Where all my money is headed... (1)

"To go on means going from here, means finding me, losing me, vanishing and beginning again, a stranger first, then little by little the same as always, in another place, where I shall say I have always been, of which I shall know nothing, being incapable of seeing, moving, thinking, speaking, but of which little by little, in spite of these handicaps, I shall begin to know something, just enough for it to turn out to be the same place as always, the same which seems made for me and does not want me, which I seem to want and do not want, take your choice, which spews me out or swallows me up, I’ll never know, which is perhaps merely the inside of my distant skull where once I wandered, now am fixed, lost for tininess, or straining against the walls, with my head, my hands, my feet, my back, and ever murmuring my old stories, my old story, as if it were the first time."

(The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett, 1954)

Why I still haven't read 'The Kite Runner'...

The boys keep pushing it off the shelf. They call it "that thing"...

Sleuth (Take 2)

Andrew: What do you do, by the way?

Milo: I'm an actor.

Andrew: Good God. Are you really? I thought Maggie said you were a hairdresser.

Milo: She must have been talking about someone else.

Andrew: You mean another friend?

Milo: Another friend?

Andrew: She tends to have more than one friend.

Milo: Does she?

Andrew: Oh, yes.

Milo: I'm her only friend.

Andrew: She must be lonely.


(Taken from Sleuth, directed by Kenneth Branagh, 2007)

Sleuth: The Lion, the Bitch and the Hairdresser

Starring Michael Caine and Jude Law and with screenplay by Nobel winner Harold Pinter, how could this ever go wrong? Well, obviously it could but the director, Kenneth Branagh, plays it simple and makes it look like a play in three acts. The result is a truly amazing film. A-m-a-z-i-n-g.


(Image taken from Sleuth, directed by Kenneth Branagh, 2007)

Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle into that good night,"

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The main issues in "The Kite Runner"

Here are some of the issues that among so many others make The Kite Runner a novel hard to forget. These are the ones that in my opinion give this novel that "something else":

Live in a Lie
Superiority
Loyalty
Friendship
Redemption
Emptiness

Destruction of what is Our Home
Regret
Love
War (physical and psychological)
Bravery as Punishment
Discrimination
Expectations
Cultural differences
Cowardice versus Courage
Immigration
American Dream

I decided not to explain each one of them, due to the fact that I'm not sure if all of you already read it all (and I do not want to be a spoiler). So this way, if you have any doubts or simply do not agree with something, please say so!

You are welcome to have your say about my opinion and I will be waiting for more suggestions

For you a thousand times over

THE KITE RUNNER

Over two years on the New York Times bestseller list, and published in 42 different languages.

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies. Written against a history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption.

Taken from: http://www.khaledhosseini.com/ - march 27th

Remember that you can share with us any ideas or thoughts about the Kite Runner!

Wish you all a great weekend...and good reading!

Tony Harrison, "Long Distance", II

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.

Misguided translations: António Lobo Antunes (1)

A heart, when closing up, is so much louder than a door.

Misguided from the original: "Quando um coração se fecha, faz muito mais barulho do que uma porta."

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

The act of leaning

Even if the number of frontiers left to conquer is diminishing by the minute, there is always a common ground to all things that dare to reach higher: a thirst for more.

To fall is not destiny to all that leans.