View Full Version : Are you sociable, book lovers?
heidiadonis
14-Oct-2009, 18:21
I have 10 minutes for a break. Here is a quick question: are you sociable or socially-inept or sociable but rather read books than hang out with boring people? Literature lovers have the tendency to isolate themselves away from the crowd, I think. Even though some of their acquaintances may read books without your knowing, they would not take the trouble to find out. I mean, they do not reach out.
Daniel del Real
14-Oct-2009, 18:35
I go half and half. Sometimes I have the need to get away from people, be on my own and start reading or just being with myself. But after some time of doing that, there is a moment where I can't focus anymore in my reading so I have to get out, be with people.
ferns_dad
14-Oct-2009, 21:02
totally dependent on the folks. most non-intellectuals, not interested. most who have one or another artistic or scientific appreciations, yes.
cactina
14-Oct-2009, 21:05
i echo ferns_dad (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/members/ferns_dad.html).
Jayaprakash
15-Oct-2009, 02:48
I am essentially shy and even a little misanthropic, but I can turn on the social mode when I want to. I mostly connect with people who share an interest either in literature, movies or music and have some broader interest in history, science and current events as well, so basically people I can have wide-ranging discussions with. However, I only catch up with my friends once a month or so so I really don't meet anyone on a regular basis except my wife and some professional contacts.
heidiadonis
15-Oct-2009, 03:13
I am essentially shy and even a little misanthropic, but I can turn on the social mode when I want to.
Me too! I used to be painfully shy and extremely proud. I could swap the adverbs to say that I used to be extremely shy and painfully proud. I got over those failings whose remnant is my awkwardness in a big crowd, but as you said, I can now "turn on the social mode" in a small familiar crowd.
How about making a new friend who may be like yourself but isolated. Would you not feel like reaching out sometimes to connect with them like Daniel del Real said below?
there is a moment where I can't focus anymore in my reading so I have to get out, be with people.
totally dependent on the folks. most non-intellectuals, not interested. most who have one or another artistic or scientific appreciations, yes.
What if there is a long-term friend who drifted away from your interests but who put extra effort to connect with you yet?
If you are a writer, you would definitely want to meet various people to learn more about them, right? That would be rather selfish though. I got recently curious about nurses and their jobs, having three nurse acquaintances, although I am not a writer. It is my curiosity and I am trying to reach out to them and see if we have anything in common.
ferns_dad
15-Oct-2009, 03:16
What if there is a long-term friend who drifted away from your interests but who put extra effort to connect with you yet?
happened more than once, sorry I have no time for what I consider to be boring people, even if very nice and very solicitous. I'd rather hang with 'yall and get slurred.
Jayaprakash
15-Oct-2009, 03:19
^ True. I have very little time for nice but boring people. I do have a lot of time for observing people, without in any way wanting to be any part of their lives.
SlowRain
15-Oct-2009, 04:57
I'm about as much a people person as Daniel Plainview was.
I don't require a lot of friends, I just require a few good ones. I like good conversation, and I seriously dislike banter or small-talk. I'm not a social butterfly. I usually seek out those who are not already part of any inner circle. I really enjoy people watching.
miercuri
15-Oct-2009, 23:16
I have my group of irreplaceable friends and I love spending time with them. I don't really like interacting with new people. I absolutely hate it when I am introduced to someone and they instantly start behaving as if we knew eachother for a lifetime. Once they do this, there's little chance I'll ever take to them.
It's different on the interwebs though, I am fond of forums. I met my boyfriend on a forum four years ago, we've been together three years now. :)
Daniel del Real
15-Oct-2009, 23:27
I have my group of irreplaceable friends and I love spending time with them. I don't really like interacting with new people. I absolutely hate it when I am introduced to someone and they instantly start behaving as if we knew eachother for a lifetime. Once they do this, there's little chance I'll ever take to them.
It's different on the interwebs though, I am fond of forums. I met my boyfriend on a forum four years ago, we've been together three years now. :)
Totally understand you, I'm just like you. It takes too long before I let you in a little bit in my life, I have an initial barrier for all people, don't know why.
Now, I have to confess that I always thought you were a boy :rolleyes:, that has happened to me several times in this forum. I should create a thread about genders since nicks tend to be so androgynous
miercuri
15-Oct-2009, 23:45
Totally understand you, I'm just like you. It takes too long before I let you in a little bit in my life, I have an initial barrier for all people, don't know why.
