The Marriage-Go-Round

Cabin in the Woods

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How goes the research?
JOE: I made my way through the first seven library books. I am getting a good sense of prehistory and history especially regarding the cultural context of marriage.
CALLIOPE: What are you reading at the moment?
JOE: I am nearing the end of The Marriage-Go-Round by Andrew Cherlin. He gives a history of marriage in the US and compares it with how marriage is seen in Europe and other parts of the world.
CALLIOPE: Anything particularly revealing?
JOE: I liked his observation that in the US, we value both marriage and individual freedom, values which can be contradicting.  As a consequence we have more marriages and divorces per capita.
CALLIOPE: Have you decided on an outline yet?
JOE: No, but I am starting to think about one. With fiction, I do not always know where I am headed, but with nonfiction, I like to plot my course so I don’t end up going around in circles.
CALLIOPE: Sounds sensible.
JOE: Glad you think so. I will let you know how it progresses.

Cannibals and Kings

St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter, New Orleans

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. We were on a roll. I wondered what became of you.
JOE: Sometimes life creeps up on me. I was very busy with personal and social obligations for a while. Finally life has settled down again.
CALLIOPE: Did you have to put aside your writing research?
JOE: I am happy to say that I did not although I had a little less time for it than at first.
CALLIOPE: How is the research coming?
JOE: I finished reading Sam Harris’s book, The Moral Landscape, a complex and intricate philosophy book delving into archeology and paleontology. My philosophical studies helped me cope with it. Then I moved on to Marvin Harris’s Cannibals and Kings: The Origins of Cultures, also detailed but easier to read.
CALLIOPE: I thought you book was going to be about marriage.
JOE: It is, but I thought an understanding of the development of culture would give me a good contextual background.
CALLIOPE: Is that happening?
JOE: I feel like it is but I guess that will not be obvious until the book is done.
CALLIOPE: Take your time and do a thorough job.
JOE: Advice I have received from others who care about me. And so, onward.

Marriage and the Moral Landscape

Capturing human behavior

JOE: Good afternoon, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good afternoon, Joe. How goes the fray?
JOE: Fortunately not too frazzled. Yesterday I finished Graff’s book, What is Marriage For as well as Timothy Taylor’s The Prehistory of Sex.
CALLIOPE: Sounds ambitious. What were the results of your perusal?
JOE: I found a great deal of useful information in the first book  and took copious notes. The second was quite interesting but not as relevant to my topic.
CALLIOPE: And today?
JOE: This morning I participated in a fundraising walk for the National Alliance on Mental Illness which does work very close to my professional and personal interests. The rest of the day, after some lawn mowing, was devoted to Sam Harris’s The Moral Landscape.
CALLIOPE: What delicacies have you discovered there.
JOE: Not so much delicacies and very important questions such as where our morality comes from and where it is headed. So far I have been reading about the implications of the standoff between religious conservatives and secular liberals. The thrust of this book appears so far geared to what science can teach us about our values and where they are taking us.
CALLIOPE: Sounds pretty heavy?
JOE: No question. It is quite a dense book. Although it does not focus specifically on marriage, it covers quite a bit of groundwork which should be helpful with my book.
CALLIOPE: Great. I can’t wait to see where all this takes you.
JOE: Neither can I but I am looking forward to the journey. P.S. I said I would give you a chance to see my newsletter, Untangling Marriage, Politics and Religion. It is available to muses as well as mortals for free at www.eepurl.com/mSt-P where you can try out my Sliding Otter Newsletter and continue for free if you like.

Into the Marriage Vaults

Finding anchors

JOE: Good afternoon, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good afternoon Joe. More news?
JOE: Just a brief note to update you and the readers who have taken interest in this project.
CALLIOPE: Proceed.
JOE: Thanks. Last night I finished reading What is Marriage For and today delved into The Prehistory of Sex.  Both make fascinating reading. I have been taking notes and will soon have considerable grist for the mill.
CALLIOPE: That should keep you busy.
JOE: I also wrote a column called Untangling Marriage, Religion and Politics which will appear this Saturday. I will let you know when it is posted. Back to the grist.

On with Marriage Research

Organizing in the sand

JOE: Good evening, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good evening, Joe. I didn’t expect to hear from you quite so soon.
JOE: You never know. Yesterday, just as I reached about a third of the way through Norman Mailer’s book, Harlot’s Ghost, the library called. The first seven books on my research list were in.
CALLIOPE: Ambitious!
JOE: I don’t know about that, but I am excited to be immersed in a new project. Carol and I took a friend for a medical appointment and I took along E.J Graff’s book, What is Marriage For? to read in the waiting room. A good choice it turns out. I took the book to the chair when I got back home and spend the rest of the afternoon poring over it.
CALLIOPE: What did you discover?
JOE: That the world seemed to get along fine without marriage for many centuries.  Marriage as we know it today in all its incarnations has undergone constant evolution and change in meaning as well as purpose over the past several centuries in particular.
CALLIOPE: Sounds interesting. Have you found a focus for your book yet?
JOE: Not yet. There are so many aspects of marriage that it is hard to choose. I am thinking that I might try for a synthesis of the many aspects and opinions about marriage.
CALLIOPE: Sounds rather daunting.
JOE: You noticed! Indeed it is. I might need to narrow my focus but I am keeping an open mind. For now it is on with the research.

Marriage- A New Project

Florida Sunrise

 

JOE: Good afternoon, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good afternoon, Joe. I was starting to wonder what happened to you.
JOE: I thought you might. Here’s the scoop. I finished my latest update of Marital Property. I think it is the best I can make it for now. Yet I still don’t think it is ready for publication.
CALLIOPE: Sorry to hear that. You have worked on it for so long. Now what?
JOE: I wondered that myself. I got to thinking what Marital Property needed. I am satisfied with the interaction among characters but think it needs more substance.
CALLIOPE: Such as what?
JOE: Such as what marriage means and what it is all about. As I thought about it I realized I was better at nonfiction. I recently read Sex at Dawn by Ryan and Jetha. I wrote a newsletter/column inspired by the book and realized I should write a book on marriage.
CALLIOPE: Have you made a commitment to this project.
JOE: I have started researching the topic and thinking about what aspect(s) of marriage i would like to address.
CALLIOPE: Sounds exciting.
JOE: It is. I am waiting for several books to arrive from Amazon and the library. I will keep you posted.

Back to the Grind

Joe: Happy Easter Calliope.
Calliope: Happy Easter Joe. I haven’t heard from you for a while.
Joe: I have been busy recovering from my broken arm and appendicitis. As of tomorrow I am cleared to return to my normal activities. In the mean time I have been working my way through Marital Property and may then print a trial version on Smashwords and ask for feedback. I have been working on breathing more life into my characters. When I am finished with this edit, I will make a decision. I am finally ready to develop some kind of retirement routine and will start working on it tomorrow.
Calliope: Sounds good. Keep me posted.
Joe: Will do. Later.