Thursday, June 11, 2009

Screaming meme!

Meme? No I don't know what the heck it means either, but I've been tagged for one by Peter Rozovsky. This one is called the 4x4.

Not that I don't know what I'm supposed to do: it's kind of like a chain letter, though presumably without the dire consequences that befall anyone who breaks it. But where the word comes from, I don't know. I don't even know how to pronounce it. I've been assuming 'meem', but it could be me-me, which, given the fact that in the blogosphere they seem to be about revealing details of your life that you would otherwise neglect to tell, I can also make a case for. I think, though, that it has something to do with copying or replicating.

A friend at work today, oddly enough, was asking me what a meme was. She had been given an order for a book called something like "Meme: Virus of the Mind". This made me remember that I'd read some article about how everything we think is just a copy of something else. Earworms, those little phrases of popular songs that you can't get out of your mind, are apparently a form of meme.

Anyway. You can stick around or just scroll on down to my findings on this subject. Meanwhile I have an assignment to do:


Four places I'd like to go or things I'd like to do:

The truth about me is that I am really not much of a planner. There are a lot of places, whole continents that I've never even gotten near. But I am very amenable to suggestion, which is how I've gone on most of the major trips in my life. So, in the meantime, let's make this four places I'd happily go again:

1.) Paris

2.) London

3.) Dublin

4.) Bangkok

and four places I, quite shockingly, have never been:

1.) Washington D.C.

2.) Mexico

3.) Canada (except for the Vancouver airport)

4.) Most of the American south, New Orleans being the very recent exception.


Four places I've lived:

1) Santa Monica, California

2) Dublin, California

3) Denver, Colorado

4) Santa Cruz, California

Yeah, you got it right--I am only allowed to live in states beginning with C. Do not ask why.

Four places I've lived in the Santa Cruz area:

1) A condo complex. Highlight: it backed upon Neary Lagoon, which had been fitted in recent memory with a wooden walkway so that anyone could walk through or wheelchair through and see lovely birds and reeds and etc. Once they even grazed goats back there, complete with kids--fantastic.


2)Another condo complex. Highlight: A great park, right outside of my window!...Okay, that was more of a lowlight, as it turns out. If you have ever wondered about the predicability of human nature, just put a child on a great slide. But please don't put her or him on one directly outside of my window.

3)A restyled boarding house near the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Make that The Santa Cruz Boardwalk! I let people think I left because of the screams from the Boardwalk--trust me, this is nothing compared to having a really fun slide outside your bedroom window.

4)A studio off Bay Street, directly on the road to the university. It's good so far. Today was graduation and I left the house this morning to discover that a huge flower stand had blossomed on the neighbors front lawn across the street, and gone by the time I got home from work. Kind of cool, really.


Four places I've been on vacation:

1) Gurnee, Illinois. I must say that my parents, though having traveled much themselves, particularly my mom, did not seem to have a grasp of the idea 'vacation'. So one of the first places that I really thought of as traveling was the ancestral haunts, right off of Lake Michigan. In all truth it was one of the better vacations ever. I had five older girl cousins I had never met, who seemed to have nothing else to occupy their time but entertain their rather shy younger California cousins. I could go on and on about this, but it would bore you.

2) England. First venture abroad. We slept on our friend's floor for an unconscionably long time at her dorm associated with the London School of Economics. It was really a fantastic beginning to travel. Thank you, Mary Ellen.

3)Bangkok. Yes, it was smoggy and crowded and hot. And you had to stop whatever you were doing in honor of the king, which I suppose could get a bit old. But so beautiful! Buddhas and gold plated temples and wonderful food, even from little hibachis out on the street.

4)the Southwest of France. This was one of the most felicitous vacations ever--and, as so often with me, not one I would have forecast as being so. Three middle-aged women and three boys from the ages of fifteen to about eight. But it was great. We stayed in a French chateau, my sister was inspired to cook fantastic things by night and drive us all through the region by day. A wonderful, wonderful place. And at least at that point, the people in that region were not so jaded with Americans as to be anything but polite to us. Even though on some levels, I'm sure we were trying. And thank you, Steph.


Four kinds of meals I like:

1) Going out to breakfast is one of my favorite things. There are lots of great restaurants in Santa Cruz, but I rarely find the time to go to any of them.

2) Dinner parties. I think this can be one of the most perfect configurations of human beings. Five to ten people sitting around a table in a private home, eating and drinking and holding forth. I feel unusually blessed on this score, considering that I am never the hostess. I like to host things, but I am not much of a cook.

3)Coffee and something sweet in the morning, and a decent newspaper, a good book review, or a great book.

