One more post afore I take myself off to bed on the living room sofa. (You wouldn't catch me dead for all the books in America in the bedroom my two sisters share - that'd be fair insane!)

*ahem* I finished 1916 with a hollow feeling in my throat, but I was pleased with the ending of the story and the action that took place during the Rising itself. M. L. captured the heat of the fighting very well, and the story was told in her usual intense style. I wouldn't go so far to say that I could see the whole thing happening in my head as it was narrated, but it came really close to that. Did I mention before that Llywelyn is an awesome writer? Yer probly sick of hearing her name by now, huh? Hehe, just wait 'til I get the sequel!

Wanna share another section from 1916 with ya that nearly got me crying (and yes, I'm serious) :

"Does it have to be that way? What makes men hate each other so much?"

Clarke adjusted his spectacles with his forefinger. "In a war you don't necessarily hate the poor bastard on the other side. You don't even know him, though you may have a lot in common. You just go on fighting because fighting has come to be the way you live. The way your father and his father before him lived, maybe. You don't think about the morality of it, right and wrong, good and evil. You don't think at all; you don't dare. It might unman you."

Ach, the day's been passing by too swiftly to be believable! Ditto for the week . . .

The more I read this book, the more I simmer inside. I dunno why, but I'm suddenly feeling very patriotic, and I think it's kinda weird. Why? Well, if you think about it, America is something of a "house of many nations," with many ethnic groups under her roof. I'm sure each of these groups feel some pull towards their native homelands, but what about the country as a whole? Has America ever had an identity crisis of some kind?

We've had many empires rise and fall during the course of history, and I wonder what prompts man to think that he's so high and mighty that he can turn on his own neighbors and force them to do his will. That's how tyranny works, doesn't it? Violent force, secrecy, fear : all of these are a tyrant's weapons. What one empire has never resorted to these to instill "unity" into its subjugated nations?

Poetry and patriotism seem to be a good match. Check out this piece by Mr. Pearse : Mise Eire.

When I was in middle school, I remember reading about five Hardy Boys novels in a single day. I don't say this to boast, but I think back then I probly did it just to see how many books I could read in a span of 14 wakeful hours. Kawazy, huh? I guess I bring this up 'cause I finished two little books yesterday, and I felt like I'd been reading too fast. Hate it when that happens . . .

I'm now swimming through Llywelyn's 1916, and my gosh, this book is awesome! A part I would like to put forth by poet/Uprising commander-in-chief Padraic Pearse :

O wise men, riddle me this : what if the dream come true?
What if the dream come true, and if millions unborn shall dwell
in the house that I shaped in my heart, the noble house of my thought?
Lord, I have staked my soul, I have staked the lives of my kin
on the truth of thy dreadful word. Do not remember my failures,
but remember this my faith.

There is no moral to my song,
I praise no right, I blame no wrong;
I tell of things that I have seen,
I show the man that I have been
As simply as a poet can
Who knows himself poet and man.

word of the week : humble. definition : not proud or haughty, not arrogant or assertive; reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission.

>1620

Went to the library and spent the better half of the day there, scouring the place for the rest of the Hitchhiker series and other kool M. Llywelyn selections and just ski-hopping over books I pulled off the shelves to read on the spot. Yes, I'm bad. No, I don't care. And yes, Danielle, I would love to read your thesis!

05.28.01 >2128