joi, 2 februarie 2023

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike, brilliant author of The Rabbit Angstrom Tetralogy, which starts with Rabbit, Run http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/10/rabbit-run-by-john-updike-may-make-you.html - 8 out of 10

 

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike, brilliant author of The Rabbit Angstrom Tetralogy, which starts with Rabbit, Run http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/10/rabbit-run-by-john-updike-may-make-you.html

8 out of 10

 

 

I have been fascinated by The Witches of Eastwick, alas, that was when watching the motion picture, and even then, it was mostly due to the mesmerizing, dazzling performance of the ultimate bad guy, the Devil himself, Daryl van Horne, as portrayed by the Master Ludi aka Master of the Glasperlenspiel, Jack Nicholson…it was such a scintillating presence than I have named by dog after the character, which in the end might have been a bad idea, notwithstanding my atheism, the beast has been sick, which could be on account of The Wrath of God that has descended upon us, taking us to the vet more than one thousand times http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

There are the works that have been grouped in the Tetralogy, starting with the aforementioned Rabbit, Run, continuing with Rabbit Redux http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/10/rabbit-redux-by-john-updike-previous.html masterpieces that I have not only enjoyed once, but taken to reading a second time, and then being thrilled and impressed on a new encounter, which happens rarely…I have recently took again White Man Falling by Mike Stocks, a venerable comedy that has made me blissful the first time, only a few days ago, when I finished it a second time, I could not say that it is so titanically inspired with all the humor you could find in it, and the insight into Buddhism and religion at large, the conclusion being that we need to live in the present, be aware of the charlatans that try to make money.

The Swami of White Man Falling http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/10/white-man-falling-by-mike-stocks-ten.html is not a cheat, on the contrary, he tries to escape the brouhaha, commotion caused by his ascendance to divine status, after a heart attack, returning from the dead, he is assumed to have walked with God and venerated, against his mute protestations (he could not speak before this incident) and when he takes one hour of silence in a clearing, the place becomes crowded with worshippers, on a bus home, nobody dares to join him and his daughter, and such scenes make for mirthful reading.

 

Lucky Jim is fantastic on the second meeting http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html which is happening as we speak – I mean I do not write this and read the chef d’oeuvre, Napoleon was reputed to do a few things at the same time – because I try and read a few books on the same timeline, that is starting in the morning with a book, audiobook actually, read to me while I cycle back from the Downtown World Class (what a joke this really is, pretending to offer a ‘world class’ service, by just assuming that name, when in fact you have a flawed, somewhat anti-client system, at the start of December, I Told them that the liquid soap at one of their showers is just wasted down the drain, for the thing holding it is broken and now we are half way through January and they have not done a damn thing about it, except claim they will fix it, and at the same time, they have closed the outdoor Jacuzzi to save money, energy, all right, but be fucking consistent, do not take services from the customers like that, in the name of a good cause, while you through energy and chemicals down the toilet with the other, this is really green washing and an aberration) and that magnum opus is Lucky Jim these days…

 

When I have tried to read The Witches of Eastwick it did not work, though I try to reason why there is no review, or an indication on goodreads that I have tried, and failed to comprehend, enjoy, navigate with it, and the conclusion is that I must have thought I could try again, in a different mood, which could work, eventually, seeing that I am not reading in the aforementioned Jacuzzi anymore, since it is shut, but also because the program has changed, I have to get back home to stay with my boys, the two macaws, Balzac and Puccini, and there is no time for indulging in too much hedonistic activity at the ‘world class’ facility (what a joke, I have to laugh again) where part of the object of reading in the hot, sizzling water was to watch the sirens coming in, then trying to talk and find flow in that endeavor  that could not be repeated http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html

The conditions for Flow ‘Action/awareness merging, Clear goals, Unambiguous feedback, Intense concentration, challenge–skill balance, Control over the task at hand, Loss of self-consciousness, Transformation of time, And autotelic experience’ are listed in the quintessential psychology magnum opus, and come to think of it, if they allow us back into the Jacuzzi, some time in spring, then why not repeat the experience, creating the conditions, at least on some days, when the spouse will back up with the screaming monkeys (sorry, did I say monkeys, I mean fucking birds) and then I could take up http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/11/rabbit-is-rich-by-john-updike-winner-of.html Rabbit Is Rich

 

Perhaps another masterpiece would be available, although I seem to select novels that I have admired, because concentration is lacking for some of the books I attempt to read (it could, no it surely was part of the reason why I did not stick to The Witches of Eastwick what with the Aphrodite, Dianas, Venuses that were hanging then in the huge hot tub, the size of a pool really, it would be really stoic for someone to concentrate on a book, albeit stoic might not be the right word, it is a myth, a ‘fake news’ that stoics were all about grim existence, skipping on food and joys, think Seneca, one of the richest men of antiquity and a stoic, he said that we should not be obsessed by wealth, and we have it, not get addicted, but benefit from it, and in short, they advertised a good, decent life, avoiding excesses, which is such a wonderful philosophy, one of the best, with its few flaws, like the superstition they embraced)

Very soon, a second note will be posted on the blog on Rabbit At Rest http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/rabbit-at-rest-by-john-updike-this-is.html seven years after I first had the great pleasure of reading this complex fresco, which has thoughts on almost everything, from religion to drug addiction, the American politics, the Japanese culture, The Angstroms sell Toyotas, until maybe they don’t, and however deep and thoughtful it is, it offers readers the surprises we usually find in soap operas, where everyone if fucking everybody else…speaking of which, there are incredible passages with quite, or very detailed sex, felatio, cunnilingus and all, the pubic hairs they used to have ( a joke on Bill Maher’s show was ‘what is pubic hair’ people in California and some other such places do not know of it anymore) and all the salacious innuendo possible

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world

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