Lord of the Dark Lake (and late-night ramblings)

Ever since graduating grad school and leaving its bliss behind (no sarcasm there; i truly loved those days), I constantly regret not reading much anymore. Reading was my life (that, and researching, writing, thinking, stressing, stretching, deconstructing, etc.) for those two years, and I just haven't gotten back on the saddle again.

I am trying again. I moseyed over to my bookcases a couple of weeks ago and picked out Sophocles's "Antigone". It dawned on me that I had never read it. Not sure how it escaped me (or I it), but it was time. It hardly qualified as jumping back on the wagon as you could easily read it in one sitting, but it was a start. Of course, I loved it. How can one live life without occasionally being reminded that "no suffering could be so terrible / as to die for nothing..."?

It was a great start.

Next came a trip to the local library. I was in search of Replay, but, alas, our library did not have it. So, I decided to take a leap and just grab a book off of a random shelf (solely chosen by its cover design, title, and brief excerpt; there's an ex-English-grad student for you). After perusing, I decided on Lord of the Dark Lake by Ron Faust.

I was unfamiliar with his work, but I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's basically a rich-and-slightly-insane-person-throws-a-seriously-wicked-party novel, which I totally appreciated and dug on deep level. Not that there is necessarily a genre for this, but I have been interested in such things ever since I read The Food Chain a few years back.

Anyways, imagine my surprise when Faust invokes "Antigone" in his novel. Coincidence is a strange thing.

I think that last sentence was going to be the point of this post, but now I find myself tracing my trek and the circle that I have travelled (which, of course, is another theme in LOTDL).

Let's see: I wrote a paper on Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and Marquis de Sade (um, don't even try to figure out how that paper went. It's called undergrad fitting very square peg into a hole that doesn't exist in any dimension. And how I got to de Sade is a completely different subject). Anyways, that time in my life led me to TFC, which influenced my decision to read LOTDL, which recalled "Antigone"....hmm....not really a circle is it. More of a sideways "J".

All of that to say that I am back in the reading saddle and would love recommendations. And, yes, it seems that I would be all about that Great Gatsby, but I've read it a few times and never really enjoyed it (sorry Dr. Wright). Perhaps I will give it another shot...but I doubt it.

I think tomorrow I'll go check out another Faust book. Likely, it will be The Blood-Red Sea. It's a subject for another post, but I am also completely and utterly taken by open, deep, easily-lost-in bodies of water.

shanti,
mjh