This sauce will keep for about a month if packed with vinegar and refrigerated. Use as a starter for other sauces, or to kick up the heat on a marinade, sauce, salad dressing or soup. Can also be spread on sandwiches.
WASHINGTON, DC 8/30/2012- I love my bike. I choose my bike over my car at every chance I get. However, things weren’t always this way. When I finally started riding my bike over a year and a half ago, I wondered why I hadn’t done it sooner.
FEAR. Fear was my biggest deterrent.
I hadn’t been on a bike since my early teens, and now in my mid 30s, I was terrified. I live in Washington DC, where traffic is nuts, where most cab drivers can’t tell the difference between a stop sign and a green light, and where one out of five drivers has diplomatic plates- code for: “I learned to drive in another country and didn’t bother to learn the traffic laws here because I’ll be gone soon anyway.”
DC traffic is scary enough to negotiate in a car! A few years ago, there was little chance of me ever entering that honking, steaming, slow-moving river of metal- on nothing but a rickety bike and with nothing to protect me but a dinky-looking plastic helmet. No way! Did I mention I was a little overweight and hadn’t exercised since high school PE class? (Biking changed all that- but that’s the topic of a previous post: How my bike changed my life).
Apparently, I wasn’t alone. According to Grist.org, “as many as 60 percent of people in U.S. cities would like to ride a bicycle if it weren’t for traffic-related concerns.” But traffic wasn’t my only fear. I was also afraid of crashing, hitting a dog, falling into a pot hole, ditch, the Potomac…
Somehow, I overcame my fears. It took a while and a little determination, but I can honestly say that even though I still have a healthy respect for riding on the road, I am confident and comfortable doing it. I own my piece of the road and I make drivers respect me. Who would have thought?
So if you have wanted to get on a bike but have been held back by fear, almost everyone goes through it. But if I can overcome it, anybody can! I did a little research, called on a few riding friends, and here is a list of tips if you want to begin cycling for sport, commuting, or fun, but are afraid of riding in the city.
WARNING: Cycling is highly addictive- once you start riding you’ll never stop!
1. Get the right gear: If you do not already own a bike, take time to choose the right bike for you. The right bicycle is everything. I started out with a folding bike because it sounded like a cool concept- and hated it. It felt unstable, I was sitting at an awkward angle, the handlebars were too close together, and making a turn was difficult. The folding bike experiment turned me off of biking for a few more years until my husband convinced me to try again.
Before spending thousands on a bike, think about what you are going to use it for. Consider whether you will be using it for commuting to work, riding trails for exercise on the weekends, or both. Finally, try several styles of bicycle. Get on and see how different bicycles feel; ride them around the parking lot of the bike shop, ask a friend to let you try their bike. I test-rode several bicycles, but like Cinderella, my hybrid felt just right as soon as I got on.
The second most important piece of gear is a helmet. There is a whole controversy about helmet promotion campaigns, but I’m just going to play it safe and say you should always wear a helmet when riding a bike. Your brain is precious. Like bikes, there are several different styles of helmet. While the safety factor is the most important, you should also pick a helmet that goes with your style, looks cute, and is comfortable, because, lets face it, that way you’ll be more likely to wear it.
Many riders, myself included, use a mirror. I got a mirror shortly after getting my bike because I was so unsure of my riding ability that I felt that I would lose my balance and careen to my death if I turned my body to look behind me while I was riding. My mirror gave me a lot of confidence, and even though now I can look behind me, I wouldn’t ride without it. Other riders, like Delores Simmons of Black Women Bike DC (BWB), use a mirror on their helmet. It is a question of preference.
Another important piece of gear is some kind of reflective device or piece of clothing. Make sure that you are as visible as possible to motorists, other riders, and pedestrians. There are all kinds of reflective gear available at bike shops and online. A bell is also an important piece of gear to alert others of your presence. Shouting is just not enough sometimes. Some riders, like Simmons, use a whistle, and say that they are usually much more effective in getting motorists’ attention.
