/karen/

Simple pleasures

Thursday, 02 October, 2003

For spare time (what spare time?) and (non-conference) holidays.

• Reading: Reading books I've wanted to read in a long time. Re-reading old favourites and rediscovering why I call them my favourites. This sort of reading does not include the kind of reading I'd be doing if I was researching something, hell-bent on trying to find some sort of answer to a question or a problem nagging at the back of my brain. Staying up late reading a good book that won't be put down. Spending days and days lounging about reading—reading epic novels or epic series that span seven or eight books and are actually good and don't make you feel like you're being strung along and that the author has no idea where s/he is taking you. Emerging, blinking and thoughtful, on the other side.
• Watching movies: Watching movies I've wanted to watch in a long time. Occasionally re-watching old favourites, but a movie wears out faster than a book so this is done in moderation. I must admit that I get picky about what I watch at these times; there may be movies that are, in fact, very good on their own merits, but are quite unpleasant to watch. Magnolia, for example, is a great movie but it's painful viewing, whereas Spirited Away is always fun.
• Playing the piano: Playing pieces that are fun to play. “Big My Secret” from The Piano. Beethoven's piano Sonata Op. 22 allegro con brio. Certain Matthew Salvetti pieces. Rules concerning tempo and volume go out the window; I play the way I think sounds good, treading all over a traditional music-lover's sensitivities. And if it's appropriate and I feel like it, I sing too: Sondheim, Buchanan, Salvetti, church music.
• Listening to music: Listening to it while doing other things. Listening it while doing nothing. Singing along to it. Making up harmonies as I sing along to it. My music tastes are pretty diverse—rock, musicals, opera, jazz, movie soundtracks—but they're usually dominated by rock. Listening to music with Ben because he has a better ear for it and can teach me things that I wish I knew. Listening to it through headphones, picking up the stuff you don't usually hear when it's played through speakers.
• Writing:: “Writing is words that stay.” (The Dark Crystal). But writing is taxing. It's not a relaxing exercise because it's active, not passive. It forces you to surrender something of yourself. Give, give, give. Emails. Blogs. Articles. Fiction. All are fun in their own way; all are work in their own way. The pleasure of receiving compliments and feedback; the thrill of engaging with someone else with the written word. Ah, but I am forgetting about the act itself: watching letters shape themselves into words and words shape themselves into sentences and creating meaning. (I don't believe in this postmodern rubbish—Roland Barthes' “The Death of Author” and all that; it all boils down to the death of God, and though I believe that my God did die, I also believe he rose again and that he intended his book to have a very specific message.) Feeling language roll around in the cranium, linking words together that have no business of being linked together but are holding hands anyway. Being surprised.
• Thinking: Though, sometimes, I tire of this too because it is active and I get sick of my brain sometimes. Thinking odd thoughts. Compartmentalising, storing bits and pieces of things away for future reference—problems and questions that pique my curiosity, ideas for future projects. Creating characters, stories, scenarios, and watching them unfold. Thought experiments. Worrying away at theological points, what I don't understand and what someone or other has said to me that I find interesting. Thinking while travelling—in cars, on trains, on foot. Thinking just before sleep.

I'll add to this more later.

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