Now, I have to confess that I always thought you were a boy :rolleyes:, that has happened to me several times in this forum. I should create a thread about genders since nicks tend to be so androgynous
Aw, I am amused. It's alright, I guess that my nickname is indeed androginous and since English doesn't offer much grammatical variation when it comes to gender, it figures. It says I am a girl on my profile page though. :p
edit: it doesn't say actually, don't know why I remembered so...
If you are a writer, you would definitely want to meet various people to learn more about them, right? That would be rather selfish though.
I think it was Graham Greene who said that a writer needed a splinter of ice in the heart. Maybe he got that metaphor from H.C. Andersen's The Snow Queen.
The same idea, of a writer coldly observing someone with a view to writing about them, crops up in one of Ingmar Bergman's films, and in this case it's the man's mentally disturbed daughter. Is it Persona?
Harry
beelzebubbles
16-Oct-2009, 00:18
Miercuri, you could change your moniker to Bitchin' Babe or Hot Mama and dispel all doubt. I prefer the androgynous name. There is safety in obfuscation or at least the illusion of safety.
To answer the posted query, am I sociable? No.
Am I socially inept? I don't know.
Am I a misanthrope? No.
Do I seek out society? Yes, because society has never come looking for me. Why should it?
Mirabell
16-Oct-2009, 00:44
Yeah. Well. Most things I enjoy are rather solitary indoorsy stuff. Books. TV. Computer stuff. Writing. But I don't want to drink alone, so yeah, I do things with people. I haven't lived alone for six years, so I'm hardly ever completely alone. Troublingly, I don't need many people. 2-5 are quite enough. I'm quickly bored by people, and not skilled enough to hide it. But I'm not a misanthrope. Not sociable either, I guess.
heidiadonis, I hope you will keep reaching out to your nurse acquaintances. :)
To answer the posted query, am I sociable? Yes and no. I love people and enjoy being around them but also need quite a bit of alone time.
Am I socially inept? No. I think being someone who loves to read and think about fictional people translates into better social navigation and a more genuine nature. Strange, but some of the finest tools I've discovered for real life interaction have taken their initial shape from my reading.
Am I a misanthrope? Not at all. This does not make me boring, overly nice, or solicitous. I'm not vain enough to think that others are less interesting than myself. Even the most seemingly lackluster person has incredible stories to tell.
Do I seek out society? Yes. Like beelzebubbles says, it won't come knocking. It's okay to make things happen with other people, even if it hurts like hell sometimes.
Jayaprakash
16-Oct-2009, 05:38
I think it was Graham Greene who said that a writer needed a splinter of ice in the heart. Maybe he got that metaphor from H.C. Andersen's The Snow Queen.
The same idea, of a writer coldly observing someone with a view to writing about them, crops up in one of Ingmar Bergman's films, and in this case it's the man's mentally disturbed daughter. Is it Persona?
Harry
I don't remember if the exact phrase is right, but William S Burroughs described the writer as an invisible man, someone who was always observing the teeming life around him without being able to be part of it.
Maybe some such people have the talent to transform those observations into writing. Maybe the ones who don't have to spend excessive amounts of time reading, trying get a bearing on life from the observations of others of their kind.
A lot of writers and readers have been gregarious people though, so all this can only describe certain subset of the whole. There's a story in there someone.
Stiffelio
16-Oct-2009, 06:07
I am pretty sociable, to the extent that I've always had a conflicting dilemma. When I'm with friends and family, after a while i feel the need torush back home and sink into a book. But if I stay home for too long just reading I start itching all over and I need to get out and see a real person.
heidiadonis
16-Oct-2009, 06:27
Harry and Jayaprakash, are you saying there are some invisible writers lurking around the forum observing us? I would be glad to be at their service if my life somehow interests them. I am very observant of people but can't be invisible.
My socializing did not go well today, but I intend to make another attempt to meet the three nurses on Thursday when they are all off, Beth. They say they work only three days a week. Isn't that nice?
I agree with Stiffelio that one must interact with real people once in a while, even though one does not always succeed to connect with others. I remember in Howard Ends Margaret would happily close down her book whenever anyone needs her attention. I thought that was charming of a book lover like Margaret.
gonfler
22-Nov-2009, 08:40
I have no problem socializing. However, I'm not good at maintaining relations. There lies my problem.
