"Over the Top" or "Nature of the Beast"

This story is so over the top that I sat here stunned for a while as I passed through stages. There was disbelief (at which I searched the blogosphere to corroborate), maniacal laughter (at the insanity of it), vengeful satisfaction ("Bout time they experienced what it felt like! Amirite?), frustration (No, they don't get it, and they won't.) and resentment (...and yet they govern, marginalizing all the rest of us). I think I've finally settled on defeat and resignation, where I've accepted that I'm not mainstream; they are, and they set the rules, the norms. They reserve the right to indignant, self-righteous outrage. For the greater good of "God", they are blind to hypocrisy, and there's nothing anyone can do about it, because that's the very nature of the beast, hypocrisy; he's blind to himself.

For an explanation (and some comment) of this confusion and soul-searching, see these sites, which carry the story.
And Little Fishes
The Wild Hunt
Bartholomew's Notes on Religion
My Fox Houston and the video

In Manila, Getting Smart

Check out renewable energy bill in the Phillipines.

Uhgh, Rushdie

Uhgh. It's not often I can't gut out a book, no matter how poor, to the end, but I've been defeated by Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence. I keep telling myself I can do it, but it's been days since I picked it up, and it's glaring at me like some evil beast of trivial literature. I am halfway through, but that doesn't lay any obligation on me, correct? Am I right? I mean I don't HAVE to finish every book. Today, I free myself of guilt, and I declare that I'm NOT GOING TO READ IT!

Funny, though, that Guignebert, whom I'm reading at the same time, formidable and dense, hasn't gotten me down. I'm nearly done, and as the timeline approaches the Enlightenment, with which I am naturally more familiar, it's becoming more, not less, enjoyable.

So scat Rushdie! I've got two books to choose from for my second reading--I always read two at once, because I leave one book upstairs and one down--The Romance of the Rose and The History of Scotland, both of which I'm itching to get my hands on. I expect The Art of Courtly Love to come in the mail today or tomorrow. I might wait to choose once I've sifted through that.

Ah, it's wonderful to be free again!

Corner of the Universe

Welcome to my niece's blog and her Corner of the Universe, from where she rules the world.

Lucilio Vanini

I'm so frustrated! I can't read Lucilio Vanini's works because they're in Italian and haven't been translated! How can that be in this age? Someone translate for me!