Acquisitions
Author Archives: Nerdishly
Recent acquisitions
I had issues.
But I’m (finally!) caught up.
Copysmith Star Class
From The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl:
p. 36
“First, words. We want words that are about Venus, words that’ll tickle people. Make them sit up. Make them muse about change, and space, and other worlds. Words to make them a little discontented with what they are and a little hopeful about what they might be. Words to make them feel noble about feeling the way they do….”
p. 47
“… It always winds up with him telling me the world’s going to hell in a hand-basket and people have got to made to realize it — and me telling him we’ve always got along somehow and we’ll keep going somehow.”
p. 81
It was an appeal to reason, and they’re always dangerous. You can’t trust reason. We threw it out of the ad profession long ago and have never missed it.
p. 95
It was a simple application of intelligence, and if that doesn’t bear out the essential difference between consumer and copysmith mentality, what does?
Bookish booty
Yes, I do realize that even at this significantly reduced rate of acquisition, my “books on shelves to books read” conversion is impossible in this lifetime… in three lifetimes. And I’m all right with that.
Recent acquisitions
Spooky acquisitions
Coveting nature
“Coveting Nature explores the ways in which botanists and entomologists worked in tandem with artists to record and disseminate knowledge in the early modern period (1500–1800).” This Krannert Art Museum exhibit runs through December 22.
“No damn cat, and no damn cradle.”
In May 2011, I clipped David Ulin’s “Summers of Discovery” from the Chicago Tribune. (It also appeared in the Los Angeles Times: “Critic’s Notebook: In Discover Mode.”) I had thought I would reread Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle that summer, but we know how that goes, right? More than six years later, though, I finally returned to the novel, and as I mentioned in my last post, it still resonates.
p. 164
And I remembered The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before. The Fourteenth Book is entitled “What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?”
It doesn’t take long to read The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period.
This is it:
“Nothing.”
Bookish
Last weekend, between Fun Home at Victory Gardens (highly recommended) — and Machinal at the Greenhouse Theatre Center (excellent but now closed), we visited the bookstore pictured above. It’s even cooler in person.
Reading notes
To celebrate Banned Books Week, I reread Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, a book I first read thirty years ago; I am happy to report that it holds up. Although I am still behind on the Sonnets, I am keeping up with the rest of the Shakespeare in a Year schedule, having finished Antony and Cleopatra over the weekend. The only other book I’ve completed since my last post is You by Caroline Kepnes, which was not quite as graphic as I had feared. In anticipation of seeing Steppenwolf’s The Crucible, I have chosen to read Stacy Schiff’s Witches instead of rereading Miller’s play (which I love and have all but memorized).
Other notes
Two things I can say about my work: These first five weeks have passed so quickly! And, I remain grateful to have found this gig. Actually, three things: It really does take part of the weekend to “get ready for the week.” We visited our daughters yesterday but spent much of today on chores, paperwork, and errands.
Nerdishly 