People who read a fair amount of literature must inevitably be the type of person who can withdraw, manage on their own. Because reading is a solitary activity.
I think my own sociability depends of the people surrounding me. If the atmosphere of a gathering is communicative, open, I will join in. But far too many larger gatherings, meetings, even parties, tend towards being a stage to show off rather than communicate - which is better done in twos, not huddles of four at a party, where each is trying to bullshit louder than the rest. The crashing bore syndrome is much satirised on TV nowadays, leading one to think that too many people live in a kind of Rick Gervais office party world of the inflated ego.
I don't share the "intellectual versus non-intellectual" division of humanity. Some non-intellectuals are far more genuine, hence easy to get on with, than the dreadful name-dropping Sch?ngeists you can meet among ?sthetes. The tone of voice can also give away whether a person is talking with you, or using you as a foil so that more important people will eavesdrop and hear his or her pearls of stale wisdom.
People who read a fair amount of literature must inevitably be the type of person who can withdraw, manage on their own. Because reading is a solitary activity.
This is why I have always avoided poetry readings like the plague. If I want to read poetry, I'll sit down and read it on my own. It was different in the days of old when knights were bold, and nobody but a few eggheads could read, so the bard would stand up in the mead-hall, bawl at all those illiterate gluttons to pin their ears back and shut up, then recite his latest ditty.
But can you imagine sitting respectfully while Andrew Motion recites his latest ode in that drippy, sniffy voice in a purpose-built arts venue? It wouldn't be so bad if you could chuck mutton bones or set your Irish wolfhounds on him.
Harry
I second Harry's take on poetry readings. These are usually subverted and undermined by the Devil, who breathes into the ear of the headstrong temp organising that corner of the London Book Fair. His Underworldship will have stage-whispered that it is quite normal to let a hundred people push-shuffle-shove-murmur-drink past, while the poet is trying to read a delicately moving poem about the death of his mother or the birth of her child. And lo, some unfeeling parent with such a child, advanced by two years, is letting Little Darling bawl the reading into buggery, so to speak.
She was lying (clang bang, a Miranda-like "Sorreee", boing, a barely audible fart)
on her bed breathing her last (clink-dong, clank, "Fuck! I spilt it!", chair-scrape)
Her eyes...
You get the picture.
I was so glad in Stockholm, a few weeks ago, that an ethnically Swedish woman, from that nation noted for conformity and kowtowing, actually stopped the reading dead in its tracks when Eva Runefelt was reading poetry rather quietly, so that the culprit couple with their disturbant bab was obliged, out of peer-induced shame, to leave the reading and stroll for a while on the pavement with their enprammed monsterlet.
The restaurant, incidentally, deserves a plug. It was a Kurdish vegetarian one in the Stockholm district of S?der. While the reading was a disaster of bad microphones and the one mewling babe, the food is well worth going there for: Seyhmus Vegetariska Restaurang. They don't have readings every evening, and while I am not a vegetarian, this food was seriously good. And it is no more than 50 metres from the tube / underground / subway / metro station.
sumaira
01-Dec-2009, 16:19
hi.
its a pretty good question.
i am v much the same as you;ve said that readers have tendency of being isolated.so i am not asociable a bit.i hate meeting people.typical in their thinking,limited approach, and boring peopl.i like to sit in my room,reading books,rather going out.but i always like to share the ideas n books n all stuff in them with the people who really consider it.
Clarissa
01-Dec-2009, 16:54
You are never alone if you have books.
(dixit Marlene Dietrich when she withdrew from the world)
sumaira
01-Dec-2009, 17:01
yes.books are miniature
saliotthomas
02-Dec-2009, 10:09
You are never alone if you have books.
(dixit Marlene Dietrich when she withdrew from the world)
And if you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company
(Dixit JP sartre,not sure of the exat quote)
Does the forum provide a satisfactory social group for you hence you do not need much of friendships outside?
I have dogs.
How strongly do you emotionally attach to this forum?
Stewart owns me money.
This forum lacks heated discussions of books we are reading.
There are interesting reviews and discussions about books but they often are drawn in lectures and general polution.
It is not easy to talk about books you really like, one get carried away quickly. It is easy to criticize and mock and some find it the short way to their own brillance.
