Book Beginnings ... never endings

Cuanta la mera sang the busker in the subway; Dorika was beginning to feel nauseous for some reason and the train was barreling noisily down the tunnel tracks. The sudden rush and confusion in her brain was always eminent when so much was happening at one time. She was heading North to Cambridge on the MBTA redline away from the city or Boston proper into education territory. As the train violently pulled into the station for just a brief moment she thought of what it would be like to jump in front of it. 'The pain would probably be so intense yet abrupt. I’d probably be knocked unconscious first then crushed. If death had an easy way out? She always ended suicidal thoughts this way. 'But I am too much of a coward to kill myself and a bigger one in living'. ‘This is the best description of purgatory’ she thought, then she remembered what it was like when she used to be Catholic and then she thought of her mother and felt even sadder and worried about her health, her medications, her doctor’s appointments…
So were her thoughts constantly rehashing ideas and ongoing sufferings and worries of herself and those she loved. The doors to the train opened and she entered wanting to find a seat quickly, one not close to anyone and one no one was likely to sit next to. She always hoped no one would sit next to her all the way to her destination whenever she rode the trains. She especially didn't like the Chinese passengers because they always sat down if there was an empty seat and talked loudly, 'they smell like an oily Chinese restaurant' she thought. They would not be deterred no matter how uninviting she positioned herself. She was reading Earnest Hemingway’s “The Sun also Rises” and it had just begun to get interesting. She was annoyed for most of the first half. The constant post war indulgences, getting into taxicabs, getting out of them, going to the cafes, clubs and hotels and all the descriptive streets of Paris. The hotels and everyone seemed depressed and touch and go. The second half moved on to the Spanish countryside and picturesque mountaintops and springs and wine country and fishing and goats and she was escaping. She wanted to be there to breathe the cold mountain air, wade in the cold streams of trout and drink the red wine that she imagined and was apparently all they drank.

Idomeneo, neither do I.

I wonder what's playing at the opera tonight? Idomeneo, but I'm not going. See that's not the funny line I thought of yesterday morning - Shall we go to the opera tonight? Idomeneo, depends on what's playing! paddumpum ching! That's when I thought I'd be seeing the opera by Mozart but I must have psychologically willed it not to happen when I started thinking how lame the story of Idomeneo is with no real tragedy but some soggy love affair of the 'perfect couple', perfectly in love with each other. So basically after the Trojan war the king of Crete Idomeneo take Trojans captive back to Crete along with it's princess Ilia who then falls in love with his son Idamante and he with her but she is caught between her hatred of his father and her love for him. Meanwhile the princess Elettra is jealous because she loves Idamante too and is maddened when he releases Trojan prisoners to appease and win his love Ilia. Keep in mind Elettra is crazy because she and her brother killed their mother and her lover so she was exiled from her home in Argos. Then Idomeneo and his crew get shipwrecked at sea and is reported to have drowned but he makes a deal with Neptune to offer the first creature to greet him on land if Neptune should spare them. He and his crew is saved and the first person meeting him is his son. Totally stolen from the bible. So anyway, Idomeneo doesn't do what he vows but exiles Idamante instead to escort Elettra back to Argos but about to embark on the journey Neptune sends a storm and sea monster that terrifies the people (probably the Kracken haha!) and forces Idomeneo's confession. The people demand the name of the person Idomeneo was supposed to sacrifice. Idamante fights the monster, kills it offers himself to sacrifice but Ilia tells him she loves him and offers herself to sacrifice but Neptune steps in and says no sacrifice needed if Idomeneo steps down from the throne and gives it to these two. He does, the people are happy and everyone lives happily ever after except Elettra. Naturally! Although I kinda felt sorry for her. It's all about politics and false god worship for the sake of entertainment. It's just lame. But maybe it was a spectacle to behold onstage, Idomeneo and I'll never Idomeneo I guess!...