Entry tags:
Literacy in its various forms
This morning I got a spam mail. Hardly unusual, of course, but the subject line made me giggle-snort into my coffee: "HERE BEST DRUGS!"
So...did that particular company hire Drunk Hulk to write their subject lines? I have to give them points for succinctness, at least.
On the other end of the literacy spectrum, my experiment in trying to write a bit of fiction each day has been off to a rocky start. I don't know if it's my self-sabotage instinct or what, but my inspiration/excitement about the idea (what little of it I had to begin with) seems to have dried right up. Maybe I should do some outlining, or work on a couple of sort (or short-short) stories. Or maybe now's just not the time to be forcing myself to do something I'm obviously not into. (The problem, of course, being that if now's not the time, when is the time?)
In music-literacy news, I've been toying with some original arrangements of songs that I like on the guitar. I'm quite proud of a couple of them, in fact; if they're not quite performance-ready yet, they're fun to practice, as I feel like I've contributed something to their creation. I keep saying I plan to record myself, but I appear to be as deathly afraid of video as I am of writing. Still, given that I picked each of the songs in part due to its significance to one of the pretty girls I've met recently (both of whom live, sadly, far away), perhaps I can motivate myself a bit by imagining how pleased they'll be. (Hopefully.) The biggest bright spot - my singing is improving markedly, and I'm feeling far less self-conscious about it. Amazing what regular practice will do.
In more show-offy literacy news, I also recently finished reading Cyrano de Bergerac. I'd...not been avoiding it, exactly, but I'd gotten the impression from the plot description that it was a silly tragic romance, so it hadn't been high on my priority list. But then I read this interview with one of my favorite authors, who quoted Cyrano as an inspiration for one of my favorite characters, and I decided to give it a read. I'm quite glad I did, too, even if (in the end) it was a silly tragic romance:
In more than a few ways, I feel like I'm a little too old to be reading this for the first time. The play's emotional hook, unsurprisingly, is rooted in admiration for the title character; and while I certainly admire his integrity, I just can't bring myself to subscribe to his fundamental value system. Call me cynical and unromantic, but I see little value in fighting a battle with no hope of winning, or robbing myself and my love of potential happiness simply to preserve her (false!) image of my dead friend. Had I read this when I was a decade younger, as it seems most of my friends did, I might swoon a little at his romantic devotion; as it is, I can only really smile sadly and shake my head at his antics.
All of that said, I still very much enjoyed the read. Cyrano's much-celebrated clever wordplay is truly worthy of its accolades, and his discourses on love are enough even to warm my twisted blackened heart. And even a pragmatist like me can't argue with the effectiveness of the major scenes in tugging one's heartstrings - I could absolutely see, in the hands of a skilled cast, crying my eyes out over this play. But ultimately I think the strongest feeling it inspires in me is relief - that I've grown enough to have a more rounded view of love, and the many forms it takes, and the silliness of hiding it when there's happiness within one's grasp. A-
So...did that particular company hire Drunk Hulk to write their subject lines? I have to give them points for succinctness, at least.
On the other end of the literacy spectrum, my experiment in trying to write a bit of fiction each day has been off to a rocky start. I don't know if it's my self-sabotage instinct or what, but my inspiration/excitement about the idea (what little of it I had to begin with) seems to have dried right up. Maybe I should do some outlining, or work on a couple of sort (or short-short) stories. Or maybe now's just not the time to be forcing myself to do something I'm obviously not into. (The problem, of course, being that if now's not the time, when is the time?)
In music-literacy news, I've been toying with some original arrangements of songs that I like on the guitar. I'm quite proud of a couple of them, in fact; if they're not quite performance-ready yet, they're fun to practice, as I feel like I've contributed something to their creation. I keep saying I plan to record myself, but I appear to be as deathly afraid of video as I am of writing. Still, given that I picked each of the songs in part due to its significance to one of the pretty girls I've met recently (both of whom live, sadly, far away), perhaps I can motivate myself a bit by imagining how pleased they'll be. (Hopefully.) The biggest bright spot - my singing is improving markedly, and I'm feeling far less self-conscious about it. Amazing what regular practice will do.
In more show-offy literacy news, I also recently finished reading Cyrano de Bergerac. I'd...not been avoiding it, exactly, but I'd gotten the impression from the plot description that it was a silly tragic romance, so it hadn't been high on my priority list. But then I read this interview with one of my favorite authors, who quoted Cyrano as an inspiration for one of my favorite characters, and I decided to give it a read. I'm quite glad I did, too, even if (in the end) it was a silly tragic romance:
In more than a few ways, I feel like I'm a little too old to be reading this for the first time. The play's emotional hook, unsurprisingly, is rooted in admiration for the title character; and while I certainly admire his integrity, I just can't bring myself to subscribe to his fundamental value system. Call me cynical and unromantic, but I see little value in fighting a battle with no hope of winning, or robbing myself and my love of potential happiness simply to preserve her (false!) image of my dead friend. Had I read this when I was a decade younger, as it seems most of my friends did, I might swoon a little at his romantic devotion; as it is, I can only really smile sadly and shake my head at his antics.
All of that said, I still very much enjoyed the read. Cyrano's much-celebrated clever wordplay is truly worthy of its accolades, and his discourses on love are enough even to warm my twisted blackened heart. And even a pragmatist like me can't argue with the effectiveness of the major scenes in tugging one's heartstrings - I could absolutely see, in the hands of a skilled cast, crying my eyes out over this play. But ultimately I think the strongest feeling it inspires in me is relief - that I've grown enough to have a more rounded view of love, and the many forms it takes, and the silliness of hiding it when there's happiness within one's grasp. A-