A new author for me:Kenneth Gergen

Gergen faceGergen

Ihave been reading his earlier book,The Saturated Society which I also strongly recommend.I found it good reading and I now know what post modernism  is about for better or worse.He can be very funny too When trlating his personal experiences.If you can get these from your library you will be intrigued.And his prose is great too.

I am learning so much.

A plunesh bull in a kitch
A plunesh bull in a kitch

wittgenstein

And laughing too

More on Emmanuel Levinas

PIC00649.JPGSince I came upon the work of Levinas I  have found his writing interesting even though tough for me to understand,,

I just found this useful list of references to him and in case you are interested you can take a look

Intellectual perspective

What is humor except crossing a boundary?
I wish I were an ivy growing on your wall
I wish I were a berry
Just about to fall
I wish I were a hazelnut
And you would break a tooth
For my name is Sally
and not, and not,not Ruth
Image

Whatever is true

The students said  I was too warm to be British,so turn off your heating now or face  execution as a  traitor.What people forget is we Brits are a mixed race… then we have the nerve to call people,wogs,dagos and foreigners.we are all foreigners here apart from the Welsh.

Some students told me their dreams;s,anything to avoid studying Lacan

I  personally found quantum theory helps to avoid emotions

and topology  is useful for dressmakers and knitters

Dreams and love are all very well… if you are a millionaire.Till then keep on with figures,asymmetry and words.And courtesy.Obscenity is for dummies or the fragile

Friends are no use unless you are a real person.Whatever she is.

Schizophrenia is to some extent cowardliness………….keep your feet on the ground and say straight out what you mean without entering into wordplay,fey ways,being a seer and seeing how life veers.Be plain.You have a right to your views but speak kindly

Some bulls are only  e-male.

Depression is mainly the result of being driven.So give up the chauffeur and take your time.

Find your own rhythm and stick to it.

Some loose women are fast  and vice versa.Isn’t logic trying?

I was so thin  when I began lecturing I got half fare on the bus and I was 25.So studying keeps you young.Never say Schoenberg aagain.

I was so thin then I bought children’s clothes but now I am  twice the size.Then they said I might have TB,now they say I could get diabetes.Take your pick……there’s something in me that will never take the middle way.My middle gets in the way.

We all eat too much considering how little we do.Bring back the scrubbing  board,brush and hard green soap.But if I eat less I faint…. what an ‘orrible feeling as your vision shrinks to a pinpoint and you sweat all over but more on the top of the head…. and you throw yourself onto the floor… or the ceiling.

Once we were having a meal with another couple…with one of those heated plate things on the table.I passed out and for years they talked about it.They divorced later and blamed me!Still,I gave them something to talk about so maybe I helped.Take the rough and smooth it

If you get disturbed stop introspecting and sweep the floor or the pavement.Do useful things with your hands and help others.Be polite even if you think they are the Devil,.Even if it really is be nice…He is only  human,after all.

God is Love and  plain as plain.

Related articles

Top book blog

Top book blog

This is highly thought of by many literary journals

Subversive Education:Noam Chomsky’s views

Subversive education

Chomsky talks about Paulo Freire’s writing

A long review of Conversations with Emmanuel Levinas

http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24561-conversations-with-emmanuel-levinas-1983-1994/

This is really good.Not just a short book review but a discussion ranging quite widely of all Levinas‘s era and his Judaism.

It makes me think how  much we can take our life for granted when we consider all the tragedies in the world.I read yesterday that men are never confident of their masculinity and thus war is inevitable just as scapegoats have been needed to carry  the  evil of us who cannot face our own evil…

Are humans able to change?What is the role of women in all of this?

I am  mulling it over whilst heavy rain falls down and leaves fly off the trees

 

 

An article about the American poet Elizabeth Bishop.And a poem

http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/article.html?id=663

I love her work

Exchanging Hats

Unfunny uncles who insist
in trying on a lady’s hat,
–oh, even if the joke falls flat,
we share your slight transvestite twist

in spite of our embarrassment.
Costume and custom are complex.
The headgear of the other sex
inspires us to experiment.

Anandrous aunts, who, at the beach
with paper plates upon your laps,
keep putting on the yachtsmen’s caps
with exhibitionistic screech,

the visors hanging o’er the ear
so that the golden anchors drag,
–the tides of fashion never lag.
Such caps may not be worn next year.

Or you who don the paper plate
itself, and put some grapes upon it,
or sport the Indian’s feather bonnet,
–perversities may aggravate

the natural madness of the hatter.
And if the opera hats collapse
and crowns grow draughty, then, perhaps,
he thinks what might a miter matter?

Unfunny uncle, you who wore a
hat too big, or one too many,
tell us, can’t you, are there any
stars inside your black fedora?

Aunt exemplary and slim,
with avernal eyes, we wonder
what slow changes they see under
their vast, shady, turned-down brim.

The Bitch in the House [Paperback] Cathi Hannauer (Author)

Georgee eliotFrancine prose3

 

I said I would write about at the weekend but I felt it more urgent to reconstruct the blog as I had wandered away from my intentions.This book  is very interesting,It contains stories from a number of women in the USA about their lives.I am unsure who chose the title as my mother would have fainted to hear this name!But in truth one contributor says that she is very nice at work and a demon to her family..S he has a very high powered job.I myself find it odd that feminism means women must work  in paid job now even when they have babies.Alas house prices have risen to match and so it’s really tough.Other stories are not so harsh.The one I was moved by was written by a woman who happens to be overweight.She tells her story very well.And what a life she has had.It’s worth getting just for that.And it’s only 1p on Amazon. Some stories seem like ones from the dawn of time.. a couple meet.At last she has found her ideal man.And so he continues until they drive off for the honeymoon and as they approach a big Freeway junction he begins to shout and yell because she is not telling him which road is the right one!And he never even gave her a map/road atlas.So married life began with a shock of horror…

I myself love books like this that a bit like a blog tell a story of another woman’s life/The stories are too short really… but it’s a gripping read.A very good variety of different lives,different kinds of relationship and the toughness of educating yourself when you are poor and possibly black too

Feeling suicidal?

I noticed many people read the article I reblogged about  a woman who was feeling so depressed last year.There are many resources … the Samaritans being the best here in the UK.local charges on phone

Or visit this link

http://www.breathingspacescotland.co.uk/bspace/119.34.36.html

New books

tWeeds or flowers

How to be more obscene than I by George Grammarcy

How not to spill   all your words by Mary Maddens

How to paint yourself into a corner by Vincent Bunk Off.

Novels for he men by Forman Taylor

New books out now for Thanksgiving

How to sleep with a flea in your ear.

How cats aid the lonesome

Make the most of sex pests .

What not to do in bed on your own

Keep warm with electrified bed bugs .

Hugging for the older, wilder and lonelier.New guidance

I put my finger in the socket and other tales of electrical excitement.

On your own?You are never alone with a fantasy or two.How to do  create a mental image

Why women love a bum

How to be safe  in bed…electrified nightwear for beginners.DIY

Discover Francine Prose and what she reads

Francine prose

Francine prose3francine-prose 2

I greatly like the writer  Francine Prose and just read an interview witth her.And secondly I found a piece where she talks about her favorite books.I looked at her images on Google Image because I like faces.There are lots of photos of her at different ages and in different moods.I think she has a fascinating face.And mind