To finish with this, i think it take times to forme a good community of reader in a forum and once there is a solid background people will be often reading the same things and and come to discusse it naturaly.
World lit is starting to resemble this but is kept from it by some with overwhelming ego.
sumaira
02-Dec-2009, 14:41
I have been here now for more than three months. Many members seem to have formed some sort of bond among them. Of course, I could be wrong. Does the forum provide a satisfactory social group for you hence you do not need much of friendships outside? How strongly do you emotionally attach to this forum? Excuse my awkward sentences. I can't seem to write tonight.
I should have studied sociology. I do not yet have the strong emotional attachment to the forum, but I can guess it could happen soon.
This forum lacks heated discussions of books we are reading. Did I miss that part of the forum somehow?
i can agree you to some extant here.i have visited too but i couldn't find what is called argument...
World lit is starting to resemble this but is kept from it by some with overwhelming ego.
Yes, and people who pretend.
PS I prefer cats.
beelzebubbles
03-Dec-2009, 08:12
I do not see what you mean, but I can imagine some comments can aggravate people and make them lose their sleeps. I think I did annoy some people without meaning to.
I doubt you annoyed anyone.
beelzebubbles
03-Dec-2009, 08:24
PS I prefer cats.
I like cats too. I have two black cats. How many cats do you have Lionel?
Regarding Andrew Motion, I hadn't noticed before the immortal words of Harry in #22:
...Andrew Motion recites his latest ode in that drippy, sniffy voice...
That describes the former Poet Laureate to a tee. He sound like a working-class lad [both words pronounced with short "a"s] who is emulating Prince Charles to sound posh:
http://www.radley.org.uk/OR/Lusimus/Lus4/images/Andrew-Motion.jpg
Even I like cats; prefer them to Andrew Motion any day of the week. Ought to make one Cat Laureate:
http://www.jewcy.com/files/images/angry_wet_cat.jpg
There's a sociable cat for you.
Clarissa
03-Dec-2009, 10:57
Re: Are you sociable, book lovers?
http://www.jewcy.com/files/images/angry_wet_cat.jpg
There's a sociable cat for you.
Looks decidedly grumpy to me, Eric!
I do not see what you mean, but I can imagine some comments can aggravate people and make them lose their sleeps. I think I did annoy some people without meaning to.
I was just tergiversating: I was really talking about people who pretend to be...other.
I like cats too. I have two black cats. How many cats do you have Lionel?
None now, alas. None could replace my beloved Kafka Kat, who's gone off to purr eternally in cat heaven. (Yes, I've added a photo of the monster top left.)
kpjayan
03-Dec-2009, 13:39
Not sociable to Cats and Dogs.. but this animal (http://pixelshots.blogspot.com/2009/08/elephantsindia-kerala-keralas-trained.html), yes !
saliotthomas
03-Dec-2009, 13:47
Not sociable to Cats and Dogs.. but this animal (http://pixelshots.blogspot.com/2009/08/elephantsindia-kerala-keralas-trained.html), yes !
The last time i threw a ball to an elephant and he brought it by IN the house i had move places.
I love elephant to and have great memories of them in Kerala(early morning after party a guy washing an elephent on the beach,)
And i have a cat too,Max.He is a cocky bastard but i love him all the same.
gonfler
03-Dec-2009, 16:08
I don't share the "intellectual versus non-intellectual" division of humanity. Some non-intellectuals are far more genuine, hence easy to get on with, than the dreadful name-dropping Sch?ngeists you can meet among ?sthetes. The tone of voice can also give away whether a person is talking with you, or using you as a foil so that more important people will eavesdrop and hear his or her pearls of stale wisdom.
I don't even know what Sch?ngeists are. :confused:
And if you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company
(Dixit JP sartre,not sure of the exat quote)
Hahahahaha.
There are interesting reviews and discussions about books but they often are drawn in lectures and general polution.
It is not easy to talk about books you really like, one get carried away quickly. It is easy to criticize and mock and some find it the short way to their own brillance.
In my case, it's "It's not always easy to talk about the books you really like." Words evade me when drowning in the beauty of the book. ;)
Clarissa
03-Dec-2009, 16:17
Re: Are you sociable, book lovers?
