De dagen van dit ‘Jaar van de aap’ ademen een bepaalde onrust. Of Smith nu in Portugal of België verblijft, in Australië of de Verenigde Staten, ze is niet echt bezig met zichzelf. Zeventig, so what. Ze is meer op anderen en op de wereld gericht. Het zijn in het bijzonder haar goede vrienden (producer) Sandy Pearlman en (toneelschrijver/acteur) Sam Shepard die het jaar beheersen. Allebei zijn ze ernstig ziek, om niet te zeggen stervende. “Iedereen gaat dood,” had hij [Sam Shepard] gezegd, kijkend naar de handen die langzaam hun kracht verloren, ‘hoewel ik dit nooit had zien aankomen. Maar ik heb er vrede mee. Ik heb mijn leven geleid zoals ik dat wilde.”

Kudos to Arthur Waley for somehow reducing this 100-chapter classic of ancient Chinese literature into a 30-chapter abridgment that makes sense. Certainly many hard choices were made along the way. There is almost none of the florid court poetry that the original has in abundance, and many fun adventures wound up on the cutting room floor, but what remains captures the spirit, humor, suspense, and moral lessons of Wu Cheng'en's "Xi You Ji" (Journey to the West). Copying directly from Wendy - sorry, Wendy, it's just that it was really interesting: The most popular, though much-abridged version (in translation anyway?) is Monkey: The Journey to the West. I did some research and have decided on this non-abridged version instead: The Journey to the West, Volume 1 and just take it on one volume at a time.The Monkey" is a short story by Stephen King, first published as a booklet included in Gallery magazine in 1980. It was significantly revised and published in King's collection Skeleton Crew in 1985. Ji, Hao (2016). "A Comparative Study of Two Major English Translations of the Journey to the West: Monkey and The Monkey and the Monk". Journal of Chinese Humanities. Leiden: Brill. 2 (1): 77–97. doi: 10.1163/23521341-12340027. Full Access The other thing is the anxiety of knowing that you need to keep an eye on someone else's monkey to make sure they know it's their monkey. Following the concepts in this book, I feel a lot more comfortable asking my coworkers to set clear expectations about whose monkey is whose. If I'm not entirely comfortable telling them it's their monkey (or it could be either of ours) I go with "Okay, so we agree this is what needs to happen next? Can I assign that to you?" Because we share so many responsibilities interchangeably, I need to know who is taking the damn monkey and what they intend to do with it. His work as an editor includes Emmy-nominated episodes of Who Is America?, Veep, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Recently he co-produced and edited the docu-series The Comedy Store, and currently he is editing The White House Plumbers. Year of the Monkey, on the other hand, is something much darker, and unintentionally so - a deep dive into the mindset of a rich, famous artist as they ward off the outside world with purple prose, self-serving games, and straightfoward denial. In her fantastical retelling of 2016, she playacts at the threadbare bohemian she used to be, her life a series of grimy diners and tough old friends, knit together with increasingly empty references to other books, and imaginary poor people who flit into her life like magical sprites full of wisdom.

it’s very obvious that she draws inspiration from the beat generation (if the absolutely random mention of burroughs “accidentally” killing his wife wasn’t enough of a clue) her cadence and constant allusions to pop culture feel very reminiscent of allen ginsberg. this convinced me to read alongside the audiobook (and reread howl) which helped digest her writing style a bit more. Somewhere around the middle Monkey gets religion, albeit one with a lot of latitude for, excuse me, Monkey-shines. With his friends , including a converted demon, Pigsy ( yup a magic pig) they go on a classic, or not quite so classic pilgrimage, from the emperor of China into very far away India to collect Buddhist holy books. stars. What a classic! I’m on a mission to read the four great classics of China and this is the first one I’ve attempted, for good reason. Extra star for being old and amusing. Yes, a little outdated. But the concepts stand. I'm not sure everyone gets the same lessons from this book. To me, this book isn't actually about delegating. It's about setting clear expectations as to the next step needed so that you don't have a thousand half problems waiting on your input or someone else's. I'm not in a management position, but this does help me to get what I want out of my manager, and helps me not to overwhelm my manager. The management perspective in this book can be a little condescending, but it was written for managers so that's a likely perspective for me to have. The literary scholar Andrew H. Plaks said Waley not only shortened the work, but "through its selection of episodes gave rise to the misleading impression that this is essentially a compendium of popular materials marked by folk wit and humor." In this, Waley followed an interpretation from earlier in the century by the scholar Hu Shih, who wrote an introduction to the 1943 edition of Waley's book. Hu scorned the allegorical interpretations of the novel as old-fashioned and instead insisted that the stories were simply comic. Hu Shih reflected the popular reading of the novel, but he did not account for the levels of meaning and allegorical framework that scholars considered to be an important part. [6]On the contrary, he is generally against them, and sometimes with immense violence. Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands." Her writing is beautiful- this is a gorgeous memoir - a mixture of fact and fiction —(with a funny ‘true’ story at the beginnings about vomit in her boots at ‘The Fillmore’ in S.F.). Even when writing about foundational or tangental topics, Roger keeps things engaging as he draws on his personal experiences and those of comedy legends who weigh in or illustrate the main points with stories and cautionary tales. Ensure each task (monkey) is assigned to the lowest person on the chain that can do it (not in a bad way, but in a way that gives people personal responsibility so they’re less dependent on you). The Fillmore was a very scary place for me, the one time I went in the 60s, only a junior in high school. Scary, filthy, smelly (pot smoke everywhere) …..

But it's that sense of who you are now haunted by the self you'd been which moved me. It recurs throughout the book, often in relation to the people who she is losing, who knew her when they were both young, and now. Everything that worked in Just Kids' favor now falls flat. What once could be accepted as the endearing bohemian quirks of a poor, struggling artist, now read as the eccentricities of an aging spinster who, despite her fame and fortune, is still trying to hold on to a different time. Her prose might still exhibit some sparks of introspective beauty every once in a while, but most of the time it feels somewhat contrived, if not exactly insincere. Then, other times, it just reads like gibberish. Recognizable reality is woven into Patti's own world of dreams and visions, where fact and fiction blend together in poetry, and I was often torn between wishing I could see things as she does, and thinking that a weird, babbly sort of senility must've caught up with her at last. I had the distinct impression that her mind seemed to aimlessly wander more than it used to when I last saw her live (in the Year of the Goat, the year before the one this memoir concerns itself with), and I can see it reflected in her writing, too. It's a harsh thing, seeing one's heroes grow old. Der Leser bleibt lange im unklaren darüber, was mit dem Affen eigentlich ist. Man weiß nur, dass Hal Angst vor ihm hat, aber was passiert ist, erfährt man erst spät.But the problem is often a misfiring setup, which has not been presented well, cleanly, clearly, and/or concisely. The book is poignantly illustrated by the spare little Polaroid photos she takes, which remind me of old sepia toned pictures.