We’ve just come back from a long weekend in Monterey which was nice, and not nice, fun and not fun. All things mixed up but too long to tell in one post so it will dribble out in bits and pieces. I am still digesting it all.
We spent a lot of time at the Monterey Aquarium which is truly awesome. You must go. Ironically, looking at all the wonderful marine life and learning about how to preserve the oceans makes you very hungry so you end up wanting to eat everything you see in there which is not necessarily what they meant for you, but fortunately all the local restaurants are vigorously monitored by the aquarium for their marine stewardship so I suppose that they do the thinking for us.
That is good.
My brain was rather tired by the time we left from taking in all the information and chasing an errant Two around the building.
The other reason I love Monterey is that I love, love, love John Steinbeck.
“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”
Oh, how I adore John Steinbeck!
And what a first line.
I fell in love with that sentence when I was just a young girl and it has still retained its magic despite many re-readings of the book and the terrible disappointment of the real Cannery Row not looking like the one I imagined from the novel.
It is one of my great sorrows in life that I always longed to visit Steinbeck’s California, the one he paints from the 30s and 40’s and I’m just too late, no trace.
It is no more.
Now that beautiful scenery is full of empty pickup trucks, big box stores, Taco Bells, appalling housing developments where architects with taste lobotomies were let loose and giant strip malls where oversized people travel in fat-arsed minivans to pray with their wallets to the great God consumerism. Or at least they did until recently. Now they just drive there and eat a lot for they are depressed because they can’t buy as much stuff as last year.
I thought that this was a recent phenomenon. Something that happened after the Reagan years, perhaps? Deregulation and all?
But no, it turns out it’s been sneaking up on us for quite a while. My dead hero sensed it back in 1959 when he wrote,
“..a creeping, all-pervading, nerve-gas of immorality”
(The Winter of Our Discontent)
“Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul”
(to Adlai Stevenson, 1960)
I wonder what he would have made of the internet? I shudder to think.
TV was bad enough. Now we can take it with us wherever we go, our couches are portable, so to speak, and we can buy THINGS 24 hours a day. And in the name of all that consumption we are destroying the very country that he held so dear and we’re well on our way to doing it to the rest of the world too.
Well done us!
I am, of course, completely guilty of the portable sofa addiction. I loathe being apart from my computer and an internet connection although I comfort myself with the thought that I am using it as a means of connection to others and as a creative outlet, much like JS himself might have done – surely he would have emailed his editor and friends?
It’s not like I’m ordering things on Amazon all the time.
Well not MUCH anyway. Only WORTHY LITERATURE.
And mostly I use the library anyway. Speaking of which, I note that the library is closed today (Friday) due to a staff furlough. The state of California is broke and we can’t pay the library workers.
Terrible.
So in honour of John Steinbeck, the library, anti consumerism and also just to change things up (aware that was all a bit of a stretch but I felt the need to take some kind of action)I am going to start a little library corner on my blog. I will put on it the books that I am currently reading.
It might actually not be the books I’m REALLY reading, but rather what is on my bedside table waiting to be read. Some items might stay on there rather a long time getting a bit dusty *ahem*.
Stand by while I figure out the technology..
In the meantime, please tell me what is on your bedside table right now?
(You don’t have to tell me about the hastily discarded lacy bra or the handsome stranger’s watch but that would be a bonus..)
{ 18 comments }
I would also like to put up a “currently reading” list on my blog! if you figure it out, please pass on the info…I’ve no idea. Currently reading: “The Buddha of Suburbia”, Hanif Kureishi, (mental but fab) “Blooming Birth”, Lucy Atkins & Julia Guderian (I’m pregnant! Re-reading), “Perfect Match”, Jodi Picoult. (Not started yet).
Stienbeck is a wonderful author. As a birthday present I read aloud “The Grapes of Wrath” to my wife, not all in one sitting pf course. The nostalgic plight of the farmworker reminds me of my own youth spent working in the fields cutting asparagus, bucking hay bales and suckering grapes (I really hated working in the grape fields most of all). I finally quit working the fields when my friend and I asked a farmer for a raise. We were working by the hour and easily outpicking everyone else in the field nearly 2 to 1. He obliged by giving us a 10 cent raise. Not 10 cents per hour mind you, but a flat ten cent bonus. I think even the Joads would have walked away from that insult.