2. Learn about your bike: Learning how to use and maintain your bike is also important in building confidence and overcoming fear. Practice getting on and off your bike- it may sound silly, but my worst fall to date was when I was stationary, trying to get off my bike (more on that later). Practice changing gears, learn how to pump air into your tires, and learn to replace the chain, at the very least. Many bike shops offer training clinics on basic bike maintenance. This will all help to boost your confidence and lessen the fear of being caught out on the road with a loose chain and not knowing what to do.
3. Take it little by little: One of the things that worked best for me was taking it one baby step at a time. To build up your confidence, ride in a parking lot, near home, at off- hours, or on bike trails. Bike trails can be helpful in learning to navigate obstacles like potholes, joggers, other bikers, dogs, etc. Once you have the confidence to negotiate those obstacles, you will have more confidence to face a road with cars.
“I became more confident from riding regular routes, primarily my work-home route,” says Allyson Criner Brown of BWB. “The first time was a bit scary but the more I got comfortable with the route, the more I learned how to anticipate drivers, what to expect, where drivers were most likely to do something that would threaten my safety, and certain ‘rules of the road.’”
Delores Simmons had a similar experience, “I started riding in traffic on low traffic streets or during low traffic times so I became familiar with a certain route, but there was not real stress. Finally, in the beginning I gave myself a lot of extra time so I was not rushing and I could focus on traffic. Now I am a pro!”
If you are really afraid of cars, ride short pieces of road in quiet neighborhoods at low traffic hours. As you put in more and more “time in the saddle,” you will find that your fear begins to subside. “Confidence comes with time!” says Criner Brown.
4. Know your body and limits: Another important part of overcoming fear is to know you body and your limitations. Don’t try to ride ten miles or tackle a steep hill on your first time out. That will just discourage you, put you at risk for injury, and reinforce your fears. The more you ride, the stronger and more comfortable you will get, but you don’t want to risk an injury in the meantime. Build your endurance and stamina gradually and always listen to your body.
However, it is also important to believe in yourself and believe in what you can achieve. Cycling is so easy and fun, that you will be constantly surprising yourself by your progress. “When I rediscovered cycling eight years ago at age 48, I had a good Cannondale hybrid bicycle but didn’t know much about how to use the gears. I just started riding roads around my home until I became more and more comfortable with shifting,” says Molly. “I found a hill that added to my route and rode it several times until someone told me, ‘I think that is the hill that the local cyclists call ‘the Wall.’’ (it has a grade of about 21% at one point) Ever since I learned the hill’s nickname, I’ve been a little afraid of it. Rather than celebrate the fact that I learned how to conquer the steep grade, I got freaked out by the image of climbing a wall.”
5. Obey traffic laws: It is very important to obey all traffic laws when riding a bicycle. Cyclists must avoid distractions and pay attention to all street and road signs and signals. I don’t wear headphones or listen to music while I ride. It is important to be able to hear cars, other riders, people, opening car doors, dogs… Some people ride with their earphones, but I don’t think that I’ll ever feel comfortable enough to do it.
There are other “rules of the road” which are cycling-specific, like using hand signals. According to Allyson Criner Brown, among the most important are “learning not to get squeezed off the road or into cars, not pulling up next to cars that are turning right, leaving enough brake distance between you and cars (they can stop a LOT faster you can), etc.” Talking to and riding with someone with more experience is very helpful in learning cycling-specific road rules.
6. Know where you are going, do a little research: Most people start off riding in their own neighborhoods, where they are familiar with the streets, traffic patters, and directions. However, if you are riding in a new place,look for local riding clubs. Their websites usually have information on bike routes, the best places to bike, etc.
Websites like Mapmyride.com or bikehead.com are useful in finding riding routes and other bike- related information on an area. Ciclyng360’s podcast on overcoming fear of riding also suggests that when all else fails, find the place you want to go on the satellite view of Google Maps to see if there is a bike lane or wide shoulder on that particular stretch of road.
Cycling itself is a great way to experience your neighborhood and any area in a whole different way. Nicole Donnelly of BWB says, “The biggest way I overcame my fear of riding in the city was to explore new routes. For some reason, I started out using the route I would use if driving, which is great if you are in a car. But once I broke that mindset, things became a lot better. Now, on the rare occasions when I drive, I find myself using my bike routes.”
