The Prose of Life

The literature of life. In here you'll find the reviews and meanderings through the literary world, with a sprinkling of verse. All packaged in a way that is current and thought-provoking.

[danielbowmanjr]

I love James Joyce’s definition of epiphany: “When something’s soul, its whatness, leaps to you from the vestment of its appearance.” Our own soul leaps in response. In honor of the Christian Epiphany, I invite you to write a memory of an epiphany, and how you were changed.

from Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew (via danielbowmanjr)

[davidajohnsonart]

“A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”

— Charles Dickens

[40knows-blog]

I debated long and a bit hard on what my focus would be for this month and the conclusion was to take advantage of Pride. June is Pride month and in most parts of the world gatherings are held in celebration of LGBT pride.

And why June? Well, primordially because of an event that took place June 27, 1969 in New York City. The police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village. After decades and decades of alienation, pain, stigmatization and abuse, the anger of the gay community reached the tipping point. This tipping point is known as the Stonewall Riots. In which the gay community decided to fight back against the system and demand equality and justice. A great article recounting the event in fuller detail is found here. With the knowledge of the events of June 27, 1969 and what proceeded from there, a better picture is formed on the purpose and the aim of the LGBT marches and gatherings. Now, this isn't to say that gay civil rights organizations haven't been around before this event, for there were organizations that preceded the Stonewall riots, such as the Scientific Humanitarian Committee founded in Germany towards the end of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, this committee was thwarted by the Nazis. The LGBT community is one that, as evinced from history and recounting, has suffered greatly under the pall of prejudice and alienation. Therefore, this month I will join in adding a small grain to the recognition, the dissemination, and the civil rights movement for equality in regards to the LGBT community.

The rest of the article. 

[40knows-blog]

In its eye                                                         the far-off hills are mirrored–                             dragonfly!

[40knows-blog]

Estoy terminando Rayuela de Cortázar y el libro no ha parado de captivar, romper, conmover, entristecer, torturar e iluminar mi corazón. Aquí comparto un pedazo:

"¿Qué es en el fondo esa historia d encontrar un reino milenario, un edén, un otro mundo? Todo lo que se escrive en esos tiempos y que vale la pena leer está orientado hacia la nostalgia. Complejo de Arcadia, retorno al gran útero, back to Adam...

Detrás de todo eso (siempre es detrás, hay que convencerse de que es la idea clave del pensamiento moderno) el Paraíso, el otro mundo, la inocencia hollada que oscuramente se busca llorando, la tierra de Hurqalya. De una manera y otro  todos la buscan, todos quieren abrir la puerta para ir a jugar. Y no por Edén, no tanto por el Edén en sí, sino solamente por dejar a la espalda los aviones a chorro, [...] el despertar a campanilla, el ajustarse a termómetro y ventosa, la jubilación a patadas en el culo, [...] y decíamos que  el homo sapiens no busca la puerta para entrar en el reino milenario sino solamente para poder cerrarla a su espalda y menear el culo como un perro contento sabiendo que el zapato de la puta vida se quedó atrás, reventándose contra la puerta cerrada, y que se puede ir aflojando con un suspiro el pobre botón del culo, enderezarse y empezar a caminar entre las florecitas del jardín y sentarse a mirar una nube nada más que cinco mil años, o veinte mil si es posible y si nadie se enoja y si hay una chance de quedarse en el jardín mirando las florecitas."

Hay mucho más para rico en profundidad pero por ahora un poco.

[leopoldgursky]

I think people are often quite unaware of their inner selves, their other selves, their imaginative selves, the selves that aren’t on show in the world. It’s something you grow out of from childhood onwards, losing possession of yourself, really. I think literature is one of the best ways back into that. You are hypnotized as soon as you get into a book that particularly works for you, whether it’s fiction or a poem. You find that your defenses drop, and as soon as that happens, an imaginative reality can take over because you are no longer censoring your own perceptions, your own awareness of the world.

Jeanette Winterson, Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 150 (via leopoldgursky)

[40knows-blog]

Blossoms on the pear:

and a woman in the moonlight 

reads a letter there...

–Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

[40knows-blog]

Rayuela

I am currently reading Rayuela, even though this month, in my blog, I am talking about The Master and Margarita. Well, the other day while reading Cortázar's Rayuela I came across a very funny paragraph. That hardly ever happens while I'm reading literature so I relished the laughter. And, the more I read the paragraph the funnier I found it, silly me. Anyways, I want to share it here on tumblr for those that know spanish, being that Rayuela is in spanish. 

"<Qué frío bárbaro hace>, se dijo Oliveira que creía en la eficacia de la autosugestión. El sudor le chorreaba desde el pelo a los ojo, era imposible sostener un clavo en la torcedura hacia arriba porque el menor golpe del martillo lo hacía resbalar en los dedos empapados (de frío) y el clavo volvía a pellizcarlo y a amoratarle (de frío) los dedos. Para peor el sol empezaba a dar de lleno en la pieza (era la luna sobre las estepas cubiertas de nieve, y él silbaba para azuzar a los caballos que impulsaban su tarantás), a las tres no quedaría un solo rincón sin nieve, se iba a helar lentamente hasta que lo ganara la somnolencia tan bien descrita y hasta provocada en los relatos eslavos, y su cuerpo quedara sepultado en la blancura homicida de las lívidas flores del espacio. Estaba bien eso: las lívidas flores del espacio. En ese mismo momento se pegó un martillazo de lleno en el dedo pulgar. El frío que lo invadió fue tan intenso que tuvo que revolcarse en el suelo para luchar contra la rigidez de la congelación. Cuando por fin consiguió sentarse, sacudiendo la mano en todas direcciones, estaba empapado de pies a cabeza, probablemente de nieve derretida o de esa ligera llovizna que alterna con las lívidas flores del espacio y refresca la piel de los lobos."  -Julio Cortázar, Rayuela

[40knows-blog]

Just a brief side note. I am a big Charles Dickens fan. His flare, style and colorful portrayal of humanity and of life, specifically in London, is enticing to me. Well, last year I reviewed one of my favorite Dickens book, Great Expectations, in a video. This year commemorates the 200th anniversary of his birth, 7th February 1812, hence the creation of projects celebrating this master storyteller, one in particular is the Charles Dickens Project by Xelsion Publishing. Their aim is

"to bring back the unique thrill of seeing a story take shape before your eyes, taking it one step further by combining it with the kind of revealing, honest and real-time traffic between author and reader that the instant feedback of modern social networks allows."

Well, they contacted me to write a brief article on Charles Dickens, which they will be posting shortly, and I was, of course, very much obliged and grateful. So, I'm taking this brief time and space to share this excellent project with all the readers out there that happen to stumble or follow my blog. The serialization of Great Expectations is available to download for the kindle or you can just read the chapters right from the web. Stop by the site, you might find yourself following and enjoying Great Expectaions.

Links:

David Perdue's Charles Dickens

Dickens 2012

Charles Dickens Museum

A Dickensian

[marielapabon-deactivated2015060]

El ciclo de relaciones: Empezó, Se acabó, Badtripeas. (repeat)

(via marielapabon)

[40knows-blog]

On Julio Cortázar and his short story Press Clippings. 

[40knows-blog]

On Two Nights of Excess by Alfred de Musset.

[msbehavoyeur]

“Gamiani or two nights of excess” by Alfred de Musset (1833) Illustration attributed to anonymous Suzanne Ballivet (Mariette Lydis), published under the mantle probably around 1950.

[40knows-blog]

Por una erótica solar. 

[proustitute]

I saw your lips, your nakedness, the trees, that dappled light. I dreamt of orchards. The preciseness of the world came flooding in.

Luke Davies, from Totem Poem (via proustitute)

[s-t-y-l-e-e]

[40knows-blog]

pretty.

[40knows-blog]

Japanese aesthetics through the eyes of Junichiro Tanizaki in In Praise of Shadows. In this little book I stumbled upon, a spanish translation, Tanizaki makes palpable the idiosyncrasies of his native Japan. Most specifically, the concept of beauty. And how this concept, which can be seen throughout every aspect of the culture from the structure of their houses, to the materials used in daily lives, from the lacquer to writing paper, has been suffering from the influence of Western culture and their ideas of beauty and utility.

For the rest here.