Sleeping saints, indecent states

[sovay]

I spent more than two minutes on Facebook this afternoon for the first time in six or nine months. On the one hand, its signal-to-noise ratio is still terrible and I'm really not sorry I disengaged, even if it means that I have no easily accessible means of communicating with many friends who are no longer (or never were) on DW/LJ and with whom I'm not in regular conversation over e-mail. On the other, it gave me an article about a fossilized dinosaur brain, an interview with Susan Cooper, and I learned that Richard Michelson, a poet I like and with whom I once shared a reading, has published a children's book illustrated by Edel Rodriguez about Leonard Nimoy and the Vulcan salute. All of which I appreciate knowing about. So that was very nice.

Unrelated to Facebook, I was struck by these three poems: "Fox" and "Dunt: a poem for a dried up river" by Alice Oswald and "Matrilineal Descent" by Robin Morgan.

I have been running around for most of this week, but when stationary in proximity to my computer, I have been listening to Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman's soundtrack to Ravenous (1999) almost nonstop since Wednesday night.

Tonight is my family's traditional pumpkin-carving, cider-mulling Halloween party. I will get to see my cousins' new baby for the first time in the wild. It should be fun.

I have so many movies I want to write about. I will need more sleep.

Comments

[thawrecka]

I do find Facebook is best in extremely small doses, especially because spending more time on there makes me too aware of how annoying I find my more distant family.

[sovay]

I do find Facebook is best in extremely small doses, especially because spending more time on there makes me too aware of how annoying I find my more distant family.

I can't even blame my relatives! I don't interact with most of them on Facebook.

[thawrecka]

Very wise!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I read this article about film noir in today's paper, and thought of you.

Among the many things I did not know about film noir: the label was coined by someone writing in French (yes, in retrospect completely obvious).

[sovay]

I read this article about film noir in today's paper, and thought of you.

I hadn't seen that! I continue to disagree with the emphasis placed on the figure of the femme fatale (attention to changing gender roles, yes; that the woman is always monstrous or dangerous, no), but some of the rest of the analysis is very interesting to me. Thank you.

Among the many things I did not know about film noir: the label was coined by someone writing in French (yes, in retrospect completely obvious).

Yes! It was a really interesting selection, too.

[gwynnega]

Robin Morgan is better-known for her feminist nonfiction, but she's a terrific poet.

[sovay]

Robin Morgan is better-known for her feminist nonfiction, but she's a terrific poet.

I'm not sure I'd read anything of hers before. Which collections of poetry or nonfiction do you recommend first?

[gwynnega]

For poetry, Upstairs in the Garden is a good selection.

For nonfiction, I remember liking The Anatomy of Freedom, but I'm not sure it will have aged well.