Quote:
And if you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company
(Dixit JP sartre,not sure of the exat quote)
Sartre also said 'Hell is other people'!:D
Chapman
03-Dec-2009, 18:44
I value the friends that I have, though not many in number, and we talk easily about books, literature or any other topic we have in common, even chit-chat or gossip. I'll gladly talk to strangers at parties, preferring to find people who are easy to get along with and not snarky or opinionated.
At least that is how I think I am, and prefer to be.
How I actually am is something you will have to ask those who get angry with me or call me fool.
Cheers!
Re: Are you sociable, book lovers?
Quote:
Sartre also said 'Hell is other people'!:D
Well, it was one of his characters who said it, but Sartre didn't at all mean what is popularly understood by that phrase, as he explains here: L'enfer c'est les autres (http://www.philo5.com/Les%20philosophes%20Textes/Sartre_L'EnferC'EstLesAutres.htm). And remember too that he wrote a brief essay to explain himself more: L'Existentialisme est un humanisme. And people continue to believe that his philosophy is pessimistic. No way.
Clarissa
03-Dec-2009, 19:17
Thanks for that. I did know that it came from Huis Clos but I had never read Sartre's explanation of the sentence.
Clarissa #35: I see you are wandered in the ways of irony.
Saliotthomas, where in Fiji do you actually live? Are the cats the same is European ones.
"Sch?ngeist" is a handy word to use if you want to psych people who don't know German. The plural is correctly "Sch?ngeiste" I believe, but I stuck the "s" on just to make the word look ugly. It means someone who (over-)admires wthings of beauty and basks in that ambience.
I too knew that the Sartre quote came from the play "Wicklow". Despite the explanation, the meaning of the quote has become a clich?. Maybe his original quote referred to Simone when she was in a grumpy mood. We cannot tell whether this is what Sartre thought at the time of writing or whether it is a construction by hindsight.
Mirabell
04-Dec-2009, 02:01
The plural is correctly "Sch?ngeiste" I believe, .
Close but no cigarette.
We cannot tell whether this is what Sartre thought at the time of writing or whether it is a construction by hindsight
This is, uh, correct. Wait, what? No, you're really right. Sutrango.
I have found that I become friendlier as I grow older, even though I have fewer actual friends than before, but I still need two or three hours of solitude each day.
OT: Eric, thank you for the restaurant tip. I'm moving to Stockholm sometime in the spring.
Johan, as one gets older, one should get more irascible. Time's running out, yet the people in their twenties are making all the same mistakes as your generation did at the same age. Oldies should shout loudly. The youngies will ignore them. But, to use a drastic example, when these young sacrifical victims are standing on the edge of the grave, like in Borges' story "The Secret Miracle" waiting for the bullet to hit, they should remember the chorus of creaking oldies who were yelling, Cassandra-like, "Don't do it!" thirty years ago and are now yelling, "I told you so, you pillock!".
I'm only 24, so it will be quite a while before I can yell at youngsters with any amount of credibility.
gonfler
07-Dec-2009, 10:26
I don't share the "intellectual versus non-intellectual" division of humanity. Some non-intellectuals are far more genuine, hence easy to get on with, than the dreadful name-dropping Sch?ngeists you can meet among ?sthetes. The tone of voice can also give away whether a person is talking with you, or using you as a foil so that more important people will eavesdrop and hear his or her pearls of stale wisdom.
I don't even know what Sch?ngeists are. :confused:
"Sch?ngeist" is a handy word to use if you want to psych people who don't know German. The plural is correctly "Sch?ngeiste" I believe, but I stuck the "s" on just to make the word look ugly. It means someone who (over-)admires wthings of beauty and basks in that ambience.
Thanks for the explanation. Every time I come across your posts, I feel like I need to read and travel more.
And yes, I share your opinion regarding pretentious ?sthetes. :)
slim jenkins
09-Dec-2009, 08:34
I can be sociable casually. I'll talk to anyone until they reveal that they've read every Harry Potter novel...or think My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a great film...or love Madonna's music...then I reach for my revolver...
miercuri
09-Dec-2009, 13:27
I love the HP series for what they are and I think JK Rowling is in many respects the Dickens of our times. I also think that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an above average romcom and I am part Greek. :p And I love Madonna's 90's albums.
saliotthomas
09-Dec-2009, 13:33
I love the HP series for what they are and I think JK Rowling is in many respects the Dickens of our times. I also think that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an above average romcom and I am part Greek. :p And I love Madonna's 90's albums.
