Why we read
Jan. 6th, 2004 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonant"The recycling bins have to go out tonight," I say to the spouse as he prepares to go back to work after dinner.
We've got a windchill of twenty below here, and on the ground there's about two inches of snow with a half-inch of ice on top. There's no actual sidewalk down to the alley where our recycling gets picked up; you have to slither down a small hill carrying a box the size of a coffin cut in half the short way, which has been laden with old newspapers, and then come back for an identical box filled with plastic, glass, and metal..
"Well," I say to him, "you can pretend that you're in a Siberian work camp."
His eyes light up! He flings his scarf over one shoulder with a theatrical flair and says, in what I assume is meant to be a Russian accent, "Ivan, I do not believe in God, but I shall suffer and perhaps then I shall understand!" And then he staggers off into the snow with two weeks' worth of newspapers and empty milk jugs.
Remember that when someone asks you, "What's the practical use of reading literature?"
We've got a windchill of twenty below here, and on the ground there's about two inches of snow with a half-inch of ice on top. There's no actual sidewalk down to the alley where our recycling gets picked up; you have to slither down a small hill carrying a box the size of a coffin cut in half the short way, which has been laden with old newspapers, and then come back for an identical box filled with plastic, glass, and metal..
"Well," I say to him, "you can pretend that you're in a Siberian work camp."
His eyes light up! He flings his scarf over one shoulder with a theatrical flair and says, in what I assume is meant to be a Russian accent, "Ivan, I do not believe in God, but I shall suffer and perhaps then I shall understand!" And then he staggers off into the snow with two weeks' worth of newspapers and empty milk jugs.
Remember that when someone asks you, "What's the practical use of reading literature?"
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(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 06:44 pm (UTC)That's remarkably clever. Hee. And yeesh, how sweet!
Um, btw, hi! My name's TimIan. I'm a big fan of your TS fic and have thus friended you. :)
(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 06:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 06:49 pm (UTC)Funny Husbands
Date: 1/7/04 07:05 am (UTC)"He makes me laugh."
Coming up on ten years together now and mine still makes me laugh.
Re: Funny Husbands
Date: 1/7/04 07:35 am (UTC)Re: Funny Husbands
Date: 1/7/04 08:37 am (UTC)And anyone who married for money or politcal power, sigh, gets what they asked for.
I adore your icon, by the way.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 07:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 07:19 pm (UTC)Sounds like you found one of the good ones!
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 07:57 pm (UTC)Thanks, I needed that.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 07:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 08:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 08:15 pm (UTC)Oh, yeah. I'm the one who takes out the garbage.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/04 09:58 pm (UTC)Actually, it's about 15 below here but we don't have separate recycling bins, especially in Siberia :) We still aren't that concerned about ecology - too big a country and too many more urgent problems, I suppose.
(no subject)
Date: 1/7/04 03:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/7/04 06:41 am (UTC)Mer
(no subject)
Date: 1/7/04 07:59 am (UTC)And really, isn't everything better when you can pretend you're in a Siberian work camp? Or an orphanage? Or a derelict space station? Or you can pretend you're a detective undercover as a maid? Or that you're a crime scene technician, and when you're through vacuuming you're going to go through the bag for fiber evidence?
...or maybe that's just me.
(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:54 am (UTC)I confess that sometimes when I'm dusting I pretend to be a tornado.
(no subject)
Date: 1/13/04 02:24 pm (UTC)And tents too, of course. I also lived in my closet for a month or two when I was little, just because it was small and cozy and den-like.
(no subject)
Date: 1/7/04 08:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/7/04 08:43 am (UTC)How Cool!
Date: 1/7/04 11:32 am (UTC)And I'm one of those who chose the "makes me laugh" model too, although he's really more in the category of "not bored yet" (after 9+ years, I think that's pretty good).
(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:56 am (UTC)I did read the book, but evidently the spouse is living in it.
argh, second try
Date: 1/12/04 10:55 am (UTC)Just wanted to say thanks for id'ing the quote. I feel much better knowing it was from a book read almost 15 years ago. Shew.
Also wanted to say that I too married someone that fits me quite well and I had to laugh at some of the comments because I think that we also saved a few people the trauma of being married to a wacko:) How many people can say to a Dominoe's solicitor that 1998 was the last time they ordered out pizza?
A day in the life of Ivan Loquitervich...
Date: 1/8/04 01:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 08:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/9/04 12:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/6/05 03:35 pm (UTC)