Saturday, December 06, 2008

Devil and Details

My mind keeps wondering today... and to nothing in particular. I am sitting at the Cafe, trying to study "Урок но. 1" and having no luck at it. My goal is to write a summary a day for each chapter - forcing myself to read every single word.

Wow! How many details slipped through my fingers. Did I just not read that one detail about "in cases other than the nominative or the accusative, the quantifying words... decline like plural adjectives and agree" the first time around? I don't remember that at all! Now, I am convinced that is the one piece of the Russian puzzle that I have been missing.

Have I had my detail-filtering glasses on this whole term? Is that my problem?

Detail

One of the most shocking things about Istanbul, was the detail. Every wall covered in hand painted tile, and each wooden shutter carved with ornate design that seemed to be based on a Fibonacci understanding of craftsmanship. It got to the point where I was unable to focus by the end of the night. My brain was so caught up in attempting to process all of these bits of images, that I would sit up on the terrace, drink a beer, and stare out into the darkness for hours - lime green and sea turquoise, flashing in strobe before my tired eyes.

Detail, Tile

It is only now, after a few months, that my mind is truly able to appreciate and process all of those details that caused me such a headache before. And it is exactly those bits and pieces that stand in sharp relief in my memories. Time is all I needed - time and space.

Detail of Tomb Door, Suleyman Mosque

Not that that is going to help me with my final. If only I could take a photo of the particular details I need to remember, then sit and process them, drink a beer and stare into the dark, come back to the photo in two months - then it might have the chance of lodging itself somewhere between genitive plural case and Куда constructs.

Nope - I'm just going to have to focus. Humm... my coffee has gone cold.