The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo

The Angel Esmeralda

by Don DeLillo

The level of controlled finesse at work in The Angel Esmeralda is the product of a masterful author who has fully accepted the constraints of short fiction and one capable of utilizing every inch within its conceived boundaries. These stories are achingly good and brilliantly fleeting; Don DeLillo (Point Omega) works with a strict allowance of characters and settings, and with his impeccable meter is able to imbue these meager elements with a novel's strength in the span of just forty or so pages.

Written between 1979 and 2011, the nine pieces in The Angel Esmeralda are short stories at their finest. Each maintains DeLillo's exceptional standards of quality, yet manage to thematically adapt and reflect America's ever-evolving society. And, by compiling these stories chronologically, The Angel Esmeralda gains a new, troubling arc; throughout the collection's nine-step sequence, DeLillo shows not just how far the world's come in thirty years, but how bad things may be getting.

It's oddly fitting that an author with such a well-tempered command would write about those things outside our own realms of influence and control. In "Creation," a couple is endlessly on standby as they try to fly out of a West Indies vacation spot. In 1983's "Human Moments in World War III," a pair of men in a space station quietly orbit the Earth monitoring the military movements on terra firma. Physically and emotionally, these astronauts are miles away from the humanity they once knew. They search quietly for any "human moments" that may still linger within them and reflect on the deadly pace of mankind's recent developments:

 

"We are no longer delicate biological specimens adrift in an alien environment. The enemy can kill us with its photons, its mesons, its charged particles faster than any dusting of micrometeoroids. The emotions have changed."

This change of emotions is the result of a dying world. People have changed and societies have changed, all at the hand of globalization and our endless sprint towards the future. But not all this crumbling is inter-personal: "The Ivory Acrobat" tells of a literal tectonic shift as a woman tries to cope with an influx of earthquakes while living alone in Greece. Already somewhat alienated by the city, she finds she can no longer connect with the once-reliable ground beneath her. As her paranoia grows, she imagines the worst, "that these were not aftershocks at all but warnings of some deep disquiet in the continental trench, the massing of a force that would roll across the marble-hearted city and bring it to dust."

"The Angel Esmeralda" is the story of two nuns trying to help the needy in their impoverished South Bronx community. With little means to make a meaningful difference, their story recedes into the realms of faith and hope as the sisters and their flock try to get by on spirituality alone. When Esmeralda, a young local girl is killed, the community begins to see her face nightly in a mural, under the headlights of each passing elevated train. The sisters struggle with this miracle, uncertain what to believe in. In a breathtaking paragraph, DeLillo describes the conflicting views of Sister Edgar, who seems to want harmony as bad as she wants something real to pray for:

"Edgar was a cold-war nun who'd once lined the walls of her room with aluminum foil as a shield against nuclear fallout from Communist bombs. Not that she didn't think a war might be thrilling. She daydreamed many a domed flash in the film of her skin, tried to conjure the burst even now, with the USSR crumbled alphabetically, the massive letters toppled like Cyrillic statuary."

Growing in step with the imminent doom of today's society, how does one begin to fathom what could genuinely be an act of God, a true angel sighting? The brief, uplifting turn of faith in "The Angel Esmeralda" shines a new kind of light on the other eight stories in DeLillo's collection. What if these stories weren't just about our disintegrating society, but about the human things we cling to in the face of inevitable decomposition? What of the art exhibitions ("Baader-Meinhof") and movie screenings ("The Starveling") we frequent in solitude: could these stave off the decay of progress? It's possible. There's a complex glimmer of hope in each of DeLillo's desolate stories, and it's in these human moments that The Angel Esmeralda achieves its greatest, most resonant success.

Source: http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/The-Angel-Esmeralda-Don-DeLillo.htm?nl=1

THIS VERY TIME OF THE YEAR

     This time of the year is not only about the great feasts delicately prepared by the majority of families. For some, a time to celebrate with people whom are not always together with; others use this period to spend their money in a posh way (on purpose, but I am not criticizing who goes to know another culture or spend some time abroad in a nice companionship); there are also people who prefer to renew their spirits, strength, because they argument: - I will start from scratched next year. I need to unwind.  

