Fizzy Thoughts

It’s official…Jenners and I have vowed to never do another readalong together. We have the WORST luck with our books. Also, I think we’re both closet masochists. So if you ever see us plotting another readalong, do everyone a favor and slap us both upside the head.

I think I’m going to join the Cloud Atlas readalong that’s happening in March. Simply because it’s one of my Shelf of Doom books, and I’d really like to get it over with. Gee…I sure hope Jenners isn’t joining, too!

(Really, I like Jenners. She’s one of my favorite bloggers. And she has damn good taste in books…and I think I have pretty good taste in books, too. Unless we happen to be reading the same book at the same time. And then both of our tastes SUCK. Kinda makes me wonder what would happen if we were both in the same place at the same time. Tornado? Cyclone? Earthquake? Tsunami?)

When I was at the National Steinbeck Center I was surprised to learn just how many movies were made from John Steinbeck’s books. Don’t ask me how many….just know it seemed like a lot, probably because I’ve never seen any of them. Except as I type this The Grapes of Wrath is on tv. It looks sort of like The Beverly Hillbillies. (Have I ever mentioned I’m not really a fan of the old movies?) (And what are you supposed to do with tv shows…underline? italicize? quoticize?) Aaaaaaaand, now it’s not on tv. HB opted for a surf show, instead. What a shocker.

Hamburger just informed me that he had to read The Grapes of Wrath in high school. He also remembered who wrote it…I about fell out of my chair from shock. This may be the only book in existence that he’s read and I haven’t. I feel strangely compelled to read it right now. Except I don’t have it. Probably a good thing…I’ve got other things I should be reading.

Like A People’s History of the United States. *sigh*

Speaking of A People’s History, I’m reading about Manifest Destiny. Strangely enough, I’m listening (still) to Unfamiliar Fishes, and Vowell’s talking about Manifest Destiny, too. I’m ready for both Zinn and Vowell to move on.

I cleaned my entire house today. Which I realize is horribly unexciting. But HB didn’t even notice, so if someone could just toss out a “wow! the house looks great” I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

I talked my cousin into getting Words With Friends and playing with me. Her first word? Freak. Yeah, well, I’m still younger than she is, so there.

One of my 12 for 12 things to do is to visit more museums this year (and it’s only February and I’ve already been to two!). While going to a museum just to look at artwork isn’t anything that really rocks my world (unless I happen to be in Paris or Florence, which is totally different), I do like to check out special exhibits every once in awhile. Especially if they’re out of town and I can get a little trip out of the deal.

This exhibit happened to be in Santa Ana, and since my relatives live close by, my mom and I combined it with a family visit. So while this wasn’t an exciting weekend trip, we did score some brownie points with the family and we got to see something interesting.

The Terracotta Warriors are part of the Terracotta Army discovered in the 1970s in China. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was buried with thousands of terracotta figures who would accompany him to the afterlife. There were archers and horsemen (and horses) and chariots and entertainers. And every single one was unique. The exhibit itself is small, and there are only a few of the life sized warriors. Originally, they were painted and held weapons. This archer was my favorite:

Imagine row after row after row of these guys, as well as horsemen and other figures.

It’s unknown exactly how many figures made up the army, but one estimate puts it around 8000. 8000! Holy crap! Think of the man-hours involved, as well as the land needed to surround the Emperor’s mausoleum with these guys (and gals…there’s some speculation that there were a few women in there).

While this was, hands down, my favorite part of the exhibit, there were also a few rooms filled with smaller funerary objects from the Han and Tang dynasties, as well as objects from the Famen Monastery. There was a set of boxes that once held a sacred relic…one of Buddha’s finger bones. The finger bone wasn’t included.

This Medicine Buddha was also part of the exhibit. Meditating upon Medicine Buddhas is said to result in an increase in healing powers and a decrease in physical and mental suffering. I think he looks very serene.

I got to hang with most of my extended family this past weekend. We’re a pretty small family, so this wasn’t that many people. I saw my 96 year old Granny (my dad’s mom), my two aunts (my dad’s older sisters), and 3 of my 4 cousins. And 1 cousin’s kid, whatever that relation works out to be.

Among the cousins (there are 6 of us altogether…3 sets of siblings, all of which are older brother-younger sister combos), I’m the baby. By seven years. A pretty significant age difference, and one that I’ve never let any of them forget, especially as we get older. I’ve kinda got a reputation as the sender of rude birthday cards. I take my job as the youngest very seriously.

Thing is, by the end of this year, all of those older cousins (and my brother) will be in their 50s. The two oldest of the older brothers are already 53, and my two female cousins turn 50 this month and in April. My brother will join them in November. At which point I’ll be the sole representative of the 40s for our family.

Back when I was the sole representative of teenagerdom in the family

So while 50 is the new 40 (or whatever), and I realize it’s not that old, it struck me this weekend that our family is still aging. Of the 6 cousins, only 3 ever had kids…and 2 of them are already grandfathers multiple times over (my brother got an early start, as did his son, so I’ve actually been a great-aunt for a number of years). It just seems so weird to have all those cousins that were once so cool ’cause they were driving/in college/grown-up and I wasn’t (note: they’re all still pretty damn cool) be 50. I mean, holy crap! I still think of my mom as 50 (if you could see my mom, you’d be thinking that, too).

So how the heck can my cousins be my mom’s age??

Welcome to week six of A People’s Readalong. A group of us (see the end of the post for the group, and please shout out if I’ve overlooked you) will be reading one chapter a week from Howard Zinn’s classic history book, A People’s History of the United States. We’ll be finished sometime in July.

This week features Chapter 6: The Intimately Oppressed, in which Zinn addresses the subjugation of women. Specifically, how the idea developed that women should be dutiful wives and hard workers but god forbid they should voice an opinion. I was actually looking forward to this chapter because, hello…women’s history! And while it was interesting and sped by much too quickly, it still suffered from the “too many details for the chapter” syndrome. For example, in one short paragraph, Zinn managed to quote 4 separate books on the role of a dutiful woman. Two of the books quoted were from 1830 and 1850, and then two paragraphs later he’s quoting a sermon from 1808.

While I like examples and quotes from primary sources, there’s such a thing as too much. I also don’t like hopping around time periods, either, and I thought this chapter had too much crammed into its 22 pages. In fact, I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed in Zinn.  I think we got something like 200 years of the development of the passive role of women and the build-up to Seneca Falls in one short chapter, and then in the next chapter (which I was was hoping would be more on women…you know, like we had two plus chapters on the development of class and racism in America) Zinn freakin’ returned to the Indians. Not that I’m bashing the Native Americans, because I’ve already read Chapter 7 and it’s good, too. I just wanted more women’s history. It’s like we got a token, drive-by chapter. I seriously expected more from Zinn and if women don’t pop up again later (with more depth!), I’m going to be a bit peeved. And okay, yes, I know women are included in the other chapters, but not to the degree that men are. Zinn has moved away from Dead White Guy history, but in my opinion, he’s still heavy on the Dead GUYS. And his theories all seem to have an economic bent to them…has anyone else picked up on that?

Any other thoughts on Chapter 6? Pipe up, people!

Readalong Participants:

• Amanda
• Andrew
• Beth
• Brooke
• christy
• gavin
• Jenners
• Jenny
• Kim
• nomadreader
• Patti Smith
• Rayna
• Shana
• Shelley
• Stacy (A Novel Source)
• Vasilly
• Wallace
• zibilee