And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market --
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.
~ John Updike
(yesterday- John Updike died. he was 76. i always thought he was unstoppable. cancer had other designs. the passage selected is courtesy of running mule. if my copy of "the centaur" was not buried at the bottom of a fast moving box, i'd be reading them right now.)
Previously in Misc/Awesome:
- 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
- 12/1: The John Waters Advent Calendar-it starts today
- 11/28: It Chooses You: All I Want for Christmas is Everything from Miranda July's Pop-Up Shop
- 11/3: Things I'd Move to Minnesota For
- 9/6: PHOTOS: Maloof $$ Money Cup
- 9/2: PHOTOS: Chantilly Model Train Show
- 9/1: Libby's List: 5 Things I Want Right Now...
- 8/22: PHOTOS: Best Friends Day
- 8/10: PHOTOS: Lawn Mover Racing, Eastern Seaboard Regionals @ Bowles Farm
- 7/26: Special List: Things the BYGays Want Now That We Can Marry In DC (and NY!)
God loves a cheerful giver.
I've read about 400,765 books and I've never read a novel by John Updike that I can recall.
Damn, way to ruin a perfectly good memorial Michael.
James - huh? It was a comment. I haven't read anything by Updike. It doesn't say I don't like him (haven't read him) or wouldn't like him (haven't read him), just that I haven't, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? read him.
Not to get into semantics, but by prefacing your point with the fact that you've (hyperbolically) read half a million books, you imply that somehow Updike isn't worth reading.
Yay semantics!
'Kay I fess up I was trying to get a laugh, but you should dig into some JU, he's good stuff.
Let's stop kicking Mickey for being gauche, it's like accusing Rabbit of being a sex-obsessed goon--useless, and misses the point.
I love Updikes poems...You can't find them online, but his readings of his early light verse are superfantastic.
The Stunt Flier
I come into my dim bedroom
innocently and my baby
is lying in her crib face-down;
just a hemisphere of the half-bald head
shows, and the bare feet, uncovered,
the small feet crossed at the ankles
like a dancer doing easily
a difficult step--or,
more exactly, like a cherub
planing through Heaven,
cruising at a middle altitude
through the cumulus of the tumbled covers,
which disclose the feet crossed
at the ankles à la small boys who,
exulting in their mastery of bicycles,
lift their hands from the handlebars
to demonstrate how easy gliding is.