Pretty Woman

is the film I am watching tonight. It is very good, Richard Geere and that girl, what is she called, Julia Roberts. It is a quality film: acting, story, clipping, whatever. Shaw's Pygmalion 77 years later, and Ovid's Pygmalion from way back. Eller vår egen kulturs Askepot, Cinda - fucking - rella, som en person i filmen sier det.

writing is the voice of

a person who is not present, Freud said. And it is well formulated. On the one hand, the printing press and the Internet liberated writing from the confines of time and place. As writing before distributed print was tied to an object, a stone slab, and/or in any case existed only in one version. On the other hand, the Internet made writing more or less ubiquitous, and todays' chat-programs can give you nearly synchronous written communication.
So, the oral language gave man a symbol system with which to reflect on and communicate about things not present. You can imagine and think about the lions of the tropical savanna even in the northernmost parts of the world. Then writing liberated language from time and place, and it could be the voice of the person who lived long ago or who lives on the opposite part of the globe.

I was making a list of how I practiced language

in the course of a day, and here are the language activities that I found:

oral:
- private talk, chats with friends
- professional talk, tuition
- 2-3 times a week: lectures and talks
- telephone calls

writing:
- sms, msn, e-mail
- blogging, 3-4 different
- lectures
- correcting, councelling others' writings
- taking notes, diary entries

reading:
- newspapers, magazines
- Internet news, googling, wikipedia, etc.
- faction
- fiction

listening (and watching):
- radio (news, variuous P2)
- TV (news, debates, entertainment)
- audio books (fact & fiction)

I might observe how much time I spend on these language activities.

I was listening to this audio book,

The kite runner, and I found that having this book read to me created words and sentences in my own language, and I was inspired to write myself. Why hadn't I found this out earlier? I might have helped my writing a lot. Beacuse it is not like a lot of reading automatically creates more writing. It might instead slow the writing down; stop it.
But listening to the words instead of looking at them is another way into language, I observed. So I am going to study this further and try it out over a period of time.

In his diary Franz Kafka,

on the 16. December 1910, says:
I won't give up the diary again. I must hold on here, it is the only place I can.
I would gladly explain the feeling of happiness which, like now, I have within me from time to time. It is really something effervescent that fills me completely with a light, pleasant quiver and that persuades me of the existence of abilities of whose non-existence I can convince myself with complete certainty at any moment, even now.

-- there is much to be said about his total dedication to writing. --

Last weekend I went to Madrid

with R. We stayed there from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. We had a nice hotel at Calle Campomanes just off Plaza de Isabel II where you have the Opera metro station. It takes just 30 minutes on the metro from Barajas or Aeropuerto on line 8. Then you have to change to line 10 at Nuevos Ministerios and again to the R-line at Príncipe Pío, and it costs just 1 euro.
My reasons for going were two. I wanted to hear the Spanish language about me, and I wanted to visit the Prado to see the Spanish Golden Age painters, from Murillo and Velazquez to Goya. We stayed at the Prado for nearly a whole day, just visiting the first floor where you have the paintings from 1550 to 1850. I could have gone the next day as well. It was great.
From Campomanes you walk down to the Prado in twenty minutes. Down the Arenal, crossing Puerta del Sol, to the right down Carrera de San Jerónimo to Plaza Canovas del Castillo. Then you are nearly at the entrance where you pay 6 euro to get in.