Sunday Walk:::Cogon Grass

The cogon grass was not there anymore. It was neatly mowed already. It occupied the empty lot, just beside the condo, which was not really empty because it was there.

Perhaps Bruce had not noticed it was gone. It was just too perfect, too beautiful, dancing with its tubelike white flowers in the tune of the descending sun.

Yet it is a was. And it will take another four or five Sunday walks before I will see it. Again.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio:::It's Time to Know You

One of the most translated modern French authors, whose first novel appeared when he was only 23 years old. Due to his early experimentalist approach to novel, Le Clézio has been counted among the avant-garde writers, but actually his work is difficult to pin down. Le Clézio's themes are cross-cultural. He moves freely, without restriction, from one continent to another, fusing ideas and images from different kinds of literature and culture. Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008.

Le Clézio's writing is simultaneously clear and intensive, impressionistic and controlled, nostalgic and contemporary. In an interview Le Clézio once said, that his favorite novelist are Stevenson and Joyce - noteworthy both exiled writers. Often his protagonists are loners, who try to find ways to cope with the modern life and technology, or come into conflict with urban surroundings.

Le procès-verbal was soon translated into several languages, among others into Finnish. In spite of his international fame, Le Clézio chose to stay away from fashionable literary circles, saying in an article in 1965: "Not yet sure if writing is a good way of expression." He taught at a Buddhist University in Thailand in 1966-67, at the University of Mexico, and at the Boston University, University of Texas, Austin, and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Since 1973 Le Clézio has divided his life between France, the U.S. and Mauritius. He has also traveled in Nigeria and Japan and published translations of Mayan sacred texts.

Through Le Clézio's novels the sun and the sea, light and water, are recurrent images. From 1969 to 1973 Le Clézio lived among the Embera Indians in Panama. Haï (1971), written during this period, is a lyrical account of the author's experience which, as he has confessed, changed his whole life. On the whole, the natural environment, animate and inanimate, forms a kind of philosophical, unifying ground for Le Clézio's themes.

Le Clézio's constant travels are reflected in the settings of his books. Through his own experience he has described the clash of cultures, and the unequal side of globalization, the domination of Western rationalism. In Désert (1980), which received prix Paul Morand, a young nomad woman, Lalla, from the Sahara becomes a famous photo model, but she returns to the desert to give birth to her child. A parallel story tells of the crushing of the Tuaregs in the beginning of the 20th century by the French colonizers.

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Funny:::Buang said, "Buang ka!"

Ten rounds, and the target would be hit, that would be around 2T. 1, 5 for refueling and five hundred for the rent. We were just discussing the life of Kuya driver, a futile attempt to override my migraine.
It was near Metro Colon when he shouted, “Naog lang, Nang.” So I also peeped on what's going on. There was a “crazy woman” boarding in the jeep.
“Andok's ra ko.” she said.
“Diko nako mo-adto sa Andok.” Kuya driver retorted. Kindly take note of Andok and Andok's.
“Mabolo ka.” The woman concluded.
Yeah, it was true, yet Kya Driver said that the “supot” she brought along were “baho.” And he would take offense for the passengers.
“Naog lang lagi. Sa sunod nga jeep sakay!”
“Don't you know, Messiah ko? Now, go!” she said.
We laughed except Kya Driver since obviously, it was not the first time.
“Naog lagi!”
“Artista ko! Presidentiable! Buang ka!” she mumbled unrecognizable words upon descending from the jeep.
I spotted the dos por dos in one of the supot. And expected, she slammed the rear of the jeep. I wanted to laugh loudly, but Kya Driver was there. And he was furious. He got his own dos por dos and dismounted too. And action drama, it was. I wanted a close look. Yet for once, I wanted to be a nonparticipant (wa koy dospordos). And one of the passengers even showed his Canon SLR to document the scenes. (Nasuya ko sa cam, grrr)

One of the tanod said, “Pasensyahi nalang. Babay man jud, buang pa jud.” Yet Kya Driver will not settle for that. I even saw her waiving her hands as Kya Driver started the engine with an imitation of a distortion-painting face.

He said he would come back.
McArthur?

Quoting:::Horace Engdahl

“Europe is still the center of the literary world, American writers were too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture. The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.

Regarding the Nobel '08 issue. Oates, Roth, Updike have no chance.

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