A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo

My reading choice this summer was Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich VIllage in the Sixties. It was both engaging and poignant, a story of a very special girl in a very special time, yet relatable in the extent that most go through the confusion and doubts in youth and with their first love. 

It described her childhood living with American Communist parents, the son and daughter of Italian immigrants. It was very enlightening to read about a Communist family in the 50s that was not dangerous or evil at all.

The book gave a clear and beautiful view of the sixties in the epicenter of the growing folk scene. Even more interesting, it was written by a young woman who saw it all first-hand. She was close with innumerable influential artists of the era, one of which was Bob Dylan. Rotolo and Dylan began a relationship in 1961 and continued until 1964. Much of the book involves Dylan and her observations of him as he rose to an inconceivable fame. All through this, however, Rotolo stuck true to herself and never let the person she loved influence her decisions. She left for a six month visit to Italy where she studied. Dylan was left depressed in the Village, writing famous songs such as "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", and "Boots of Spanish Leather". She actually influenced him in that she introduced him into the racial equality and anti-nuclear organizations she was involved with, leading to several protest songs being written and performed by him in the early sixties. It was incredibly refreshing to read a love story that did not involve a man sweeping a woman off her feet and "allowing" her to spend the rest of her life with him. What an honor! Suze was way cool in that way.

Their eventual break up in 1964 was not the end of the book, which pleased me. In went on to describe her travels to Cuba when it was illegal for Americans to do so as a protest operation. 

Suze was an incredible and independent woman who stood for what she believed in and became an idol for me immediately upon finishing the book. And while I have enjoyed discovering about Bob Dylan through his music, articles, and other mediums, it was a much more in depth discovery of him and his young adulthood through the eyes of not only someone who was there first hand, but someone who knew him intimately. I adored this book start to finish.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

This article by Nicholas Carr was incredibly relevant and gave me a lot of interesting thoughts to ponder.
I was definitely raised up an Internet kid. It was always at my disposal, meeting whatever need I had: getting in contact with people, sharing photos and videos, hours of entertainment, and accessing any information I was in need of. It's incredibly hard to imagine my life without this amazing tool.
That's why I have to, for the most part, defend the Internet. I completely understand that the accessibility of the Internet has perhaps lead to a vast majority of us taking for granted the ease in which we achieve information, and that the short, to-the-point, efficient articles on the Web have left us with shortened attention spans, unable to completely immerse ourselves in prose.
However, the Internet is revolutionary. The amount of information we can intake is lightyears ahead of technology advancements passed. Not only can we receive info, we can output it, upping the television. You literally have the world in front of you when you sit down in front of a monitor and click that little icon. The world will never be the same.
Carr brings up many good points, and I too grieve with him about the loss of concentration we have toward great works. It is something we give up for an advancement... And perhaps it is not necessarily an 'advancement' per se, it is just a change. Instead of relying on the comparatively small information residing in our own brains and being able to engage in deep prose, we have easy access to a wealth of knowledge unlike any before.
I am grateful for the Internet and what it has brought to humans. As with every other technologic advancement, just as Carr describes in his article, it brings with it certain sacrifices of ideals we held before. I believe it is for the greater good, just as writing and printing were. We'll all see in time, of course. Unless we all turn into robot-controlled droids before then... Ha ha.

Skunk Dreams

I really enjoyed this essay. I thought it cropped up quite a few thoughts and questions for me and was written beautifully.
The writing- that was phenomenal. The way she described any given thing was exceptional. Occasionally I find a writer that puts emotions and thoughts parallel to mine in writing and I am pleasantly stunned. Her description of the young boars was probably my favorite: "The young skittered along, lumps of muscled fat on tiny hooves. They reminded me of snowsuited toddlers on new skates." That's just awesome.
A major theme in this essay was death. Her thoughts are quite similar to mine. I find myself constantly wishing there was something after death, as she described in the essay, but my reason stops me at the door, so to speak. I always come up undecided. Anyway, I found her excerpts on death pretty interesting, and identified with her longing to be a skunk, weirdly enough. Or at least someone who lives in total confidence and "serene belligerence--past hunters, past death overhead, past death all around."
Another section of writing brought up some thoughts in me. Erdrich writes about not knowing what the skunk snuggled up to her was dreaming about...  I mean, what does anyone dream? We can never really know. Not any other species, not any other human, not our best friends, family members, not anyone. You never know what's going on with anyone but yourself. There's always more to the story than you see or could ever see.  Not really an important theme throughout, but it just sent me on a wave of thought that I guess is worth mentioning.
I really enjoyed the bit about obstacles and how they relate to life and our dreams. I won't elaborate too much, as I'd just be reiterating was was written. But I will say they were a couple of cool thoughts: "The obstacles that we overcome define us," and "A good question to ask of a dream is: What are the obstacles that have been removed to make this extraordinary scene possible?"
On a lighter note... I would choose to be a lion if I had to be a different animal than a human. They are way cool!