Renaissance Thoughts
So here I am. Sitting cross legged on an upholstered footstool in front of a long, thin Ikea coffee table. Watching the smoke rise from a triangular, green ashtray with a large piece chipped away on one edge, curling in slow, organic waves toward the glass of ginger ale and bourbon perched at the right edge of the table. Right by it a thick, black Moleskin page-a-day diary that I have so far been very diligent in using, sits and waits unassumingly. Next to it a light brown Muji notebook lays at a slight angle, inviting me to thumb through the disjointed ramblings contained therein. At my right, on a steel utility shelf that has served as my 'temporary' bookshelf for well over a year now, sits a daunting stack of books I have procured over the last few weeks.
Like always I read 2 chapters of each, in one day, and now am totally deadlocked as to which to actually finish first. The mix is mildly eclectic. There's a book on the fabric of the universe, a biography of the British film scene, yet another serial novel of a very well known vampire manga and a stupidly large omnibus collection of sci-fi war stories based on a very well known RPG board game. That last one is a bit of a new addition in terms of taste, for some reason I had this uncontrollable urge to read something fantastical yet bleak and absolutely GIGANTIC,so far it has fit the bill nicely.
As for for the vampire story well, it is my single indulgence in the genre, one I feel to be quite saturated these days. I single it out mainly because it is set in a stark renaissance period where fantastic technological advances have already been made and forgotten many thousands of years ago. It's a situation I find appealing for some reason. It just feels so much realer than the Utopian ideas about advancement, even without the already apparent damage of technological and industrial progress. After all we have already forgotten so many things that were once considered the height of artistic and scientific ability in it's time.
I think it is probably compounded by the fact that I have forgotten so very many things, some of them so very important and even some so very special, all gone by the wayside. When I think of all that, multiplied by all the billions of people in this world of ours, that incredible collection of forgotten moments, plans and dreams, I feel a profound connection to The Forgotten. A new technology can be exciting but not as much to me as a resurrected technology from by-gone analog days. Something shiny and new can't always compare to something tarnished and burred but stained deep with a rich culture and history. Or perhaps it's just an Indiana Jones complex, I can't be sure.
The other two are standard brain food to be honest, bought on practical impulse due to the silly price you can pick up Penguin editions in some places. Enjoyable though, in a 'learning something' kind of way, you never know when some random piece of knowledge could come in handy, its all part of the fun. I also happen to believe it is very important to balance a large dose of fantastical fiction with a healthy helping of something real, something grounded.
Speaking of being grounded, that is something I have pledged to concentrate on being this year, along with all the other usual life-adjustment changes I pledge and subsequently ignore each and every January. It has become clear that I have cast my nets so far and so wide that I have lost track of exactly where they all are, and even what is in them. Without a doubt, it is time to rein them all in. To take swift stock and to start taking advantage of the contents before its too late and they drift from memory like all those other things. Doomed to wait a potential eternity for the off-chance that someone, somewhere down the line, takes an interest in them again.
When I think of all the ideas I have already let slip into oblivion, the chances I have simply let sail right past though my own inactivity, over-planning and procrastination, I get this sharp feeling in my gut. But at least I know that for all that hasn't come to pass, so much has and even more can, and will, if I put in the effort to make it so. And in that way when I look up and out of my 'should have been cleaned six months ago' windows, the sky is bright and the feeling is good.
And to that end. Bring it on.
