Why are authors and libraries under attack?

Have children died from reading?
What about being online with ChatGPT and other AI bots?
Where are we putting our energies?

Where are the harmful materials? In the library or online?

 

On Forgiveness

Life is too short and shorter still

When our hearts with hatred filled

Instead of forgiveness. MLJ2025

Andy Weir & Stacey Lee

I had forgotten the Martian's story except for his planting of potatoes on Mars, so I read it again and enjoyed astronaut Mark Watney’s humorous comments on forms of entertainment left behind by his colleagues. Honestly, I wouldn't mind getting stuck with a single dictionary in the bellies of NYC like Vincent in Beauty and the Beast (1987-1990 TV series) or in a basement like Jo Kuan in Lee’s The Downstairs Girl. But what would the scrolling generation do in this situation when they probably don’t even know what an encyclopedia is? What about the Alpha generation?

Hilarious Stacey Lee didn’t disappoint with her historical fiction The Downstairs Girl, reminding me of Filipino-American writers like Carlos Bulosan and Bienvenido Santos whose themes remain relevant in the 21^st century. What has become of mankind? The social ills of the 19^th century have persisted with such intensity as the summer wildfires, fall hurricanes, and Kilauea’s unrest. MLJ/28/12/2024/BreakOfABabyBoomer 

"Horse" by Geraldine Brooks

 I normally don't read fiction during a school year, but it was the long weekend and I couldn't resist "Horse". I couldn't put it down, but had to discipline myself and go back to my paperwork. Zzz...  

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

 The Marriage Portrait

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

For all young girls around the world who are forced into marriage, a prayer of hope and strength. 

Our beloved HS Literature teacher (God bless her soul.) gave us poems to memorize and deliver, and mine was My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, which I could hardly comprehend at that time. I practiced every day but was still trembling during my delivery in front of the class, feeling like all my blood vessels would burst and I’d turn into a red glob on the floor. Now that this inspired Maggie O’Farrell to write about the young Duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici, it’s time to revisit the poem… O’Farrell even visited the Duchess’ grave in Italy for this historical fiction. MLJ/11082024/SummerReads 

Detective work, anyone?

Growing up, I thought I could be a soldier, a police officer, a detective or an investigator maybe, helping solve crimes and bring crooks to justice. But, of course, I did not. Now I can only admire writers who can weave plots that keep readers guessing and glued to every page, hoping they guessed the culprit right.

Thanks to Book Sale for Unhollowed Ground by Mel Starr which kept me company during a storm while vacationing in the tropics. Imagine detective work in the medieval times! Good to review medieval vocabulary though. Thanks to Calgary Public Library for Cover Art by Vanessa Westermann which uses a female protagonist instead, while nudging me to start a painting project. Hmm… Westermann is my modern representative of Agatha Christie whose Murder on the Orient Express I recently saw on screen. I don’t remember reading the book, but it reminded me of her Death on the Nile with the same detective Poirot. Hence, my own investigative challenge is to compare the film with the book. Happy reading or viewing everyone! It’s been a hot and smoky summer! We pray for rain. MLJ/05082024/ReadingTime

RIP, ALICE MUNRO

 

Another by Lisa Genova and great indigenous writers

 

The Solutrean - the peak of stone tools workmanship

I will never be able to put up all the photos I have taken, each photo needs a lot of research, typically, to put it in context on the site. I do not have enough time left, life is short and death is long, but I am going to give it a good shot!

Life has been kind to me, I want for nothing, and am in good health. Not many in the world are as lucky as I am, and I am grateful for my good fortune.

My best wishes to all who read and enjoy the pages of my site. - Don Hitchcock - 

https://www.donsmaps.com/solutrean.html

With the recent discovery of Solutrean tools in the East Coast, can we assume that the first peoples of North America crossed the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Bering Strait? Or maybe both routes were used? MLJ/16/09/2023

https://www.donsmaps.com/solutrean.html

Literature is a She

ONE of my former professors once defined Literature as a "SHE" - a significant human experience. I thought that it might be relative as I might write about what I thought would be significant for me but might be perceived as something insignificant by others. It's all relative. Nevertheless, I thought that nothing and no one should stop one from writing whatever one thinks is worth recording and sharing. The FNMIs’ and slaves’ experiences as well as the explorers’, the colonizers’ and the traders’ are all significant and should shed light to the current turmoil that this generation might find hard to comprehend. It’s only through true and precious oral or written literature that the human spirit can be awakened or enlightened and be capable of understanding, compassion and brotherhood. Let us continue to encourage our children to read or listen to the SHE in the library or in the technology they can’t do without, and exercise critical thinking as they navigate what seems like the heaviest traffic on this information superhighway. MLJ/15/05/2022        

How I write... (2)

"How do you write?" someone asked.

I'd say lines sing to me at night
as if from a nagging lullaby
that keeps on humming till it's daylight.

I'd say lines sing to me on long rides
when drowned in humanity
tides of thoughts fill my mind.

I'd say lines sing to me when intoxicated
with a strong emotion brought about
by winning or feeling defeated.

I'd say lines sing to me through a sight or sound
like a lei of sampaguita blooms
strung by tiny, innocent hands.
At times too tight or loose, too fat or thin,
too short or long, still fresh or withering,
or just right... and smells like a virgin.

These lines I wrote in two thousand and nine
Eight years after, I’m face to face
With an award-winning writer I wish was mine.

With all his joys, pains and sorrow,
His hairs and tattoos and burning passion,
Gaze at his hurt eyes like there’s no morrow.

He says stories come to him in his sleep
As if dictated by his mighty ancestors
And he, as their tortured scribe, they keep.

I beam and blush in ecstatic delight,
Astonished that we have something in common
Though we’re worlds apart at night,
When the wonders of this universe come to visit
Like the muse Absinthe to the drunken poets
Now I have a master, in my teacup to fit and sip.
Jamison020709/052217

Writing

Writing could be a hobby
so much like photography
to capture humanity
in all its beauty, vanity or humility,
or inconsistency.
To capture nature
the mundane, you think for sure
will always be there tomorrow,
but when vanished, will bring you sorrow.

Writing could be a therapy
to an aching heart that used to be pain free,
to a lost soul that has found itself.
to a chained life, not without language,
to a free soul that helps heal others.

Writing has always been there
be it a pictograph or a petroglyph
on papyrus or clay tablets.
Take it with a warm embrace
and let go of your every breath.
Jamison/02/23/09

How I write...

"How do you write?" someone asked.

I'd say lines sing to me at night
as if from a nagging lullabye
that keeps on humming til it's daylight.

I'd say lines sing to me on long rides
when drowned in humanity
tides of thoughts fill my mind.

I'd say lines sing to me when intoxicated
with a strong emotion brought about
by winning or feeling defeated.

I'd say lines sing to me through a sight or sound
like a lei of sampaguita blooms
strung by tiny, inexperienced hands.
At times too tight or loose, too fat or thin,
too short or long, fresh or withering,
or just right... and smells like a virgin.
Jamison020709