I am in the countryside helping a friend. What a blessing to leave the city. I left the mental health housing. With my contacting disability advocacy groups and having my therapist not want to discuss me with them they gave up. I am letting go of the fact that the doctor wont write my diagnosis to move me. My intuition is getting stronger, and I believe that the doctor thinks that I need to be punished for being an artist and not having a professional job. This is the third time that a woman with the same race but different ethnicities have been unprofessional towards where I strongly believe that they are not O.K. with me and my “public” life.
I am catching up on sleep and peace. I again want to leave the city for at least a while. So I want to put up a post about books that influenced me positively.
On the Disneyfication of American culture; This doesn’t seem like anything to do with what I have been writing about………
By reading these books I have learned about fantasy, escapism, and desire that is embedded in our American culture. These books steered me away from materialism. Yes I want and buy things, but I keep my purchases in check, and am a proponent of simple living. By living simply and curbing my wants, I have more peace of mind to accomplish things.
I highly recommend “The Empire’s Old Clothes” by Ariel Dorfman and “Touch Magic” by Jane Yolen. Both Dofman and Yolen approach how we are indoctrined to living in Lala land since children. For simple living+environmentalism information I very much urge you to live “Promise Ahead” by Duane Elgrin.
For being an artist, I recommend “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, and “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. Both are writers. Even if your art discipline is not writing, and you want to make work that is published, exhibited, produced, supported, and curated, read these. There are no art exercises or step by step projects, but advice on having an art practice.
Finally, read Ken Wilber’s “Boomeritis”. I know I know it’s strangely written, but why not read something that he wrote in accessible language? This book helped me be discerning about who to believe in. “New Age”, “Spirituality”, and “Esoteric” things need not be so if the culture these days were not so gross materialistic. I am told by people who are the real deal that the New Age is the Old Age there is nothing new in timeless things. In “Boomeritis”, Wilber explains how New Age experiences are fodder to feed narcissism.
Which reminds me “the Culture of Narcissism” by Christopher Lasche is something I would like to reread in times like this (its March 16, 2015 as of this writing). I read this in the 1990’s where I was like, “whoah” Christopher Lasche is deceased. I wounder what he would say about American culture today.
Other books:
“Adventures in Hyperreality” by Ymberto Eco, “Famine” by Liam O’Flaherty (talk about people benefiting off of poverty), Anything by Walter Tevis and Ursula Le Guin, and last month I read my first Octavia Butler book, but anything by her.
So many more, but these are books that so very much shaped me, and am grateful I came across.
napoleonisweeping 