Duly Noted
January 16, 2008
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
—Charles Darwin, 1838: Notebook M
In my limited experience as a story constructor, it seems to me that every thing has a proper place. That place, however, is not always immediately obvious (to me, at least). I often find I need a place to stash particular things whose proper place has yet to become clear to me. Excellent character names, for instance. Or serendipitous revelations in quantum metaphysics. You know, the vagrant, not-precisely-idle thoughts that make for An Interesting Day. Henceforth, said particulates shall be tagged and categorized duly noted, that they may be readily flocked and effortlessly summoned with a mouseclick.
Isn’t it too bad that the people who invented “Have a nice day” couldn’t have invented “Have An Interesting Day” instead? I’ll bet those fucking baboons ALWAYS have Interesting days! Despite having to tolerate the other baboons. Those faces! They have such disdain in them, don’t they? It’s like they’re always saying “UP YOURS BABOON! OH NO YOU DIDN’T!”
…except: I’m not sure I always want to have an Interesting Day – or rather I should feel a bit beseiged in a world where even passing strangers wished such a fate upon me. As for what’s going on behind those Foster Grants: my guess is, less than meets the eye. But any investment in the diminishing emotions — guilt, disdain, discouragement and the like — seems a squandarous, scandalous waste to me.
Good point. One needs to put the gearbox in neutral fairly often. I do anyway. And interesting spun the way of that Wikipedia article is, well ikky!
The baboon feels no guilt!
I prefer “Have an Uneventful Day” myself. For me, the very best days are uneventful.
Wendy, I’m with you! Typical exchange in the village store in my town (pop < 1000) in Vt: “What’s new?”
“Nothin!”
“And that’s why we live here!”
“Yup.”
Excellent conversation. We’ve always considered living in Vermont (we’re from Cape Cod), and now you’ve really got me interested.
Yes. I get my posts from the net, most of them. I never knew anything about the Greeks until I started to blog on WordPress. Of the two things I really know one is Marcel Proust, but that is feasible only in French. He considered that “interesting” was a modern vulgarism and aped his maid’s daugher use of it.
However, I pretty much got used to “interesting”, but I am afraid I can’t take the US “share” thing much longer.
“Interesting…” how is it you know Proust well?
:o)
- v
In French he is easy to read. I also have read him in English and Spanish translation. The English ones are horrendous.
There is nothing like him as to wit, people, language. There are long stretches of boredom writing, because he was often depressed. I have never read anything about him, though. I simply pick up one of the books of the Recherche and start reading again all the time. — I can’t even imagine how I would live without his stories. As an individual he may have been nasty.
I feel that way about bob dylan. i think i do not need to know him personally and in a way prefer not to. it is enough to have his lyrics around to jumpstart my grey cells from time to time.