In large cities with no bike lanes: Not all cities are as bike-friendly as DC. If you live in a not-too-bike-friendly city, check your local parks for bike trails or take your bike out of the city for a weekend bike ride. There is also great article about cycling in New York City.
7. Own your part of the road/ Taking the lane: This is what scared me the most about riding. I’m lucky that DC has a lot of bike lanes, but riding in any city, no matter how many bike lanes, means you will be riding in traffic some of the time. It took me about 8 months of riding every day – to the gym, the store, etc- to be able to actually ride on a street without a bike lane and not feel that I was going to get hit by a car at every second. My mirror and plain old experience and time riding helped a lot. Today, I ride my lane and no longer feel afraid when I’m going somewhere that does not have an uninterrupted bike lane route. I agree with Lesly Jones of BWB when she says, “fortunately, in DC, I have a legal right to the road and I claim it most days of the week!!”
Cycling (Photo credit: tejvanphotos)
There are many reasons for riding your lane. It will not only discourage motorists from passing you in an unsafe manner, but it also forces them to give you more space. Taking up your lane also gives you room to maneuver when a car is passing you and something –say a car door- suddenly appears in your way.
Learning to take the lane can be difficult. Allyson Criner Brown puts it this way, “as a cyclist there are times when you have to ride like you’re invisible and assume that no one can see you, and there are other times when you have to just commandeer the road and make everyone else go around.” This will come with time and experience.
8. Bike with friends/Join a group: If you have friends who bike, ask them to take you out sometime and explain a few things about riding. Most people who cycle love it so much that you will have no trouble getting them to talk to you about it, give you tips, and take you out for a ride. Riding with people with more experience will help you learn how to conquer your fear and give you confidence. I just joined Black Women Bike DC, and even though I have not been out on my first group ride yet (can’t wait!), the members are a great source of information, inspiration, and support.
Joining a group is one of the best ways to overcome riding fears. “As for other fears — riding with motorist traffic and going downhill — I found I was more comfortable with those things after doing RAGBRAI for the first time,” writes Molly, who took up riding again when she was 48. “Riding with other cyclists and learning from them are my best means of overcoming my fears.”
Delores Simmons agrees, “I was intimidated by riding on the street with cars. First, I did group rides with people who were more experienced riders than me. That way I learned biking rules and signals, as well as how to avoid certain pitfalls.”
One tip I got from the Cycling360 podcast is that if you are a novice riding in a group, let someone know, and don’t pretend to know what you’re doing. Another tip is to go out with a small group of 3 or 4 people and then move on to a larger one. Local bike shops may also offer or have information on beginner’s bike rides or women’s rides.
9. After a fall/ fear of crashing: I have fallen off my bike. A few times. Once I fell behind my garage, trying to climb off too quickly and tangled my foot on one of the bars. I fell, the bike fell on top of me, I had a few scrapes and bruises. Other falls were even less dramatic. But I’m here, I’m alive, I’m in much better shape than before I started riding, and have a minor scar on my knee.
The truth is: if you ride a bike, you are probably going to crash. More than once. Usually its not that bad; some bad wrecks happen, but most people love biking so much that they get right back on as soon as they are able to. This is where wearing a helmet comes in. “I had an accident a few years ago that resulted in my landing head first,” recounts Lesly Jones. “I had just purchased a new helmet the week before. Without that helmet, well, I don’t even want to think about what may have occurred. Fortunately, I only have an ugly scar on my shoulder instead of permanent brain damage or worse.” Lesly’s accident has not put her off riding in the least bit.
10. Final safety precautions- When riding, always have a cell phone with you so that you can call for help. A RoadID bracelet may be useful if you do not carry anything when you ride. Lesly Jones of BWB says, in general, “be alert, be aggressive and know your rights.”
Riding a bicycle, like driving a car and flying in an airplane, has its dangers. But you accept them, try to minimize them, stay alert, and ride on!
On an ordinary day in 1988 a group of 49 mostly women and children walked out of the jungle and into the small village of Calamar, in the Amazon region of Colombia. Their heads were shaved and their faces were painted with red lines. They were naked, wore no shoes, and did not speak any language that the inhabitants of the village had heard before. Members of nearby indigenous tribes, government officials, language specialists, and anthropologists were called upon to try to communicate with the mysterious new arrivals.