4)I'm not really a foodie, but every once in awhile, I do love going out to a really great meal somewhere, preferably with many courses. Just don't ask me what I eat in between times.

Four books or movies that have taken me to places I would not have dreamed of:

1)Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West. We were in Trieste. We might have gone to Rome. We might, in fact, have gone anywhere. But because I was such a huge fan of Rebecca West and in particular of this massive tome, we went into Yugoslavia before it fell apart. Thank you for that, Cicily Fairfield.

2)Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. We walked the moors on account of this book. It was not my dream, it was my aunt's. I read Wuthering Heights in the youth hostel looking over the Bronte graveyard. Because the mud kept pulling the heels of my shoes off, I was in a pretty foul temper on the entire trek up to the ruin which, as the plaque said, might have been the place that inspired the novel Wuthering Heights. I suppose in retrospect it's obvious that I wouldn't have traded a moment of it. Thank you, Kate, for putting up with me.

3)Angel's Flight, by Michael Connelly. I was reading this book when I was visiting my sister's family in L.A. once. My action-oriented brother-in-law suddenly got it into his head that I should see whereof Connelly was speaking of, so we went to downtown L.A., rode the funicular to the top of Bunker Hill, caught the beautiful building that featured in it and also in Bladerunner, and so on. The funicular failed a few months further on and killed a couple of people, and as far as I know hasn't been opened again. Thank you, Joe and Rudy, for letting me catch the experience in time.

4)I went out to the Martello tower in Sandycove while I was reading Ulysses. I did a lot of other things Joyce related during my stay in Dublin, but this may have been the best. I felt as I did it that it wasn't just for myself. Made me happy to climb up on to that roof. Thank you, Jamie Joyce.

Four works of art before which I have stood (or sat) either in deep relaxation, as close as I get to a meditative state, or with a profound sense of receptiveness:

1)As Peter knows, I could stand in front of anything by Piero della Francesca and feel simultaneously a richer and a humbler person for it.

2)Most operas. The latest being "Le Nozze de Figaro", done as the annual student performance up at UCSC. The words 'student' and 'opera' may make some people cringe, but it is always a wonderful, moving experience. For me, opera is the total package.

3)The Eiffel Tower. I know, I know--what a cliche. But it really is one of the most beautiful structures in the world.

4)Something I have not really stood in deep contemplation of, but would like to--the Ramayana murals at the Emerald Buddha temple in Bangkok. We were on the go, and couldn't really linger, but I would love to have made my way slowly around the walls and picked out all the details.

Four literary, scientific, artistic or political figures from the past whom I'd like to watch at work or meet for dinner and drinks:


You know, I don't think I could. I can't imagine the context. I'd be a sycophant or mum, or I would rise to the occasion and it would still not get me what I would want.

So here are the people I would like to give something back to, if only I could: Rebecca West, Laurens van der Post, Thomas Merton, and any of the Brontes--and that includes Branwell.

Four people I think might take it upon themselves to answer these questions (but I hope they'll do it only if they want to):

Brian O'Rourke

Liam Hoyle

Martha Silano

Gerard Brennan


Oh, yeah--almost forgot. What's a meme? It's a cultural idea or value or piece of information that is passed on between people non-genetically. It's a shortening of the Greek word mimeme (no not MiniMe, though I can't help reading it that way myself), which ultimately derives from mimeisthai, to imitate. It's called a 'meme' to correlate with 'gene'--in theory, anyway, the corresponding transmitter of genetic information.

I knew that there was a 'mimesis' root in all this! But the lack of an 'i' threw me off. Has anyone here read the great Erich Auerbach's Mimesis, by the way?

19 comments:

  1. Seana

    I'll second you on the breakfast. I love a good Ulster fry and British breakfasts aint bad. Somerset Maugham said if you want to eat well in England you have to have breakfast 3 times a day. However I do a like a Dominican breakfast - rice, beans, eggs and sweet plantains. OMG mouth watering now.

    You'd go back to Bangkok?
    Hmmm, I dont know that I would.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank god it is almost eleven at night here so that all this talk of breakfast isn't getting to me. Haven't found a good place on this side of town yet anyway, though it is one of those few meals I can actually cook to my own satisfaction, if no one else's.

    It would definitely have to be the right season for Bangkok--even the cool season is pretty hot. And right now, what with people taking the airport recently and so on, well, maybe not the best time. I have friends living there right now who pretty much hate it, but I think it's partly because it's out of necessity. I know we were a bit sheltered, too, from the seamier side of things there--true innocents abroad. But, yes, there was something about it that suited me aesthetically and perhaps in other ways too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, what a wonderful post this was, complete with an introduction that cannily adapted the post to your blog's theme. I felt quite as if I were drifting into your world as I read this.

