Monday, September 22, 2008
Some Brida
Now I'm at the library. I returned Brida by Paulo Coelho, a 1995 "novel" copyrighted 2008 in this translation. It was on the 14 day shelves & I was the first to check it out. I've never read Coelho. I got 10 pages into the book & didn't like it. Flipped through it & didn't find anything to like. Brida opens in Ireland, involves a vision quest & Celtic magic, & fantasy, & a spiritual teacher in the woods, & Coelho was getting it wrong. Not that his "message" wasn't right.
It's perfectly alright to bullshit in this literary realm, on this particular, partly imaginary Island, but you have to know where you are. You know you're there when you can crawl up into the asshole of a magic horse to trick an ogre who will chop off your head if you can't solve his riddle. You're there when you overhear a conversation between a cow & a fly. You're there when you're stumbling home in the dark from the pub & a door in the far hillside near a well & a grove of trees opens, music & golden light pouring out, then it closes. It's nonsense if you assume it could happen anywhere to anyone, maybe some Brida, no matter where she's from, & that all spiritual paths lead to Universal Truths. We start out seeking what we believe is owed us; treasure, wisdom, unconditional love, an answer to a question. We go stumbling up the road.
It's not my place to approve or disapprove of a writer beloved by Madonna & serving as the UNESCO special counsellor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences”. For the first time at this library branch, returning a book, a librarian asked me, "How did you like it?" I replied, "I didn't read it. Maybe later."
It's perfectly alright to bullshit in this literary realm, on this particular, partly imaginary Island, but you have to know where you are. You know you're there when you can crawl up into the asshole of a magic horse to trick an ogre who will chop off your head if you can't solve his riddle. You're there when you overhear a conversation between a cow & a fly. You're there when you're stumbling home in the dark from the pub & a door in the far hillside near a well & a grove of trees opens, music & golden light pouring out, then it closes. It's nonsense if you assume it could happen anywhere to anyone, maybe some Brida, no matter where she's from, & that all spiritual paths lead to Universal Truths. We start out seeking what we believe is owed us; treasure, wisdom, unconditional love, an answer to a question. We go stumbling up the road.
It's not my place to approve or disapprove of a writer beloved by Madonna & serving as the UNESCO special counsellor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences”. For the first time at this library branch, returning a book, a librarian asked me, "How did you like it?" I replied, "I didn't read it. Maybe later."
Labels: what I'm reading
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I used to try to finish books like that- Certified Important books, even if I wasn't into it and it felt like an assignment.
Somewhere along the line I realized that there's a whole lot to read out there, and if I don't like this book I'm holding, I can find another that I enjoy reading. I think that's something that some of us have to learn- that it's ok to drop popular or classic works if we just don't care what happens.
Somewhere along the line I realized that there's a whole lot to read out there, and if I don't like this book I'm holding, I can find another that I enjoy reading. I think that's something that some of us have to learn- that it's ok to drop popular or classic works if we just don't care what happens.
I'm suspicious of anyone who smiles a lot but never says anything funny. Coelho seems to be that type.
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