_valerian

You know all those insipid love pop songs lamenting how you only really realize how good something is after it is gone? Man, I hate those songs, because they are right. Why is it that universal, deep Human Truths can be wrapped up in a 4 minute radio-friendly pop tune?

I have been reading Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. Few books have so continuously blown me away what with their “wide range of brilliant and amusing philosophical speculations”. Victoria Glendinning of the Sunday Times on the back of the book cover says “There are novels that are tragic, or entertaining, and this one is both. There are very few that give a fresh perspective on existence, and force the reader to reassess his own life and attitudes.” The fact that it deals with issues that are recently directly consuming my mind and life makes it even more interesting.
Recently I have been reading quite a bit. I re-read the Chronicles of Narnia which to my amazement was an event that had me at a book a night. I was amazed because the last time I read them I was in the fourth grade in elementary school the idea of reading an entire book in one day was not something I usually tried to do. I would read a while, and then scribble out drawings of Reepicheep or the Dawn Treader on the backs of my worksheets.

I have also enjoyed Rohld Dahl’s short stories for their twists and underlaid violence. They are dark! They shine! They make me uneasy and thouroughly entertained. This is what I like about the creative work of geniuses. Look at Van Gogh’s last paintings, Winogrand’s streets, Araki’s portraits… People who harness that edge of desperation in their work always impress me. Desperation is not about darkness, or being lonely. There is something more atavistic about the whole thing. The idea of a finite life must be dealt with. Humor helps.