I attended a great literary event last Tuesday at San Jose State’s Martin Luther King Library. Travel writer Tim Cahill read from some of his works—mostly, well all, humorous stories. He has a great reading voice and could do sounds effects—like when people have a bug fall on them and yell eeoouuuu-iii, or when a person tries to do Donald Duck in Ubud, Bali. Hilarious.
His first story broke my heart—Hold the Enlightenment. It poked fun at a sacred cow – – – wanting enlightenment and writing occasionally about it. Apparently, says Tim, all these guys are self-published and take themselves too seriously, even when they can write, and well, therefore, enlightenment is anathema to real writers like he—who don’t have to self-publish. I don’t exactly want to be enlightened, I decided. I like the old saw that I just be enlightened about my delusions—and not deluded about my enlightenment.But I guess that’s not funny. So forget I said it. For now.
Tim is funny. I recommend anything you can get your hands on – he is a lot like David Sedaris in his delivery. Oh, and he graduated from SF State (as did I).
Check out more upcoming lit events at San Jose State at www.litart.org.