Jim Willis

Probably written Late 90s?

Just finished Girlfriend in a Coma. In some ways, this book seems to me like Coupland’s response to Microserfs. If Microserfs was saying,something is really friggin’ wrong here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, Girlfriend represents Coupland’s having had time to think and cultivate a seriously good answer to the question: What is missing from the lives of late 20th century not-quite-adults? The answer, as I read it in Girlfriend, is that there is nothing at the center of our lives. 

This lack of a center keeps us from being whole, from really growing up and becoming adults in the true sense of the word. True, most of the adults in the generation that came before us were truly lousy role models, but that is no reason to give up on the idea that maturity is not something that we should aspire toward. At most points in history right up until most of the people in my generation were born there was always something large and powerful at the center of most peoples’ lives. I’m not saying that whatever it was at the center wasn’t illusory or wrong or whatever. But so anyway, a really long time ago maybe it was the church, in more modern times maybe it was the church and the state, some combination of both, or depending on where you happened to be born just the state. Having something large at the center of your life gives you something to aspire toward. It gives you the inspiration to believe that we are here for reasons greater than: 

making money

watching TV

developing our individual personalities.

Having something at the center makes it easier to ignore the ridiculous but powerful mental enema that the modern media assault us with on a daily basis. Something at the center helps to resist wants that are unnecessary and encourages us to behave in a manner that indicates we have a bright future that is worth looking forward to.

Coupland’s take in Girlfriend is that somehow we’ve lost that center. I believe that what is important and meaningful to us must be passed down from generation to generation and somehow or another that torch got all but extinguished by the selfish hands of the generation that came before us. I’m not saying parenting was bad or crap like that, I think that the whole world went to crap when a generation of people started asking the question (in the most annoying, whining voice possible): But what about me?

Anyway, the point is, we’ve grown up without a center and now we’re screwed in the most royal way. I look around at the incredibly diverse group of friends that I’ve made, and I can count on one hand the number of people I know who go to church. I can count on one hand the number of people who are openly spiritual. Interestingly enough, the ones who are openly spiritual are not the ones going to church. But anyway. I can’t count among my friends or acquaintances anyone who is even remotely interested in politics. As such, I have to really wonder:What the hell is at the center of each of our lives besides our own ego? A sickening silence sort of takes over at that point.

It’s strange that it is easier, more acceptable for people today to get exited as hell over a pair of sneakers or an athlete or a talk show host, than it is to be exited about something sublime like God or nature. Display even the slightest trace of real faith in any religion and people are bound to look at you as some sort of freakshow. 

The previous generation worked at breaking down barriers, distilling freedom for their generation and for generations to come. Now we can talk about sex on TV. Big deal. Part of the reason there is a void at the center is because it is not socially acceptable or socially comfortable to fill that void with anything but crass materialism and self gratification. In a world like this, how free are we really? If we can pursue wealth, sex and power regardless of our race, sex or whatever, but can’t pursue God without being regarded as social outcasts, how far have we made it?

Coupland’s suggestion to his characters in Girlfriend is to rebuild this center via an unwavering commitment to questioning why things are the way they are. It is not just enough to tell people that they are selfish, materialistic collections of cells taking up oxygen on an otherwise lovely planet. If money and materialism are currently the center of people’s lives, we can’t take that center away without offering an alternative. And if that alternative is any brand of spirituality, we have to rethink our culture and make it a place where spirituality is not just condoned or accepted, but actually encouraged.

date unknown but probably pre 2001

I’ve just finished reading The Archivist by Martha Cooley and I think I liked it. Whether or not I really understood everything that was going on is an entirely different question. The novel deals with some pretty heavy duty issues and does so in a creative, artful way by framing all these disturbing stories in a story that was interesting enough to make you want to keep on plowing through.

By disturbing issues I mean: the holocaust, mental illness, involuntary commitment in institutions and the idea of faith and trust as it applies to Catholicism and Judaism. All this, wrapped up in a story line that revolves around TS Eliot, his wife, his mistress and a modern day poet who is interested in all of the above.

If you don’t already know you’ll find out early enough in the book that Eliot had his wife committed and totally abandoned her (some would say, for his newly (re)discovered Christianity). There is a movie about this called Tom and Viv. I saw it but don’t really remember it too much though I am sure that it helped me understand some of the novel’s more obtuse references to their married life.

There are a lot of characters in this book running around and finding out they came from Jewish families who renounced their faith and became Christians in order to escape the Holocaust. Thus, the multiple plots are sort of tied together with the question: how can an individual turn their back on so much pain and suffering and manage to go on living without being crippled by guilt? (Eliot turns back on wife, Christians and Jews turn their backs on Jews during WWII, and a few other examples played out in the novel that I don’t want to give away.)

