Thank God for Books

I have not written for a while. In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, we ere without power for a day and a half, without cable for 8 days, and without the internet for 10 days. Without books, I would have been a wee bit crazy.

I had not been reading a lot for awhile. I relaxed and read, slowly and with great pleasure w fine books James Ellroy's Perfidia. Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge, Frank Herbert's Dune (a reread, but worthwhile) and Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels.

It was a true delight to settle back and ease through these very different, but very fine novels.

Reading does something movies and TV can't do. They release the imagination. The words paint pictures which your mind's eye makes visible. It is a fine form of entertainment.

So, I would hearitly recommend that, from time to time, you turn off the electronics and settle back with a good novel.

Beauty and Fun for Humans

Like most folks, I love books, movies, TV, music, games and sports. I have become a bit disenchanted with modern trends in all 6 of those categories, but, there is no reason to abandon those pastimes.

I am not by nature a very nostalgic person , but I recognise quality. I find present day entertainment lacking in quality but, I tend to think of this as, at most, an annouing trend. By examining the past, I believe we can find a way out of the current sludge that we are fed by the various media and start something of a new era, one not clinging to the past, but rooted there,

Human society is created by building on the past, adapting it to aquired knowledge and producing a synthesis. We seem to currently be trying to completely abandon all past value in an effort to create some kind of new techno-society. In a sense, that is succeeding, but it does not lead to a new beauty, a new quality. Instead, we are creating some sort of mechanical world. The Singularity that people like Ray Kurtzweil babble about may be near and if it is, count me out.

I like entertainment that stresses humanity. The books of Twain and Poe and Dickens, the music of Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan, the movies of John Ford and Robert Altman. I like games where people interact directly with each other, not through game consoles. I like sports where skills other than raw power are valued.

In this blog, I am going to give into nostalgia, a bit, in order to remind folks that there was a time when humans and their stories were of the greatest value. Those of my era may find some pleasure in remembering some of the things I will mention. Those younger may be inspired to look at the past. I hope so because I would hate to see so much of value, so much beauty, lost.