FolioDeux Blog

FD was talking to a friend yesterday, who said, “you really should read  The Men Who Stare at Goats. It’s hilarious, and also scary/horrible.”  Well, maybe I’ll see the movie (after all, it does feature George Clooney) , said FD, but it doesn’t sound like my kind of non-fiction.

True.  FD does not want to become more unhappy about the weirdness of real life.  FD doesn’t want to read more about the imperfections and craziness of the US military mind.  Similarly, FD doesn’t want to read Elizabeth Kolbert on climate change.  FD doesn’t understand how it that most US citizens don’t seem willing to do anything to reduce climate change.  FD doesn’t have children (or much affection for the young, really), and thus has less reason than most to worry about the world turning into something out of The Road (that’s fiction, but also something FD isn’t going to read).  But FD still manages to turn out lights, eat almost no meat, and keep the furnace below 70 degrees…

Anyway, in terms of non-fiction, FD is more likely to read Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent (by the felicitously named John Reader), and did, while enjoying “Buy Nothing Day” (having purchased the book weeks earlier!)

FD collects postcards and other ephemera, including books about ephemera.  FD particularly likes postcards that have been enhanced by artists.  Barbara Andrews, a post card collector and romance novelist, has a very recognizable style.  She takes older postcards and adds or enhances some aspect of the card with cut out images, yarn and embroidery thread.  Other artists use ink or paint  and/or various kinds of collage to change ordinary postcards into unique art works.  There’s a Flickr group with almost 600 images that show the range of current experimentation, and the blog The Little Red Mailbox has devoted this year to altered postcards and also has a great blogroll of mail art and postcard sites.

Similar to altered postcards are illustrated envelopes.  During the Civil War both Northern and Southern publishers created envelopes with images to inspire correspondents.  David Swales and Harriet Russell have both had books about their decorated envelopes published, and collected by at least FD.  It’s a tribute to the patience of the post office that some of these envelopes were delivered!  FD’s efforts aren’t as elaborate, but colorful envelopes are created from calendars and catalog pages and other papers that come our way, and are sent out to friends and relations, most of which do get to the recipients.

FD read a lot of science fiction as a young person.  Even had a subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when FD barely had an allowance to buy anything. But around the time FD went to college, interest in SF waned.  Why?  Perhaps because Pynchon and Donald Barthelme were just as interesting?  Or because reading SF suddenly seemed geeky/dorky instead of cool?  Or, was it feminism, which made FD realize that the women in SF, when there were any, didn’t often get the interesting activities or exhibit much ingenuity or bravery or anything worth emulating.  FD did take a class on Science Fiction in graduate school, and remembers finding almost every single book — all chosen as classic by a fine scholar — to be misogynistic, boring, or both. The only SF novel FD fondly remembers reading after highschool was Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. And that didn’t  lead FD to pick up other Le Guin novels or other feminist writers’ SF efforts — not Margaret Atwood’s (though FD loves her poetry — here’s a short favorite), and not Doris Lessing’s (though FD is a huge fan of the Martha Quest quintet [actually called the Children of Violence series] and also the two novels she wrote under the name “Jane Somers”), not Olivia Butler or Marian Zimmer Bradley (well, FD did read a MZB novel, because a student wanted to do a project on it, but at this point, FD doesn’t remember anything about that novel…).

FD doesn’t foresee reading any SF in the future, either, just as it’s unlikely FD will be reading more “True Crime,” or horror fiction, which were favorite entertainment/escape reading during college and graduate school.  As FD gets older, reading tastes have become narrower, though, perhaps, not narrow– particular authors, mystery novels, poetry, and, which is a continual surprise, a lot more general non-fiction.  After a lifetime of fleeing to books for escape from the real world, FD now finds books about “reality” often more interesting than fiction.

FD owns a cell phone.  But it serves more like a good luck charm, carried just in case there’s some sort of emergency.  It’s years old, it’s never turned on (which might not be a good idea in an emergency) and no one has the number.  Occasionally,  FD uses it to call Mr FD after a medical appointment.

