For Whom The Bell Tolls

Image Courtesy Onion Reads

So I've been stuck in a hotel for two days for a workshop for my job but the good news is that I had 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' by Ernest Hemingway with me!

'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is perhaps the most profound piece of literature that I've ever read. I mean... f**k. I you're an aspiring writer, here's a warning, reading this could make you never want to pick up a pen and paper again. Because whatever you write it will never be as perfect, s.what's the point? But on the same note, he can make love the craft so much that you can't help but try...

My favourite chapter is chapter 13, let's talk about it. The protagonist, Robert Jordan talks about love. A lot. He loves Maria and will love her for the rest of his life which measures up to be, oh, about 48 hours give or take a little.

Here's my favorite line from Robert Jordon on Maria "sweetheart, Cherie, prenda, schatz. He would trade them all for Maria. There was a name." So you live all your and the fairytales, odes, sonnets, telenovelas and tales of epic love are forced down your throat and then all of a sudden you meet someone and you have a name, a face. A new understanding of this thing that has driven the work of so many of the great thinkers of our time.

I love it, I'm all over it and before you roll your eyes let me just tell you that I hate all of that stuff the silly movies, the roses, that God awful Valentines Day. The stuff is just a concept and it's not what we should be looking for, that ideal exists on its own without us. What Hemingway is saying is that we need to find the person that enables us to understand what everyone was so wild about. To interpret the concept in our own way, to make it our own. That's the real goal.

God I love this book. I borrowed it from the library but I think I need to go buy it now.

The Wine of Astonishment

Photo Courtesy GoodReads.com

This weekend I read what was quite possibly one of the best novels ever. The Wine of Astonishment by Earl Lovelace.

He's a Trinidadian writer and this is the first time that I've read his work. My other favorite Trinidadian writer is V.S. Naipaul, I've heard that he's an awful person but I've never let that affect my consideration of his work. But now I think I might like Lovelace better. He captures the rhythm and the style of our local dialect in a way that I've never seen before. He gave me an entirely new perspective on the Shouter Baptist religion and their movement.

On my way to work this morning I passed by a Shouter Baptist ringing a bell on the sidewalk. I smiled to myself because today I understood the significance of what she was doing in I way that I never would have before. It was a great little boost to the day and it's all because of Earl!

Cafe Culture

Photo Courtesy: Lilit Cafe

Soo ... it's been a really long time since I've written here. I've been preoccupied with work and grad school applications and what not. I'm sorry. Let me make it up to the zero of you reading this blog with this interesting article on how original ideas are generated and the importance of cafe culture in said generation of ideas.

I someone who has worked, studied, napped and eaten all three meals on a daily basis for months at a time in one cafe or another I must say that I thoroughly agree. I've always found it easier to write/talk/work at cafes. Did you know that Hemingway wrote at cafes? Well he did.

See? That's better right? Friends again? Good. This can't be healthy.

Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival

Photo Courtesy bajanfuhlife.com

We've been having a great time watching the movies at the T&T Film Festival. We've seen a some of them good, some not so good, some just bizarre. My favorite so far is "Seventeen Colours and a Sitar". Directed by Professor Patricia Mohammed, the film is an interdisciplinary appreciation of the work of painter Rex Dixon and the sitar player Mungal Patasar.

The art is beautiful, the music is beautiful, the film is beautiful and it's all local. Please, find a copy and watch it, it's amazing. I'm so proud of our regional and local talent!