The other day I was lying in the woods, on a hammock on a mountaintop, reading aloud to young people, and wondered, for a second, why there was no professional job market for reading aloud on hammocks to young people, why there isn’t a real market demand for just such a role and why imagined salaries for such work wouldn’t rival those of morally questionable military contractors or knee-breaking thugmasters. And of course, what happened next was obvious: my bliss at the hammock and the mountain and the good book and the eager young people were corrupted, and for a split second I was Don Jenaro, an unbeliever and a nasty harridanny crank. Here’s the quote I came back to when we climbed down the hill:
There had been times in his youth, in the ardor of young manhood, when he had cherished ambitions to be somebody great and important. He had not succeeded in surpassing a decent mediocrity. But in this assured, deep-rooted, indestructible mediocrity he had the satisfaction of thinking about those who struggled, those who had a faith, an ideal, a political, social, or artistic belief for which they strove, for which they suffered privations and anxieties – and which perhaps they never saw realized.
I mean, it’s enough to force even the likes of to shut the valve off and get back to reading affectionately to the children.
On a mostly unrelated note, one of the top authors in Miette’s Preferred Podcasted Authors Network here, Bart Midwood, has a new project in the works that I can’t help but pass along. Do add word of The Francophile to your Myface Twitty Bookmarks Feeds and if you’re in the area we’ll go see it together on opening night.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Shady // Aug 8, 2009 at 4:49 am
Miette, this may be oneof your most obscure yet. Can you tell us where you found this story? I’d live to read more Azorin.
2 Carole McDonnell // Aug 9, 2009 at 6:47 am
Sweet little story.
Okay, my suggestions for summer reading — mostly fantasies alas:
Avilion by Robert Holdstock
If you like fantasy and if you like the beach and mermaid urban fantasy: Seaborn by Chris Seaborn
There’s The Ten Thousand by Paul Kearney.
There’s also my book: Wind Follower. If you like fantasy, romance, and tribal folklore.
If you like modern Korean romance,
Tongue by Kyung-Ran Jo
Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off is also pretty good, if you’re into the politics of chocolate.
3 miette // Aug 12, 2009 at 8:04 am
Wow, a million fantastic thanks to Carole! It’s always a little bit of bliss to find out who’s -really- listening, and I’ll definitely check out your book. The chocolate book has been on my longlist for a while, but I haven’t dared crack it yet. Chocolate’s just about the last thing on earth that’s -not- depressing, after all.
Shady: It’s great, isn’t it? I haven’t found much in English (this story came from an anthology of world fiction). If you read Spanish I can hook you up; otherwise, I’ll extend the question. Somebody Help Shady Find Some Azorin, For The Love Of All Things Not Yet Depressing…
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