     Quite fair, don't you think? Sometimes, we may regret some of the decisions we made in the current year or the time was so short that we were not able to finish everything that was in the pipeline and we count the days to begin 'another life', 'another me' anxiously. Is it really possible? It is all about going on the same life with possibilities of changes. Do you have the eyes to see them? Have you ever taken the chance?

     Of course, one must be aware to realize when those come into someone's life. I tell this because I am the sort of person who lives in the past and the future in a very intensive way, although  it is not only strange to me, but a challenge to turn this upside down. The truth is I took the chance to do different things in my routine and my plan is to have a finger in many pies in 2012, being very successful in all of the 'pies'. Whether the pie is sweet, salty, bitter or sour, there is always learning, nevertheless I root for getting the sweet ones.    

     So, here is an invitation to live this very time of the year. Are you open about it? Actually, we should live more the present moment, because as I have read in a text: it is a present, a gift, so let's use it to plan our goals, to organize the main steps to clinch the deals, being on the ball that living is a fast process and the remote on rewind of life does not work.      

Good luck!

Vocabulary (expressions):

to start from stratched = "to begin from the beginning"

a finger in many pies = to be involved in various businesses

to be on the ball =  to be aware
to clinch the deals = to close deals

JINGLE BELLS

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh,
Over the fields we go,
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bob-tail ring,
making spirits bright,
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight

Oh, Jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

(Repeat chorus)

A day or two ago,
I thought I'd take a ride,
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side;
The horse was lean and lank;
Misfortune seemed his lot;
He got into a drifted bank,
And we, we got up sot.

Oh, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
What fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

(Repeat chorus)

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh,
Over the fields we go,
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bob-tail ring,
making spirits bright,
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight 

Oh, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Angels among us (music)

I was walking home from school on a cold winter day
Took a shortcut through the woods and I lost my way
It was getting late and I was scared and alone
But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home
Mama couldn't see him but he was standing there
And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers

Oh, I believe there are angels among us
Sent down to us from somewhere up above
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give
To guide us with the light of love
When life held troubled times and had me down on my knees
There's always been someone there to come along and comfort me
A kind word from a stranger, to lend a helping hand
A phone call from a friend, just to say I understand

And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope

Oh, I believe there are angels among us
Sent down to us from somewhere up above
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give
To guide us with the light of love

They wear so many faces, show up in the strangest places
To grace us with their mercy, in our time of need

Oh, I believe there are angels among us
Sent down to us from somewhere up above
They come to you and me in our darkest hours
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give
To guide us with the light of love

To guide us with the light of love

 By Alabama.

This music is one of the songs in the video with quotes for teachers.

Inspiration for teachers

This video elucidates all the reasons to be a teacher. It doesn't matter how long it takes to change the world. We all need to begin someday...
Some quotes to think over.
Have a nice day!

Epic by me

   About what could I write
   If not for the feelings
   That I am able to drag aside?
   They hunted me as ghosts
   In search of something
   That I assured to be a threshold


    Coming from Bad thing's deed
    Despair and Sadness
    Needed to have an end
    To lead me to great happiness    
    I decided to raise my flag then
    If only I were to write
    In memorium in all the places
    Shall I still remember or let them die?   
   
    An epic feeling
    Taking an advantage
    Of a free and wealthy atmosphere
    It came along my way
    Not letting good things far away
    All hurricanes made of me
    The person who bravely     
    Stands the way I can be
   
    Here, I can live
    And I thank Cosmos' strength
    and the special angels' perseverance
    Also the musas' inspiration
    In blowing ideas into my mind
    And to remain by my side
    Giving me a new chance

    To undo the past and gently glide
   

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides from About.com - 4 Star Rating

Contemporary Literature Ads

        Although novels for centuries have been grappling with the bitter realities of love and matrimony, The Marriage Plot only feels like a familiar story. In his excellent new novel, Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex) has managed to craft a story that is not only rooted in the classics but one that is deeply relevant to how we live and love today. In an early passage, Eugenides discusses the current state of romantic literature:                "Sexual equality, good for women, had been bad for the novel. And divorce had undone it completely. What would it matter whom Emma married if he could file for separation later? How would Isabel Archer's marriage to Gilbert Osmond have been affected by the existence of a prenup? ...Where could you find the marriage plot nowadays? You couldn't. You had to read historical fiction...you had to go, literally speaking, back in time."                  In The Marriage Plot, Eugenides blends nostalgia and progression with masterful grace; it's a furious balance, and one achieved only by the finest of literary alchemists.