After much difficulty, members of a Makú tribe were able to exchange a few words with the new arrivals. The strangers were finally identified as the Nukak, a group previously unknown to the outside world and one of the last nomadic tribes left anywhere on the planet. Because of their nomadic lifestyle and tendency to leave little evidence of having lived in an area, the Nukak had flown below the radar of anthropologists and the Colombian government.
Nukak woman and child
The rest of the world was similarly unknown to the Nukak, who had lived for centuries in isolation. Until shortly before their march into Calamar, the Nukak were unaware of what lay beyond the vast greenness of the Amazon.
The group that showed up in Calamar had walked for five months, escaping illicit crop growers and fighting between the government, guerrilla, and paramilitary groups. Most of the men were killed in the fighting, and the women and children were forced to flee.
A people in constant motion
The Nukak are a nomadic tribe that inhabits the Amazon region of Colombia between the Guaviare and Inírida Rivers. They live a wandering lifestyle, always moving on before their presence takes a toll on the natural resources and leaving little trace of themselves behind.
The Nukak are accomplished hunters, fishermen, and gatherers, taking full advantage of the land around them. They also practice itinerant agriculture on a small scale. Occupations are divided among tribe members. While men hunt, women and children gather, and the entire tribe participates in farming. They usually make their camps near a water source and where fruit and animals are plentiful. They are careful to move on as soon as supplies begin to decline.
The men hunt monkeys and birds with blowguns made from palm trees, coating their darts with curare, a powerful natural poison. They use long javelins and spears to hunt two species of pecari or wild boar and caiman.
Tapir
The Nukak capture and eat several species of large rodent, armadillos, frogs, land turtles, and river shrimp. They also eat the larvae of palm scarabs, wasps, and a certain species of spider egg. They do not, however, hunt or eat deer or tapir because they consider these animals to belong to the same family as humans.
The Nukak fish with line and hook, but also use traditional methods like spears, bows and arrows, and traps. They also use barbasco, a root that temporarily stuns and immobilizes fish when grated and thrown into small streams. The fish can then be picked up by hand.
The women and children collect honey from over 20 different species of bee found in the jungle. They also collect several types of fruit and vegetable that grow naturally in the rainforest.
The Nukak use all kinds of materials found in the forest to support their nomadic lifestyle. They collect platanillo and palm leaves to build their shelters; palm fibers to make their hammocks; and palm fronds for their hunting and fishing material, bags, and guayuco coverings for the males. They also make perfume, soap, graters, mirrors, and knives form objects found in the jungle.
Unfortunately, their clash with the rest of the world has forced the Nukak to abandon their traditional practices in favor of “modern comforts.” For example, the Nukak used to make razors and knives from piranha teeth, but today most use metal blades. Nukak also practiced a simple form of pottery, making small clay pots to carry around with them and larger ones that were left in certain more permanent camps along their route. Today, however, most Nukak use commercial metal pots. The Nukak have also stopped making their own stone hatchets, matches, and resin mirrors.
Nukak practice agriculture on a small scale, setting up gardens in their temporary camps, and more permanent ones along their travel routes. They grow several tubers like taro and yucca, bananas, and sugar cane. They also grow gourds for containers, tobacco for religious rituals, and achiote and carayurú to paint their bodies and faces.
Traditionally, Nukak lived naked, wearing only bangles on their wrists, arms, ankles, and lower legs. They also paint red lines on their bodies and faces. Today, most have taken to wearing clothing, even when out in the jungle, since many of the women and girls have been raped and sold into prostitution by guerrilla and paramilitary groups.
Socially, Nukak men are allowed to form a family unit with more than one woman, but most Nukak have only one wife. These family units belong to territorial groups of about 50 to 60 people, who do not always remain together, but separate into different groups to hunt, build, grow, and gather depending on the season or climate. At least ten different Nukak territorial groups have been identified. Different territorial groups interact with each other to barter and for a special ritual known as entiwat, where the members of different groups confront and strike each other and then embrace.
