I finished the second volume of the “Jin Ping Mei” today. A third of the way through this three-thousand-plus page tapestry, painted during the Ming about the world of the late, northern Song. No dearth of amoral characters, who cheat on and steal from each other with impunity, page after page. But it is not an amoral world. Everyone’s place in society and their relative degree of agency, or slavery is interdependent and to those we read about, obvious. If you’re a magistrate you can order your slaves fingers crushed for a small matter that clearly wasn’t their fault, like letting the ill adorned, Scrounger Pai force his way in and take a seat in the waiting room. No one would dare to question such a wretched decision. And like the “Dream of the Red Chamber”, everything is fine, until the emperor and officialdom decides it’s not. And then, it is all over rather quickly.
There is graphic sex in nearly every chapter. But it is so commonplace and unremarkable that it begins to feel normal, this unedited view into private lives. Of course everyone with power uses it to get what they want and if the magistrate decides he’d like to sleep with your wife, and pay her informally in silver taels . . . you and she can both laugh about what a dolt the magistrate is later on and keep the silver. At first it all seems like an overload, of all this bawdy activity, page after page, day after day. Gratuitous indulgence, “you bet!” to every temptation, is it all a bit much? Rather, it probably maps quite accurately to the appetite of the typical adult male mind where titillation and distraction occur like an ambient hum awake, asleep, amidst much of our cognition. Xi Men Qing is wealthy, powerful and can act on whatever he fancies, for now.
Rainy Day. Rained last night. Sun didn’t make its appearance on time. I threw on a sweater and went outside tossed some seeds around. Noticed the metallic sound of the Tufted Titmouse call, down in the lower field. Why does he sound so strange, and tinny? The squirrels are fighting over the sewn largesse now. I’m considering throwing on a bike-rain coat I’d bought and haven’t yet used, to hit the trail on a rainy day and today is made to order. I’ll come home all muddy. The road will be sloppy.
I tried a few free apps yesterday to let you identify bird calls. Song Sleuth allows you to specify your location and time of year and make a real time recording which it then pairs to most likely sources. Standing beside my bike at a cross point on the rail trail, it suggested I was hearing a squirrel or a toad. There you go. I’m trying to use it now, inside, but it can’t capture the sound that I can hear so clearly. Merlin Bird ID made by the esteemed Cornell Ornithology Lab expects you to put in so much information before it can make any suggestions. By then, your bird will have flown.
Friday, 03/12/20
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