Hocus Pocus & the Lockward Chocolate

Day 190...and two random strangers are reading Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut, because

1) her sister loved Cat's Cradle

2) he loved Slaughterhouse 5

Another random stranger is reading Slaughterhouse 5, because, amazingly, we had a copy at Babbitt's. The sister who loved Cat's Cradle still needs a copy of that because she loaned it to someone and never got it back. Which seems to happen often with Vonnegut.

Now you see it, now you don't!

I was fascinated, in my mini-pseudo-research on this topic (Wikipedia, Amazon.com) to learn that "hocus pocus" may derive from the ritual and Latin of the Eucharist, a sort of hoc est corpus corruption, or from a Norse sorcerer, Ochus Bochus (sounds good to me), or from the Welsh for "hoax," which is Hovea Pwca, the second part pronounced Pooka, from which we also get Shakespeare's Puck (a personal favorite), or, perhaps some combination of all these into random coincidii form!!! I love words, and word origins, even if they are far-fetched.

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows....

Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus is structurally interesting, being a nonlinear collage of fragments by main character Eugene Debs Hartke (college professor/prison inmate) "assembled" by Vonnegut into this piecemeal satire.

I love Vonnegut. I remember reading the short story collection titled God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater as a mere teen, beside my hometown pool. OK, I was weird. But surely other teens I knew loved Vonnegut, too!

My Diane Lockward "chocolate" for the day, from What Feeds Us, actually has a chocolate in it, with a date inside instead of a cherry or apricot. (Hocus pocus, an unanticipated fruit! But I'm so weird, I love dates!) Anyway, it is a lovely and funny prose poem about...ah! dating!...that contains the phrase "Yesterday a letter appeared in my mailbox..." which sort of freaks me out, as I am just now proofreading a prose poem that takes place in the foyer and involves a letter in my mailbox!

On the other hand, it is always nice to find a kindred spirit.

And, to further the random coincidii, a fellow came in the store today who is someone I hope someday to set up with my accidentally celibate friend...who shall remain nameless.

But first, both of them need to read The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex by Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist.

Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On

Day 102 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project. Well, the madness continues. Previously, in "Wait! I Have a Blog?!" Kathleen knew she was losing it when she started to notice what people are reading in movies and sitcoms.

Now she is:

1) dreaming books
2) speaking of herself in third person

Yes, it has happened. This morning, before waking, I was dreaming a book. I knew who was reading it--Gayla, who had, in waking life, just recently sent me a poem she wrote that helped her decide not to buy a house, a thrillingly practical use of poetry inspired by a little talk I gave for her writing group at the library...but I digress. But try it! If you are trying to make an important decision:

1) ask yourself to think about it right before falling asleep, and/or
2) write a poem about it

So, anyway, Gayla was reading this ex-library book I was handling at the bookstore, getting ready to describe into the database. (You know how things are in dreams.) It still had its library pocket glued to the front free endpaper. It had inkstamps and the librarian's pencil notations.

But what was remarkable about the book was that the endpapers and dustjacket told a different story than the text itself. I knew this without reading the book, knew it was a secret that couldn't be revealed to the database, and knew I should not ever try to tell anybody my dream, especially not in my book blog project. And yet....

We are such stuff
as dreams are made on, and our little life
is rounded with a sleep!

--Prospero, The Tempest

And this brings me to The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and what some real live people are really reading in central Illinois, to prepare themselves for seeing the plays. Some people in the area also take short courses and attend talks and seminars to get ready for this fine event. This year, people are reading, and seeing:

The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor, by William Shakespeare
The Three Musketeers, not by William Shakespeare, but instead a play based on the book by Alexandre Dumas

And there are also performances for young people of As You Like It. And various "Shakesperiences" involving ice cream, picnic baskets, and jazz saxophone.

So, read on....