rivers and mountains continued

April 25, 2004


Despite a tense moment when I went into the tunnel with a Yankee on base and Hideki Matsui about to come up to bat, I successfully picked up Nancy at South Station and listened to most of the 12 innings on the car radio. Nancy got to listen to the end of the 12th with me and we made it to the Furball in plenty of time to bid on all manner of auction items I may or may not have wanted. Though I do admit that we spent some of the Furball sitting off by ourselves drinking designer soda and talking about books instead of constantly checking on my silent auction bids.

When the Red Sox hang on to beat the Yankees 3-2 in a 12 inning grinder of game it's hard to be too down about the demise of civilization. Books are still readily available, baseball on the radio is still the soundtrack of Boston from April to October, and BiB is coming home from the that nasty war place in southwest asia. I realize that publishers, chain bookstores, and librarians have no role in whether or not baseball gets broadcast on the radio or BiB gets a job in a war zone or a peace zone (is peace the opposite of war? think about that), and I realize that at least Mr. Usher isn't blaming feminism for the upcoming twilight of civilization like some local bishop type guy who shall remain nameless -- I mean come on, man, the only people nowadays who don't believe in equal rights for women are the Taliban, what were you thinking?!

Still wound up from the Furball bidding frenzy last night, we didn't go right to sleep. I read aloud to Nancy from Life with the Ladies of Llangollen, mostly the recipes (or receipts as they were called back then) and monthly lists of expenditures. People certainly consumed a lot of lard back in the 18th century! One of the recipes called for slathering a fowl in lard and wrapping it in paper before cooking. That sounded distinctly unappetizing. Not that grossing each other out by reading 18th century Welsh recipes does much to save Literature with a capital L.

I'm not sure what it would take to restore civilization and literature to the golden age of which Mr. Usher and Sven Birkerts so lament the passing. Was the golden age of literature also a golden age of peace and justice? Are we so sure used books are all it takes to stimulate independent thought? Has nobody ever been persuaded by propaganda before? It takes more than books... Although books probably could've helped the aforementioned bishop type guy as if he had a dictionary handy he might not have listed feminism in with the drug culture among the evils of modern society. But presumably dictionaries will still be available in the twilight of civilzation.

We listened to the Red Sox vs. the Yankees again today on the car radio on the drive to Boston for the promised return trip to AVH. Pedro is pitching well so any lasting curse from too many family gatherings in a row at La Madre's seems to have worn off. BTW, the Easter family gathering seemed to have the opposite effect on Curt Schilling -- of course it helps that we all sat around the TV munching asparagus and watching every pitch instead of sitting down to dinner in the dining room :-) And so today, though it's raining in New York and civilzation is ending on Newbury Street, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 2-zip and all (well most) is right with the world.

As I paid for my copy of Women and Thomas Harrow (AVH didn't have HM Pulham Esq., which is the other John Marquand title I wanted), the proprietor told me that the AVH web site will still be selling books and they'll still do book searches, it's only the brick and mortar incarnation of AVH that's closing. So, silly me, I answered "So the brick and mortar store closing is a sad thing but at least it's not the end of civilization." Silly me. He replies: "I don't like to argue with a customer but it is." I don't argue. I begin to suspect that John Usher is a pseudonym. He puts my purchase in a plastic bag and I make some inane comment about how I need the bag because it's about to rain but it hasn't started yet. He mentions that the Yankees got rained on today. As if the rain doesn't fall on the Red Sox too? Or is it just that a Red Sox victory makes the rain seem minor? Blue the cat puts in an appearance and I walk over to pet him. Civilzation remains civilized to the very end, I guess.

I left Accordion Guy out of the list of blogs bemoaning the closing of AVH and the resulting twilight of civilization. Actually, there were a lot more blogs and journals that wrote about this, but yesterday's list was only of the ones that showed up in my search to determine the identity of John Usher. Someday in 2525 or so, academics, if there are still universities, will mine the ancient bits for clues about the last days of civilization. They will marvel that books still mattered in the early 21st century.Then they'll curl up by their own snug firesides and read the Icelandic sagas or Shakespeare or Basho in finely bound paper books with serif fonts by the flickering light of the peat fire.

Meanwhile, we go across the street to Trident and order some of those exquisite fried beets.

Today's Reading
Both by Douglas Crase, Life with the Ladies of Llangollen by Elizabeth Mavor

This Year's Reading
2004 Booklist

Today's Starting Pitcher
Pedro Martinez


Before

Journal Index

After


Home

Copyright © 2004, Janet I. Egan