        Set in the early Eighties, The Marriage Plot follows a handful of graduating seniors as they leave Brown University and drift uncertainly into adulthood. Although the pressures of professional life loom in the distance, Madeleine Hanna, "the lovelorn English major," is preoccupied with the two very different men in her life. Amateur theologian Mitchell Grammaticus and the handsome, brooding science major Leonard Bankhead pull Madeleine in two disparate directions, each showing Madeleine a potential future of love and intellectual fulfillment. Eventually Leonard proves to be the more alluring catch, but when Leonard's deeper psychological problems surface Madeleine finds herself stuck, in love with a man struggling with a dangerous level of depression. It's a classic setup, but these men and the humanity Eugenides fills them with make them much more than shadows of Darcy and Wickham.                        Leonard and Mitchell are very different sorts of men, but both share one trait that heavily saturates The Marriage Plot: they're both wildly bright liberal arts students, and unfortunately both prone to over-intellectualizing the world with critical theory. Most of the novel takes place in college classrooms and resultantly drenches the text in heady intellectualism. The heavy leaning on academics will undoubtedly turn some readers away, but it is somewhat necessary to delve into to watch these students grow. In order to see Madeleine struggle with her peachy Victorian ideals, we have to take a semiotics class and a crash course in Roland Barthes:

       "A Lovers Discourse was the perfect cure for lovesickness. It was a repair manual for the heart, its one tool of the brain. If you used your head, if you became aware of how love was culturally constructed and began to see your symptoms as purely mental, if you recognize that being 'in love' was only an idea, then you could liberate yourself from its tyranny."   And it doesn't stop with Madeleine: to better understand Leonard's chemical imbalances, Eugenides corners us in Leonard's biology lab and his psychiatrist's office. The collegiate nature of the novel runs the risk of alienating those readers not yet familiar with such fields, and those who did experience similar discourse and drama will likely find these sections to be dazzlingly authentic, but ultimately cluttered. Eugenides's use of the seminal Talking Heads song "Once if a Lifetime" as his novel's introductory quote proves doubly apt. David Byrne's lyrics evoke an existential crisis of sorts ("and you may ask yourself / how did I get here?") that is especially relevant to the novel's uncertain graduation class of 1982. Additionally, it seems Eugenides looked to this song to shape much of the narrative structure of The Marriage Plot. Scenes do not fade in or slowly unfold, but consistently open with an unfamiliar jolt, leaving readers to explore their origins through a lengthy, well-developed flashback.

            When we first meet Madeleine, she's got a pillow over her head, a bad hangover, and a few hours until she marches in her graduation processional. Instead of looking to how she recovers, Eugenides instead shows how she reached this messy introduction. Eugenides works similarly with Mitchell, who is first seen meditating outside a bagel shop and is eventually rounded out by a recapitulation of his four previous years in the religion and philosophy department. It's a curious way to develop a plot, asking how we got here instead of where we're headed.                                  Although unconventional, this backtracking plot provides an outstanding look at all the novel's characters. Each person is so richly painted that it is very easy to lose sight of their Victorian archetypes, and as the novel progresses, these archetypes seem to fade away entirely. It begins to feel like the Victorian similarities are just a projection, no different than the idealistic literary slant that drives Madeleine towards each of her bad decisions. Leonard Bankhead isn't just a stormy, recast Mr. Darcy; he's far too real for such a label. The same goes for the rest of the novel's cast: these familiar characters are finally given lives. Eugenides works a genuine, relatable heartbeat into each of his characters, and through these compelling renderings is able to transcend his novel's framework.

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/The-Marriage-Plot-Eugenides.htm?nl=1