Things are going well on vacation. A quick look at us at high tea at the Biltmore:

Boxing Day is always one of the biggest days in the footballing calendar and, from where I’m sitting, it could hardly have gone much better. Spurs with a 5-1 thumping of Fulham (didn’t realize Dempsey was Fulham’s leading scorer with 8—good news if they go down as he might get picked up elsewhere) and Man Ure took over top spot from the Ars*. Not that I have any love for United but I’m strictly A.B.A. (Anybody But Ars*) when it comes to title challenges. The ‘Pool won too, with my fav Nando Torres netting, and Fat Sam’s Newcastle lost to Wigan. Hilarious. Good day all ’round.

This will surely take up more space in the coming days, but I scoured South Carolina before finally ferreting out a copy of Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing. I liked All the Pretty Horses quite a bit; I love The Crossing, of which I’m one-quarter through. The novel is about a boy and a wolf. But it’s also about the past and modernity. And nature and religion. And Mexico and the US and indigenous peoples. Did I mention it was fantastic?

There are animal people and people people. I’m an animal person. I’d rather see Will Smith die in I Am Legend than the German Shepherd. Yes, I eat meat and wear leather and would have no problem killing and eating a chicken if I knew how and was hungry enough. I don’t know if a person can commune with a chicken or a fish. I think not. I know we can commune with dogs, who are of course descendants of wolves. So McCarthy’s preaching to a very much converted choir here.

And what I especially like is that the animals stay animals. In All the Pretty Horses, the horses don’t need to become anthropomorphized and in The Crossing, neither does the wolf; it’s the human that needs to go to some non-human space in order to open up the pathway for communication. McCarthy levels a lot of assumptions, including the assumption that reason trumps instinct. It may conquer instinct, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better. Interesting stuff.

Current Mood: Pensive |