January 16, 2011

• The Long Winter

  I can't stop thinking about "The Long Winter," written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Snow and cold are the constant enemy. Desperate, finally Almanzo Wilder (a name so fake that it's real) and Cap Garland go on a 12 mile journey to find food. The rumors amazingly prove true, and they find a farmer with wheat, living all alone...who doesn't want to sell! They manage to avoid physical violence, coax him into selling, and come back just in time to avoid a monster blizzard. The whole story is just so oddly surreal. The snow plays the part of the quiet, murderous villain, who can never be killed but must be waited out. Weather has proved to be the villain in many stories, but the quiet cruelty of the snow, burying its victims, closing them into their homes and waiting for them to die, is a cut above the damage water, wind, and earthquake can do. For whatever reason, I want to see a movie adaptation of this, or a re-write of it all as a short story.

  Speaking of nature, I want to start a web-site dedicated to scary trees. I loved this funny comic about bad trees, by the way. People could submit their photos of dark, scary looking trees, with bikes, kittens, and kites trapped in its branches, just waiting to eat passer-bys. It's all about the aesthetics, you know?

  Speaking of aesthetics, it amuses me how bands seek so desperately for unique clothing. "We're not normal people! We're band members!" It's as if they long to be considered aliens from another country rather than humans. "Hello, we are gods from Bandlandia because we have these special clothes not available in stores. Worship us and give us your plump virgins!" I know, our country loves music dearly, but if you stop to think about it for just one second, it gets pretty ridiculous. So, um, don't, and turn the stereo louder. What good is talent unless you wear silly clothes and shout loudly to draw attention to yourself?

  Speaking of shouting loudly, I can't believe how talented 1930's Germany was, and how easily it still fell to the voice of Hitler. Here was this poor country, still somewhat devastated by war, filled with intellectuals. Artists, rocket scientists, theologians, Einstein! all there, and all fleeing Hitler in the end. Do we as Americans ever think about how much America benefited from the influx of German minds? No way we win the space race without Wernher Von Braun...or perhaps build the nuclear bomb without Einstein. Ah, Einstein, with that snow-white mass of...but it is the long winter, and my voice trails off as I look outside and finish this post.

  • 7:01 pm
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