Why are there never any great WHOLESOME novels?

Teresa's coming to Dayton this coming Tuesday. It's going to be very exciting. She's been in Texas since she got back from Australia, studying for the MCAT. I think we're both sitting around doing very little.

In international news: Palestinians and Israelis continue to disappoint any reasonable person. Some Palestinians--not necessarily the government but probably some people who identify with the ruling party--kidnapped an Israeli soldier about two weeks ago. Israel has pretty much marched all over Palestine since then, kidnapping Palestinian MPs and dropping bombs and rolling tanks into Gaza. Maybe an overreaction? Maybe killing Palestinian citizens isn't exactly a solution?

Oh, by the way: if you're a government, and you aren't at war, and you kill someone without trial, they're a citizen and you're a murderer. Not a tough concept. In fact, even if you do have a trial, I'm not sure that absolves you. If Israel is at war with Palestine, I would suggest the U.S. government stop giving money to Israel. I don't think Israel would say they're exactly at war, though. They want to continue to fire missles at Palestine without all the messy technicalities of helping Palestine once they win the war.

Anyway, I did read a comment on BBC News that made a pretty good point, I thought: U.S. soldiers get captured somewhat regularly, and the U.S. doesn't flip out the way Israel has.

Then I realized, it's a little harder to find our U.S. soldiers. All we know is that they're somewhere in Iraq, maybe in the same city where they were captured. If it was as easy as heading to the Iraqi equivalent of the West Bank or Gaza, I have no doubt the U.S. would fire a big old American load of missles at that area. You know, just like Israelis have been doing.

In my opinion, Israel should have agreed to a prisoner exchange to get the soldier back. Would that encourage more soldier kidnappings? Maybe, I don't know. The thing is, my plan if I were Israeli PM would look so different from the current one that saying what I would do in a given situation barely makes sense. I would do everything differently.

So that's what I'm thinking about Israel and Palestine.

And lastly: I went to the library yesterday and got out four books:
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
and On the Road, by Jack Kerouac.

I started with Lolita. For those who don't know, it's the story of Humbert Humbert, a nearly-forty-year-old European man, and his love for Lolita Haze, a twelve-year-old American girl. Once again: him: 37. Her: 12. Book: awesome. So far it's been rreeeeaaalllllyy fuckin' good, as Brad would say. It's narrated by Humbert Humbert, and he just says crazy shit and it's awesome. His obsession with Lolita is really amazing to read. There really are some beautiful passages.

But please don't take this as an endorsement of pedophilia. Nabokov used to point out that Humbert is a monster, and I would agree. He's pretty fucked up. But it makes an awesome book.

I'll tell you more when I'm done.

This weekend, I'm going to a wedding in Cincinnati (Jess, Leslie and Jota? Come on!), then Teresa comes at the beginning of next week. In between: Humbert Humbert!

Talk to you later.

Love,

Steve