It’s Friday, rainy and May. Three of my favourite things, but also three things that make me restless and eager to move to the season of leisure–Saturday, summer vacation and that fresh clean time after the rain clears out. So no long ruminations on Locke, no conversations about the hopeless rigidity of certain faith systems. Just thirteen random things I want to mention, little Post-its from my brain.
1. I gave in to lust and temptation and got Mary Doria Russell’s new novel about Doc Holliday. I’ve loved Doc Holliday since I was a girl, entranced by his iconoclasm. And I figured MDR owed me a better book than the last one. Thirty-five percent of the way through it and, to no one’s surprise, there are Jesuits. I just hope this Jesuit isn’t raped by a giant space puppycat, as I can only handle that story once. And just barely at that.
2.I love Russell’s fascination with the Jesuit culture. I share a minor amount, but I imagine were I Roman Catholic I’d share even more. I’m always intrigued by anyone who is part of a group that values disciplines of the mind. Kabbalists (the real ones, pre-Madonna and the red string), Physicians, philosophers, astronauts. Is it any wonder all the books I write have at least one of those creatures?
3. The older I get the more I lose patience with the RC insistence that priests remain celibate. It doesn’t really matter to me as anything more than an intellectual exercise and their faith is theirs. I just can’t help but wonder if it would energise the Catholic church to allow priests to marry.
4. I’ve decided to quit dreading the rainy days. I used to love nothing more than a good thunderstorm. To sit on the porch swing and watch the weather wash the world is so comforting and calming. When rain started ushering in the extra pain, when we started using my whimpering and clawed grip as a more reliable weather predictor than Channel 4 (“It’s Arthritis Bird!”) I started to hate the rain. I think I’m over that. I mean I’m gonna hurt anyway, right? May as well also enjoy the good stuff.
5. Stouffer’s has changed their frozen lasagne recipe. Now it sort of tastes like ketchup and noodles. This bums me out because these frozen lasagnes have been a go-to meal for me for 30 years.
6. I am showing remarkable restraint by not spending all my family’s money on sea-glass jewelry at Etsy. I don’t, as a rule, care for jewelry in the way I care for books and computer things. But I love stuff like this.
7. I keep meaning to write a full post about sea glass. About how it reminds me of me–trash redeemed and turned to treasure–and how I think it is worth more to my mind than diamonds. But maybe since I just said it all there that’s good enough.
8. Running out of words; I’m only at 8 and I’ve 485 words already. I guess this may go over. I’m truly sorry.
9. I don’t like Angry Birds. I’ve tried. I just don’t get it.
10. I am, however, still wildly addicted to Pocket Frogs. It’s weird how soothing I find that sort of thing. Maybe I should re-investigate stamp collecting.
11. My parents have given me for various birthdays and Christmases kits for beginning calligraphy, beginning drawing, beginning stamp collecting. I stuck with the calligraphy and the drawing, but I get so little mail…
12. This Doc Holliday book makes me wonder about what has happened to Val Kilmer. I was on his personal website and he seems both genuine and a little out there.
13. My passion for greek yogurt is getting out of control. I do need the vitamins and the calcium so I eat a cup a day. Many days it’s the only thing I eat. There might need to be a yogurt rehab.
The Jesuits are really cool if you are a straight guy. They are, as an order, unwelcoming to homosexuals* and abysmally ignorant about women.** I got my Ph.D. at a Jesuit school and wouldn’t swap that experience for very much, but they have these lacunae….
*Though certainly there have been “special friendships” among Jesuits I have known, they won’t allow GLBT groups on their campuses and often turn a blind eye to the harassment of individuals.
**For instance, some of them are not aware of the services that gynecologists provide. One Jesuit university president said that the only reason to have a gynecologist on the staff of his university’s health service would be to “start an abortion mill on campus.” A delegation of nuns went to talk to him to try to unconfuse him about it and to explain about pap smears and mammograms and all, but he never corrected himself.
Oh, also, yes to Greek yoghurt.
I recommend checking out the latest from SF Grandmaster* Mike Resnick. It’s called The Buntline Special and is about an alternate universe Doc Holliday who’s sent to Tombstone to protect Tom Edison from an undead Johnny Ringo and magic realism Native Americans. Also, a Bat Masterson who’s really a bat (but only at night).
It’s weird and wonderful and somewhat light-weight, but just as fun as you’d hope for. I read it in a week in stolen moments on my various handheld devices. 7.5 / 10
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/01/review-the-buntline-special-by-mike-resnick/
*He isn’t yet, but should be. See also Gene Wolfe.
I must be honest here. And this honesty may get me drummed out of multiple friendships, so I hesitate to reveal it.
I hate/loathe/cannot stand/have great antipathy for steampunk. As much as Ive tried repeatedly to enjoy it, i just cant. I’m not sure why other than i tend to find the atmosphere of the stories grimy and coyly, winkingly complex in a way that doesnt make me happy. Every so often someone will rave about a steampunk thing and Ill try it, but I invariably come away even more bitter about the genre. (Sorry, all you _Boneshaker_ fans.)
So I’m kind of torn. Love Holliday and most things about him, but harbouring as strong a dislike as I have for steampunk and zombies I think I better hold off…
Wanted to mention that I’ve never disintegrated an existing friendship because their tastes in literature (or even Sci-Fi, bwahaha) are different than mine. I’m just happy people are still reading!
Hm. In the spirit of full disclosure, I suppose I should mention that I publish Mike Resnick on occasion at Ray Gun Revival magazine, but I’ve liked Mike for decades and don’t push stuff based on favoritism. I like what I like and that’s it. If you like Doc Holliday, (or steampunk, or zombies, or vampires, or magic-working Indians, or…) check out The Buntline Special.
I know of a priest up in Albuquerque who’s married. There’s a smattering of them around. What a lot of people don’t know is that already married men can become priests, and they don’t have to give up their wives to do so (obviously!). It’s not a common happening, but it does occur.