Essay:
Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? By Joshua Shenk, The Atlantic June 2009
While reading, and afterward, I’m enveloped in a ponderous melancholic mood, sadly reading about happiness with a smile on my face, a meditative sadness of an observational type, tragedy trimmed with curiosity. Lessons? Value connections in life, use altruistic and humorous defense mechanisms, don’t drink, don’t smoke, do stay healthy, stay close to family. But still I find the essay heartwarming, and I want to be No. 47. New words: Palimpsest, Inveigh.
Poem:
If by Rudyard Kipling
A sincere, well-intended, paean to moderation.
Short Story:
Sredni Vashtar by H.H. Munro (SAKI) in Chronicles of Clovis
Wow, now that is a short story! I was tired and questioning whether or not to read a short story before bed, and what a huge payoff. During the first couple paragraphs, I nearly quit, but after reading on I discover and become deeply intrigued by “And one day, out of Heaven knows what material, he spun the beast a wonderful name, and from that moment it grew into a god and a religion.” It all comes together so well, and I love this little violent boy.
Munro sets the stage with a dying boy, we immediately empathize with him and despise his cousin, "The Woman," he portrays Conradin as imaginative, and her as the overbearing guardian. We root for him to find a place away from her, and when god and religion are introduced the story becomes really interesting. We don’t know what he prays for, but Munro wonderfully gives us a sinister sense.
There is no way this name, "Sredni Vashtar," is an accident. It's too unusual, too fitting, definitely intentional. To me personally, it just looks foreign and exotic, middle eastern, Persian maybe, maybe an ancient Zoroastrian nemesis or something, but after reading the story the name made me think of the sound 'sredniy palets' which is the phonetic notation of middle finger in Russian, and Vashtar reminds me of Ishtar. So for me, basking in my ignorance, without any evidence or research it makes perfect sense; Sredni Vashtar is a God who shows the middle finger to everything, especially to overbearing authority and brings death and "red thoughts" to the hated world of the "necessary, disagreeable and real."
There is no way this name, "Sredni Vashtar," is an accident. It's too unusual, too fitting, definitely intentional. To me personally, it just looks foreign and exotic, middle eastern, Persian maybe, maybe an ancient Zoroastrian nemesis or something, but after reading the story the name made me think of the sound 'sredniy palets' which is the phonetic notation of middle finger in Russian, and Vashtar reminds me of Ishtar. So for me, basking in my ignorance, without any evidence or research it makes perfect sense; Sredni Vashtar is a God who shows the middle finger to everything, especially to overbearing authority and brings death and "red thoughts" to the hated world of the "necessary, disagreeable and real."
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