Skimming Stones | Sula's Blog | Sula1968 A South African poet, potter and mother
We are already almost done with Wyrd Sisters audio book, this one built on my favourite Shakespearean play Macbeth. “Trouble is, just because things are obvious doesn’t mean they’re true.”
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters
I’m almost done reading Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess. Prior to this I was only aware of his brilliant Clockwork Orange. It has taken me about 3 months to read, not because it is confusing. Notes on the cover explain “It is a novel about the nature and origins of evil.” When I pick it up, it has almost been as if clouds have scudded over what sunshine the day has afforded. Yet now of all times, darkness needs to be acknowledged. I think that in our shiny world to pretend that evil does not exist, is to disarm our spirits. Spanning decades of history, pivotal moments are captured. I think this is the first book I’ve read which addresses the Spanish Flu (eerie timing). Reading about Burgess today, I discovered that his mother and eldest sister died in the 1918 flu pandemic. The chapters covering Nazi Germany were chilling. Near the end my blood ran cold as his fiction echoes the Jonestown Massacre, before 9/11 that was the largest loss of American lives from a non natural disaster, and the people voluntarily took the cyanide. I didn’t know or had forgotten that this was the origin of the saying “Drink the Kool Aid” which in current days I have seen quoted several times. Not all drank the poison some were held down and forcibly injected with the poison. As war memorials often chime “Lest we forget”.
Now for a 2 pic summary of my week.
Well that’s it for this week. I need to go and buy a new ballet leotard and tights for Acacia as she has a medal test this afternoon.
Song for the week