Forced to remain stationary
In 1988, there was an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Nukak. Their numbers dwindled as their contact with the rest of the world grew. The oldest members were in their 40s. Older Nukak tend to be felled by illness like malaria, measles, leichmaniasis, and even the common cold, for which they have developed no defenses. They have been run off the lands that they have roamed for centuries. Their men are killed and their women and girls are raped.
Today, there are around 250 Nukak who have settled outside of the reserve, mostly in the outskirts of San José. Estimates suggest that there are about 100 to 200 individuals still in the “protected” area.
The Colombian government established an 855,000-hectare natural reserve closed to outsiders in 1989 and has provided the Nukak outside the reserve with food and health services. However, it seems like the Colombian government has little power to protect the Nukak within their territory, as the reserve’s very isolation and status as a place closed to outsiders is what attracts the coca farmers and provides the guerrillas and other subversive groups with an ideal place to hide. The 1999 aerial spraying of illegal coca crops near the Guaviare River prompted a new wave of coca farmers into Nukak lands.
Mario Vargas Llosa (1936, Perú) was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of his remarkable career and body of work as a writer. The Academy awarded him the Prize “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.” He has written over 30 novels and began writing plays in the 1980s. He has recently taken to the stage as an actor in his own dramas. The 76-year-old has been described as “a promising young actor” by Aitana Sánchez Gijón, one of his costars.
Following is my translation of “Consejos a un joven novelista,” Advice to a young novelist.
Only those who enter into literature as they would enter a religion, willing to dedicate all their time, their energy, their effort to their vocation, will be able to become true writers and write a piece that will transcend them.
There are no precocious novelists. All the great novelists were, in the beginning, apprentice writers whose talent was forged on a basis of perseverance and conviction.
Literature is the best thing ever invented against misfortune.
In every work of fiction, even in the freest burst of imagination, it is possible to trace a starting point, an intimate seed, viscerally linked to the experiences of the person who created it. I will venture to say that there are no exceptions to this rule and that therefore pure invention does not exist in the literary realm.
Fiction is, by definition, a sham- a reality that isn’t, yet pretends to be- and every novel is a lie that impersonates the truth, a creation whose power of persuasion depends exclusively on the effective use of certain sleight of hand and prestidigitation techniques akin to those used by magicians in the circus or the theater.
The authenticity or sincerity of a novelist is made up of this: knowing his or her demons and serving them according to his or her strength.
The novelist who does not write about what stimulates and excites him deep inside, and coldly selects issues and topics in a rational manner thinking that this is the easiest way to achieve success, is inauthentic, and probably, because of it, is a poor novelist (even though he may achieve success: best seller lists are full of very bad novelists).
The bad novel with little or no power of persuasion does not make us believe in the lie it is telling us.
The story in a novel may be incoherent, but the language that describes it must be coherent for the story’s incoherence to successfully fake being genuine and have life.
In literature, sincerity or insincerity is not an ethical issue, but an aesthetic one.
Literature is pure artifice, but great literature hides it while mediocre literature betrays it.
To tell a story through writing, every novelist invents a narrator, his or her representative or plenipotentiary in the work of fiction, who is himself a work of fiction, as, like all the other characters, he is made up of words and lives only because and for that novel.
Time in a novel is based on psychological, not chronological time. It is a subjective time that, thanks to the novelist’s talent, has the appearance of objectivity, which provides the novel distance and differentiates it from the real world.
It is important to know that every novel has a spatial point of view, a temporal point of view, and a point of view on the level with reality, and, even though it may not always be obvious, the three are essentially autonomous, different from each other, and the way in which they harmonize and combine results in the internal coherence that is the novel’s power of persuasion.
When telling a story, unless a novelist imposes certain limits on himself, (in other words, does not resign himself to hide certain information) the story he is telling will have no beginning and no end.
Slice the tomatoes very thin using a mandolin or the slicer attachment on a food processor.
Arrange the tomato slices in a flat glass or plastic (non-metal) container in layers, sprinkling salt on each layer before arranging the next.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave out for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, drain the tomato slices and return to the container.
Mix 4 cups of white vinegar, 1 cup of water, and 1 Tbs. salt. Add this mixture to the tomatoes, making sure that they are fully covered by the liquid.
Cover with a kitchen towel and leave another 24 hours.
