Back from Port Townsend (where we had record heat waves – in the 90’s – with no breeze and the buildings lack both air conditioning or much ventilation. ) On the plus side, I saw many little fawns and seals and walking in the morning on the beach was still very relaxing. And crashed many readings at the Centrum Writer’s Conference, since I didn’t officially sign up for the conference, just kind of made my way to the events that sounded fun, including Ilya Kaminsky and Joshua Beckman. No internet and no cell phone, just my stack of books, the sand, the local wildlife (including a long-haired blonde woman rolling around in a suburban yard for some reason. Then, she shook herself off, and walked on. And, completely out of touch with the hippy atmosphere of Port Townsend, two young men in three-piece suits and gelled hair who accosted me outside the local grocery store, who looked like they had walked out of the movie Wall Street. )
Back in Seattle, where, again, we lack much in the way of air conditioning, I’m sadly making my way towards colder spaces – the mall (ho hum), the theater, with its rash of misogynist films about evil, vindictive women who want to hurt the unlikeable male leads – I’m thinking of seeing Clerks II just to avoid the Super Ex-Girlfriend or John Tucker movies – or, um, the grocery store? It just looks weird to hang around in a bank, even if it is air-conditioned.
I’ve read another five books on my reading list – including the fabulous Ink Dark Moon – worth the cost of admission just for Jane Hirshfield’s discussion of translating from the Japanese – and the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, which seemed so contemporary it was uncanny. I actually even used a tip from the book – in summer, in Japan around 900 AD, they put their hands in bowls of ice water to keep cool. Good thinking. She’s a writer who loves showing off how witty and clever she is, seems to be mostly amused by the men who try to seduce her, and generally makes fun of people in misery and the less fortunate. In short, sort of a “Mean Girls” model of the Heian period.
Check out these quotes:
From 62. Annoying Things: “One has sent someone a poem (or a reply to a poem) and, after the messenger has left, thinks of a couple of words that ought to be changed.”
From 14. Hateful Things: “A man with whom one is having an affair keeps singing the praises of some woman he used to know…(Yet sometimes I find it is not as unpleasant as all that.)
From 63. Embarrassing Things: “A man recites his own poems (not especially good ones) and tells one about the praise they received – most embarrassing.”
From 148. Pleasing Things: “Finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring a second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.
Ha – # 148 could have been written about any summer sequel.