This morning, the NYTimes reports that other people are reading whole novels on their phones.  FD knew that the Japanese were writing cell-phone specific novels, and it was no surprise to hear that the NYTimes had noticed that US cell phones were also being used to read novels.  Last January, a friend brought out her phone and showed a group of us how clear text appeared and how pleasant such reading could be.

FD is sad.  FD used to be an early adopter of technology and an ardent believer that the future would offer delights unknown to the past.  But, now the future of books appears to be shrinking to the size of a telephone screen, and that doesn’t seem delightful at all.

FD has two different iMacs, an old 17″ and a larger, newer model.  Sometimes so much screen is a real help, as when one wants to see quite a bit of two different web sites or documents.  But, other times, it’s just not needed, and since FD can’t stop downloading great pictures from the Astronomy Picture of the Day, often, usually FD’s browser or other program is set so that a lot of the desktop is open, and the astronomy pictures can amuse and delight the viewer who is (too often) otherwise reading somber political news.   Sometimes FD chooses the “change every second” option, sometimes the “every minute” option, sometimes the “full screen” and sometimes the “tile” option.  Yes, it’s an old toy, but it’s a good one.

FD’s favorite astronomy page pictures are the ones from deep space, the Hubble telescope shots, not the earth-based images, or the ones of the space station.  But, every day, no matter what the picture, it’s a little treat to click on the bookmark and see what NASA is offering.  Our tax dollars at work!  and a good thing!

This time of year, the combination of the general good will that tends to come over even Scrooge-ish folks like FD, combined with the thought that one’s tax deductions could use a boost, leads to thoughts of charitable giving.

And, no surprise, it is also the time one’s mail begins to consist of half catalogs and half pleas for donations.  FD gets lots of donation requests; Mr. FD gets even more (he is more generous).  FD is not at all moved by the junk that arrives in some of those envelopes.  The address labels get shredded immediately — FD has an internal capital in her name, so most of these don’t spell the name correctly.  (On the rare occasions that a group has managed to spell FD’s name correctly, they do get a modest donation).  The cards and memo pads go into the Goodwill bag. Other times, a group will send a calendar.  A good friend sends FD a calendar from the Nebraskans for Peace group (Cat Lovers Against the Bomb) every year, so those calendars aren’t really welcomed.  They, too, end up in the Goodwill bag, unless they can be turned into attractive envelopes.  FD has a small collection of envelope templates, and About.com has a page with links to on-line offerings.

FD uses the ratings done by the American Institute of Philanthropy , which publishes the “Charity Rating Guide and Watchdog Report” to decide whether or not to donate to national organizations, though for the most part, it feels better to donate locally.

FD is reading a collection of MFK Fisher’s fugitive pieces, essays from magazines mostly that were not printed in book form when Fisher was alive. It’s called A Stew or a Story and includes some fiction as well as the food essays.  Some of them are not as well written as the work she wanted to preserve, though usually there is at least a sentence or two that charms.

More interesting is how these pieces reflect an earlier time in US food history.  It’s pretty amazing to realize that in 1976 readers needed a primer on olive oil!  Food writers have to seek out rare ingredients and obscure cuisines to get published today.  And FD isn’t quite ready for some of the topics (like Lamb Tripe Stew yesterday) that turn up on even a mainstream blog like Serious Eats.   Fisher suggests somewhere that older palates are tempted by the rich and strange and highly seasoned, but FD is still not ready for brains or stomach or lungs etc, no, the idea of offal is still awful, even at FD’s advanced age.