....Dodge.:D
slim jenkins
09-Dec-2009, 17:15
I love the HP series for what they are and I think JK Rowling is in many respects the Dickens of our times. I also think that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an above average romcom and I am part Greek. :p And I love Madonna's 90's albums.
Perhaps we could talk about something other than film, literature or music, then...:confused:;)
Ramblingsid
09-Dec-2009, 17:36
Sociable? Me? Oh god no! I am an unsociable socialist. People are very fine in theory but in practice? No, not really thank you. I want this on my gravestone...
"I wished I liked the human race
I wish I loved its silly face
And when I'm introduced to one
I wish I thought "What jolly fun!"
Actually, I am not too bad when I am drunk. Or am I? "You're by besht mate you are!!"
:)
Daniel del Real
09-Dec-2009, 23:35
I love the HP series for what they are and I think JK Rowling is in many respects the Dickens of our times. I also think that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an above average romcom and I am part Greek. :p And I love Madonna's 90's albums.
You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking! :mad: :D
Ok ok, I can't take it as long you don't like Twilight
miercuri
10-Dec-2009, 08:56
You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking! :mad: :D
Ok ok, I can't take it as long you don't like Twilight
No joke really. :D When Harry Potter first came out in Romania I was a 4th grader. And then I started reading them in English in the 5th. When the last book of the series came out I was about to finish high-school. So I literally grew up with this series and it was great fun and wonderful on the whole!
As for what I said about Rowling and Dickens, back in Victorian times people used to read Dickens the same way kids read Harry Potter now, from chapter to chapter they were dying to know what happened next. Whenever Dickens started a new serial novel it was the talk of the town. People returning to England from America would ask about Dickens' latest installments as soon as they disembarked. And all throughout, he maintained a very solid relationship with his readers, receiving letters, making occasional changes according to their wishes, kind of the same way JK does. Thematically they're not that different either, children facing hardships, a rough way to adulthood etc. It makes one empathise a lot. And certainly both abide to the principle of "make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait".
Twilight is nowhere near Harry Potter. The main difference lies in the fact that HP has lots of exciting plot, while Twilight's plot is a lame excuse for teenage tortured love angst and mormon ethics applied to vampirism. Sadly it is brainwashing generations. Rant over.
slim jenkins
10-Dec-2009, 13:09
I don't know about the singer Madonna, though. I don't think I ever heard her sing, did I??? Heading to Youtube soon...
Which planet are you from? I wish I'd been there for the last 20 yrs if it meant never having heard her...
Clarissa
10-Dec-2009, 13:16
Which planet are you from? I wish I'd been there for the last 20 yrs if it meant never having heard her... How can you have missed her??? Even if you have never heard her sing! And you haven't missed anything. I agree with slim jenkins wholeheartedly!
Daniel del Real
10-Dec-2009, 18:44
As for what I said about Rowling and Dickens, back in Victorian times people used to read Dickens the same way kids read Harry Potter now, from chapter to chapter they were dying to know what happened next. Whenever Dickens started a new serial novel it was the talk of the town. People returning to England from America would ask about Dickens' latest installments as soon as they disembarked. And all throughout, he maintained a very solid relationship with his readers, receiving letters, making occasional changes according to their wishes, kind of the same way JK does. Thematically they're not that different either, children facing hardships, a rough way to adulthood etc. It makes one empathise a lot. And certainly both abide to the principle of "make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait".
Oh my! Now I'm afraid of what will be considered a classic when my grandchildren grow up :(.
Now I guess that if everything ends at 2012 destruction would save a lot of embarrassment to humanity. :p
beelzebubbles
11-Dec-2009, 06:01
Oh my! Now I'm afraid of what will be considered a classic when my grandchildren grow up :(.
Now I guess that if everything ends at 2012 destruction would save a lot of embarrassment to humanity. :p
LOL!
I have nothing to add but my amusement.
slim jenkins
11-Dec-2009, 10:10
It's too late to save ourselves from that.
As evidence, m'lud, I offer Susan Boyle.
I sometimes feel like I'm standing on a small piece of ice in a sea of sh*t....and it's melting...
All of the above pertains to me. A paradox it seems that readers who are intensely interested in learning of lives lived as found in texts have so little patience with the mundane reality of lives lived in the "real" world. It seems it is philosophical depth within particular textual forms that we feel most attracted to and that, while we can love and have sympathy with other people, it is the literary text to which we must turn to understand our feelings about our own lives' relationships. This sounds cruel, perhaps, but I feel that it is in the human capacity for both self-consciousness and love of others that hope lies for our species.
