共通点
Before I go into my story about my first cup of coffee, I will take this moment to add John Steinbeck to my "Awesome Authors Who Write What I'm Thinking" list.
I finished Travels with Charley, a story that he wrote about his adventures traveling across the US in a truck with Charley, his black French Poodle. I assume this was written perhaps sometime in the 60s or maybe the 70s, since it was when the sit ins and cruelty of the civil rights movement was happening), so it is slightly dated, but it still tells a lot about what America is like from an insider's observational perspective. I also like his prose and the way it flows. It even made me laugh out loud while reading, (again, something very rare for me.) It really makes a difference when you feel the same as the author of a book when reading.
Here's a few of my favorite quotes from this book:
"Is it not always so? We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat." page 183
Here, he's talking about his truck, named Rocianthe, which was, to Steinbeck, very reliable throughout his entire trip until it blew a tire in Oregon. But this quote is amazing; it's so true and is exactly how things are. I call it the popular media effect. Most of the time, you know you're doing good if you blend in well, but it's the horrible, devastating things that catch people's attention and make headlines.
"If the other tire blew, there we were, on a wet and lonesome road, having no recourse except to burst into tears and wait for death. And perhaps some kind birds might cover us with leaves." page 185
I think this is the part where I laughed, hard. Being a pessimist and fellow traveler, I totally understand his feelings here. (This was when his tire blew in Oregon, when it was raining and Sunday, so nothing was open and everything was miserable.) It's that feeling of helplessness where you're full of so much self-pity that you can only wish that people will at least be nice to you once you're dead. I found the last sentence particularly hilarious. Birds covering you with leaves, really? His second tire hasn't even blown yet, he's just contemplating what would happen if it DID. That's totally what I would think in that situation, too.
"I tossed about until Charley grew angry with me and told me "Ftt" several times. But Charley doesn't have our problems. He doesn't belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but but not clever enough to live in peace with itself. He doesn't even know about race, nor is he concerned about his sisters' marriage. It's quite the opposite. Once Charley fell in love with a dachshund, a romance racially unsuitable, physically ridiculous, and mechanically impossible. But all these problems Charley ignored. He loved deeply and dogfully. It would be difficult to explain to a dog the good and moral purpose of a thousand humans gathered to curse one tiny human. I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts." page 269
Somehow, this quote was perceptive, sad, and funny, all at once. In context, this was when he was writing about his adventures in the south, which, at the time, was complicated, mostly racist, and a very uncomfortable place to be. But the way he wrote about Charley...yes, I think the same, too. People always talk about how smart we humans are, but that 'intelligence' sometimes invites a stupidity so stupid that it is ultimately retarded.
Speaking of which, here's something I've thought recently:
Ignorance isn't bliss, but Knowledge won't necessarily make you happy either.
Just something to think about. :)
I finished Travels with Charley, a story that he wrote about his adventures traveling across the US in a truck with Charley, his black French Poodle. I assume this was written perhaps sometime in the 60s or maybe the 70s, since it was when the sit ins and cruelty of the civil rights movement was happening), so it is slightly dated, but it still tells a lot about what America is like from an insider's observational perspective. I also like his prose and the way it flows. It even made me laugh out loud while reading, (again, something very rare for me.) It really makes a difference when you feel the same as the author of a book when reading.
Here's a few of my favorite quotes from this book:
"Is it not always so? We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat." page 183
Here, he's talking about his truck, named Rocianthe, which was, to Steinbeck, very reliable throughout his entire trip until it blew a tire in Oregon. But this quote is amazing; it's so true and is exactly how things are. I call it the popular media effect. Most of the time, you know you're doing good if you blend in well, but it's the horrible, devastating things that catch people's attention and make headlines.
"If the other tire blew, there we were, on a wet and lonesome road, having no recourse except to burst into tears and wait for death. And perhaps some kind birds might cover us with leaves." page 185
I think this is the part where I laughed, hard. Being a pessimist and fellow traveler, I totally understand his feelings here. (This was when his tire blew in Oregon, when it was raining and Sunday, so nothing was open and everything was miserable.) It's that feeling of helplessness where you're full of so much self-pity that you can only wish that people will at least be nice to you once you're dead. I found the last sentence particularly hilarious. Birds covering you with leaves, really? His second tire hasn't even blown yet, he's just contemplating what would happen if it DID. That's totally what I would think in that situation, too.
"I tossed about until Charley grew angry with me and told me "Ftt" several times. But Charley doesn't have our problems. He doesn't belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but but not clever enough to live in peace with itself. He doesn't even know about race, nor is he concerned about his sisters' marriage. It's quite the opposite. Once Charley fell in love with a dachshund, a romance racially unsuitable, physically ridiculous, and mechanically impossible. But all these problems Charley ignored. He loved deeply and dogfully. It would be difficult to explain to a dog the good and moral purpose of a thousand humans gathered to curse one tiny human. I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts." page 269
Somehow, this quote was perceptive, sad, and funny, all at once. In context, this was when he was writing about his adventures in the south, which, at the time, was complicated, mostly racist, and a very uncomfortable place to be. But the way he wrote about Charley...yes, I think the same, too. People always talk about how smart we humans are, but that 'intelligence' sometimes invites a stupidity so stupid that it is ultimately retarded.
Speaking of which, here's something I've thought recently:
Ignorance isn't bliss, but Knowledge won't necessarily make you happy either.
Just something to think about. :)