Finished reading On the calculation of volume I by Solvej Balle.
Very interesting read, perhaps a deep meditation on the repetitive sameness of midlife.
There are myriad interpretations, but one that resonated with me is when you’ve set up your routines and get into a groove, you notice that a dynamic equilibrium has set in, a cyclical stability.
Then you have to ask yourself: do you want to maintain the pattern?
And if you’ve grown attached to it, can you master your fears and escape this hand-built little prison you’ve made?
The book intensifies this situation to an inescapable extreme scenario: the same day repeats itself over and over in a time loop.
Balle’s focus is on the protagonist’s response to the situation, which I found compelling.
Tara, the narrator-prisoner, is meticulous in her examination of the ever-repeating day and her own reactions.
I look forward to reading Volume II.
Articles & Newsletters (the fun kind)
A classicist reivews The Return, a film about the second half of The Odyssey.
I will put this film on my to watch list.
Here is the trailer.
YouTube
I saw the trailer for Mickey 17 right after The Return trailer.
The contrast in their approach to violence was impossible to miss, and there is really quite a lot of violence in both.
In one it is Odysseus, the hero-protagonist, dealing all the damage in a male power fantasy set in a mythic Greek past.
And in the other Mickey, the victim-protagonist, receives all the violence as a result of filling in forms in a dystopian and bureaucratic science fiction future.
Either way, it’s violence all the way.
Television
Finished The X-Files S1.
Recommended.
Music
Marsh has released a 7 (seven!) hour long liveset: All Night Long.