Liminal Spaces

It's a little strange to be home now, alone, as my baby sister left for college a couple of weeks ago. The house is quiet and I miss her. It's also a little strange to watch all the busy students at the U--especially the freshmen--readjust to campus, because even though I'm also starting school this fall, mine is still a month away. There is much to done in the remaining month including such things as packing and freaking out, but for now all is still. I'm just reading books, going to movies, hanging out with friends, and catching reruns on television.

Speaking of books I just started Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner which is not at all what I expected, my expectations mostly based on As I Lay Dying. So far I've been managing a chapter a day which isn't bad considering there are only nine chapters and they're anywhere from 20 to 80 pages each and the writing's a bit dense. I'm not sure if I like it yet; we'll just have to wait and see. I recently finished All Souls by Christine Schutt, a novel about--well I'm not really sure what it was about, but it concerns the characters at an elite Upper East Side school in Manhattan--the students, parents, and teachers. I was really excited to read it because I love Gossip Girl (the television series, not the books), and All Souls was a finalist for the Pulitzer--and I love awards. But the novel was much more difficult than I thought it would be, and in the end I was rather disappointed. Finally, I've been making my way through Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia and it is fascinating. The subtitle Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is fitting for this tome which is described as "a unified-field theory of Western culture, high and low" from the Ancient Egyptians who invented beauty through the art and literature of the ages up to the American Transcendentalists and Dark Romantics. Harold Bloom calls it "an enormous sensation of a book, in all the better senses of 'sensation.'" And it is sometimes outrageous and infuriating, tackling the assumptions of conservatives, liberals, and feminists alike. The New York Times says it is "as intellectually stimulating as it is exasperating." And while I don't agree with all of Paglia's points, she makes a persuasive argument while challenging everything I thought I knew. I still have much to read, but I highly recommend this book especially to my friends who are interested in art and literature, and especially those who consider themselves feminists.

Anyway, once I finish Absalom, Absalom! I will have checked off a good portion of my summer reading list though--alas and alack--I will not have finished everything on it. Faulkner and Paglia will complete the fifteen books I did read this summer, but there were still four more titles on my list that didn't make it including American Rust; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; Lady Chatterley's Lover; and One Hundred Years of Solitude--which I never finished in Continental Lit II. Nevertheless, it's the only reading list I've come remotely close to finishing, and I intend to finish these four novels in the fall though I'm sure grad school has other plans.

I've also checked off a few more movies off my summer list. Star Trek is every bit as good the second time around; The Hurt Locker is "ferociously suspenseful," a war movie refreshingly free of political polemics; and Moon is a spare and haunting science fiction movie where individuals are expendable in the face of technology and energy. I also saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after rereading the book. While the narrative is terribly engrossing, I think the book is full of cliches, bad writing, and static characters. (Let the hate comments begin.) The movie was a fine visual adaptation of the book, but certainly not great cinema on its own merits. I think that the third movie directed by Alfonso Cuaron is the best of the film franchise, though I'm not even sure if I've the seen the fourth and fifth movies. So while Labor Day is still a couple of weeks away, I would just like to say what I think were the most fun and enjoyable summer movies. Star Trek obviously, The Brothers Bloom which is hilarious and almost masturbatory in its own enjoyment, Julie & Julia is a visual feast with the always sublime Meryl Streep, and (500) Days of Summer is a delightful romp with the best soundtrack of any movie to come out, so far, this year. What were your favorite films this summer?

Speaking of Labor Day we are entering the time and space between summer and fall. While the Autumnal Equinox is not until September 23rd and we're still waiting for the first cold snap--though it's been unusually cool this summer--classes are starting for most students and Labor Day is just around the corner. Summer is ending and fall is beginning. These are my two favorite seasons and I love the liminal space between them. As Kristyn and I were driving home from Harry Potter, it was late evening and the pale daylight was fading from the mountains and city buildings, and everything was peaceful even in the city. I felt the smallest pang of nostalgia, the tiniest tremor. And I wanted to listen to Regina Spektor's "Summer in the City," Vanessa Carlton's "White Houses," and Dashboard Confessional's "Stolen." We watched the season pull up its own stakes / and catch the last weekend of the last week. And now I need to work on my fall playlist--any suggestions?

It is also the time of the harvest. I visited SLC's Farmers Market which was absolutely delightful! I've only been to one other farmers market before, it was a bit pitiful and I was quite young. Anyway, Pioneer Park was swarming with people and the vendors were hawking their wares from fresh produce and baked goods to cooked meals and hipster handicrafts. It was so much fun, and I want to go back this weekend. I bought some peaches for peaches & cream!, and heirloom tomatoes. I've been using them to make tomato sandwiches which are delectable. Toast some bread, slather it with mayonnaise, layer on juicy slabs of fresh tomatoes--for best results use a variety--sprinkle with salt and pepper, and eat open-faced. OMG! So good. Bring on the peaches and tomatoes, I'm ready for fall. I'm ready for jacket-weather, leaf peeping, long walks on brisk evenings, exploring coffee shops and drinking hot chai lattes, starting school, and curling up in a blanket reading novels.