Currently the bed table has “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand waiting to be finished up. The Fountainhead is one of my favorite books. I’ve found that I need to read this one every year or two, especially when I get fed up with the entitlement mentality so prevalent in today’s society. “No really, it’s my right to be successful at whatever I want. Talent? Drive? Dedication? Who needs that?”. Perhaps John Galt had it right in “Atlas Shrugged” and we should all just pack up and move to Colorado.
I’m currently reading Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Cortazar and Dunlop. Happened upon it at the library, and I’m the first to check it out, woo! At first I was thinking, who is this fellow with his overly formal, precious ways, but then I relaxed and now really enjoy it. It’s about a roadtrip from Paris to Marseilles in a VW van.
Mothership! I know that I haven’t commented in an AGE, what with living in the cornfield and all, but it’s great to be back – and what a fascinating post. I always felt that Fitzgerald was also bang on the money regarding consumerism and materialism and dumbos smashing up the precious and fragile and all. Am delighted to be back – and I am sure that JS would approve. I’ve never read Cannery Row, but I am going to now. I am on holiday and have only brought Nancy Mitford. All other fiction is on hold at present as I am ploughing through books on autism – not the best stuff to read just before lights out but that’s the only slot, alas xxx
Another fab post, currently on my bedside table is My world in motion by Jo Whiley, Rites and Wrongs by Sandra Levi, Eco Hotels of the World by Alex Conti and Instructions not included by Charlotte Moerman.
I’m reading The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher. It’s brilliant – a huge, long epic about two families growing up in Sheffield in the 70s and 80s. It reminds me of The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe, which is one of my modern favourites.
Before that I read Love Falls by Esther Freud, which is a very different kind of book, but also very good – a coming of age story set among upper class Brits in Italy in the early 80s.
I wonder if your deep and abiding love for Steinbeck will survive the high school lit program.
My love for Jane Austen has been thoroughly tested three times now. One more to go. Luckily, I always hated Steinbeck, so no egodystonia there.
I share in your despair. Cannery Row should really be renamed “Canned Spam Row”. You’re correct that the devolution started in the 1950’s. It just after WW2 when quite a few people relocated and settled on the West Coast and the California driving holiday took form. The Yosemite-Disneyland-Monterey loop was one of nostalgic Summer tours both my mother and father recall as young children. Perhaps, just perhaps…like the Aquarium’s efforts to educate the public to both respect and rehabilitate the nearly extinct life in the Bay, the inhabitants of Monterey town just might wake up to the fact that Steinbeck’s world also requires an equal measure of commitment to be both respected and revived.
I’m going to use this comments box to rave about a book I bought on a whim in a second hand book sale. “Sophie and the Rising Sun” by Augusta Trobaugh. Lovely book.
I’m also going to use it to rant about the exorbitant late fees at our library. It’s a dollar a day for a video. So if you take your kids to the library and they come home with 4 dvds (which is an achievement, given the pathetically impoverished selection), which you’re allowed out for a paltry week, yes, that’s just 7 days, and during that time, you take your eye off the ball, and forget to renew them on line, and they are 4 days overdue, then you owe the library $16. YES. SIXTEEN DOLLARS.
The moral of the story, is buy all your dvds and books from second hand sales, because it is cheaper, and your money will be going to charity rather then towards the salaries of mean-minded librarians, who set ridiculous late fees. We should just upgrade our Netflix membership. In fact, I will do that right now.
Ooh, I feel better now. Thanks for the use of your comments box.
Oh, and one more thing. Am I the only person to whom ‘strip mall’ sounds like it’s a mall full of strip clubs?
I’ve never read Cannery Row (shameful for a native Californian to admit), but loved Travels with Charley, which abetted my passion for road trips, and made me want a blue dog. Am currently reading The Descendants by Kaui Hemmings, which was recommended highly by Bumble—a satiric family story set in Hawaii. I think. If I could start reading earlier than 11:30 p.m., after The Daily Show, and if I could read more than 2 paragraphs before falling asleep, I’d do a better job of describing it. Also re-reading Anne Tyler, whom I adored 20 years ago. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is still great, though Back When We Were Grownups was a bit disappointing. Loved Digging to America and its evocation of American, Iranian and Iranian-American cultures interlocking.
My current nightstand list: The Corrections (Frantzen); The Emperor’s Children (Messud); Bernard Shaw (Peters); The Half-Life (Raymond); The Power of Less (Babauta); True Mom Confessions (Lassally); The Tears of Autumn (McGarry). And those are just the ones on the nightstand :(.