After 24 hours, drain and discard the liquid
Wash the jars in hot water, dry them, and swirl white vinegar to sterilize them. Air- dry the jars, discard the vinegar.
Stack 5-6 tomato slices and place in the bottom of a jar. Add a few garlic slivers, sprinkle with oregano and thyme. Repeat until the jar is full and add a bay leaf to the side. Fill completely with olive oil, making sure not to leave any air pockets.
Store in the refrigerator.
These should keep about a month, but they never last that long at our house! Serve on their own, as part of antipasto, in sandwiches, or salads.
Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003) was most well known for his very short stories. His story, “The Dinosaur,” is often referred to as the shortest short story in literature. In Spanish, it has just seven words:
Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.
When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.
Other stories, like “The Eclipse” are a bit longer.
Monterroso wrote the “Decálogo del Escritor,” “The Writer’s Decalogue,” which actually has twelve rules. I have translated it below:
The Writer’s Decalogue*
First. When you have something to say, say it. When you don’t, say it as well. Write always.
Second. Don’t write for your contemporaries and even less, as many do, for your ancestors. Write for posterity, when you will doubtlessly be famous, because it is well known that posterity is always fair.
Third. Under no circumstances forget the celebrated dictum: “in literature nothing is written.”
Fourth. What you can say with 100 words, say with 100 words; what you can say with one, say with one. Do not ever take the middle ground; never write anything with 50 words.
Fifth. Even though it may not seem like it, writing is an art; being a writer is being an artist, like the trapeze artist, or the fighter par excellence, the one who fights with language; you must practice for this fight day and night.
Sixth. Take advantage of disadvantages like insomnia, prison, or poverty; the first made Baudelaire, the second made Pellico, and the third made all of your writer friends. Avoid sleeping like Homer, the tranquil life of Byron, or earning as much as Bloy.
Seventh. Don’t pursue success. Success destroyed Cervantes, who was a good novelist up to Don Quixote. Even though success is always inevitable, try to shoot for failure from time to time, to sadden your friends.
Eighth. Acquire an intelligent audience, which is easier to find among the rich and powerful. In this way you will never lack for the understanding and stimulus that comes from only these two sources.
Ninth. Believe in yourself, but not too much; have self-doubt, but not too much. When in doubt, believe; when you believe, doubt. This is the only true wisdom for the writer.
Tenth. Try to say things in a way that the reader will always feel that he or she is at least as or more intelligent than you are. Once in a while try to make this indeed be true; but for this you need to be more intelligent than the reader.
Eleventh. Don’t forget your readers’ feelings. As a rule, feelings are the best thing they have to offer; unlike you, who has no feelings, otherwise you would not be trying to become a writer.
Twelfth. Again with the reader. The better you write, the more readers you will have; while you give them increasingly refined pieces, a larger number of people will appreciate your creations; if you write for the masses you will never be popular and nobody will try to touch your clothing on the street, or point at you in the supermarket.
* The author gives the writer the option of discarding two of these statements and keep the remaining ten.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) is one of the best-known Latin American writers. It is difficult to summarize Borges in a few sentences. The best way to get to know Borges is to read his stories. Many think he was a genius. His short stories are unique and let the reader step away from reality for a brief time.
This excerpt is part of “Acerca de mis cuentos,” which discusses how he wrote certain stories. I have tried to find out whether this is an essay or the transcript of a lecture, but have had no success. Any help on this would be appreciated!
This is a translation on the section about “The Zahir” a short story that appeared in El Aleph (1949). The translation is mine. I suggest reading the story and then reading Borges’ comments.
THE ZAHIR
I will try, then, to remember one of my stories. I was in doubt while I was brought here, and remembered a story I don’t know if you have read; it is called The Zahir. I am going to talk about how I conceived that story. I use the word “story” in quotation marks as I don’t know whether it is or it isn’t, but in the end, the issue of genre is of little importance. Croce believed that there are no genres; I think that they do exist to the extent that there is an expectation on the part of the reader. I think that a person reads a short story in a different way than they do when they read an entry in an encyclopedia, or when they read a novel, or when they read a poem. A text may not be different, but the genre may change according to the reader, according to the expectation. A person that reads a short story knows or expects to read something that will distract them from their ordinary life, that will make them enter a world, not fantastic- the word is too ambitious- but slightly different from the world of common experience.
