so, texas' loss to usc pretty much ruined my bracket, since i had them as national champ. you can do all your laughing and pointing now, it's ok. i have been subjected to it already. the rest of my bracket is relatively intact, but it will take a major blow to my opponent, cwiii, either in the form of a sweet sixteen loss by ucla or ohio state for me to even have a chance in hell. and maybe not even then. but whatever. brackets are only one part of the greatness of march madness. the other parts are what kept us in rapt attention all weekend.
whatever. i also spent the weekend sick, and that sucked, but what didn't suck at all was my random decision to buy a book on saturday morning, and for that book to be "what is the what" by dave eggers. it is one i had meant to read months ago, and never got around to picking up, but i must tell you that i am already almost done with it because it is one of the most compelling pieces of writing i have encountered in some time. i have to believe it is eggers' finest work, and perhaps so because it is a memoir that is not his own, but yet one i imagine resonated with him in ways that i cannot understand but that i know must be extraordinarily powerful. and beyond that, he is just a very, very good writer. it seems, at least to me, that there are less and less of those around these days. lately, writers seem to gain notoriety from things other than the fact that they are very, very good writers... and that is a shame.
cyril connelly, in another great work called "the unquiet grave" wrote:
the more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of any writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.
this book is really amazing and is a great read, as well as an important one. i highly recommend it. as with any book i really take to, i am moving through it at an incredible clip, and i am actually trying right now to slow my pace, if only so i can still read it throughout the week. i am very pleased with the thinking i am doing as a result of it, with the frame of mind it is affording me... i don't really know anymore how i feel about this world, with all the things that i know go on around me, both near and far, and how much idealism i have left in me now(which might sound ridiculous, and might even be ridiculous, for someone like me to say, but i am just stating facts here, not analyzing their validity) but reading about these people, about this person, valentino, and his life and what it has been like and where it has led him and how he has felt through all of it has made me think a lot, and also feel a lot of things, and most importantly, it has had the effect, which i always value, of backing me out of the tight focus i have put on my life lately, and let me see a bit more of the picture, as they say. and i don't think that it has given me even one answer necessarily, but it is nice, even a relief, to zoom out. and my life has meant more to me in the last twenty four hours, and my love has become that much more vibrant in the past twenty four hours, and it feels good. it was needed.
read this book, i think it will be good for you.
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