The Literate Kitty

Destiny. Fate. Call it what you will, but the fact remains that all of us start out, to a certain extent, either cursed or blessed by circumstances entirely beyond our control--namely, the sort of conditions into which we’re born. There’s little rhyme or reason to it, of course; it’s all a matter of biology and luck-of-the-draw as to our parents and their respective situations. Kings and queens are just as likely to have half-wits for heirs as paupers are to bear geniuses. (And no, I’m not discounting the importance of “nurture” in the old “nature vs. nurture” equation, I’m merely pointing out the randomness of it all when it comes to innate abilities.) That kind of randomness--and whether or not we attempt to change our lots in life or just accept things as they are--struck me when watching a pair of mini-series which aired (on PBS, here in the States) recently. The two stories have their similarities and differences, but it was how each character’s situation in life informs his/her a...

The saying “You can’t tell a book by its cover” is an interesting one, because we almost never use it when talking about books, do we? We pull it out to describe the slovenly fellow who paints delicate watercolors... the fragile-looking woman who packs a mean right hook... or maybe, the old, driven-by-grandpa four-door that surprises with a souped-up V-8 under its oxidized hood. The point is that none of those things involves a book.  More interesting, perhaps, is that the saying isn’t strictly accurate; I think you pretty much can guess what a book will be like by studying its cover. The artwork may not jibe completely with the author’s words, but you can usually get at least a sense of what kind of story you’ve picked up, and if there are any blurbs, quotes, or snippets on the cover, those all provide yet more clues to what lies within.  But, what happens when there is no cover? With the growing popularity of e-books, it’s becoming more and more common to access someth...

We may not give much thought to it one way or the other--in fact, I’m pretty sure we don’t--but no matter what else we do, we’re constantly doing one thing: filing away memories, for later retrieval at some unspecified date.  Case in point? All we have to do is hear a song playing in a store, catch a few minutes of an old movie on TV, get a waft of a certain perfume while walking through a room, or read a name or phrase in a book... and suddenly, without even trying, we’re right back in the middle of whenever , reliving in our minds some episode--either momentous or inconsequential--from the past.  Good, bad, and boringly-mundane memories... our minds are like so many rows of filing cabinets in a huge warehouse, with vast storage space to hold all that stuff as we accumulate it with each passing day. But, we might ask, why do we have so many memories? Is their purpose, by turns, to titillate, amuse, anger, and/or embarrass us... or do we learn something valuable from them, as...

They say we gain wisdom with age... and, although that seems like a no-brainer (for how could anyone not gain wisdom, knowledge, etc., the more years lived and the more experiences had?), I suspect the reason behind the oft-repeated platitude is two-fold.  First, it’s no doubt intended to cheer us up. Waking up each day with another twinge or crick--even as we observe our mental capacities and physical abilities gradually diminishing and going the way of the dodo bird--is hardly encouraging. We need something positive to cling to, so, by golly, wisdom it is. The second reason--while related to the first--is a bit more organic, I suspect. The bigger truth may be that we truly need such reminders, because, under the best of circumstances, we really don’t have a handle on what goes on in our brains.  Author Matt Richtel doesn't go the wisdom route; instead, he paints a fascinating and terrifying picture of what may lie in wait for all of us,  in  Devil’s Plaything ....