Random Kanji SYmbol Musings: 腕 - わん - うで

Arm. This Kanji is somewhat special to me, as it represents better than almost any other the kind of Kanji that I always seem to forget, despite some considerable effort put into practicing it. Therefore, in my stubbornness, I've written this thing about a million times and thus I think I've finally got it. It's not helped by it having no logical iconographical connection in my view to a hand. Difficulty in remembering 3/10 (originally 10/10). Likability 6/10 (we've come a long way together, 腕 and I. Now, I just need to encounter it more to justify the time I've spent learning it).

Random Kanji Symbol Musings: 物 - もの - ぶつ

Thing. Finally decided to officially learn this one, as it seems to pop up so often it was becoming inconvenient to not know it. Words that use it always amuse me, such as 食べ物 or 動物, eating thing (food) and moving thing (animal) respectively. Difficulty in remembering 6/10. Likability 6/10.

Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell



Sarah Vowell is my favorite among the many talented and amusing regular contributors to the This American Life radio show. Her intelligent, droll, amusing essays are always a blast to read, or better yet listen to her read in her iconic voice. Unfortunately I only have this in paperback, but her voice comes through in my head as I read anyway.
Presidential assassinations is a topic in history that, beyond JFK and Lincoln, I hadn't given much thought to, but found myself very engaged as Vowell gives both a very full history of all the principal players in Lincoln's, Garfield's, and McKinley's assassinations, as well as her modern day visits to various memorials and historic sites connected to them. It sounds morbid, and it is but is also great fun. One might wonder why the JFK assassination isn't discussed, but that one has been picked over so many times I think there was no need here. Certainly I knew next to nothing of Garfield's and McKinley's demises, and the extended bios of those connected peripherally in Lincoln's death was great. While I enjoy more or less all of Vowell's essays, I think I prefer it when she writes about historical topics like this. Will check out her The Wordy Shipmates soon.

Random Kanji Symbol musings: 雲 - くも

It's cloud. Radical for rain plus what looks like meet 雨+ 会. So basically, meeting rain - clouds meet to rain? Sounds easy enough to remember.

Difficulty in remembering 2/10. Likability 8/10. It's cute.

Random Kanji symbol musings: 零 - れい, ゼロ

Seems to be used less as the numerical idea of zero and more as the idea of zero or nothing, although I haven't encountered this in my limited time reading Japanese yet so maybe not. Also, why does it have the rain radical in it? 雨 What's the connection?

Difficulty in remembering 7/10. Likability 4/10.

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

My first McCarthy book, after being intrigued by the movie adaptation of No Country For Old Men. Started off very difficult, written in a rather unique style that has been described, in my opinion accurately, by others as biblical in tone. Once about twenty pages in however I was able to fly through it very quickly. It's classified as a Western, but far different than the image that the genre would bring to mind for most. The Judge Holden character is very interesting, but I wonder the exact point to him. Is he a Mephistopheles type devil, directly responsible for the atrocities committed, or rather a kind of amused, detached observer - a kind of personification of the moral decay exhibited originally from mankind? Certainly the ending would suggest something like the former, but that almost goes against what I feel to be the overall theme of the book - violence and hatred being universal and innate in all men. If such actions are caused by an outside source, then its difficult to fit in with such a theme, although both ideas lean toward a "fate in inescapable" view.
The descriptions of open, desolate places are wonderful, although McCarthy loves to throw in obscure, arcane words which I was not always willing to take the time to look up. He also gives entire conversations in untranslated Spanish, which I also usually was too lazy to do more than a quick translation.
Overall, a very enjoyable and thought provoking book. The title has been hovering in my mind for years, initially after seeing it top a list of the most violent books ever written and then after No Country was so successful. I hear a movie adaptation of this book is in the works too, which makes me glad I've now read it, allowing my mental picture to not be dictated by its movie adaptation.
I definitely have an interest in reading more of his novels in the future.