1. If you were to decide to read Shamra Shields' dark and imaginative novel, The Cassandra, it might help you to know in advance that her book has vivid passages of brutal physical violence, disturbing images of maimed, burned, and disfigured victims of the force of the atomic bombs the USA dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and a painful description of the book's central character inflicting gruesome self-harm upon. herself.
After finishing the book, I read Leah Sottile's interview of Sharma Shields where she talks about why she explores the dark, violent, and grotesque in her work (her comments brought to my mind Flannery O'Connor). I thought her horrifying passages as well as her passages describing the novel's main character being overtaken within herself by visions featuring herons, rattlesnakes, a meadowlark, and other animals were fitting. It's a surreal novel, moving back and forth between the waking world and dream worlds, in its exploration of violence, violence this book will not let its readers regard casually or find acceptable.
2. I vaguely remember the 1986 Montana State Bobcat basketball team coming into their conference tournament as the last place team, storming to the tournament championship, and going to the NCAA tournament with a losing record. They faced St. John's, played a competitive game, but lost 83-74.
This all came up today because a member of that MSU team was Shann Ray Ferch. Today, Ferch is a widely published writer, working as Shann Ray. He lives in Spokane and teaches at Gonzaga, among other schools. I discovered Shann Ray today because online I found an interview he conducted with fellow Spokane writer Sharma Shields in which she discusses The Cassandra. It's been fun for me over the last couple of weeks or so to discover one Spokane writer after another and to start reading them.
3. Last night I made a dish combining tempeh, tofu, polenta, and vegetables. Tonight I had leftovers and warmed them up and I took pork and ginger dumplings from Trader Joe's out of the freezer, steamed them, and enjoyed how deliciously they paired with the food I made last night.
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