I know you've given up on me. I don't blame you for giving up on me.

But it's not true it's not true it's not true. I did go on with the reading, and I do intend to post again, but, y'know, life ... Excuses, excuses ...

I wanted you to know that I figured out all by my li'l self, from a passage in chapter 4, how that passage would be put in modern economic-speak -- sort of a backwards approach to law-construction. I was so proud of myself when I did it (a month or so ago), but I would now have to reread to re-experience the epiphany.

But I will I will. Promithe.

The book is good, you can find out about it, and the author, here.

(Nice site, wot?)

I don't recall ever taking so long to read a book I enjoyed so much. I just could not find the satisfactory chunks of time to devote to it until last week when I had to fill in on night shift.

Excellent work. If you are looking for a salacious treatment on de Sade, or Sadism, then take a hike, this book is not "one to be read with one hand", as a contemporary of de Sade described de Sade's works.

du Plessix Gray takes us for a colourful walk through prerevolutionary France, through the revolution and into the Napoleanic era.

She breathes some life into de Sade, who most of us think we know from reputation and reveals the man as he was; petulant, driven, paranoid, homicidal in his imagination, but capable of gentleness in real life, a man touchingly devoted to his Puritanical wife-- yet given to paranoid delusions about her conduct. du Plessix Gray explores the contradictions of de Sade, and makes some rather moving conclusion at the end, putting in context de Sades true legacy.

I might do that again, I just don't have that much time to do it justice. Seems all I have time for is to run around and drop little posts from time to time.

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I may be getting some of my fire back...

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At last, some good news today.

just finished "And All Our Wounds Forgiven" a novel by Julius Lester. set around the civil rights movement of the '60s. A good read. Interesting perspective.

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I finally finished "At Home with the Marquis de Sade" by Francine du Plessix Gray.

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Just realized that I purchased this book a few weeks back at the enormous public library book sale (for $2). I've yet to start it though; perhaps after exams.

What realy got me is that this book hits you on so many sensual levels. The music is such an integral part of the story.

Warning: I found myself pulling out my old vinyl copy of 'Smile' while reading - also listening to the Barenaked Ladies' 'Brian Wilson'. The Rheostatics covered the songs from the book and made an album 'Whale Music'. I will be getting that album.

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'Whale Music' by Paul Quarington amazed me. If you are a fan, or just good aquantince of the Beach Boy's music, this book is a must read. An obsenently fictional tale of a charecter who closely resembles Brian Wilson in his later, reclusive years. Pulling a Howard Hughes is how Quarington put it I belive.

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There's some weird synchronicity...I actually just finished re-reading this book less than a week ago. Speaking of which, it's due back today...

Bugs my friends though, because while reading books like this, my vocab goes all superficially anglophile (Scotophile?) and I always use the words wrong.

And Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter, and Nietzsche in Venice, and No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod, and selected writings of Thomas Aquinas and Complexification by John Casti and Imagine Democracy by Judes and...

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Maybe it's the Halifax thing, Maritime solidarity and all that

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I'm still halfway through the "Combray" chapter -- family business, mostly. Swann's put in only one or two appearances.

I decided that I was going to take my time over this, and read it well, unlike some Big Books I've read (Herodotus, for example). I limit myself to 10 pages or so a day.