FD loves book reviews — and is sorry that so many newspapers and magazines are reducing the number of reviews they publish.  Reviews can talk one into and out of a book purchase, and are much better than trying to judge a book by its cover or by its jacket blurbs.  FD keeps a small notebook filled with books that sounded interesting based on a reading of a review, and has seldom been disappointed when using those notes to choose a volume.  But even when a review turns one off a book, it may be, in itself, a delightful bit of reading.  Good reviews come in many forms.  Some hew closely to the book, others use the book as a jumping off place, what they have in common is good writing and ideas that are of interest in themselves.  Sometimes, of course, FD reads a book before seeing any reviews of it, and then wonders how others felt about it.  The Complete Review is a great source of reviews  (its blog, the Literary Saloon, is great too, and is linked over there on the blogroll)

Just yesterday, FD had a shortish wait at a medical office, and whiled away the time reading the NY Times Book Review of November 8.  The cover review, of the new Stephen King novel, was somewhat ho-hum — FD isn’t sure what made a new SKing novel front page material.  Much more interesting to FD was David Kirby’s review of a new book of poetry by  Amy Gestler, Dearest Creature. The review was so compelling that FD is even considering buying the book, even though $18.00 for 84 pages seems a bit much for a paperback that may not, in fact, be filled with poems that one will want to memorize.  But, really, it was the review itself that put a smile on FD’s face, there was so much energy in that review,  so much generosity, so much good writing in a small space.

Not that positive reviews are always the most fun.  Just the opposite, a great hatchet job can be even more enjoyable.  Francine Prose knows how to do those, so does Joe Queenan, and of course, Christopher Hitchens.

FD makes envelopes (a form of “mail art”) and uses them for handwritten — usually not even word processed — letters to a small circle of friends.  FD hears that “everyone” just texts and tweets these days, and that even using email is a sign of decrepit old age.  But why not write letters? When you write a letter you become part of an ancient history that has survived the invention of the telegraph and the telephone, and perhaps will survive the internet, too.  Writing letters is a highly pleasurable activity, with huge opportunities for creativity.  FD likes to coordinate letter paper, topic, and envelope, and sometimes is even able to add an appropriate postage stamp.  Of course, the real creativity comes in the actual writing; a good letter is like an essay for a single reader.  Some blog entries (though not FD’s) are like letters from and to unknown friends, and the occasional holiday letter can reach near-“real letter” interest, but nothing really compares to an actual letter.

A great source of information on letters and letter writing can be found here.  FD,  on and off at various times over the last 20 years, joined LEX, the Letter Exchange.  LEX issues a magazine three times a year, with listings by those looking for letter writing opportunities.  It’s a sweet community of people who are interested in real correspondence.

Ok, it’s trite, but also, perhaps, true.  FD suspects that a lot of people who, in real life, are frustrated and appalled by the fetishization of guns and the glorification of violence in the US are, at the same time, big readers of murder mysteries and similar fiction, and don’t feel quite the same ambivalence about the protagonists’ use of violence against malefactors.   FD turns off the endless reporting of the 24-hour news networks, which are never happier as when they have some real life slaughter on which to focus.  But FD is still reading murder mysteries, and can remember reading Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs while in graduate school and saying to a friend and fellow fan of murder/crime fiction, “this guy is the best horror writer since Poe.”  (We were students of US popular culture…)

But, FD has become a bit more discriminating.  Harris’ subsequent novels don’t hold any attraction — perhaps FD depended too much on the reviews, but it does appear Harris joined a lot of other writers in stepping up the  horrifics and focusing on the kind of genius psychopathia seldom seen in real life.  Not as interesting to FD, which prefers novelists who stay a little closer to real life and focus more on the effects of crime on non-criminals.  Is this an effect of getting older?  FD has read that horror movies (e.g. the Saw series) are much more popular with younger  viewers than older.  Does a better sense of one’s own mortality reduce the appeal of so many contemporary mystery/crime novels, which seem to offer more and more bizarre miseries directed at hapless victims.  Still, there are less gruesome novels to read and these, FD is sure, provide a somewhat paradoxical escape from the real-life murders, rapes, and mutilations that the all-news networks love to follow for as closely and as long as possible.