Idle weekend

Spent most of the weekend watching Let's Play vids and reading. Enjoying what distractions are available to me, after all. I've gone back to studying matters Sikh today with W.H. McLeod's 'Sikhism'. I would like to study Islam more, but I've never come across anything beyond the Qur'an (nothing really awesome like 'Mahabharata') that brings a lot of colour into it. If anyone out there has suggestions of such materials, PLEASE let me know! Much appreciated. Meanwhile, I finished reading more works by Katharine Kerr yesterday, and I plan to continue with her Deverry series soon enough. From matters Sikh to matters literary I'll eventually go with Paul Scott's 'On writing and the novel'. Don't know if I'm ready to re-read it, but it's on my list of stuff to re-read, and I'm a little anal that way. Word of warning; 'Phineas Finn' is also on my list of books to re-read, so expect at least one entry complaining about fox-hunts and the like. I've also got 'Bhagavad Gita as it is' warming up on my shelf. I've watched enough 'Mahabharat' to be familiar with Arjuna and Krishna and the legendary battle at Kurukshetra. I've read 'BG' once already, but it's a great excerpt from a masterful saga.
Let's Play vids have become quite a fascinating distraction for me. I bought 'Dragon Age: Origins' thanks to this one dude's LP videos. He had a great time playing the game, and word of mouth is still a driving force behind the success of a product. I won't say anything else concerning the game, as others have said much more and have doubtless said it better. I guess Youtube has become quite THE distraction in this wry spinster's life, but it's better than TV. There was a time when having cable was the big distraction (Night Court loved taking shots at the racy stuff one found on cable when only a handful of folks could afford cable). Good times, but far behind most of us now. Okay, enough whining o'er the past. I've got reading to do and LP vids to watch.
The parental units have gone on their annual vacation. I'm asking for pics of whatever libraries they find on their travels and for local music. Goes with my territory. So, I guess that's about it. Another time.

Thoughts on 'Phineas Finn'

To be honest, the first time I read 'Phineas Finn' I wasn't totally overwhelmed by the experience. I preferred 'Phineas redux' (for reasons I have forgotten but will recall in the weeks to come) the first time I read it. However, I had the chance to take 'Phineas' up again and read it from cover to cover. Last time, the ton's worth of British politics turned me right off. It can't be helped, considering Finn's choice of career. Sometimes I wonder if some politicians consider politics a dalliance/waste of money. It certainly seemed like that in Victorian times. Those M.P.'s certainly weren't earning a whole lot of money. A shame they earn money sitting on their duffs these days, wasting everyone else's money. Okay, I take such a grim view of politics that it will be better to just get back to talking about the book.
***SPOILERS***
'Phineas Finn' is a rather well rendered look at life for the upperclass Victorian. That's all Trollope seems to look at when casting his eye around him. It's why I sometimes prefer Dickens, although I confess that I haven't read Dickens for a long while. 'Phineas Finn' is the second book in the Palliser series, and I like the personal plot (I don't think you can really call it a sub-plot, as the title character has his professional life and his personal life, and the pair rarely mix) much more than the professional one. Finn's got his eye on a few ladies (3, but who's counting?) and chooses the Irish lass over the heavily monied widow after being turned down by two upperclass society ladies. Actually, one turns him down and then manoeuvers him away from the other, for reasons that probably wouldn't wash these days, although they make sense for the time.
Lady Laura is the more complex character (between her and Phineas, I mean). She turns him down because of money and steers him away from a wealthy young woman so this lass will go to her brother. Her brother's a jerk, by the way, and not really deserving of such compassion (he ain't heavy, at least he's not MY brother). I don't think Trollope wanted to punish her for dumping Finn, but making her marry Kennedy (the book's cold fish) would surely punish me should I be made to undergo that fate. Can you tell I don't want to get married, ever? Finn doesn't like Kennedy, but he does manage to save his life. Not something I would've done, but again, that's my take on the matter.
These are some of the thoughts I've had about this book. Well-written and worth a look, but don't look too long over the political parts. It'll put you to sleep. BYE.

Personal myth

I finished reading 'The stories we live by' the other day, and even now, I'm not sure about it. The author speaks of cultivating our personal myth as a way to understand the self and share the self with others. I've read this book before (about a year ago) and it blew me away then. After a year of thoughts and looking at the world through semi-Buddhist eyes, I'm not sure I am able to put together a personal myth. The author speaks of creating said myth, regardless of whether or not it is illusion. I'm not looking for illusion, but 'reality', so wouldn't following this concept be defeatist for the path I'm travelling? I'm not obligated to do this, and for now, the question is mere rhetoric. I'm not saying this wouldn't or shouldn't be for everyone. If cultivating your own personal myth brings you closer to a better understanding of yourself, go for it. I just don't think it would work all that well for me.
I first came across the concept of the 'personal myth' while reading 'The manticore' by the late, dearly-beloved Robertson Davies. One of his characters underwent therapy and he and the therapist constructed his personal myth over several weeks, starting from his childhood and going all the way up to the present. The personal myth concerns discovering all the facets of one's personality (characters) and influential people in one's life (also characters, to a lesser extent). Keeping a diary will also help this process, for then one's established a sort of timeline and illusion can be anchored by 'historical record'.
I have said that I doubt very much that my beliefs would let me get away with cultivating a personal myth. Also, I might be a little too young for such an activity. Most people, those who put such an idea into play, have lived for several decades (in their late thirties, at least) and are trying to understand the meaning for their journey, be it very painful and difficult or easy as pie and smooth as silk. I'm at thirty's doorway, but not over the threshold yet, so I think I'll just stick with my diary and my own explorations. Perhaps a time will come, in the not-so-distant future, when I will have a sit down with a therapist and recount my history as I know it in an attempt to cultivate my personal myth. Just not right now.
Very good book, however. Informative and worth a read. Au revoir!