. . . I wanted to note that my short essay on procrastination has just been posted on the excellent creative writing website Writing Companion. Please have look!

People say facebook is highly addictive – but like anything else, we can choose if and when to use it. (Is that true?)

Facebook seems to be part of the same mass hypnosis as cell phones, texting, ipods, etc. - even though a piece of technology may be only a couple of years (even months?) old, we grab onto it for dear life and can’t seem to imagine living without it any more. We become dependant on these things, things that in the previous generation or decade hadn’t even been invented. Never mind that people have been able to live healthy, productive,  imaginative lives for millenia without any such technology. No – now that they’re here, we absolutely need these things. I find this a little frightening.

(And yes, I’m aware of the hypocrisy: criticising technology via weblog.)

I’ve spoken with parents who say that they have no choice, they need to get this technology, and learn how to use it - because that’s how their kids do things. Sounds like: they can’t communicate with their kids unless they’re willing to do so on the kids’ terms? Like the music industry (primary target audience still being, I think, 14 year old girls spending their parents’ money) maybe this is more evidence of our society’s unspoken religion: youth-worship. It’s almost as if capitalism needs to butter up the future generations, so they won’t leave the fold when they come of age.

But what do I know? I only have twenty-five friends!

For now, I’ll add some links to things I’ve been reading lately, for my own quick reference if nothing else.

1. UK haiku website with words.

2. The Four Seasons of Haiku.

3. Haiku for Beginners, courtesy of Paul Brown, a prolific Canadian artist.

4. Poetry Chapbooks! I want to learn more. Here is a basic history and definition; here is BC poet Tim Lander’s inspiring and informative (and printable) Art of the Chapbook.

Just missed it: happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Next month: happy Poetry Month!

David Abrams’ The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. A close look at nature, language, and culture, among other things. A professional stage magician studies with indigenous magicians in Tibet, Indonesia, and elsewhere. An examination of humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

. . . If this title or author sounds familiar, yes, I’ve already referred to this book elsewhere, in a post from February of last year.

BOOKS.

I recently read Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (2000). A dark, surreal, sci-fi fantasy. One of the liner notes suggests it’s a hybrid of Blade Runner and the London of Charles Dickens. Equal parts epic post-apocolyptic quest, disturbing gothic horror, and sentimental love story. There are robots and cyborgs, and all sorts of advanced gadgets and weaponry – and also medieval magic and alchemy – and coal-powered engines, and steam-driven machines. The main character is a brilliant and eccentric scientist, who is given an unexpected task when an alien being seeks him out. Excellent. This was an example of a book I literally couldn’t put down.

Another one I just finished is The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy (1998). This is the story of several extended families of African elephants, and their desperate struggles to survive both a severe drought and the brutal attacks of human poachers. Ultimately they’re searching for a safe, green place, a sort of mythical promised land. It’s all told from the elephants’ point of view, in particular the perspectives of a few gifted and far-ranging individuals. A detailed, sometimes tragic, and completely believable look at pachyderm culture, rituals, and social roles and relationships. I found this a little harder to get into, at first, which may be due to the invented language and terminology, etc. Regardless, it was worth the effort.

What would it mean to have status on Earth as a non-human person? Any killing, hunting, or eating of dolphins would be illegal, certainly. Keeping them in aquariums and zoos for the viewing public would also be frowned upon. We couldn’t use them for military purposes – that is, unless we could do so with their consent. Doesn’t seem likely. Assuming the language barrier could ever be broken, I can’t imagine they’d be terribly patriotic toward many human causes. They probably wouldn’t – probably don’t - see things our way when it comes to our need to study them, experiment on them, etc. Even the act of granting dolphins status as something more than animals (as something a little closer to glorious us) might be seen as an example of human arrogance.

Wouldn’t their being recognized as ”non-human persons” mean that everyone would have to just leave dolphins alone?

Here’s another article, not quite so recent: Seal meat becomes tasty delicacy in Canada after Europe bans imports. And finally, as if that weren’t enough, the Canadian Parliamentary Restaurant plans to feature seal meat on its menu for 2010.

