Mysterioso

Mystery literature can be addictive, feeding the puzzle-solving nature. Some people do not have this. They turn straight to the end of the book to see what happens, and then decide whether to read the whole thing. They don't have this particular addiction. Others, well... you'll just have to wait to see where I'm going with this.

Obtuseness is not a substitute for mystery. The inability to make a clear point may be a valuable asset for some types of careers, but writing mysteries is not one of them. Keeping that point well hidden is critical, but eventually it needs to be brought out clearly into the open. A mystery without a solution is, well...

Pointless art is an artform in itself. I put John Cage's rendition of silence at the keyboard in this category. Well, maybe not, since it forces an initially awkward listening to ambient noises which otherwise would get filtered or at least little attention. In one performance, the doors at the back of the concert hall were open and it began to rain outside.

The Wandering Mind is a good name for a boat. It's a good name for a boat which serves as the anchor in a mystery, a sunken boat within a watery mystery story. This suggests a structure where the end is presented first without explanation and the rest of the story leads up to that point. This hopefully gives those without the puzzle-solving addiction some relief, although if they blindly turn to the end, it could be confusing.

I picked up a beginner Greek course on CD two nights ago, and installed it today. Peter and I have had some fun listening to Greek learning tapes, and I wanted to keep it going. Part of this is no doubt related to puzzle solving, which like usual can be taken to extremes. But Greek has good value in understanding words in English, such as triskaidekaphobia, which I see is on Peter's school lunch calendar for today.

Greek was used in one of the oldest boat stories around, Homer's Odyssey. Which is hardly a mystery, and isn't really about the boats, which I think got burned at one point. But it did serve as an odd reference for James Joyce's Ulysses, which I've heard took ten years to write and then oh hit the floor and out he went for walking to the docks but she was not there. You get the idea.

Mystery is where you find it...eventually.