Thursday, November 11, 2010

Utter nonsense

For some reason, I decided to write pure and utter nonsense.  It proved harder than I thought.  I didn't even mean for the paragraphs to be linked in anyway, but upon reading over it, I noticed they go from Monday to Sunday.  That is the only rhyme to this non-reason.  I'm rather proud of my jibberish though.  It kind of has the feel of prose poetry.  I checked the website I Write Like and said it was similar to Chuck Palahniuk.  Why am I not surprised?  So here's my gibberish.  Enjoy.

Bookshelves lined with Mondays, fall down on mice having their afternoon tea, and shake the towncar.  Coffee breaks the lining of our coats like mustard on a dry leaf.  Lazy turtle!  never forget the sugar!
Homeopathic medicine is like a head in a jar.  It gobbles up all your onions and throws them at passing old ladies, walking their husbands to classes for the blind.  The fish!  mightiest of sea creatures, lives in my basement.  It's victual is the blood of my victims from earlier Tuesday.  Boy, do we have fun.
Blackwater candy canes hang from Christmas decorations in the autumn months of spring, back to where we belong.  Goodbyes were said on Wednesday morning.  Oh, my poor, sweet potato! wherefore art thou?  Here, we sit in silence waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for the glorious return.
Pop the top off my thumb nail and sing alleluia.  Where is my Thursday?  A fortnight ago was noon, but now we are in pantsless dark, searching for our horses.  There they go.  No, not them, but cats have galloped away.  Pray for prey to stay away.
My chair is spinning like a pen in ink, squeezed from the tit of a platypus.  Sit down upon your hands, my coconut.  My coconut of goodness, made sweeter every time I shave.  France on Friday is fantastic is you're fat.  We are not, and so, we cry.  The house plants of Denver find there way to the bus stop, but miss it in the nick of time.
Skip to my lieu my darling Clementine.  Skip my lieu and good night to the cow at my window, seducing the Rhine.  Cow!  not on my watch!  Give back my Saturday, good surgeon.  The lamp belongs in water muffins.  Tell Carl Sandburg to stop glaring.
A sad sandwich shop in New South Whales sprang up over night.  Saint George fought the beast and ate the damsel in disguise.  Spit her out, sandwich shop!  Born of a woman, raised by a hatless bear, Saint George, Saint George, come home for Sunday tea.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Extended Reading List

I've found myself in a predicament, as of late.  I have two lists of books I want to read.  The first one is the list I posted earlier; the second is a list of Medieval and classical works as well as works expounding upon the former period.  One could say the first list is my casual reading list, though to a casual reader--by most definitions--it would look rather academic.  The second would clearly appear entirely academic, though it's becoming a bit of an obsession of mine.  I have before me an untouched wealth of knowledge, which, in the words of Seneca the Younger, "were born for us and prepared for us a way of life."
I have been gathering up Medieval texts over the passed few months--over the passed year, actually.  Of these, I've only read selections from The Golden Legend.  I intend for this to change in the coming year.  Of the books I intend to read next year, here is a list.  By making a list, I can use it as a reference, as well as make it more definitive.

Books about the Medieval Period include:

The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C.S. Lewis
Medieval Lives by Terry Jones, with Alan Ereira (The documentary was fantastic.)
Monarchy by David Starkey (Again, the documentary was fantastic.)

Actual Medieval (and going back to the Classical period and into the Renaissance) texts:

The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer
Ethics by Aristotle
The Mabinogion
The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
Confessions by Saint Augustine
City of God by Saint Augustine
Piers the Plowman
Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede
Alfred the Great by John Asser 
The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Inner Life by Thomas a Kempis
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (more thoroughly)
Utopia by Thomas Moore (again)
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais

I'll be honest.  I don't think I can read all of those in one year, but I'm ambitious.  That's not including the books in my Amazon wishlist, like William of Newburgh's History of English Affairs or Lewis' Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.  I also want to find more books about Medieval literature and life.  That and hopefully I'll be able to find a cheap copy of some of Roger Bacon's works.  It may take some time, considering the other reading list I have, but I've become increasingly passionate about these studies.  I think the Medieval mindset contained something that we've lost in the last few hundred years that was beneficial, but for some reason we've been damning Medieval man as if he were lower than us.  It's chronological snobbery, as Lewis put it.