People once believed that the vast bison herds of the Great Plains would be there forever. An infinite resource! Soon enough, our gun-happy ancestors proved that theory wrong. Didn’t stop them from shooting bison though! What next? How about the old-growth forests of British Columbia? An unlimited supply of timber! Well, even when they noticed that it wasn’t anywhere near unlimited, they were in no position (economically, philosophically, or otherwise) to stop chopping down trees! How about the Atlantic cod fisheries? Or more recently: the Pacific Coast salmon fisheries?

. . . Why seals? Here’s a better question: why not seals? How many wild populations do we have left that haven’t yet been translated, using doublespeak, into “natural resources”?

I’ve recently had some writing appear in two different publications.

First, an article on temple symbolism, dragons and monster masks to be specific, in Lotus Lantern: Korean Buddhism for International Readers. (It seems the most recent issue is not yet available online.) I would like to thank Ven. Yongsoo, my teacher and friend, for his inspiration and assistance with this.

Second, in DailyHaiku III, the third print edition of the online haiku journal dailyhaiku.org. This attractive (green cover!) book features the haiku poetry of all contributors to the journal throughout its 5th and 6th cycles.

. . .

Campbell, Joseph. Transformations of Myth Through Time. Campbell’s  thirteen final lectures, apparently. Accessible and interesting chapters describe numerous Eastern and Western religious/mythical traditions. Egypt, Greece, and the Americas; kundalini yoga and the Arthurian quest for the holy grail. Comparable, with its conversational tone, to Campbell’s excellent The Power of Myth.

Craighead George, Jean. My Side of the Mountain. This was one of the very first “chapter books” I remember reading (Walnut Park School, Mr. Dubroy’s grade 3 class). About a city kid who runs away from home to live off the land, with detailed journals and diagrams of how he lives, eats, and even trains a hunting falcon. I remember what an effect this book had on me! How much it inspired me and my friends back then. I just read it again recently, and enjoyed it almost as much. Good bedtime reading.

Dillard, Annie. For the Time Being. Less positive, you might say, than her Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Here the author asks difficult questions about faith, life, and the universe. Does God actively cause human calamity? Or passively let it happen? Some of the many diverse themes and explorations include Jewish mystical philosophy, travel and palaeontology in China, human malformation, and the natural history of desert sand.

 Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. A classic religious-studies text by one of the field’s most important and influential scholars. Not really for the beginner, I suppose, but still it’s a poetic and enjoyable book. Some interesting themes and ideas. I read this one on city park benches and while riding the subways of Seoul.

Heo Gyun. Korean Buddhist Temple Motifs: Beautiful Symbols of the Buddhist Faith. An invaluable resource for appreciating the history and symbolism behind the art and architecture of Korean sacred spaces. (Useful, anyway, if you happen to be tramping around the mountains of South Korea!) Not only the ancient statues and the elegant wooden buildings; even specific patterns and colors of paint have their own sets of meaning. Dragons and pagodas, drums and bells and pine-forest pathways, murals and clay-tile rooftops . . .

Lamott, Ann. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. A book I just wrote about in a recent post, but I think it’s well worth a second mention. Childhood and family memoirs both dysfuntional and deeply moving; shocking and inspirational spiritual autobiography. Christianity as we rarely get to see it.

Shepard, Paul. The Only World We’ve Got. An essay panorama: anthropology, deep history, early-childhood development, biology, art history, psychology, folklore, and eco-criticism. Why is the natural world (especially animals) so important to human beings? What might an original human culture have looked like? Various selections from the late Shepard’s prolific career.

Thorp, Gary. Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature. The author seeks out the beautiful and elusive mountain lion native to northern California, and the quest itself becomes both a meditation and a metaphor. Natural history and travel, self-discovery and Eastern philosophy.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Children of Hurin. Somewhat like the Silmarillion (also excellent), this is early history of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Dense prose, highly-developed characters and settings, scenes of high adventure and suspense. Originally an unfinished long poem; an epic story of a noble family unable to escape its violent and tragic fate.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Bluebeard. Not his best, but all the Vonnegutian trademarks are here: satirical jabs at society (and in this case, the insular and self-important world of art), pseudo-autobiography, and general all-around sad absurdist humour. This novel documents the humble retired life of a once-great but now virtually unknown abstract impressionist painter, Rabo Karabekian – who is actually a minor character in the great Breakfast of Champions. I read this one in a travel-trailer in Manitoba.

. . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR!