books bought today

[milly balgeary]

I've grown to believe writers have a responsibility to bring bright out of the dark. Anything else is unacceptable. It's too close to what we are...

[elpollodiablo]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

[milly balgeary]

...and if you haven't looked too closely in the mirror of your real sight lately, let me reiterate: you're a monster. Your desires are dog shit, like all of us. The great thing about books. Really great books, is it allows us to feel less than dogshit, let's us feel complex. It's a shield against the horror that is you and I. The monster in our hides.  It used to be, that we needed to feel the horror of ourselves, reading Catcher in the Rye, or whatever - now we need to learn love - the ability to bring back something bright from the darkness. Otherwise, we're doomed. I don't know about you Internet Personality, but there is no reason NOT to be afraid -

[milly balgeary]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

I've been discomfited too often. I agree with Selby's ideas, 100 percent, but I don't want to read them. He's too good at conjuring nightmares.

[elpollodiablo]

What you're talking about is really interesting to me, though. I would say it's as valid a region for art and literature to explore as any other. We need this stuff, man. We need what you're advocating, too, maybe even in greater proportion... But if you forget that the world's like this... I dunno, man. Seems dangerous.

[elpollodiablo]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

I've been discomfited too often. I agree with Selby's ideas, 100 percent, but I don't want to read them. He's too good at conjuring nightmares.

That's fair enough. Taste: the ultimate arbiter, &c.


...but you're a horror movie buff!

[milly balgeary]

What you're talking about is really interesting to me, though. I would say it's as valid a region for art and literature to explore as any other. We need this stuff, man. We need what you're advocating, too, maybe even in greater proportion... But if you forget that the world's like this... I dunno, man. Seems dangerous.

Yeah, I know entirely what you mean g. I'm a coward is the thing. It's like the movie Alien. They had to explore it - but we viewers wish they wouldn't even though that was the reason we watched it, to see the aliens pop out of their slick cocoons and start melting and eating people.

I think we're sick and I don't want to commemorate it you know - plus the cowardice thing. To look at the abyss, etc.

I remember readin' that Req for a dream book and getting really depressed and sorta having dark thoughts. It's like a toxin.

But yeah ... more people need to feel that toxin, to wake up, but probably the more normal people who don't read, who don't care about the human crisis, are the ones who need it. Do you need it? I don't think so! I'm bettin' you understand human sufferin' already!... that's how I feel. Like YUCK. Let me get away from this goddamn book before it kills me.

[milly balgeary]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

I've been discomfited too often. I agree with Selby's ideas, 100 percent, but I don't want to read them. He's too good at conjuring nightmares.

That's fair enough. Taste: the ultimate arbiter, &c.


...but you're a horror movie buff!

Horror movies are badly made and that's part of the enjoyment! Watching the Red-shirts (to borrow from Star Trek - the guys who exist only to get killed) etc, and just to enjoy the dumb, fake badness.

[jebreject]

I'm definitely of the mind that we need to be constantly reminded of the dark things, the ugly things, the monsters inside us.  Those things are important, because we spend most of our lives trying to ignore them or distract ourselves.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't use art as escapism, or that art shouldn't produce brightness or joy, just that we can't keep running away from what we really are.  The abyss stares back, and that's a good thing!  We need that!  If we're going to succeed as a people, we need an intimate knowledge of the dark things, because if we keep ignoring them, they're going to overtake us, time and time again.

[Andrew_TSKS]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

I've been discomfited too often. I agree with Selby's ideas, 100 percent, but I don't want to read them. He's too good at conjuring nightmares.

That's fair enough. Taste: the ultimate arbiter, &c.


...but you're a horror movie buff!

dude, horror is the most conservative of genres. it is a genre dedicated to dealing with uncomfortable outside factors and influences by labeling them wrong and bad, and in doing so, reassuring one of one's own healthiness and normalcy. is it ANY SURPRISE milly loves horror?

[jebreject]

ooooh ... BURN!

[milly balgeary]

You sound a little ambivalent, milly. There's something there. You're not supposed to feel comfortable with it.

I've been discomfited too often. I agree with Selby's ideas, 100 percent, but I don't want to read them. He's too good at conjuring nightmares.

That's fair enough. Taste: the ultimate arbiter, &c.


...but you're a horror movie buff!

dude, horror is the most conservative of genres. it is a genre dedicated to dealing with uncomfortable outside factors and influences by labeling them wrong and bad, and in doing so, reassuring one of one's own healthiness and normalcy. is it ANY SURPRISE milly loves horror?

Master Andy, nothing's ever going to change the fact that you want a slave so you can disengage with reality. And no matter how hard you try to go for the insult, I could care less. I liked your hammer my head in style better than this new "psychological" and "metaphorical" dance, though.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Master Andy, nothing's ever going to change the fact that you want a slave so you can disengage with reality.

this reminds me of the part in "school ties" where matt damon says something to brendan fraser along the lines of "yeah, i'm gonna go to jail, but in a few years i'll get out. and you'll still be a dirty jew."

[Andrew_TSKS]

BUT ANYWAY, getting back on topic, today i bought:

in the bleak midwinter, by julia spencer-fleming
lennon remembers: the full text of the 1970 rolling stone interview, by jann s. wenner
dreams underfoot, by charles de lint
widdershins, by charles de lint

[Good Intentions]

But you have to accept that people are going to see dick behavior and think, "What a dick."

GI accepted that tradeoff a long time ago. (Though he seems to be going soft in his dotage.  C'mon G!  Tell someone his personal philosophy is ill-considered shit!  I miss those days.)

I remember this dimly. I did a search but I coudln't find it. Where did it happen again? Were we perhaps talking about Objectivism?

Here I was thinking I was perhaps snapping more than before.

[Good Intentions]

There was a gigantic second-hand booksale here to raise funds for the local Hospice. A gargantuan sale.

I got an introductory text on linguistics, one on socio-linguistics, Dostoyevsky's The Possessed and the complete works of Shakespeare. Because if I'm gonna be a Shakespeare hater, I'm gonna hafta be a bloody well read one. And perhaps now something will click that I've always missed between the bad faith, vacuous morality and being-a-lapdog-for-aristocratic-sensibilities.

[Andrew_TSKS]

so i spent $40 on 14 records at a yard sale yesterday. i also spent $5 on 9 books. the books were a better deal.

they were:

ernest hemingway - the old man and the sea
jerry stahl - perv: a love story
j.d. salinger - franny and zooey (with a stripped cover, but fuck it)
john steinbeck - the grapes of wrath
patrick neate - where you're at
lauren weisberger - the devil wears prada (shut up, i've always been curious about this)
james joyce - a portrait of the artist as a young man
terry southern and mason hoffenberg - candy
gish jen - mona in the promised land (purely on the recommendation of my friend who was selling the books; i've never heard of this one)

[elpollodiablo]

I never did finish Portrait. I don't know why, but Joyce cannot hold my interest in the effing slightest. Which is sad, really.

[martin_van_buren]

For what its worth, I thought Portrait was boring too and still had a good time with Ulysses. Its just 3.8 billion times longer, which is the trade-off.

[milly balgeary]

I never did finish Portrait. I don't know why, but Joyce cannot hold my interest in the effing slightest. Which is sad, really.

Me either, dawg. GodknowsI'vetried. It's just ...you know.

[dieblucasdie]

For what its worth, I thought Portrait was boring too and still had a good time with Ulysses. Its just 3.8 billion times longer, which is the trade-off.

IAWTC.  I'm in the camp that holds that a large portion of Ulysses is spent making fun of Portrait, too.

[elpollodiablo]

Call me callous, but there's a lot I want to read and researching 19th century Irish politics is pretty far down the fuckin list.

[Good Intentions]

I loved Portrait without any specific knowledge of Irish nationalism.

[elpollodiablo]

Well man you are the perfect being.

[Good Intentions]

Not quite yet.