Lunch.
My paintbrush isn’t cooperating today, but I certainly had a good lunch. A good friend of mine thought I could do with a treat and showed up at my work yesterday with a bagful of goodies…i.e…..a selection of delicious cheeses, a loaf of chewy, crusty bread, and a wedge of fig and almond cake.
Thanks ‘bro!
May 9th, 10th, 2009
– Hope/Optimism – optimism = logistical – something good will come out of it – Knowledge – not often optimistic, but to be hopeful gives the opportunity for optimism.
I found the above scrawled in my journal yesterday. I remember Steph and I were at that author thing at Hart House in the spring – there was some discussion – doctors without borders, or something. But that thought stuck with me.
I’ve just finished The Origin of Species (Nino Ricci). I’m trying to compare it with all the other books I’ve read in my short life. I’m trying hard not to say it’s the best book I’ve ever read, a thing not to say lightly, and often said without real evaluation, like waking up with a heavy hangover and saying to yourself you’ll never drink again. (except for Steph).
*Nicole Collins, my process and materials instructor at OCAD, a person who will always stick in my memory, said that before she starts painting she feels an overwhelming sense of responsibility. The painting had to be great, it had to be about “Life, The Universe, and Everything”, and nothing short of it. I’ve understood this completely, it’s probably the reason why I don’t paint a lot – but Nicole did these paintings, and they were about Life, The Universe and Everything, and when you looked at them, and heard her speak about them, it was like entering through a door where you didn’t know what was behind it, but that was what made it so exciting – to feel like what was at your fingertips was everything, but that you couldn’t explain it, all the mysteries of the world that you could only experience through feeling. The feeling that all that knowledge was in front of you, all the answers, all the questions, too much to put your finger on.
The Origin of Species was like that for me. But it was also like it contained everything I wanted it to, everything I’m thinking about, everything I’m experiencing, and everything I want to know more about. I read paragraphs over and over again, (I’m sure I would have finished the book in a day and a half, otherwise) just to make sure I had uncovered every layer of thought in them, the thought of the protagonist (Alex) and my own thought.
It is the universality of the book, the truthful, honest way in which it speaks of what it is to be human – animal – on this earth – that makes it about Life, The Universe and Everything – and is what makes it such a strong novel – as Ricci says (about what a good novel does) – “…they speak to our most basic motivations and drives, giving a shape to them that no straightforward analysis or description could ever quite capture.” And the GGs jury cites about the book “…this story reads as if it has come up through our collective memory.” – and that is what I mean as well.
When I read the last sentence, I let out a breath, not wanting to believe it was over – and tried to satisfy myself by reading the acknowledgments and the colophon, and then the 4 blank pages afterwards.
Of course I’ll read his other books prior to this one, but I know they won’t trump this one. They won’t feed me the way this one did. And I know that I’ll have to write to him, of course. And I’ll paint today – and try not to let the burden of “Life, The Universe and Everything” get to me.
*see, in particular, at nicolecollins.com/writing/statements/May 2006