Ramblingsid
15-Dec-2009, 14:03
I feel that it is in the human capacity for both self-consciousness and love of others that hope lies for our species.
I rather agree with that sentiment and it can be put the other way around inasmuch as if we lose that capacity then we are pretty much f----d.
There's a song I rather like (by a chap called robb johnson) called Martha in the Mirror that is inspired by the french artist pierre bonnard and his almost innocent devotion to his wife (the subject of the painting that gives the song its title). Johnson, sitting in the 21st century, looks back at Bonnard's more innocent times in the 19th century with between the two the 20th century with all its holocausts, pogroms and mass slaughters and ends up saying..
"If we lose the art of loving
All there is and who we are
What is there left but dust and ashes?
Dead stars."
He finds his hope and consolation in his own relationship which reminds him of bonnard and his painting...
"And I will see you every morning
And know that nothing can compare with
When all the naked curve of beauty
Sits cross legged to comb and dry her raven hair"
Sorry if i've gone on a bit....
KathyNickleby
19-Dec-2009, 02:40
Sociable? I'd like to be more sociable, but somehow I'm not that good at making friends. It takes time ...
I study literature, so you should think that we book lovers would find each other there. But many are just the same as the ones back in hugh school or something like that. You don't connect. And some are a lot smarter and have a much broader horizon. You don't connect.
But I don't want to complain. I have some great friends, I just have none that live very close to me, and so it's hard to see them on a regular basis.
sheryland jesus
29-Dec-2009, 23:37
Like a lot of book-lovers I find social scenes very uncomfortable. I think a lot of people are drawn to books (early on) as a form of escape from society. People can be very painful at times and it is easier to isolate and escape into a fantasy world. You should have seen the historical romance novels I escaped into as a teen. The past (with it's simplicity) seemed preferable to what I was living. But now, as an adult I realize that past centuries were not better. Through further education I have learned that the past was not as glamorous as it seems, especially considering that people would throw their dung out the windows of their homes and then it would fall on the street below. You don't read that in romance novels.
Back to the question "Am I sociable?" I can be if I have to, but it's not easy. There is value in being around other people. Besides the love and warmth we often feel for them they often make great writing material.
Sheryl
saliotthomas
30-Dec-2009, 00:33
people would throw their dung out the windows of their places of residence and that it would fall on the street below.l
Blame gravity not romance.
sheryland jesus
30-Dec-2009, 00:56
Hmmm...I never thought of it like that before. Guess it must be because I don't have a scientific mind.
Sheryl
saliotthomas
30-Dec-2009, 00:59
Hmmm...I never thought of it like that before. Guess it must be because I don't have a scientific mind.
Sheryl
:D Welcome Sheryl.
sheryland jesus
30-Dec-2009, 01:02
Thanks for the welcome Saliothomas. You look like someone I have seen on the movie the Titanic.
Sheryl
gonfler
30-Dec-2009, 05:23
Back to the question "Am I sociable?" I can be if I have to, but it's not easy. There is value in being around other people. Besides the love and warmth we often feel for them they often make great writing material.
Sheryl
Do they know?
sheryland jesus
30-Dec-2009, 07:48
Do they know?
That's a good question. Gonfler. Some know and some don't. Most of the ones who know are family members. I'm wondering though if it is right for me to be writing about people. It seems innocent enough, but I am beginning to see the impact it has on those who know I am writing about them. They are more cautious about what they say around me and they're not as "real". And sometimes I feel like they are deliberately fishing for things to say that they know would be good "writing material".
Sheryl
Svidrigailov
12-Jul-2012, 16:40
I like to be alone. In silence. But I quite normally can communicate with people, to be in "the real world". Simply I am irritated by noise, vanity and conversations. A few years ago I even threw out the mobile phone. I have many acquaintances, but on the present have a rest I can only with two-three friends (probably, because they clever and consequently speak a little).
Yes, very sociable. But I like to quieten down the noise of the world too and read. I think you can easily be both. In fact, it's essential, one flows back into the other, we don't all have to become anti-social and Salingers. And sometimes, occasionally, I really weary of books. But it doesn't tend to last for long.
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