Norman Mailer, The Castle in the Forest Sunday, November 23, 2008
Late author Norman Mailer has been announced as the winner of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award for the most awkward description of an intimate encounter.
“His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety”
Simon Rich, Shouts and Murmurs: The Wisdom of Children Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I. A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table
MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
DAD: O.K.
GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.
UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.
DAD: We all are.
MOM: Let’s talk about which kid I like the best.
DAD: (laughing) You know, but you won’t tell.
MOM: If they ask me again, I might tell.
FRIEND FROM WORK: Hey, guess what! My voice is pretty loud!
DAD: (laughing) There are actual monsters in the world, but when my kids ask I pretend like there aren’t.
MOM: I’m angry! I’m angry all of a sudden!
DAD: I’m angry, too! We’re angry at each other!
MOM: Now everything is fine.
DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.
MOM: There was a big sex.
FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!
(Everybody laughs.)
MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!
GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?
ALL: Yes.
GRANDFATHER: Don’t tell the kids.
Spinster Sunday, November 16, 2008
Female role models, on HappyFeminist
Cinematic spinsters and unmarried women, on BlogHer
Single women were caught up in a strange dichotomy during this time. They had become more independent both financially and emotionally by being part of the workforce. They were gaining more acceptability by society as viable, contributing members. But all of this success was at the expense of ‘the family’ because they were taking away jobs from men who needed the work to support their wife and children. More recently, American culture has found it more acceptable for single women to be independent and have meaningful careers. But the underlying threat to men and the family is still part of the modern spinster stereotype. This is evidenced in the many films that portray single women as having very responsible careers, but who have some sort of break down (or eventually settle for something less than they really want) because they are not fulfilled (e.g. Fatal Attraction, 1987; Crossing Delancey, 1988; Broadcast News, 1987) (Faludi, 1991). In Fatal Attraction, our initial impression of the lead female character, Alex, is a positive one – she is a career woman with a responsible position in publishing; she is dynamic, articulate, and knows what she wants. But our initial impression soon fades as it becomes apparent that underneath she is really a desperate, conniving woman who becomes homicidal in her pursuit to satisfy the ticking biological clock within. This over-the-top portrayal of the desperate single woman is juxtaposed to that of the (equally over-the-top) demure, defenseless, betrayed wife who represents what Alex can’t have. It seems to come down to an either/or proposition for spinsters – either you conform to society’s role of wife and mother, or you will pay the price psychologically and emotionally.
I had never looked at the end of my relationships as failures, which might seem strange. I have cried many big breakup tears and spent weeks moping around with wadded-up kleenexes in my hand, but I had never considered what I did failing. I always just thought I was moving on, and that I HAD to move on. I didn’t feel that I had an alternative.
A friend asked the other day “When you look back on all the men you dated, don’t you think it would have been ok if you had just picked one and married them?”
“Hell, no,” I thought. I am thankful that I never tied the knot. None of them were horrible people, they just weren’t people I wanted to spend decades with. Maybe no one IS.
Red Stapler
Brain power Sunday, November 16, 2008
Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, suggests reading out loud at breakfast, making lists of related objects (say, yellow ones, or those beginning with A)
63 year old contortionist Saturday, November 15, 2008
I wonder when she started!
Either way it’s awesome, but I hope she started as a young child. Encouraging to see an older lady do that stuff. Maybe I will be able to walk when I’m older!
