I just finished Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, and have been set into a thoroughly odd state of mind by it. Not that my state of mind has been especially normal over the last few days… but in that vein of thought, Nakobov the far and away the most talented linguist I have ever read. And beyond that? Lolita was masterfully crafted. The prose was rich and at times powerful and poetic. The characters were despairingly believable. I’ll not put on airs as being able to provide any sort of “review” of the book– hardly. I don’t think I can even provide you with a taste of the book. Read it? Sure. After you finish the 1,000 other things that you want to read. Or: if reading isn’t your thing, then don’t sweat it.
So.
The whole of my post-Bozeman existence has been dominated by sleeping and eating. I’ve slept an obscene amount, and yet, despite my relative inactivity, I still find myself exhasted. I didn’t leave the house today. I didn’t even step outside. The last time this happened was exactly a year ago, following my unfortunate encounter with a semi-truck. But what else is there to do when it’s May 11th and snowing outside? When there’s nothing outside any more intruiging than my books and piano? …
I took Chester for a walk… not last night, but the night before. We left my house just as the sun was setting, and Chester had gone a mile or more before we even made it out of the driveway. The first half-hour was marked by the t-t-t-t-p! of the retractable leash going out (usually accented by an “ug” on my part as my arm was partially pulled from its socket) and the v-v-v-v-t of the leash retracting as Chester chased across again to the other side of the road in front of me. Sometimes I ran and tried to keep up but… keep up with a 1-year-old English Setter? Hardly. And so we went. We re-approached the house in semidarkness, and I fully appreciated the sweatshirt I had brought.
God damn these blogs… how could I ever begin to convey the emotion and full reality of walking, alone with my puppy, across the darkening Wyoming plains, lost in thought and wonder and regret? And what’s the purpose? Even if I were somehow able to capture just one moment from our hour-and-a-half walk and share it here with the rest of the world, to what avail? Would you know me better? Would you have a better understanding of who Mark is? Would you in any way be able to share the immense humanity of the moment I captured? Would you gain anything by it?
Or would you have just read my blog?
God, such angst.
But enough of that. Let’s keep to the superficial– the rest is a waste of time.
I saw Kingdom of Heaven last night. I very much enjoyed it, although from a critical standpoint it’s probably not more than a three star film (of five). Regardless, I have no doubt that it will receive a Best-Picture nomination. From my perspective, however, it was amazing. I love Ridley Scott and his eye for visually spectacular overwhelming film, and I very much appreciated the film’s subject matter. I would certainly recommend the film to anyone who 1) enjoyed Gladiator or 2) is interested in the subjects of the crusades, God, middle-age warfare, or “what makes a man.”
And so, once again, it’s snowing outside. Nope, actually it’s not. It stopped snowing about four hours ago. Now it’s just 28 degrees and dark.
