{"id":166864,"date":"2024-02-26T10:52:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T15:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=166864"},"modified":"2024-02-26T10:52:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T15:52:30","slug":"july-notebook-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/26\/july-notebook-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"July Notebook, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Jacques H\u00e9rold. From a portfolio in\u00a0issue no. 26 of the\u00a0Review <\/em>(Summer\u2013Fall 1961).<\/p><\/div>\n

Parable of the Movie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI like your movie. I can tell that horror is a big influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, yes, I love horror movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I didn\u2019t mean horror movies. I meant horror.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you again. The feeling of horror itself also happens to be one of my biggest influences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re welcome. But I didn\u2019t say anything about a feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI beg your pardon, but what kind of horror is neither a movie nor a feeling?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we just met. You didn\u2019t influence my movie at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell then. I take it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the part of the country from which he hailed eerily resembled the opening chords of the song \u201cDo It Again\u201d by Steely Dan.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

A call about the job I applied for. I am invited to come in for an interview.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Parable of the Worm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inoculated against the fact that their king was a worm, they watched his tense face as he devoured their kin, passed them through his gelatinous digestive tract, and shat them out, dropping them in a pebbled pile behind him. They cheered wildly, wiping tears from their cheeks.<\/p>\n

Let there be commerce between us.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something,\u201d she agreed, \u201csuspiciously lordly<\/em> about the way he sniffs the earth and licks his cloven foot. But it\u2019s a mystery.\u201d Several seconds passed. She fanned herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mystery,\u201d she said again.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Plants are so self-referential.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing on which I\u2019d like to think that we can all agree,\u201d he said, furrowing his brow and gently blowing at the steam billowing off his matcha latte, \u201cis that plants are witchcraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d I say in the job interview, wearing a light blue shirt and new gray blazer, \u201cmy preferred method of writing is collaborative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s good,\u201d my interviewer says, \u201cbecause for this job, collaboration is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been watching The Sopranos<\/em> for the first time. I read a literary critic\u2019s skeptical take: that the show is merely asking whether a sociopath can be a good person. It\u2019s a bad-faith reading by someone who hates the medium. Not interesting. The Sopranos<\/em> isn\u2019t about that. It\u2019s about what happens to the rest of the world\u2014not you\u2014when you die: it goes on, until the network cancels the run. And it\u2019s persuasive.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I notice tonight that I habitually steal little moments to check my pulse.<\/p>\n

For how long has this been going on?<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Dream, 7\/18<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I just sit with a petri dish and wait a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Sounds like laughter in the third movement of the Jupiter<\/em> symphony.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

How much baby\u2019s breath would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck were into that kind of thing?<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

As I continue to be ravaged by the blunt object that is a series of years on Earth, I am surprised to find that I have more occasion to use the word than<\/em> than then<\/em>.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Parable of the Tick<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tonight I see what looks to be a tick on the dog\u2019s eyelid. I get a pair of tweezers from the bathroom and kneel to remove it. He looks at me askance but lies there in his beatific patience. I smooth the fine yellow fur on his head and apply the tweezers to the tick and clamp down.<\/p>\n

But it is not a tick\u2014just a little black growth above his eye. A stream of blood trickles down his snout, but he doesn\u2019t flinch. I gasp. He leans forward and licks my hand\u2014to ease my parasitic fret, to forgive me for hurting him\u2014with blood in his fur. I burst into tears.<\/p>\n

Love is hell.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I receive a call informing me that I got the job. I\u2019ll begin in August.<\/p>\n

Why does this feel sad?<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Parable of A. J. Soprano<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spoiler alert.<\/p>\n

After unsuccessfully trying to commit suicide by tying a cinder block to his feet, putting a plastic bag over his head, throwing himself into the family pool\u2014the prelude to perhaps the most piercingly moving scene of the entire series\u2014A. J. is still, with a persistence approaching the divine, a complete asshole.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The fly on the engraved mirror\u2014resting on the back of its wings with its legs in the air, its reflection hanging from the glass as if about to launch off into the room\u2014is sleeping, or spoiled?<\/p>\n


\nDaniel Poppick is the author of<\/em>\u00a0The Police and of\u00a0the National Poetry Series winner\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Fear of Description.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPlants are so self-referential.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68416],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-166864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diaries","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJuly Notebook, 2018 by Daniel Poppick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 26, 2024 \u2013 \u201cPlants are so self-referential.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2024\/02\/26\/july-notebook-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"July Notebook, 2018 by Daniel 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