Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Twainian thoughts on New Year's:
New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions.
I miss you all. I hope you enjoy the celebrations and the associated TASP togetherness in New York. (I was about to set out on foot, but I decided against it after finding that it would take 18 days to cover 1300 miles at a continuous rate of 3 mph.)

Make New Year's your scapegoat!

Love and Hugs,
Valentin

9 comments:

Laura Kling said...

We talked about it, and we guess that's okay. We miss you, but we guess that it's okay that you didn't walk.

Also, both Gili and Aurelie thought it was Taiwanian wisdom instead of Twainian, at first. We're all good to go now, though.

Anonymous said...

Happy International Year of the Potato!

But 3mph seems a little...unfast. What if you bike your way over?

Laura Kling said...

Well, he's not stopping for sleeping or eating.

But maybe we should've sent him a bike for Christmas.

Fernandez said...

No need to send me one. I didn't consider the bike option because of the physical effort involved. I'm not big on physical effort.

A train would have worked though. I didn't think of Amtrak. It would have been perfect (read: absolutely no physical effort).

beabstract40 said...

valentin...i've read a few cortazar stories and curious about reading hopscotch...what are you reading now...or have been reading in the past five months that has been good?

Fernandez said...

Brian,

I'm glad to hear from you.

In Spanish fiction, I'm working on Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral (Conversación en La Catedral). I've read almost everything by Cortázar in the last few months. If you can get your hands on Hopscotch, read it. Three Trapped Tigers (Tres Tristes Tigres) by Guillermo Cabrera Infante was also good stuff. There's much more, but I found those three most enjoyable.

Outside of the Spanish, I read Postmodernism: or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Fredric Jameson. It's a good survey of postmodernism and its relationship to cultural production. I'm slowly getting through Lacan's Ecrits (I bought a cheap, new translation of the entire thing a few months ago).

I won't go on with English fiction or philosophy because it's likely that you've read it as well.

What have you been reading? What has everyone else been reading?

Gili said...

Valentin, where's your facebook? You must friend me because I can't find you. That's an order.

Anonymous said...

Yes, yes, we demand you get one of those online contraptions mentioned above!

Ana said...

I third that.