    I used to enjoy going out for breakfast. Now I'm likelier to have breakfast on the way home from work.

    Ulster fries are the perfect breakfasts for a jet-lagged short-term visitor. They provide sufficient fuel to stave off the need for the dreaded mid-morning coffee stop so deadly to a fulfilling morning of touring.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read parts of Mimesis a few years ago -- short chapters and a real engagement with the great and fascinating literature he writes about. All literary criticism should be that good.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have to say that my sister and nephew and I never quite caught on to the rhythm of Irish breakfasts. We'd eat a big one in the morning, and be well content until the middle of the afternoon, when we would then find everything closed for lunch. Or tea or whatever you want to call it. And then by the time we did find something, we'd be thrown off for dinner as well. It worked out of course, but we were confused a lot of the time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. As to Mimesis, it was a wonderful read, but of course I now remember very little of its contents. The basic gist of it is about all. Uh, no, probably not even that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Seana, I know a place in Santa Cruz that serves breakfast until 3 a.m. I would not want to throw your rhythm off, though.

    Isn't it wonderful that you can be left with nothing but a warm feeling and a fond memory for a book of literary criticism?

    I seem to recall that his book was organized in chronological order. I probably started at the beginning, because I think I read a chapter about the Satyricon. Auerbach ranged widely in the book, which I don't think many critics do.

    The glitch that you found in my meme post has been corrected, by the way, and all links lead where they should.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, it was chronological. And I think the general drift of it was to show how writerly portrayal of the world moved from stylistic conventions towards, for lack of a better word, 'realism'.

    On of the reasons it was hard to retain it was that a lot of the books he cited were not familiar to me, yet his use of them was not hard to follow.

    Saturn Cafe, right? Like I said, it is a good thing I am not hungry right now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes, that was it, and you remember more of it than I do. Or rather, you remember the general sense, I remember a few raw facts. What the significance of that is, I don't know. I probably still have a copy lying around. I should look for it.

    Yes, the Saturn Cafe. I had one breakfast there, possible even in the morning. Another day, the waiter handed me a menu then forgot my existence, so I left. But the food was pretty good that first time.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Much of Santa Cruz dining experience is typified by your Saturn experience. It can be great, or it can be horrible, and you just never know. Sometimes the horrible can be quite exciting, though, with cooks hurling objects from the kitchen etc. I've heard of a couple of examples of this.

    Liam has already gotten his post up, diligent soul that he is. Makes for fun reading. And rumor has it that Brian's is in the works.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I can see that sentence in typical breezy travel-writing prose: "Santa Cruz dining is a beguiling mix of the exciting and the horrible."

    No one threw anything out of the kitchen, but the wifty waiter -- the same one who had served me pleasantly the previous day -- simply lost me somewhere in the restaurant's oddly shaped expanse at a time when the place was not at all busy. Since it is the waiter's job to serve me, and not the other way around, I did not get up from my table and go fetch him. Instead, I left.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    “Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. There is a good little article on Mimesis if anyone's interested. I think it was one of the reasons I finally decided to tackle it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks. That's one writer who was highly engaged with his reading.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  14. I used to say "me-me" but I have it on good authority that it's "meem".

    And Martello Tower, cool!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey, Steph! Are you the Steph of Chicklit renown? If so, glad to see you up to commenting on other's blogs. If not, well, welcome anyway.

    Thanks for pronunciation clarification and yes, the Martello tower was very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great read. am a bit bonkers about Wuthering Heights myself.

    And thanks for clearing up the meme-mystery.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks, Sucharita. Wuthering Heights is certainly a novel worth going bonkers over. Not everyone thinks so, though. When my friend and I came off the moors many hours later, soaking wet from the rain we'd been tramping under, etc. we stopped by a little fudge shop in the village, where the owner said to us "Out on the moors? Are you barmy?"

    Maybe, we were. On the other hand, that fudge was probably the best fudge I ever tasted.

    ReplyDelete
  18. And also you should go to Vancouver. Very beautiful and arresting city. Stanley Park is lovely and the views are spectacular. Terrific sea food as you can imagine and very different from California (a whole crop of strange Arctic fish).

    I dont know if Orbitz is still doing this deal but I got to stay in the Pan Pacific for 1 dollar a night.

    ReplyDelete
  19. It seems odd to me that I have never been to Vancouver, although I also have been, since I sat in its airport for some hours and found the surroundings quite beautiful. It's exactly the same relation I have to Dallas, as a mattter of fact, though I wouldn't say the same about the landscape.

    ReplyDelete