Saturday, November 16, 2013

Ulaanbaatar

A beautifully written short memoir from Ariel Levy in the New Yorker. I won't spoil it for you, but here's a sentence:
Sometimes, when I think about it, I still feel a dark hurt from some primal part of myself, and if I’m alone in my apartment when this happens I will hear myself making sounds that I never made before I went to Mongolia.
Levy (right) married Amy Norquist (left) in 2007:

16 comments:

  1. Read that. Depressing. Her misfortune seemed potentially avoidable.

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  2. What a loser. What sort of woman is so self-absorbed that she thinks she can travel to the middle of nowhere late in her turkey baster pregnancy. I've been reading this sort of tripe since the sixties and I'm not sure where you get the idea that this sort of thing is in any way beautiful writing. It's the height of egotistic feministic hubris. Well she paid the price and I hope this incident haunts her to her dying days.


    I just read the wedding article. What a metrosexual creep she is and with that anorexic body and her sexual perversion no wonder she can't have children.

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  3. Richard Seiter12:08 PM

    Harsh. I think it is both beautiful writing and "egotistic feministic hubris", but most of all I think it was poor judgment (and is deeply sad). Translating "OK to fly until the third trimester" to "Let's take an extended trip to Mongolia on a whim" seems ill-conceived (but no one will ever know if it contributed to what happened or not). The "me me me" sentiment was overwhelming, but I think some of the most powerful writing is first person and can tend to that (accurately conveying something deeply personal).

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  4. Bobdisqus2:13 PM

    Steve, are you getting some kind of PC pressure? These last two do not seem to connect to the usual topics here. They seem tossed out in sort of a see I know and love the good people too sort of way.

    Perhaps that is too harsh and this is just odd Steve interest like the Lana Del Ray one.

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  5. Did you not notice I voted twice for Obama?

    In my opinion Levy is a talented writer (I don't care about her lifestyle choices) and Berkeley is one of the greatest universities in the world, with a tradition that inspires great pride. Lawrence, Oppenheimer, Kerr, Savio and Birgeneau can all be counted among the illustrious sons of California.

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  6. David Coughlin3:09 PM

    I think you only got half the story. The other half was the story of regret because of that hubris.

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  7. You are forgetting Glenn Seaborg and Edward Teller! My avatar does not. :-)

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  8. You forgot to include Glenn Seaborg and Edward Teller! Fortunately my avatar does not.

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  9. Diogenes8:56 PM

    oregonlocal has surpassed me in negativity. just wait 40 years.

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  10. Diogenes9:08 PM

    wait a second. are those two girls?

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  11. Bobdisqus9:20 PM

    Steve,



    I never suspected you had any confusion about which side your bread was buttered on, and it is not like the Republicans put out choices that were that compelling. No one holds those votes against you. There is no shame in voting ones pocket book.

    You indicated it was her talent not her lifestyle choices that you appreciate; however it seems from the sample that she felt it important to put her lifestyle on display. It is a sad story and like music these types of things are personal as to what resonates.

    As for the eminent list from Berkeley past no one would dispute it, yet that is not all it has come to represent is it? Berkeley pre-60s and post-60s are not quite the same thing. Post 60s Berkeley I have no doubt has many outstanding programs loaded with great faculty and students as well. This is not what it is most known for and when used in a conversation what it has come to represent or what seems represented in the clips you linked.

    It is your blog of course you should include anything that catches your interest. I find value here or I would not bother viewing. I didn't see the thread you felt tied them to your exhibited interest so the question seemed reasonable to me. I did note there were other explanations possible.

    OL,
    You do not suggest that the world view Berkeley has come to represent is the same one the man that gave us this quote held:
    "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

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  12. Diogenes11:02 PM

    more of these lesbo marriages will end in "divorce", because more of them will meet guys. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNTV8A3i8TE

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  13. Ok she got miscarriage cause she was too damn old .Then I see this picture and think oh well at least she married before 40. Turns out that its a lesbo marriage and that "guy" is actually a dyke. I kinda feel sad cause she is clearly not a dumb person and she could have had nice healthy children from a smart Jewish scientist or a banker

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  14. "I never suspected you had any confusion about which side your bread was buttered on"

    Indeed, with few exceptions government workers vote Democrat.

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  15. "oregonlocal has surpassed me in negativity, but he has a 40 year head start."


    With age comes wisdom, Grasshopper.

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  16. LondonYoung6:12 PM

    I'm with David. I think the beauty is a deep questioning - which is obviously unresolved in the memoir. Of course, I may be imagining it.

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