Tori Amos, plus books!
So, in bookish news, I finally checked out the Winter Issue of Rain Taxi my favourite upper-midwestern book review forum. Certainly, it is not the only one. Delightfully enough, there's an interview with Neil Gaiman himself in it, and now I am all a-squee. He talks about Fragile Things, which I have shamefully not read, and porn, and also, writing for Tori Amos. For real, why can't I marry his brain?
In other Tori Amos-related news, I am reading Geoffrey Miller's "The Mating Mind" which is so awesome I seriously cannot deal, sometimes. I am almost finished with it, which will mark the first book I have actually finished in, like, weeks.* I am still attempting to slash him and Richard Dawkins, but now, for a pertinent quote: "Women's ongoing liberation from the nightmare of patriarchy has been due to cultural changes, not genetic evolution. Darwin would probably have been astounded by the political leadership ability of Margaret Thatcher and the musical genius of Tori Amos" While I do not agree with everything there, like, not enough Darwin fanboying, and maybe, there's a better example of a female politician, perhaps someone not totally misguided, the Tori Amos love. YAY!
Miller's book, despite what his faculty page at the University of New Mexico has lead you to believe, is actually about how these "elevated" cultural concerns, like music and language and humor, are actually products of sexual selection, and not just weird anamolies. Last weekend, when I went to the Natural History Museum, and saw the newly spiffified exhibit on Human Evolution, (still with the damn '50's gender norms in the dioramas, but otherwise, beyond awesome) the whole part of the hall on the Lascaux caves was prefaced with "we're not sure why this happened! maybe it's religious!" which also gets me: just because Western European art was predominantly financed by the Church does not mean that all art ever has a religious function. Maybe it it just a way to get dudes/babes, or even just Paleolithic pornography, in yet another linking strand. (Miller says it better than I, and perhaps I shall pen an ode to him here, one day.)
Plus, s.a. and I were talking yesterday, and he also nourishes an unhealthy love for David Foster Wallace. Yipee. We have something in common besides bipedalism and glasses! I have no idea, however, if David Foster Wallace likes Tori Amos. Bummer.
*a note about my reading habits. As a nation-state, I am constitutionally incapable, as seen in section 37, of reading fewer than ten books at a time. Not just "having ten books with bookmarks in, several of which I haven't picked up in months." No, although I do that as well; I actually have *counts* seven books in my bed (the bedside table is too small), and a few others on my desk, and in my backpack. I generally read a few chapters, and then move onto the next book, which is why it often takes me a while to finish even relatively short books.
also, my Mother just called up, and she's buying me the fancy Arden editions on 2Henry IV and Henry V, while she is down at Union Square, participating in a bake-off. joy is loud, among the people.
In other Tori Amos-related news, I am reading Geoffrey Miller's "The Mating Mind" which is so awesome I seriously cannot deal, sometimes. I am almost finished with it, which will mark the first book I have actually finished in, like, weeks.* I am still attempting to slash him and Richard Dawkins, but now, for a pertinent quote: "Women's ongoing liberation from the nightmare of patriarchy has been due to cultural changes, not genetic evolution. Darwin would probably have been astounded by the political leadership ability of Margaret Thatcher and the musical genius of Tori Amos" While I do not agree with everything there, like, not enough Darwin fanboying, and maybe, there's a better example of a female politician, perhaps someone not totally misguided, the Tori Amos love. YAY!
Miller's book, despite what his faculty page at the University of New Mexico has lead you to believe, is actually about how these "elevated" cultural concerns, like music and language and humor, are actually products of sexual selection, and not just weird anamolies. Last weekend, when I went to the Natural History Museum, and saw the newly spiffified exhibit on Human Evolution, (still with the damn '50's gender norms in the dioramas, but otherwise, beyond awesome) the whole part of the hall on the Lascaux caves was prefaced with "we're not sure why this happened! maybe it's religious!" which also gets me: just because Western European art was predominantly financed by the Church does not mean that all art ever has a religious function. Maybe it it just a way to get dudes/babes, or even just Paleolithic pornography, in yet another linking strand. (Miller says it better than I, and perhaps I shall pen an ode to him here, one day.)
Plus, s.a. and I were talking yesterday, and he also nourishes an unhealthy love for David Foster Wallace. Yipee. We have something in common besides bipedalism and glasses! I have no idea, however, if David Foster Wallace likes Tori Amos. Bummer.
*a note about my reading habits. As a nation-state, I am constitutionally incapable, as seen in section 37, of reading fewer than ten books at a time. Not just "having ten books with bookmarks in, several of which I haven't picked up in months." No, although I do that as well; I actually have *counts* seven books in my bed (the bedside table is too small), and a few others on my desk, and in my backpack. I generally read a few chapters, and then move onto the next book, which is why it often takes me a while to finish even relatively short books.
also, my Mother just called up, and she's buying me the fancy Arden editions on 2Henry IV and Henry V, while she is down at Union Square, participating in a bake-off. joy is loud, among the people.