which, to judge by the cover and a quick skim, is hardly a 4H recruiting poster. If that doesn't do the trick, I can always go watch The Road this weekend.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...
I've just finished The Worst Hard Time and I'm still not quite ready to wash down a bottle of sleeping pills with a fifth of vodka, so the next book up is A Good Day's Work: An Iowa Farm in the Great Depression which, to judge by the cover and a quick skim, is hardly a 4H recruiting poster. If that doesn't do the trick, I can always go watch The Road this weekend.
which, to judge by the cover and a quick skim, is hardly a 4H recruiting poster. If that doesn't do the trick, I can always go watch The Road this weekend.
Reading about the Depression and what people did to survive-and the heartaches-gave me a huge appreciation for their guts.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to get that book.
My parents both grew up during the Depression. My Dad on a farm in SW Iowa.
ReplyDeleteThey both have tried to impress upon us kids how tough things were then.
I don't believe this country could handle such an event now w/o coming apart at the seams, even with The One at the helm.
Definite shortage of adults in our population nowadays.
Municipalities turned OFF their services, such as electrical street lighting, when the town couldn't pay for it. Don't spend what you don't have? OMG: it would THE APOCALYPSE.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of such events, sonmetimes it's difficult to reason out how Cormac McCarthy would want to keep on living, given the bleakness of his written visions. One friend posited that he uses his prodigious talent of writing, just to keep from offing himself, when the Dark Muse is visiting.
Won't go see the movie. The book was enuff.
Read Doctorow's "Hard Times".
ReplyDeleteMervyn Peake's Gormenghast series is my "where are the razorblades and sleeping pills" benchmark.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I quickly learned never to complain about food unless we wanted to hear Dad expound on the MANY different ways his mother would serve corn mush. And Mom would join in with her stories of standing in line for: toilet paper (we never had less than 12 rolls stored under the stairs), soap powder, ... well, you get the idea. They were stronger people back then.
Watching The Road is more than a bit less powerful than reading the book, assuming that you've not read it at this point.
ReplyDeleteI was quite disturbed by the book, for mostly one reason, which was left out of the movie.
Your call.
Just put the sleeping pills in a place you'll forget about.
Oh, I've read it. Haven't seen the movie yet, howver.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, Bobbi reports that she preferred the movie to the book. This is unusual, and bears investigating.
Coincidentally, I read The Road over the last two evenings; it's enough to make you wash the pills down with a .44...
ReplyDeleteReread "One Second After" last weekend and "The Road" this weekend. Both made me want to open a vein just so I could see color again.
ReplyDeleteOur family was 'The Grapes of Wrath'.
ReplyDeleteOkies to California to start all over again.
Very tough times 'til after the War.
welcome to the real world! Most peaple have become too use to the plush life they live. If you want to see real hard times go to any third world country for a while and try to live like a native. Then all the whinny you snark about does not mean diddly!
ReplyDelete"If you want to see real hard times go to any third world country for a while and try to live like a native."
ReplyDeleteAnd why would I want to do that?
I'm not some masochistic self-flagellant who thinks there's automatic virtue and maybe a bit of a frisson to be found in suffering.
I read The Road - won't be seeing the movie. I get depressed enough with the news.
ReplyDeleteWant to read a really good book, try One Second After. If you aren't a Prepper, you will be after that.
Both The Road and One Second After contributed to me being as interested in hoarding canned goods as ammo...
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that "Fifty Russian Winters" by Margaret Wettlin would fit in here. The title alone raises the question, "Is death really so bad?"
ReplyDeleteBoth of my Iowa farmer grandparents took the time to write their biographies for me and my sister. I've read about what it was like living through it from their eyes. And how my great grandmother managed to hold onto the family farm by herself as well. I live in awe of their accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteRead One Second After a while ago, just finished The Road. I kept wondering what the hell was going on in The Road, it made no sense. Maybe growing up in Detroit--with parents who a) grew up on a Michigan farm, and b) in Detroit, during the Depression--left me immune to post-apocalyptic angst.
ReplyDelete