Just Past Halfway

Decided to read a passage from one of my books to F, and realized with horror that people use WAY too many adjectives, adverbs, and idioms.*  I can't translate this shit--and why should I?  Imma get me some Hemingway and read it to this boy!  Nouns and verbs, baby.  All we need.

A typical stumbling block: I'm translating sentences with Ginni, and as I watch her wrinkle her nose at one of my beautiful sentences, I remember that the concept of "eating dinner" is nonsensical to Italians.  Facepalm.  Of course Italians don't "eat dinner."  That would be ridiculous.  No--Italians dine.

Beppe decided to take a photo of me and Ginni yesterday, and ACK, it is super cool to be photographed by a photographer, even if it is with an iPad.  He told us to look at him but not to smile, which is very legit and also very difficult, and also I tend to look like a deranged monster when I don't smile.  This photo made it onto Instagram with a caption like "Ginni and the Mona Lisa," indicating that I was not successful at following directions.  (This is why I'm finished with school, folks.)  But I think I also do the Mona Lisa smile when I'm supposed to smile?  And Mona Lisa Smile is maybe a movie?

I'm almost a week past the halfway point.  Feels farther, though.

*As do I, alas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Insufficiency of 'No'

Feelin' pretty good about all the recent national discussion about sexual assault on college campuses. Good because it's happening. As ever, some of the things said will be constructive. Some won't. I want to take issue with a common sentiment:  that boys and young men should be operating on a "no means no" policy, should be taught that this is the appropriate method of determining whether consent is present. I say nope. Nope to "no means no." It's not enough--it's a starting point. A mind-numbingly obvious starting point which, even if one obeys, does not bring our culture out of its predatory funk. When a person says no, whatever activity he or she is declining should stop immediately. That's a given. How long will it take for everyone to understand that? Dear jeebus, I hope not much longer. But there's more to it. Women should not have to be gatekeepers. The absence of no is not an invitation. On the street, at a bar, in the bed...
Read more

I'm Nobody! Who are You? Are you--Nobody--Too?

I was going to write a senior project on solitude; one year ago, the proposal was completed and had enthusiastic approval from the department.  But then I went to Italy.  I got on the plane full of solitude, and a semester later I returned home full of love for a lot of people.  That summer I tried to return to the project and found that I'd lost touch with the word, tried to remember my connection to it but could not.  I could focus on little except how badly I needed to return to Italy and undergo more magical transformations.  So I finished college early and I bought a ticket. Here I am.  Funny how thoughts become actions, ain't it? Solitude and I are becoming reacquainted.  We had become strangers, have been strangers for some time now.  I have my host family here, of course, but solitude can flourish just as well admidst company as it does when one is truly alone.  The point is, this time I don't have a group of friends waiting for m...
Read more

How To Say Goodbye

Wake up in the middle of the night to a loud wailing, think it must be wind but notice the shutters aren't banging.  Fall asleep, wake early, before everyone else, and drink yesterday's cold espresso before lacing up your running shoes and running all the way up the biggest hill, the one you never made it up all those other times, because this is your first and last chance.  Reach the top, feel your fists clenching.  Take your second to last shower and wonder when's the next time you'll count things like showers.  Visit the city and notice the visitor in you is gone.  Notice how the sun feels in your hair, your spine.  Buy stockings because the old one's holes have stretched too far.  Come home and hear someone mention the earthquake last night and inwardly say "oh."  Say "oh" about a lot of things.  About how mental landscapes change.  About how every place you've ever been has been breathtaking, when you think about it.  About how...
Read more