Now we come to “The Zahir,” and now that we’re friends, I will tell you how I thought of that story. I don’t remember the date when I wrote it; I know I was working as director of the National Library in south Buenos Aires, near La Concepción Church; I know the neighborhood well. My starting point was one word, one word we use almost every day without realizing how mysterious it is (except that all words are mysterious): I thought of the word unforgettable, inolvidable in Spanish. I don’t know why I paused as I had heard the word a thousand times, almost not a day goes by without hearing it. I thought it would be strange if there was, in what we call reality, an object, a thing- why not?- that was truly unforgettable.
That was my staring point; pretty abstract and limited: thinking about the possible meaning of that word that is heard, read, literally un-forgettable, unforgettable, inolvidable, unvergasselich, inouviable. As you have seen, it is a pretty shabby consideration. Immediately I though that if there is something unforgettable, that something must be common because if we had a chimera, for example, a three-headed monster (I believe one head was a goat, another was a snake, and I think the other was dog, I’m not sure), we would certainly remember it. So there would be no story with an unforgettable minotaur, chimera, or unicorn; no, it had to be something very common. While thinking of something common, I thought, I think immediately, about a coin, as thousands and thousands and thousands of coins are minted, all exactly the same. All with an effigy of liberty, or a coat of arms, or certain conventional words. How strange it would be if there was a coin, a coin lost among millions of coins, that was unforgettable. And I thought of a coin that has by now disappeared, a twenty-cent coin, a coin like the others, like the five- and ten-cent coin, only bigger; how strange if among literally millions of coins minted by the State, by one of the hundreds of States, there was one that was unforgettable. That’s where the idea was born: from an unforgettable twenty-cent coin. I don’t know if they still exist, if they are collected, if they are worth anything; I didn’t think about these things at the time. I thought about a coin that had to be unforgettable for the purpose of my story; in essence, the person who saw it would not be able to think about anything else.
After that I found myself facing a second or third problem…I’ve lost count. Why would that coin be unforgettable? The reader will not just accept the idea, I had to prepare my coin’s inviolability, and for that I needed to assume the emotional state of the person who sees it, I needed to insinuate madness, as the subject of my story was something akin to madness or obsession. I then thought, as Edgar Allan Poe did when he wrote “The Raven,” in the beautiful death. Poe asked himself who could be affected by the death of that woman, and deduced that it had to be someone that was in love with her. From there I got to the idea of a woman, who I am in love with, who dies, and I am desperate.
“A girl must blend into a room: she must be present without appearing to exist” (Kindle loc. 77)
“Walk like the city, not like the farm” (loc. 83)
“Women are weak but mothers are strong.” (loc. 83)
“By day we worked the orchards and fields but every night, while we slept, we returned home.” (loc. 340)
“Because the only way to resist, our husbands have taught us, is by not resisting.” (loc. 607)
Opinion:
Wonderful! I love the way it was told in first person plural. It was like sitting around a group of woman drinking tea and listening to all of them tell their story- all at once. It felt like a conversation. There was no real storyline, just the life of Japanese immigrants, their struggles, their ways of coping with homesickness, and how they tried to assimilate and understand American culture. Very informative and quick read. It kind of felt like something you would read for a college course, but the kind of assignment you end up enjoying.
Great read!
Notes:
Some of the women mention wearing lead face powder, so I went looking around the Internet for information. I found a page on The cultural history of cosmetics in Japan. Lead- based face powder was first created by a Buddhist priest in 692 and became popular first among the royal families and then among urban dwellers. Women wore face powder, plucked and painted their eyebrows, and blackened their teeth, known as ohaguro.
Ohaguro was a rite of passage for females. A woman would blacken her teeth either soon before or after their wedding. They also shaved their eyebrows after their first child was born. Both practices were outlawed in 1870, during the Meiji period.
