18 June 2010

José Saramago (1922-2010)

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on June 18th, 2010 @ 07:47:13 pm, using 373 words, 88 views

As palavras são assim, disfarçam muito, vão-se juntando umas com as outras, parece que não sabem aonde querem ir, e de repente saem, simples em si mesmas, um pronome pessoal, um advérbio, um verbo, um adjectivo, e aí temos a comoção a subir irresistível à superfície da pele e dos olhos, a estalar a compostura dos sentimentos, às vezes são os nervos que não podem aguentar mais, suportaram muito, suportaram tudo, era como se levassem uma armadura, diz-se A mulher do médico tem nervos de aço, e afinal a mulher do médico está desfeita em lágrimas por obra de um pronome pessoal, de um advérbio, de um verbo, de um adjectivo, meras categorias gramaticais, meros designativos, como o são igualmente as duas melhores mais, as outras, pronomes indefinidos, também eles chorosos, que se abraçam à da oração completa, três graças nuas sob a chuva que cai. São momentos que não podem durar eternamente.

(Ensaio sobre a cegueira - José Saramago)

Read more! »

30 May 2010

Looking for Things (Zero Effect)

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on May 30th, 2010 @ 05:45:54 pm, using 105 words, 50 views

Read more! »

29 May 2010

Another darker May 29th

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on May 29th, 2010 @ 10:57:16 am, using 74 words, 56 views

It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.

(The Winter of our Discontent - John Steinbeck)

Read more! »

22 May 2010

Belonging (White Teeth)

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on May 22nd, 2010 @ 06:35:49 pm, using 338 words, 77 views

“There are no words. The one I send home comes out a pukka Englishman, white-suited, silly wig lawyer. The one I keep here is fully paid-up green-bow-tie-wearing fundamentalist terrorist. I sometimes wonder why I bother,” said Samad bitterly, betraying the English inflections of twenty years in the country, “I really do. These days, it feels to me like you make a devil’s pact when you walk into this country. You hand over your passport at the check-in, you get stamped, you want to make a little money, get yourself started… but you mean to go back! Who would want to stay? Cold, wet, miserable; terrible food, dreadful newspapers - who would want to stay? In a place where you are never welcomed, only tolerated. Just tolerated. Like you are an animal finally housebroken. Who would want to stay? But you have made a devil’s pact… it drags you in and suddenly you are unsuitable to return, your children are unrecognizable, you belong nowhere.”

“Oh, that’s not true, surely.”

“And then you begin to give up the very idea of belonging. Suddenly this thing, this belonging, it seems like some long, dirty lie… and I begin to believe that birthplaces are accidents, that everything is an accident. But if you believe that, where do you go? What do you do? What does anything matter?”

As Samad described this dystopia with a look of horror, Irie was ashamed to find that the land of accidents sounded like paradise to her. Sounded like freedom.

“Do you understand, child? I know you understand.”

And what he really meant was: do we speak the same language? Are we from the same place? Are we the same? Irie squeezed his hand and nodded vigorously, trying to ward off his tears. What else could she tell him but what he wanted to hear?

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, yes, yes.”

(White Teeth - Zadie Smith)

12 April 2010

Clinton & Barney (Paris to the Moon)

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on April 12th, 2010 @ 11:10:40 am, using 615 words, 50 views

Back in 2000, I read a book of essays entitled Paris to the Moon by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik about his experience living in France. Something about Americans experiencing France always seems to lead straight to either uproarious laughter (David Sedaris comes to mind, always first in line in that regard) or the stirring recognition that some tidbit, observation or insight makes TOTAL sense (Gopnik cued in here.)

For D.

Read more! »

11 April 2010

Misfits I broke the fourth wall to care about

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on April 11th, 2010 @ 03:17:36 pm, using 1501 words, 117 views

Misfit: a person who is not suited or is unable to adjust to the circumstances of his or her particular situation.

[Click on the thumbnail for a larger view]

Read more! »

09 March 2010

Slanted Perception (A Single Man)

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on March 9th, 2010 @ 12:13:50 pm, using 605 words, 314 views

George: A few times in my life I’ve had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

Read more! »

05 February 2010

Commit to Reading

Written by Iris Watts Hirideyo ( Contact the author of this post )
Published on February 5th, 2010 @ 07:07:42 pm, using 694 words, 102 views

Travels in the Scriptorium
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Lady Chatterley’s
Radio Free Albemuth
Farenheit 451
Moral Disorder
Indignation
The Black Swan
When you are engulfed in flames
1984
Unaccustomed Earth

Read more! »

Iris' Journal

You never know what might be going through her mind...

| Next >

Site Statistics

Most-viewed Posts

Most-commented Posts

Most-verbose Posts

Journal Summary

  • 564 posts written between 23 July, 2007 and 4 September, 2010
  • 401,855 total words
  • 288,085 total views
  • 277 comments left by readers

Miscellany

XML Feeds

Users Currently Online

  • Guest Users: 4

The Extras

Contact the admin     Engine: b2evolution     Hosting: Hostgator.com
Content Copyright ©2007-2010 Iris Watts Hirideyo. All Rights Reserved.