Super undies

I've been looking at t-shirts in a new light. Would these be better as super undies? Soft cotton, especially with funny pictures - the answer can only be yes! Two made so far and there is no reason to stop yet. Sewing knit fabrics, even, yes I am. Although the knit fear plus a 3 year old 'helping' slowed things down. Need to use the stretch of the fabric better as my first attempts are a little on the super sized side.

The White Tiger

Aravind Adiga. Free Press. 2008

To sum up - in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies.

And only two destinies: eat or get eaten up. p.64

Booker Prize winner. Involving story, painfully true, about life and death, horror and terror in the 'Darkness'- the poor half of India. Habits of servitude, anger and dependence, so easy to imagine, are aptly described and inhabited. Corruption of civilization, especially in politics is mercilessly noticed. 

The White Tiger is an (anti) hero, with a full range of emotions and motives. I felt pity, sympathy, almost kinship for him. An admirable writing achievement, for a murderer. Most of the characters are not good nor respectable. In their midst, we get to know the White Tiger well and he appears respectable. Although his conscience is not clear it is well examined. The pervasive ridiculous corruption around him, lends him a certain purity.

Clever use of repetition to highlight injustice. Key visual after controversial events, such as comparing the death by murder to that of untreated TB. Built like a legal defence of the White Tiger's innocence.

Sprays: A Collection of Verbal Touch-ups

HG Nelson, Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd, 2008

Speeches made by HG Nelson on various topics including; fashion, racing, Lachlan Murdoch's bucks night, debates about blokes being duds, and a keynote address at a local government seminar. The jokes are all sport talk, which really appeal to me for no obvious reason. The local government theme is called

Firecrackers, home slaughtering and sprinklers on Australia Day are the real stumpers confronting local government as they plough through a heady agenda of community renewal and sustainability. (How did he guess?)

So if you dud out tonight and ...leave a loser, pop into the room of mirrors when you get home and have a bloody good hard look at yourself. When you find the door handle and emerge tomorrow around 7am, be prepared to put in and become a local government winner next year. p98

Domestic remedies

When things get too much, what do you do? I try all sorts of things before remembering that what I really like is a day of domestic smallness. Today was just that sort of day: we baked Anzac biscuits in time for morning tea, made stock for soups of the future, Joy tried out cutting with a sharp knife (all fingers are still intact), made dinner for tomorrow, played with new boots (fine Italian craftsmanship is a cure for lots of ills) and read about the magic of Voom (The Cat in the Hat comes back - Dr Seuss). All is much better now.

The Pages

Murray Bail, 2008, Text Publishing Melbourne

Lovely and poetic in parts. Bit too clever or post modern or something. Emotions morph into landscapes, sunsets, and quiet farmers with landscape-like brows.  Severe and stark. That can be exactly what one wants sometimes...

I did enjoy the duality between philosophy (Erica) and psychoanalysis (Sophie). But women are hysterical or earthly passive. Love is a sudden alien surprise. There is (even) a rescue by a gallant knight character.

Erica comes to the country to study  the pages written by Wesley Anthill a self styled philosopher. Wesley's story is told interspersed through the present day story. Wesley's story would have been enough for me. There is a grand finale in his story revealed with great fanfare. boom boom ta da surprise! Shortly after his narrative ends.

Thinking about thinking gives Wesley and Erica headaches and gives the book a slow, plodding texture.