipmunk leaned carefully forward, rested on one tiny paw, and used his mouth to pluck the piece of pie-crust dough out of the boy's fingers

[The men] sat roughly to the tables, all of them big as houses, the boy thought. They sat to the tables and his grandmother brought heaping platters of pancakes ... Then she brought the huge enamel pot of coffee from the stove and sure enough each man turned his cup over--his hands so big the cup looked like a baby cup--and blew in it and held it up for coffee ... They made [the boy] think of big, polite bears.

“Sometimes, a bird would hide in a branch near the top of the tree, and a second bird would flit near it. Partners, they seemed. The first bird would take off again, and the second bird, after a moment or two, would take off with its mate, or its nonmate, or whatever one calls a creature that pulls your gravity until you succumb.”

“The tree was beloved by birds. None of the beautiful variety; these birds did not flutter and sing. They lived unknowing they weren’t of the most startling plumage and uncaring that it was so.” (+)

The gods stared at her in astonishment.
It was somewhat like standing in the glare of four self-aware suns. The only reason Lanie didn't burn to ash on the instant wsa because they all wanted to stare at her a little while longer.

"The damp earth bent around their bodies like a table burdened by too great a feast.

Chapter 15 and 16 were absolute tours de force. The situations shook me right up, the surprises completely surprised--and yet they felt completely well set up and justified. I haven't been so enthralled in a long, long time.

A quote from p. 30: “The market economy story has spread like wildfire … but it is just a story we have told ourselves and we are free to tell another, to reclaim the old one.”

"Here, on the other side of the river, there is a mountain tha tguards our village ... looking at the mountain is an instant relief from all pain. Life moves through everything, through rock, the ozone layer, glaciers. Ilfe goses from the oceans to solid ground; it crosses from north to south in all directions."

"[Recently there are] billionaires who have the crazy idea of creating a biosphere, a copy of the Earth. That copy will be as mediocre as they are. If a part of us thinks we can colonize another planet, it means we still haven't learned anything from our experience here on Earth. I wonder how many Earths these people need to consume before they understand they are on the wrong path."

"The agents of micropolitics are people planting vegetable gardens in their backyards, opening up space in the pavement to let sprout whatever may be."

"Those who already heard the voice of the mountains, the rivers, and the forests do not need a theory about this."

"We should have the experience of being alive beyond the technological apparatuses that we can invent."

“Either you hear the voices of all the other beings that inhabit the planet alongside you, or you wage war against life on earth ... We listen with our entire bodies, not just our ears ... Our bodies are part of and an extension of the Earth. If we allow them to become sensing instruments for dreaming and conversation, the cosmic sense of life would not be so threatened."

"Either you hear the voices of all the other beings that inhabit the planet alongside you, or you wage war against life on earth."

From the intro (which is more than a quarter of the book, clearly):

Indigenous peoples do not have "oral traditions" but rather "mnemonic traditions." ...Western modernity ... always sees the oral as preceding the written.. but...the practice and activation of memories--through dreaming, singing, dancing, storytelling, and various other activities--are ways of belonging to and sustaining the cosmic sense of life.

Evrim's insight about the symbols is exactly what I thought the moment I first laid eyes on them on the book. LOL.

okay: I'm liking it now.

I have philosophical differences of opinion, but the story has gripped me now.

It's growing on me. Not so much the octopuses (not much of them so far, and what there has been has been disappointing) but the other stories--the shadowy forces hiring Rustem and killing people; Altantsetseg. Not so much Eiko's story, though I'm interested in Son's not seeming enthusiastic about the mutiny.

I deleted some status updates; some stuff is better to note privately, off line.

At about 1/4 in, I may agree with the Goodreads reviewer who said they'd rather read the (fictional) sources of the chapter epigraphs (mainly character Ha Nguyen's How Oceans Think--not so interested in the artificial mind-builder Arnkatia Minervudóttir-Chan's book--though she has a great name for a mind builder! Minerva's daughter!)
The plot develops slowly; same info delivered several times in diff. ways.

I want very much to like this book. I believe I WILL like this book. The endorsements on the back and what I've seen online have made me think I will love it. And I love the epigraphs from character Ha Nguyen's book.

But. So far the writing and storytelling has been v-e-r-y neutral to me. Not bad, but not filling me with joy. I'm waiting for/expecting something that maybe isn't coming.

The nature of an object changes depending on how it comes into our lives. Something purchased: a commodity--you may be grateful to the maker and the seller, but you have no inherent obligation. A gift: creates relationship. Re: a gift of socks: " I will write a thank-you note. I will take good care of them and if I am a very gracious grandchild I'll wear them when she visits even if I don't like them."

"Strawberries first shaped my view of a world full of gifts simply scattered at your feet ... It is not a reward; you cannot earn it, or call it to you, or even deserve it. And yet it appears. Your only role is to be open-eyed and present."

We have always known that the plants and animals have their own councils, and a common language. The trees, especially, we recognize as our teachers.