June 1, 2024
i’m trying something new – a little recording of my month on here; my journals feel much too private to share but the following monthly updates may provide an insight into my months. may, for the record, has not been a good one. though i’ve been able to travel out of this city, houston is still unpleasant in weather and composition; meeting people (though i am giving it my best efforts regardless!) is really difficult and, at times, painful.
i’m a sucker for magical realism so this was right up my alley. rushdie’s writing drew me in during a time in which i was trapped in an airport for seven hours and it felt like no time had passed at all. the book feels intensely personal which is a difficult task for fiction.
there’s a fascination with ancient rome which i will never fully cure myself of; it’s not isolated to rome but rather the concept of people far in the past living markedly different lives than we do in modernity while still keeping a common strain of humanity. the political processes of these (unfortunately all) men do not look like what we have today but the themes behind them (the scheming, particularly) holds true.
recently i was walking around downtown houston. on my walks i usually call family members and i was thinking that i should give my grandpa a call before realizing that he died at the beginning of the year. i’ve been half expecting him to facetime me, the camera at the perfect angle to look into his nostrils as i have the same conversation five times over half an hour. didion captures this feeling well.
this was the only bechdel collection that i had not read and it was lovely. as a fellow exercise afficionado (i run 20-30 mi/week, climb 3x/week, and yoga 2-3x/week as well) bechdel’s relationship to it, especially in her discussion of flow states, struck close to home. exercise levels my mood, which is very frustrating to admit because i would get irritated at my father as a kid when he told me that it would, but it also masks it; i pour myself into exercise to get out my frustrations and it does not necessarily make them go away. it’s just that i can’t think clearly if i have been running for an hour in ninety-five degree weather, and from the outside this looks a lot like inner peace.
i don’t know how to describe this one aside from that i cannot recommend it enough. the concept of choice, death, and despair as stated by kierkegaard helped me deal with some issues which have popped up for me (read my social media post). i do not think he intended this as a self-help book. nevertheless – it is.
speaking of worlds entirely unlike our own, didion’s america feels like a different place. it could just be california, or it could be the generational and technological changes we have experienced over the last sixty years. the personalities are the same; actions far removed from now.
see my notes on it elsewhere.
had i not majored in chemical engineering i think that i would have chosen economics. this was a very interesting book – i usually see attacks on the world bank and imf from a left-leaning slant due to the kinds of people i tend to surround myself with and this is a refreshing critique from a different direction. it also explains why sweatshops, etc. exist now and the manufacturing incentive structures for the global economy.
see my notes on it elsewhere.
i don’t think that i believe this but it sure is interesting!
one of the first skills baby chemical engineers are taught is the concept of the mass balance. this book asks “hey! what if we apply this to everything?” and in doing so casts the civilizational growth to modernity in a new light. i do not think that i will look at plows or staple crops the same way ever again. this book made me despair a bit for our post 1970 consensus; we need to produce more energy for less money and continue to do so. maybe texas is doing something right with their accidental push for renewables!
it’s a banger check it out.