A Nobel Prize Well Deserved
Just Me
--
'The narrator, an unnamed young dress-factory worker of the post-WWII
generation, has been summoned for questioning by the secret police;
she has been caught sewing notes into men's suits destined for Italy,
with the desperate message "marry me" along with her address. Accused
of prostitution in the workplace (and told she is lucky the charge is
not treason), she loses her job, and her life becomes . . . a chilling
picture of human adaptation and survival under oppression.'
In only so much as its first few pages you'll discover all the more
reason why such prose as this should win the prize, as here you find
her narrator on a city bus, lost in an interior monologue of
commentary and complaint, "and the only bulges in his trousers are the
bags around his knees." Is it not about time for a Real Woman to step
forward for the Prize? Yes. Indeed, how can the heart not go out to
the kind of Nobel Prize winner who likes looking for bulges in men's
trousers on a city bus?
--
JM
http://jpdavid.blogspot.com/
http://bobbisoxsnatchers.blogspot.com
http://vignettes-mackie.blogspot.com
Stratum101
> From Publisher's Weekly on _The Appointment_, by Herta Müller
I read it eight or nne years ago when I saw it on a remainders
shelf at Borders. (The German title was something like
"I'd rather not meet today.") It is memorable. I think I
bought it on a weekend and read it nearly straight through.
Ever since they took Peter Gunn off Saturday night TV,
and the missus who wasn't my missus moved out, I
haven't known what to do with myself on Saturdays. I
probably should go into the village and get another
missus. I wonder if Mueller is available. The last one
had some Hungarian in her.
What do you think of Obama's selection for the Nobel Peace
Prize? Is it a little early in his presidential career to
say that he deserved it, or does the award serve
a short term political end that in Oslo (where
the recipient is selected) is perceived as more
pressing than giving it to someone else who really
is engaged in the peace biz full time, like Greg
Mortensen?
One thing it does all the time in Texas is rain.
Dallas would become a tropical
rain forest if you could have tropics in
a place where Fahrenheit winter
temps go to the single digits and day
to day temps vary twenty degrees or
more.
Note to Texans: I don't want to
start any arguments about your
crazy climate. I'm from California,
where arguing about weather is about
as relevant as extolling brands of
mayonnaise. We're generally
considered not to *have* a climate
except that when it finally does
rain in January, it doesn't stop
for two weeks and your house
slides to a new location, which
after all is everything in real estate.
the messenjah
I think they should give Charlie Rangel a Nobel Prize for Economics.
heh.. Seriously, Obama's selection was an insult. But then again so
was Gore and Arafat.
Just Me
> On Oct 8, 2:13 pm, Just Me <jpd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From Publisher's Weekly on _The Appointment_, by Herta Müller
>
> I read it eight or nne years ago when I saw it on a remainders
> shelf at Borders. (The German title was something like
> "I'd rather not meet today.") It is memorable. I think I
> bought it on a weekend and read it nearly straight through.
There's a rare distinction, somebody who not only knows who she is,
but has had occassion to read one of her books. In the media about all
you see is complaints about yet another obscure writer nobody ever
heard of waltzing off with the Prize.
> Ever since they took Peter Gunn off Saturday night TV,
> and the missus who wasn't my missus moved out, I
> haven't known what to do with myself on Saturdays.
Peter Gunn! Pardon my TV illiteracy, but wouldn't that leave you
Saturday Night miserable and single ever since 1961? Or has there been
a more recent remake of the series? Perish the thought that anyone
other than Craig Stevens could ever in this world be Peter Gunn.
> I
> probably should go into the village and get another
> missus.
Where have we heard such musing as that, since the narrative of de
Sade's *Justine* was fresh in mind? ;-)
> I wonder if Mueller is available. The last one
> had some Hungarian in her.
She is rather a fetching little thing, from the more mature man's
perspective isn't she. She was married at the time she left Romania,
but who knows what may have bulged large upon her interests, coming
down the aisle of a Berlin city bus since then?
>
> What do you think of Obama's selection for the Nobel Peace
> Prize? Is it a little early in his presidential career to
> say that he deserved it, or does the award serve
> a short term political end that in Oslo (where
> the recipient is selected) is perceived as more
> pressing than giving it to someone else who really
> is engaged in the peace biz full time, like Greg
> Mortensen?
It appears that people, including Obama himself, are having difficulty
not being assailed by questions and doubts about it. When the
recipient has to stand there looking quite embarrassed by the honor,
declaring it, as he does, "undeserved" and not really looking as
though he unreservedly welcomes it, then how can others not feel quite
the same about it?
>
> One thing it does all the time in Texas is rain.
We are having the same weather here in southern Missouri, as for the
first time ever, our rain gauge overflowed its top mark, at 5 inches
from just the one storm. This is anything but ordinary. The woods are
so full of mushrooms you can hardly take a step without crushing one.
> Dallas would become a tropical
> rain forest if you could have tropics in
> a place where Fahrenheit winter
> temps go to the single digits and day
> to day temps vary twenty degrees or
> more.
>
> Note to Texans: I don't want to
> start any arguments about your
> crazy climate. I'm from California,
> where arguing about weather is about
> as relevant as extolling brands of
> mayonnaise. We're generally
> considered not to *have* a climate
> except that when it finally does
> rain in January, it doesn't stop
> for two weeks and your house
> slides to a new location, which
> after all is everything in real estate.
It's just like that aggravating old Southland TV commercial always had
it, "Home of Mobile World".
Remember that?
Stratum101
> On Oct 9, 7:56 am, Stratum101 <j.coll...@cross-comp.com> wrote:
>
> > On Oct 8, 2:13 pm, Just Me <jpd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > From Publisher's Weekly on _The Appointment_, by Herta Müller
>
> > I read it eight or nne years ago when I saw it on a remainders
> > shelf at Borders. (The German title was something like
> > "I'd rather not meet today.") It is memorable. I think I
> > bought it on a weekend and read it nearly straight through.
>
> There's a rare distinction, somebody who not only knows who she is,
> but has had occassion to read one of her books. In the media about all
> you see is complaints about yet another obscure writer nobody ever
> heard of waltzing off with the Prize.
>
> > Ever since they took Peter Gunn off Saturday night TV,
> > and the missus who wasn't my missus moved out, I
> > haven't known what to do with myself on Saturdays.
>
> Peter Gunn! Pardon my TV illiteracy, but wouldn't that leave you
> Saturday Night miserable and single ever since 1961? Or has there been
> a more recent remake of the series? Perish the thought that anyone
> other than Craig Stevens could ever in this world be Peter Gunn.
Well, maybe it was Mike Connors, who was Mannix.
He played basketball at UCLA, you know.
I'm taking Ike to Cold Stone Creamery at the corner
of Preston and Frankford Roads and read for a spell.