Curious Pursuits by Margaret Atwood

A grab-bag of occasional pieces; priceless collection of essays, reviews, speeches and some obituaries by Margaret Atwood, divided into three parts; was 24 of 2020. We might have had no clue about the people , books and incidents that the author is writing about, nevertheless we will enjoy it to the core. Her writing style is easy flowing; at times we feel she is talking to us, or writing this as a letter to us. “Why is this book called Curious Pursuits? ‘Curious’ describes both my habitual state of mind – a less kind word would be ‘nosy’ – as well as the subject matter of some of these writings…….’Passionate’ might have been more accurate; however, it would have given a wrong impression, and disappointed a few men in raincoats. As for 'pursuits', it's a noun that contains a verb. What can you ever do with reality but chase it around? You can't expect to capture it in any final way, because the thing keeps moving. ” Part One covers 1970-1989; part two covers 1990-1999 and part three covers 2000-2005 and includes politics.

“I don’t review books I don’t like, although to do so would doubtless be amusing for the Ms Hyde side of me and entertaining for the more malicious class of reader. But either the book is really bad, in which case no one should review it, or it’s good but not my cup of tea, in which case someone else should review it.” Well this is just the beginning,

Some inspiring thoughts are -
1) How wrong we were about the brave new world, we were about to enter. (Introduction) "I don't review books I don't like, although to do so would doubtless be amusing for the Ms Hyde side of me and entertaining for the more maicious class of reader. But either the book is really bad, in which case no one should review it, or it's good but not my cup of tea, in which case someone else should review it."
2) Judgement and connections comes from inside and that's pretty much writing, an exploration of where I live. Exploiting resources and developing potentials are two different things, one is done from without may be with money; the other from withing, by something we called love. (Travels Back)
3) Words are purpose, words are map.(Review of Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich)
4) Men and women to take turns and be human, Women are neither angel nor evils. (The curse of Eve)
5) Two qualities needed to be a writer are cloak of invisibility to follow people and listen to what they are saying and ability to teleport to somebody else's mind. (Writing the Male Character - This is a chapter to be re read when you feel life is too much)
6) Utopia, a book I had been trying to get hold of since quite some time but was unable to - but loved reading about it here, which increased my quest to read Sir Thomas More's original. She also describes about Dystopia full of tyranny, while the actual world is neither of these but somewhere in between - so her novel .
7) Writing should have economic force, public events, personal details, geology, cultural refrence. It is out of such individual particulars that fiction is constructed, so is autobiography. (In search of Alias Grace: On writing Canadian Historical Fiction). 17th Century revolved around faith, 18th century around knowledge, 19th century memory. Nostalgia for what once was, guilt for what you once did, revenge for what someon else once did to you, regret for what you once might have done, but did'nt do - how certain they are of the previous century, and how depended, each of of them is on the idea of memory.
8) "But no one succumbs to a temptation they find unattractive. What is it, this compulsion to scrawl things on blank pages? Why this boundless outflowing of words? What drives us to it? Is writing some sort of disease, or - being speech in visual form - is it simply a manifestation of being human! (Introduction 2000-2005)"
9) Reverberating silences - Pinteresque.
10) Curiosity is their driving force, vengeance is their goal (Introduction to she)
11) Some books have to wait until you're ready for them. So much, in reading, is a matter of luck. And what luck I'd just had! (Or so I muttered to myself, putting on my floppy old hat, going out to fool around in my unfathomable garden.....)
12) Who knows, if there is going to be an endemic, alongside or at the end of the present Pandamic, it's important that people realise the importance of victory gardens. Was reading about how victory gardens were promoted during 2nd world war and situation now is no different. This is aikin to a third world war. Some mortifications are after all self-inflicted. Tomorrow is another mortification. Life has become so unpredictable, all we have to do is just be nice.

To Quote Poet George Meredith:
.....In tragic life, God with,
No Villain need be! Passion spin the plot;
We are betrayed by what is false within.

13)Gardens are educational, teaching as they do many lessons. Food grow in the ground, not in supermarkets: air, soil, sun and water are the four necessary ingredients, today's children need this skill.
14) God is'nt finished with us yet, because these things are sent to try us. Where there is blushing, there is life! - Mortification (great embarrassment and shame.- "they mistook my mortification for an admission of guilt")
15) What if we continue down the road we're already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who's got the will to stop us?
16) Favorite books are 1984 by Goerge Orwell and Wuthering Heights.
17)The toursit is part of the landscape of our times, as the pilgrim was in the Middle Age.
18) There are those who despise us for writing the news before it happens....Quite a few things happen only because we'we written them up first. I am because I narrate.
19)Ten ways of looking at 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' by H.G, Wells- Elios and Morlocks, signs of the times, scientific, Romance, The Enchanted Island, The unholy trinity, The new woman as catwoman, The whiteness of Moreau, the blackness of M'ling, The modern ancient mariner, Fear and Trembling.
20)
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and samll;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.