Excellent Motherhood blog – her love of Steinbeck to highlight modern-day crass trashing. Shuddered at the acuity of Hollywood Bunny’s “Canned Spam Row”.
My fave Steinbeck: The Log of the Sea of Cortez.
Went to a great library sale in Maine – reading The Undertaking by Thomas Lynch (essays on death and funerals), The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford, Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, The Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Pierce, and Get Me Out of Here by Rachel REiland (on borderline personality disorder – my husband urged me to buy it. Hmmm).
There are interesting things on the bedside – forgot to hide them from the kids this am.
What a wonderful post. I love the Monterey Aquarium but Cannery Row is incredibly tacky. As soon as you see Bubba Gump Shrimp you know you’re doomed.
I’ve just re-read The Human Factor by Graham Greene which I loved. I’d read it for either O or A level English and it made such an impression.
At the moment I’m reading Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult and I can’t put it down, the writing is beautiful.
When I get back from my holiday, I’ll be heading to the library to pick up some Steinbeck.
allgrownup> I found a widget plugin called Bookx on wordpress, so that might help you if you’re a wordpress person. Loved the Buddha of Suburbia. Not so much Intimacy (see my post of the same name in Oldies but Goodies!). Good luck with pg!
Daddy Daycare. Oh, I haven’t read the Fountainhead in an age – must get back to it. Thanks for the prod. Grape picking. Ugh. Sounds BAD.
justarabbit – ooh! This sounds interesting. I am going to put it on my library list – I only ever get things I can put in the hold queue as the children don’t actually allow time for browsing.
Cassandra – so happy you’re back. I have missed you. So sorry you only have the small slot for such heavy reading but hope you have some lovely Mitford timeon hols. xo
Brenda. I want that Eco Hotels book. ANd I want to visit them all. Without children.
NVG. I loved Rotters Club, too. I will seek out your recommendation. That Esther Freud rings a bell.. Might have read, will persuse shelf now to see if I have it somewhere.
The Mother. Steinbeck survived my appalling DC public schooling so I can’t imagine anything worse will be done to him.
Hollywood Bunny. We have spoken about this in person and I hope you are right about the Monterey people but I am worried you’re not.
Iota, our library does that too, and they’re all pants, anyway! I like Netflix on demand, we just watch Caillou on it over and over. The kids don’t get anything else anyway so they’re pretty happy to get whatever they can… Only drawback is that I can’t use computer while they’re goggling (new laptop for me?)
Agreed on strip malls being like strip club conglomerate ;))
Susan, I love Anne TYler, esp. the early ones, tho did like Digging to America. Will search out your rec. SO glad I wrote this post – great books to read!!!
Arlene – WHat did you think of the Corrections?> LEt me know. I was mixed about it. THe others I don’t know. Goody!
Shrinkrap, it’s so funny that the Log of the Sea of Cortez is the one I have been least able to get into, but I have a copy of it on my shelf in tribute to you and try occasionally to read it. Must give it another go now I live not so far from that place.
Jessica. I can’t concentrate on the books. WHAT ELSE IS ON YOUR TABLE???
Lorna, I haven’t read any Greene for ages, how nice to be reminded. You’re the second person who’s mentioned Jodi Piccoult. I must check it out. I keep being put off by the ‘summer holiday’ type covers but perhaps I’m being unreasonable. This kept me, unfairly, from Joyce Carol Oates for years and I have LOVED Wild Nights!
Hi. I’ve tagged you for a meme about writing (with your recent course experience in mind). Also mentioned your Steinbeck post!
Oils, lotions, appliances. Yes, they distract me from the books too.
I too love Monterey aquarium, and Steinbeck though haven’t read him in an age. East of Eden was my favourite. Allgrownup, I love the Buddha of suburbia and prompted by your comment have spent the last hour looking for my well worn, bathtub dropped copy to dip into. The miniseries by the BBC was just wonderful too, great David Bowie soundtrack and starring a young and adorable Naveen Andrews.
I’m reading “the tipping point” by Malcom Gladwell – interesting, but rather like a series of loosly related articles than a cohesive theory, and re reading “the other side of the story” by Marian Keyes, chick lit at its best. My most recent good read was Shalimar the Clown – Salman Rushdie. I love his language, and this one actually has a strong narrative to, so well worth a read in my humble opinion.
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