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What are you reading? January 13, 2023 [1]

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Date: 2023-01-13

In WAYR?, I note what I’m reading and comment...you note what you are reading and comment. Occasionally, I may add a section or a link related to books…

I am reading:

Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks 1941-1955 by Patricia Highsmith and Anna von Planta - Finished the year 1947, which saw HIghsmith deal with the alcoholism of a lover, on one hand, and write the first draft of Strangers on a Train, on the other. One surprising thing that I’ve noted: She wants to be religious; plenty of references to reading the Bible and church. I think that she can only accept religion on an aesthetic level, though. (Highsmith was an avowed atheist that was fascinated by evil.)

9/3/47 Advice to a young writer: approach the typewriter with respect and formality. (Is my hair combed? My lipstick on straight? Above all are my cuffs clean and properly shot?) The typewriter is quick to detect any nuance of irreverence and can retaliate in kind, in double measure, and effortlessly. The typewriter is above all alert, sensitive as you are, far more efficient in its tasks. After all, it slept better than you did last night, and just a little longer.

October 29, 1947 ...God, how my life would have been different, better, more beautiful, and more exceptional if I had always worn white collared shirts, gone to church every Sunday, and lived with my parents. Lately, I am not as orderly as usual, and it troubles my soul.

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler- The second volume of Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy opens with Lilith giving birth to the first male child, named Akin, that the Oankali allowed to be...born? manufactured? I still debate on the ethics of this genetic engineering in light of the fact that humans did kind of forfeit their rights to the planet Earth when they destroyed it. Again, Butler’s psychological insights are superb.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/13/2146991/-What-are-you-reading-January-13-2023

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