The Audacity of Hope

I've always wanted to read Obama's book The Audacity of Hope. The curiosity began from the book title. Oh, it was REALLY hard to turn pages, and I don't know when I finish reading it. It just should have been on my book list to read. 


"with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God ... To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope ... that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting." -Jeremiah Wright


Hope / George Frederic Watts

Dead Poets Society

I've wondered why the title is "Dead Poets Society."

Keating says "The name simply referred to the fact, that to join the organization, you had to be dead. Full membership required a lifetime of apprenticeship. The living were simply pledges.

Their real goal in studying poetry is to study beauty and life. You cannot be an expert in life until you've lived all of it, therefore full membership involves finishing life (being dead). It also indicates that the apprentices were focused on learning, not merely socializing aimlessly. By Chris from Yahoo Answers

It's a little apart from the title, but it also reminds me of a British dead poet and my college literature class. You can sometimes draw people's attention and gain popularity after your premature death like John Keats received. I was lucky to lament his loss right in the room-turned-into-museum in Rome where his deathbed had existed. I've always wanted to go there since I first got to know about the young poet and his poems from the English lit class in the freshman year of college.

I'm fond of this book because there are several poetry excerpts shown, and below is my favorite:

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.

I've finally bought a copy of Walden. Walden is a thick book and I don't know when I can finish it. It's a new goal worth challenging enough. Some day I will surely go to Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. It's only a site, but on the day when I stand there I have to evaluate that I have lived well.

Perfume, the Story of a Murderer (Patrick Suskind)

The title didn't attract me at all. I rather disliked reading it since I don't know why, but it reminded me of luxury goods. Up until a few chapters, I had trouble understanding the story. Basically it's a translated book and the author uses many lengthy and descriptive sentences. I couldn't stand it. But I have a habit: once I start a book, I have to finish it. In the end, I was fascinated by the author's creative genius. 

I especially liked the following part. It shows the protagonist Grenouille's  abominable obsession with scent. Such a mad man! A soulless serial killer! 

It's not murder, but a part of his quest for making perfect scent. 

No pity or carnal desire involved in the process of homicides.  

It is depicted as if a talented master completes his/her work with every ounce of energy.

He did not cast a single glance at the bed to rest his eyes on her at least once in his life. Her form did not interest him. She no longer existed for him as a body, but only as a disembodied scent.

그의 인생에서 최소한 한번만이라도 그녀의 모습을 눈으로 보기 위해서, 그는 그녀의 침대쪽으로 눈길 한번 보내지 않았다. 그녀의 모습에 그는 아무런 흥미도 느끼지 못했다. 그녀의 모습은 그에게 더 이상 육체로 존재하는 것이 아니라 단지 육체 없는 향기일 뿐이다.

Antoine Watteau / Jupiter and Antiope

Ode to youth (Sungkyunkwan Scandal 2010)

Memorable quotes from Sungkyukwan Scandal

It's not a poem if it neither loves the people nor concerns about the land.
It's not a poem if it neither laments the times nor resents worldly issues.
It's not a poem if it neither promotes good nor keeps vigilant against evil.
백성을 사랑하고 나라를 근심하지 않으면 시가 아니다.
시대를 아파하고 세속에 분개하지 않으면 시가 아니다.
선을 권장하고 악을 경계하는 뜻이 없으면 그 또한 시가 아니다.

I will remember the days here for a very long time.
We will no longer be together after graduating from Sungkyukwan.
I will never forget!
The worries,  fear, and joy we have shared.
And the friends around me all the time.
With these memories I might be able to live as a better person.
So please remember this:
If  a day comes when you have to make a hard decision like you did  today,
There was a person who believed you more.
난.. 지금 이 순간을 아주 오랫동안 기억할 것이오.
이 다음에 우리가 성균관을 나가서 더는... 함께 할 수 없겠지만..
그래도 기억해야지!
지금 우리가 했던 고민들, 지금 우리가 느낀 두려움, 기뻤던 순간들.
아- 그리고 언제나 함께였던 동방생들 모두-
그럼 어쩌면 조금 더 좋은 사람으로 살 수 있을 것 같거든.
그러니 기억해주겠소.
언젠가 오늘처럼 힘든 결정을 해야 할 날이 오거든
한번쯤 내 자신보다 더 이선준을 믿었던 누군가가 있었다는 걸..



No way! Stay close to me forever like you do now.
Behold me whether I keep going in the right direction.
I will be able to remember the days here by looking at you beside me.
Always stand right next to me like now.
싫다! 언제가 됐든 이렇게 지금처럼 내 옆에 있어라.
두 눈 똑바로 뜨고 지켜봐. 내가 끝까지 잘 가고 있는지.
그래야 나도 널 보면서 오늘을 기억할 테니까.
그러니까 김윤식, 너.. 계속 내 옆에 이렇게 있는 거다.



Dad, what a wonderful thing it is.
To meet good friends and achieve together what we wish to do.
I have gone through the hopes I can not learn from books.
참 좋은 것이더군요, 아버지.
좋은 벗들을 만나 함께 마음을 나누고 뜻을 이루어가는 일은.
책에선 만나지 못한 희망의 얼굴을 저는 보았습니다.

Anne of Green Gables (The Beginning of a big dream))

Anne in the picture above is so characteristic of herself. Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this? Anne, do you know I've wanted to be like you so long? I emulate you.

A flood of cheery sunshine was pouring and outside of which something white and feathery waved across glimpses of blue sky. The grass was all sprinkled with dandelions. In the garden below were lilac trees purple with flowers, and their dizzily sweet fragrance drifted up to the window on the morning wind. 

Below the garden a green field lush with clover sloped down to the hollow where the brook ran and where scores of white birches grew.

I'll not be able to help loving it. I want to go out so much--everything seems to be calling to me, 'Anne, Anne, come out to us.'  

   

The path with birch trees lined up where Anne falls into daydreams. Even I can dream away if I were in a place like this. I cherish the similar scenery I saw when I visited Hamilton, NY back in September 2006. Colgate University has a beautiful campus. At the end of a winding road is there a chapel with a secluded forest behind. It looks like a good meditative place. The most fabulous spot was around a wooden bench under the white-grayish tree trunks.

I've always wanted to read well-known books in their original English version. I finally started it with Anne of Green Gables. People say the first step is the hardest and well begun is half done. That's true.
Anyway I ordered the book on line with several other books at once. Yes, I'm greedy. I want to be greedy when it comes to books :-) I happily opened Anne. Ta da~!
Well, it took quite a longer time than I expected to finish it. It was when I was in the US and I didn't want to waste my conversational opportunities while staying indoors reading a book. 

Oh, Mr. Cuthbert, that way we came through--that white place--what was it? Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. It made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. I have it lots of times--whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn't call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it--let me see--the White Way of Delight. Is that a nice imaginative name?