Sat 1/16

Saturday 1/16 12.30pm

I treated myself to a copy of the Wilson Quarterly (Autumn 09) as the lead discussion was "The Future of the Book." I used to read this journal all the time at DBN. Very scholarly but not so much it's not accessible (I didn't have to drag out a dictionary as I did when I read Eco's "The Name of the Rose").
Anyhow, in the Book Review section, two new books on Ayn Rand are reviewed. I'm reading along when the review mentions her play, "The Night of January 16th."
Good grief! I said aloud. I didn't remember that she wrote that! I had been instantly transported in memory to the Shores of Tripoli Club, Libya, about 1956-57, where that play was put on with my mother in the cast.
It's not a great play, by any means, but audiences like it. It's a courtroom drama and the audience plays the part of the jury, renders a verdict, and thereby chooses which of two endings the play will have. It was a modest success on Broadway in 1935.
It was nice to engage my brain a bit. There were articles on the lead-up in East Germany to the Berlin Wall takedown, expanding train service in this country, population shift and other changes in the last 40 years, and exit lessons on wars. There was also a short piece on how the Orthodox church in Russia has expanded recently (even 60% of the country's atheists say they're orthodox -- hmmm).
A most interesting piece on Knut Hamsun, the Norwegian Literature Nobelist (1920). I know I know, you've never heard of him. Well, most people have never heard of him. Somewhere along the line in my reading career, I read his most famous book, Growth of the Soil. It was okay. Now, however, I find out that he was a rotten person. I mean, he gave his Nobel medal to Joseph Goebbels, calling him an "idealist"!!! Which I suppose is "true" in a twisted sort of way, but Hamsun was a Nazi admirer all the way, welcoming the takeover of Norway. I'm glad I didn't admire him much as a writer.
Other than that, I did a little sorting of tools. I also made author lists for each book bin so I find an author without opening each one. I also put peach tissue paper in the diffusers on the fluorescent lights, which modifies the light okay, but I think I'll try pale pink and see if I like it better.
Tomorrow I may tackle the big storage bin on the back rack. Or I may call Carol Bruce and see if she wants to take a drive somewhere Sunday or Monday.