Jonathan Carroll's Blog, page 59

CarrollBlog 3.4

"Sprezzatura. This is an archaic Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort. It's a combination of elan and grace and class, sort of the opposite of loud grunts while you play tennis or a lot of whining and fuss when you help out a customer.

"Many people are unable to put their finger on it, but this is a magnetic trait for many of us. We want our lawyer, dentist and waiter to demonstrate sprezzatura, but of course, not particularly try to. This is one of...

CarrollBlog 3.3

"Felice believed it is almost always something small or unexpected that ends a relationship. In general the hammer blow does not come from things like finding out your partner has been unfaithful or because they become unbearable behind closed doors. Those discoveries may knock you to your knees, but it is actually seeing the secret snapshot of your partner together with the other person, both of them looking so happy, so completely stoned on love or sex, that finishes it. Or the slight...

CarrollBlog 3.2

We spend our lives learning how to rationalize our imperfect behavior, but let me tell you something: It all boils down to the three sizes of guilt.

When it's small, we can slip it into our pocket and not think about it for the rest of the day. Didn't do your exercises? Or write that letter to your mother? Make the phone call? Fix the nice soup for the family you had planned? Screw it--the day was hard enough and you did enough.

Medium-sized guilt doesn't fit into the pocket and must be...

CarrollBlog 3.1

A smart ass book collector-friend sent me an entry they'd noticed in a rare book catalog. The dealer was selling one of my early novels autographed and charging an obscenely expensive price. Why? Because I'm dead. Part of the catalog description reads, "Carroll lived in Europe in the 1980's and wrote three novels. He returned to the US and died a few years later." I wonder what this dealer thinks when he sees or tries to explain how Carroll has published thirteen new books since he died...

CarrollBlog 2.28

The French novelist Marcel Proust believed that people must know and understand themselves before they can know or understand others. He developed a list of subjective questions that he felt would help reveal to people their true selves and the inner personalities of those around them.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT?

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL HERO?

WHO ARE YOUR REAL-LIFE...

CarrollBlog 2.27

When I was seventeen, my father was invited to Japan to collaborate on a screenplay with the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. My mother and I accompanied him. It was a crazy, once in a lifetime trip. Kurosawa was considered a god in Japan for having made such classic films as THE SEVEN SAMURAI, THRONE OF BLOOD, RASHOMON, and others. Because he had specifically asked my father to co-write his first Western film, we were treated like mini-gods.

Kurosawa's son was my age and a member...

CarrollBlog 2.26

Everyone has their "that was the most embarrassing moment of my life" story. Here's a great one I heard recently:

A woman was teaching a literature course at an American university. It was a tough assignment because the majority of her students were planning on careers in math and science. The only reason why the majority of them had signed up for her course was to fulfill an academic requirement. She said they were very smart kids who simply weren't interested in reading or talking about...

CarrollBlog 2.25

The Loneliest Job in the World

by Tony Hoagland

As soon as you begin to ask the question, Who loves me?

you are completely screwed, because

the next question is How Much?

and then it is hundreds of hours later,

and you are still hunched over

your flowcharts and abacus,

trying to decide if you have gotten enough.

This is the loneliest job in the world:

to be an accountant of the heart.

It is late at night. You are by yourself,

and all around you, you can hear

the sounds of...

CarrollBlog 2.24

I knew a guy who owned a moving van. One of those 16 wheel monsters, this was back in the 70's when trucks were trucks and unlike the automatic transmission models of today, it had so many gears that a driver spent most of his time shifting through them when he was driving in town.Once I asked this man if I could drive it and he said sure. My first mistake came within thirty seconds of sliding behind the wheel. After turning on the ignition, I put the transmission in first gear. Sitting in...

CarrollBlog 2.23

When they were drinking they often played 'what if' games with each other. What if you inherited a lot of money? What if you could change one thing about yourself. What if you could fix one mistake you made in the past. Tonight his brother started off with, "What if you could have sex again with any of your past lovers. Who would it be and why?" For some reason the question immediately disturbed him. Although he came up with some febrile facile answer to keep the banter and playful mood...