A Goodly Dinner

I've been thinking of that word all week: goodly. It's rather out of use now, isn't it? But there is no other word that so entirely sums up a dinner of cake. 

         I made a trip to the library on Monday. As you can see, amongst The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (a anthropologist's study of Japanese culture) and Daughter of the Samurai

 (an autobiography), is a complete collection of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories. A little dash of murder to lighten up the mood.  Of course, I went right off and finished Miss Marple before properly starting the other books. I'm counting it as 'cultural studies' too. Not of Japan, but of America and England. I had never read a Christie before, but I've grown up hearing about them. Miss Marple is certainly less vain than Sherlock Holmes, who is my standard for every mystery, and she solves cases with a great deal of talk about human nature. Sherlock Holmes prefers rationale deductions, rather than psychological factors. In fact, I think most of the cases he botched were foiled by a disregard to the human element. Now I wish I hadn't left his complete anthology at my parents house, I'm interested to see if this theory rings true.

T.S. Elliot; his lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock are still going through my head. "the women come and go/ talking of Michelangelo." I had the undecided pleasure of listening to an old recording of that poem today, and a decidedly delightful opportunity to have it, slightly, explained. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone? The last time you discoursed with actual thought, and with an intention other than to just be heard or admired? Don't we often talk "Michelangelo?" Fashionable thoughts, recycled from previous chats, and totally irrelevant to anything in our lives........ 

Authors Note: In case you think that Miss Marple can have nothing to do with Japan - Click Here