Book Meme, Day 17
Sep. 6th, 2011 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhuzzellDay 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book
Here is where all that intra-meme continuity business pays off. From John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath:
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
Upcoming Days
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time
In somewhat-unrelated news, two articles:
The Big Society - Anarchy With A Middle-Class Twist? Utterly predictable; I've been kind of waiting for it ever since this whole 'Big Society' bullshit was announced. Pretty disappointed that the journalist provides approximately zero insight or criticism -- I thought the Huffington Post was supposed to be one of the 'good ones'?
Meanwhile, this article -- from The Economist, of all places -- actually makes me pretty happy. And I guess its being in The Economist in the first place is part of that: environmentalism and sustainability, as values, seem to have finally become mainstream. Finally! I mean, I agree with one of the commenters that the behaviours showcased are just 'low-hanging fruit' and the harder changes will be harder to implement and so on and so on, but... it feels like for most of my life I've been shouting at a wall of willful ignorance, just trying to persuade people that there is a problem to be fixed in the first place. Now finally, finally, there seems to be a general consensus that climate change is happening and sustainable behaviour is something we need to think about and Something Ought To Be Done. It's been such a long and slow time coming that it's crept up on me, but I think it is finally here; the "climate skeptic" holdouts look increasingly crazy, like the ones (often the same ones) who still insist that the earth was created 6000 years ago with all its plants and animals intact and unchanging.
Now, it's still going to be a long hard fight to get those in power not to make a bunch of shit worse while claiming to make it better, but I feel like an important ideological threshold has been crossed in acknowledging that it is a problem that needs to be addressed in the first place.
Here is where all that intra-meme continuity business pays off. From John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath:
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
Upcoming Days
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favorite romance book
Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favorite book you own
Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favorite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time
In somewhat-unrelated news, two articles:
The Big Society - Anarchy With A Middle-Class Twist? Utterly predictable; I've been kind of waiting for it ever since this whole 'Big Society' bullshit was announced. Pretty disappointed that the journalist provides approximately zero insight or criticism -- I thought the Huffington Post was supposed to be one of the 'good ones'?
Meanwhile, this article -- from The Economist, of all places -- actually makes me pretty happy. And I guess its being in The Economist in the first place is part of that: environmentalism and sustainability, as values, seem to have finally become mainstream. Finally! I mean, I agree with one of the commenters that the behaviours showcased are just 'low-hanging fruit' and the harder changes will be harder to implement and so on and so on, but... it feels like for most of my life I've been shouting at a wall of willful ignorance, just trying to persuade people that there is a problem to be fixed in the first place. Now finally, finally, there seems to be a general consensus that climate change is happening and sustainable behaviour is something we need to think about and Something Ought To Be Done. It's been such a long and slow time coming that it's crept up on me, but I think it is finally here; the "climate skeptic" holdouts look increasingly crazy, like the ones (often the same ones) who still insist that the earth was created 6000 years ago with all its plants and animals intact and unchanging.
Now, it's still going to be a long hard fight to get those in power not to make a bunch of shit worse while claiming to make it better, but I feel like an important ideological threshold has been crossed in acknowledging that it is a problem that needs to be addressed in the first place.
