Idiots

It's actually been a while since I've ridden the bus, due to breaking my ankle and not being able to walk to the bus stop. I'm back now,at least occasionally.

Reading The Idiot has been predictably slow. Myshkin's just gotten off the train. He talked a lot more to his fellow passengers than I do. The bus driver today is loud, yapping at some kid slouched in a seat five rows from the front. I'm trying to read, but phrases are pushed into my ears: steel cage death match, conjugal visits, butter knife. I wonder if I could construct a monologue out of those phrases. Probably, but it would make as much sense as I'm sure the bus driver is making.

I should point out that this is a later bus. The usual, early morning, driver says nothing. I tried to talk to him once, and he grunted his answers. He barely looks at passengers as they board.

What's he up to?????

Riding through the muddy streets of late March brings to mind -- Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. I loved the language in this book, the late 19th C. idioms: riding "the car" (meaning train of trolley) and working for a good "house" -- by George! It was cool to see Chicago being laid out, the suburb where I grew up being much further west than the open countryside Chicagoans would ride out to to get away from the city. And Carrie of course - a gutty girl, and what kind of guts did Dreiser have, placing his main character in his first novel in a series of "sinful" relationships. I imagine this would have been scandalous enough, in 1900, were the main character male. Character, plot, language - I loved everything about this book.

The mud in the streets of Omaha, BTW, is caused mainly by the construction of a mammoth shopping area where the racetrack used to be. I guess 69th and Center is forever meant to be a place to waste money.