Friday 56: Symbols

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This week's selection comes from the Dictionary of Symbols by Tom Chetwynd. It is based mainly on Jungian psychology which is only partly why I bought it. Why it's the closest to me right now is because I looked up in the sky the other day and saw two clouds next to each other that looked like frogs. Exactly like frogs. I was curious was Jung had to say about the symbology of frogs! So here's my 56:

This is under the symbology of the Body.

Youth juxtaposed with Old Age, or the Child with Man or Woman occur frequently in symbolism to depict the crises of change in the process of living through the different PERIODS of life.

Short Stories: More from Sacks

This Saturday I am continuing with Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. I'm doing chapters since they are arranged in short story like manner. Here's the first post if you want more info.

Chapters 2 and 3 both deal with music in relation to epilepsy. Chapter 2 titled A Strangley Familiar Feeling: Musical Seizures, relates how some people have musical auras, that is, they hear a certain type of music before going into a seizure. They get recognize that if they hear this piece of music, they are most likely only hearing in their heads and are going to have a seizure soon. Some people with this type of aura feel that the music is very familiar but can never quite place it. Others recognize immediately the song they are hearing. The most interesting of these stories was of a mother who diagnosed her son with seizures before the doctors. She heard him humming Pop Goes The Weasel one morning, the same tune she hears just before she has a seizure.

Chapter 3 is titled Fear of Music: Musicogenic Epilepsy. I found this one terribly sad. It tells of people who's seizures are brought on by music. Sometimes any kind of music and sometimes one particular style or piece of music. It seems to be related to the emotions; the more emotional the type of music the more likely it is to cause a seizure. The saddest case was of the 19th music critic Nokonov. At first it was itermitent but gradually any type of music would bring on a seizure. He had to give up his career and actually began to fear all types of music.

Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Ok, it is very possible it is me since I just read a Charles de Lint book I didn't particularly care for (and I LOVE him) so take this review with a grain of salt.

The only reason I began reading the Sookie Stackhouse books was because I really liked the first season of True Blood, which is based on these books. However, I am just not finding too much I like about the books. I'm too thrilled with the writing itself. Harris' style is very choppy and childish. Maybe childish is the wrong way to decribe it but I feel like I'm reading something written by someone who doesn't know much about writing a novel. The storyline is interesting but I can't get around the fact that I just don't think she's a very good author. I will admit I didn't finish this one. Usually I don't review a book if I don't finish it but I want to know if anyone else is reading these and feeling the same way I do. Again I feel let down by a vampire novel that I feel has taken the things I love about vampire novels and completely done away with them. For example, where's the lure of the vampire itself. Yeah, she talks about people being enamored with vampires but you don't really feel it and Sookie appears to be the only one we've encountered who is enamored with a vampire who's not utterly crazy. What about the dark mysterious and sexual quality of vampire literature? I'm not really into erotica but even Dracula had quite a bit of sexual undertones. That's why we love vampires, the represent the dark side of our sexual fantasies. Harris just glosses over it. She talks about it, but again I don't feel it. It's like it's a part of someone else's story that Sookie talk about but never really experiences for herself.

Not sure why I'm having such a hard time getting into my books lately. Maybe I just need a change of pace. Maybe I should go pick up another Kelly Armstrong book. I haven't read anything by her in awhile. I've read a lot of the Anita Blake series and am tired of that too. Someone got some other suggestions by someone who knows how to write?

Friday 56: Frost

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY

The book closest to me is an Anthology of Robert Frost's poems. This is from Wild Grapes.

"Hold on with all you might when I let go."
I said I had the tree. It wasn't true.
The opposite was true. The tree had me.