Horacio Quiroga’s Ten Rules For Writing A Short Story
Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937) was an Uruguayan poet, playwright, and short story writer. He is considered to be one of the best Latin American short story writers of all time. His stories like “The Decapitated Chicken” and “The Son,” are deliciously bizarre and really grip the reader. He accomplishes a lot using very few words and his stories haunt readers for a long time.
He wrote a “Manual del perfecto cuentista,” or “the manual for a perfect storyteller.” It contains ten rules that, according to Quiroga, a writer should follow to write the perfect short story. The first are a bit general, but the rest are very specific. Here is my translation:
Believe in a master- Poe, Maupassant, Kipling, Chekov- as in God himself.
Believe that your art is an unreachable summit. Don’t dream of dominating it. Once you can achieve it, you will be able to write the perfect short story it without thinking about it.
Resist imitation if possible; but if the urge is too great, imitate. More than anything, developing a personal voice takes a lot of time and patience.
Have blind faith in your capacity to succeed, or in your desire to achieve success. Love your art like your girlfriend, giving it all your heart.
Don’t begin to write without knowing where you are going from the first word. In a good short story, the first three lines are almost as important as the last three.
If you want to express “a cold wind blew from the river,” write just that. Once you have mastered the use of words, don’t worry whether they are consonant or assonant.
Don’t add unnecessary adjectives. Colorful words attached to a weak noun will be useless. The correct noun will have incomparable color and brightness. The trick is finding it.
Take your characters by the hand and lead them firmly to the end, ignoring everything but the way you have plotted. Don’t get distracted by seeing things that they cannot and care not to see. Don’t abuse your reader. A short story is not a miniature novel. Hold this as an absolute truth, even though it isn’t.
Do not write from under the power of your emotions. Let the feeling die and evoke it later. If you are able to conjure up the feeling again, you are halfway to mastering your art.
Don’t think about your friends when you write or on the effect that your story may have. Tell your story as if it only mattered to the confined world of your characters, of which you may be a part. This is the only way to give your story life.
WASHINGTON, August 22, 2012 — Abortion has heated up again as a topic of presidential politics. Incendiary comments and campaign promises to outlaw abortion have flooded the airwaves. However, despite Todd Akin’s controversial comments and Mitt Romney’s position on the issue, which for now have no real impact on abortion law, pro-life judges and legislatures have quietly changed state laws to hamper that choice.
Last month’s ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Roundsby the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reflects how anti-abortion judges and legislators are trying to erode a woman’s right to choose. The court’s en banc decision exposes the conservative strategy of weakening the rights and protections given to women in Roe v. Wade.
In Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, the court declared constitutional a South Dakota law that requires physicians to inform a woman seeking an abortion that “an increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide” is among the “known medical risks of the procedure and statistically significant risk factors to which a pregnant woman would be subjected.” The advisory is necessary to obtain the woman’s informed consent before whe obtains an abortion in the state.
However, there is no scientific proof that abortion causes suicide. There is a correlation among women who get abortions and women who commit suicide, but available research suggests that suicide is caused by underlying psychological factors — not the decision to have an abortion.
The South Dakota law should have been ruled unconstitutional by the court because it is misleading and infringes on a woman’s right to informed consent.
Under the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a state may not require an advisory that unduly burdens a woman’s decision or does not “inform a woman’s free choice.” For informed consent to be constitutional and inform a woman’s free choice, it must be “truthful, non misleading, and relevant.”
The South Dakota law clearly fails in this respect. The advisory forces doctors to tell a woman that suicide is a “known medical risk of the procedure” and a “statistically significant risk factor to which a pregnant woman would be subjected” if she were to have an abortion. However, there is no scientific support for this assertion, making it misleading and untruthful.
Research shows that there is no causal relationship between abortion and suicide. Most evidence available to the court suggested that suicide is cause by underlying factors like domestic violence, abuse, mental illness, unwanted pregnancy, and youth at the time of pregnancy. Among the evidence presented to the court was a 2008 review on the available medical literature by the American Psychological Association (APA). The review concluded that “the relative risk of mental health problems among adult women who have unplanned pregnancies is no greater if they have an elective first-trimester abortion than if they deliver that pregnancy.” (Quoted in the dissent, p. 32).
Wear gloves when handling the peppers. Halve and seed the peppers, and chop them into ¼ inch pieces
