take the rope to my heart and fall

i just started reading a short story by tomson highway called "hearts and flowers." all i have read so far is the "contributor's note" and the first few paragraphs, and i have already developed an awe for the man and his comma lust. for example: "The first is that we, the group of writers whose work you see in these pages, were asked to write a story or an essay for this project based on, or woven around, an important, that is to say, a pivotal, event in the history of Canada's Native people." six in one sentence! i thought that kind of comma use died out after, i don't know, the 17th or 18th century. good on ya, tomson! it's inspiring, really. not as inspiring as the sentences i encountered in 17th century lit, some of which stretched on for 18 (!) lines through the artful use of commas, but impressive nevertheless.

on a similar note: in one of dr. hales' courses, she made some statement about us ("us" referring to myself and my classmates/english lit lovers everywhere/grammar geeks) being "guardians of the language." it seemed romantic (small 'r') and tolkien-esque to me. not that i've ever actually read tolkien, but it seemed to be right up his alley, what with all his "lord of the rings" and "cellar door" musings. anyway, i thought the position of "guardian of the language" a little too ambitious for myself; i don't really care for vocabulary, and i can't tell an adjective from an adverb. but i think i could safely assume the role of "guardian of the apostrophe." this is an important position, especially in light of dr. e's prediction that the apostrophe will "die out" within the next 50 years. i could arm myself with some black paint, and maybe an apostrophe on a long stick, a la lynn truss. i think it's an important and irreplaceable little squiggle, and i'm committed to doing my part to make sure it sticks around.



today two of the puppies that live around here, brothers who are a few months old, were laying around, looking as bored as we felt. a rope was sitting on the table, and i asked ray if he could lasso with it. he said of course he could, so he whistled for the brown puppy to come over, and he put the rope around his head. ray tugged on the rope a bit, but the puppy whimpered, so he let it go. the brown puppy went and laid down on the road, and then his brother, the black puppy, came over and started chewing on the other end of the rope. we laughed, and then we thought it would be funny to tie that end to the black puppy. we did, and then ray pretended to have some meat in a bowl, and the black puppy got up but the brown puppy didn't, and it was cute/funny to watch them be so confused. we laughed a lot, but all the girls here think we're cruel animal haters because of it. whatever. it's not like we tied them together and then forgot about them. i untied them after a few minutes. i think it's way less humane for people to "own" animals and keep them inside as pets and walk them around on ropes and create such a reliance on humans so that the animals can't live on their own. whatever, girls. sigh. and so goes my life in the rupununi.