Motley Kamuka

Jan-Margaret Fuller- Women in 19th Century Feb-Emerson-Nature & Self Reliance  March-Narrative of Sojourner Truth & the topic of Abolition April-Frederick Douglass-his 3 autobiographies May-Jones Very & the topics of Mental Illness and Disability June-Julia Ward Howe-The Hermaphrodite (and/or HBStowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and/or LMAlcott’s Long Fatal Love Chase) July-Thoreau-Walden Aug-Elizabeth Peabody-Record of a School (Bronson Alcott’s Temple School) Sept-Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins-Life among the Piutes (ed. by Mary Peabody Mann) Oct-Nathaniel Hawthorne-Mosses from an Old Manse Nov-Thomas Wentworth Higginson-Army Life in a Black Regiment Dec-Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson (as much as we can fit in!) I'm so psyched! By March I was having other ideas. Maybe we should have read Frederick Douglass in February and focused women into March, Women's history month. But then I realized there was more of an emphasis on women, because the list was created by a woman--and I g...

I joined a transcendental reading group on Facebook, and I don't know how much I'll read along with the group, but to prepare myself I'm reading American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever. I posted the book to the Transcendental group and they went wild! Supposedly it's historical fiction, or really inaccurate history. Someone contacted Cheever, and she blamed it on research assistants. They wondered how much of it would be corrected in later editions, but nobody knew. So I read this book with a grain of salt! She says they were "seduced by the false authority" of John Brown , so I read a lot of the John Brown. He can be a saint or you can see him as the first person executed for treason in America.  There was a reference to a song about him, and that got me onto the song " Battle Hymn of the Republic " I feel like I'm doing some elementary history class, but I didn't really pay attention in history, or social studies, as they called it when I was ...

 

I liked the first season of Mandalorian and then I liked the first episode of the second season. When I see Amy Sedaris I hear Princess Caroline from Bojack Horseman.  I'm watching the latest episodes. Like the rollout of The Boys, and now The Expanse, the episodes need catching up on once in a while. Season 2 Episode 3 is the guy from Breaking Bad , telling Bosch ( Titus Welliver ) what to do, and Kara Trace has red hair and takes off her helmet, a non helmet strict Mandalorian.  The aliens are getting better, following Fascape, and Star Trek Discovery. They have a fish guy, an ant guy and a frog person.  I was 10 in 1977 when Star Wars came out. I'll have a weird desire to see all their stuff. Just like Star Trek seems to be spawning multiple shows, Star Wars is spawning lots of movies and shows. It's almost too much, but during the Great Quarantine of 2020 we need entertainment.  I feel like they watched every Samurai movie and then noted new things to try for ...

 For a while Corner Gas was on Amazon Prime, and it became my background default noise show. My daughter liked it too.  I grew up in Wisconsin, so Saskatewan wasn't too far away. Sometimes I think I might actually want to be a Canadian more than I want to be an American.  Last night I listened to Brent Butt, the creator, on the Podcast Toronto Mike . It wasn't bad, and it made me nostalgic for when I could stream it for free or without commercials. I've even watched the animated show. You can watch them both now in the USA on IMDB.  I'm so averse to commercials. Netflix and Amazon Prime have really spoiled me. I don't think my daughter has seen very many commercials.

Tale of Genji is a long haul and I needed a swift read. I read half of Hunger Games last night. Here are my thoughts: In a way it's a perfect adolescent narrative about the hypocrisy of adulthood, the contradictions of adulthood, the absurdity of adulthood. Parents have clay feet if they live, or become heroes of mythology if they die. The novel goes from natural to artificial, similar to that of the passage from childhood to adulthood. Then it's back to nature, but as an adult, it's cutthroat, literally in this novel. Susan Collins has a knack for names. What great names. A masterclass on naming characters.  Also there's a real feeling of controlled narrative. Things could expand or get obsessed with, but she doesn't bloviate. Crisp tight plot narrative. She allows Katniss to summarize what might have been off putting if we'd really gone close into her thoughts. Reading the book with Katniss the narrator, I began to think Jennifer Lawrence wasn't a good...

I Measure Every Grief I Meet by Emily Dickinson I measure every grief I meet With analytic eyes; I wonder if it weighs like mine, Or has an easier size. I wonder if they bore it long, Or did it just begin? I could not tell the date of mine, It feels so old a pain. I wonder if it hurts to live, And if they have to try, And whether, could they choose between, They would not rather die. I wonder if when years have piled — Some thousands — on the cause Of early hurt, if such a lapse Could give them any pause; Or would they go on aching still Through centuries above, Enlightened to a larger pain By contrast with the love. The grieved are many, I am told; The reason deeper lies,— Death is but one and comes but once, And only nails the eyes. There's grief of want and grief of cold,— A sort they call "despair"; There's banishment from native eyes, In sight of native air. And though I may not guess the kind Correctly, yet to me A piercing comfort it affords In passing Calvary,...