hiatus

My rash of good books and laughable movies continues: I saw The Prestige last night. It is in my netflix queue, but I picked it up from the library as I had no netflixies at home. So the movie is filled with puzzles and the narrative structure of gotchas is very pleasing: both competitive magicians are reading the "secret diary" of the other, which is actually meant for the readership of his opponent, as is revealed in the end, to the open-mouthed astonishment (Christian Bale) or clenched-mouthed frustration (Hugh Jackson) of the other. However, when the secret is revealed at the end, it's beyond annoyingly pathetically ridiculous: after all this palaver about how people want the mystery and the secret itself is very pedestrian, the movie recreates this pedestrian quality at the end. Why didn't they follow the script's advice and keep the secret, which SPOILER resorts to the identical twin scenario so beloved of out-of-ideas soap opera writers. Jeez Louise.

I have The Lives of Others coming to me though, so, if all reports are true, this should turn around my bad run of movies.

I finally ready Junot Díaz's novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and it is wonderful. It does feel, towards the end, like there are a few too many codas, but generally, the emotional pacing between laughter and pathos is really engaging. I'm looking forward to teaching it in the spring, I think it will be the last book we read as I think it will require the the course as foundational knowledge for making the most of it: it's very dense with references and although the footnotes provide a kind of running historical narrative to clarify and expand on the familial narrative, it will definitely benefit from cultural and historical background.

This morning, I finally turned my attention back to dissertating, after the long hiatus of app-writing and sending. I had thought my fourth chapter was going to need severe and extensive reworking--particularly in terms of my use of Agamben. I am having a small dispute with one of my committee members who thinks that I'm mishmashing the idea of the neighbor (with its concept of adjacency) and the actor (as substitute). I took up Agamben this morning to find that he refers to the neighbor as "radical substitutability." I feel relieved. Also somewhat amused to recognize that I don't exactly read Agamben, I more consult it the ways spiritualists turn to the Bible for guidance: close my eyes, let the book fall open and place my finger on the page then read what is there and consider its meaning.

In between sending off the last batch on Monday and this morning of work, these few days have felt like vacation: I get home early from school and after taking a walk in the canyon, lay in bed reading and watching movies and eating left-over stirfry. The breathing room of the open schedule makes me feel like a cowboy of time, riding freely wherever I may roam. Love it.