It’s difficult for me to understand some of the issues raised in the novel because I was not around during WWII and I don’t really know what the general attitude was of Americans during that period. Was the mass extermination of Jews something that everyone knew about but nobody spoke of? That is the general impression I get from the book. It’s tough for me to comment on that without feeling a bit of guilt myself.

For example, I think of all the people suffering around the world wondering whether or not anything can be done to alleviate any or all of that suffering. Then, on top of that, instead of being grateful that I am not among the suffering, I have the audacity to get fed up while standing in a slow checkout line at the grocery store. Confusion abounds as usual.

But then you think of cases like the Eliots’ where he has his wife locked up and abandons her in part because she offends his faith or some bullshit like that and for a moment you think it’s a black and white issue: Eliot is clearly a self centered turd for doing such a thing. But maybe it did hurt him as much as it hurt Vivienne. Who knows?

While I hate to end on a gloomy note here (though the book is hardly an uplifting, feel-good page turner), I’ll sort of try to tie in the vibe that I got from the book with something I’ve been thinking about lately. I write in a journal pretty much every day and I occasionally find myself commenting on both the weather and my mood. Pretty banal crap for a diary as far as the pursuit of truth goes, but anyway. I think that trying to come to terms with guilt and faith and trust and religion is definitely an important goal but sometimes it seems a lot like the weather or my mood: It changes everyday but it’s always the same.

Haiku, by R.H. Blyth is a four-volume collection published in 1949. I don’t know all that much about Haiku and I know nothing at all about the author of this book other than that he (presumably he, though not necessarily) does a fantastic job explaining the nebulous network of traditions that gave rise to what can be called Haiku. 

To be fair, honest and etc., my original interest in the subject comes from Salinger. Apparently Seymour did these spectacular translations of haiku. There are probably better or more interesting reasons for being drawn to a subject area than by a fictitious, suicidal mystic. I just don’t have one. 

Anyway what interests me most as I work my way through this 422 page collection of Haiku and Haiku history and tradition are the connections between the spirit of Zen and the moment of enlightenment or satori that makes it possible for the poet to create haiku. I am uncertain if create is actually even the right word. It seems more like the haiku is always there but some moment of enlightenment some spark must occur which allows the poet to see the haiku and bring it into the world using words. 

While I’m not about to define the goal of poetry in general, it does seem that haiku permits us to understand at a very different level of understanding the meaning of something previously unexplained or ignored because it seemed too trivial for our attention. Blyth says: Haiku is the apprehension of a thing by a realization of our own original and essential unity with it, the word ‘realization’ having the literal meaning here of ‘making real’ in ourselves. The one thing haiku is not, though, is didactic. 

Some excerpts:

5 The great problem of practical everyday life is thus to see things properly, not to evaluate them in some hard and fast moral scale of virtue and vice, use and uselessness, but to take them without sentimental or intellectual prejudice.

Unfortunately, Blyth doesn’t cite where he gets the following verses from. He uses these to point to the grounding of Haiku in the Zen spirit. Any ideas from where these come?

If you do not get it from yourself,

Where will you go for it?

Many words injure virtue,

Wordlessness is essentially effective.

There is no place to seek the mind,

It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky.

Blyth also traces the influence of other traditions such as Taoism and Confucianism on Haiku. As I was reading I felt that he made it perfectly clear where Taoism differs from Buddhism on certain issues. Though, now of course I can’t find the highlighted passages. He does say however: The relation of Taoism to Zen is far from easy to make out. They may have originated together in the Chinese mind; Zen may be the practical application of the Taoist ideals, grafted on the Buddhist tree of religion. 

From Confucianism (Analects, Confucius)

Arise with poetry;

Stand with propriety;

Grow with music.

Standing by a stream Confucius said: It ceases not day or night; flowing on like this.

There is an interesting section on something called The Saikontan, literally vegetable root discourses. Blyth points out that this book, written by Kojisei in 1624 represents a synthesis of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism which occurred over the period of 3,000 years and resulted in a fourth tradition: Zen. What follows are excerpts from The Saikontan:

If the mind is clear, a dark room has its blue sky; if the mind is somber, broad daylight gives birth to demons and evil spirits.

The true Buddha is in the home, the real Way is everyday life. A man who has sincerity, who is a peace-maker, cheerful in looks and gentle in his words, harmonious in mind and body towards his parents and brethren, such a man is vastly superior to one who practices breathing control and introspection.

Water not disturbed by waves settles down of itself. A mirror not covered by dust is clear and bright. The mind should be like this. When what beclouds it passes away, its brightness appears. Happiness must not be sought for; when what disturbs passes away, happiness comes of itself.