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"[...]a vessel cleaving the dungeon of the waves[...]"
You're Love in the Time of Cholera!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Odysseus in a work of Homer, you demonstrate undying loyalty by
sleeping with as many people as you possibly can. But in your heart you never give
consent! This creates a strange quandary of what love really means to you. On the
one hand, you've loved the same person your whole life, but on the other, your actions
barely speak to this fact. Whatever you do, stick to bottled water. The other stuff
could get you killed.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Never miss a word
You're Infinite Jest!
by David Foster Wallace
While you1 consider yourself2 to be clever,
there are those3 who think you're just full of yourself or, perhaps worse,
playing a joke4 on everyone around you, and yet you are pretty sure that
you really are that brilliant after all, since people would hardly take the time to
get to know you5 if they didn't care very deeply about what you had to
say to them, to wit, about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their
drug habits, and of course what videos6 they prefer to watch, since,
after all, your impressive vocabulary and tendency to go on and on7 makes
you seem superior, able to educate them, and really drive a sense of something
ineffable into their measly little skulls while you are not above making a cheap
gag or really going after anyone or anything or telling them about incredible
futures involving tennis, geopolitics, and
1Meaning you personally, not someone like you or your own
personal daddy, for example.
2As well as you can see yourself, which, frankly, may not be that well.
3Though we wouldn't deign to be so peripatetic as to name them here, mind.
4Jokes, though not common in Victorian England, were known to originate
sometime in ancient history, perhaps as early as the time of Babylon, or even before.
It is thought that the history of the joke plays an integral role in the mindset of
the characters depicted here, though you may disagree at this point, in which case I
am facing quite the dilemma in relaying this narrative, no?
5It is rather time consuming, after all.
6Ha!
7and on and on and on...
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
You're The Metamorphosis!
by Franz Kafka
Though you think you're in the midst of a dream, the fact of the
matter is that your life has become a nightmare. The nightmare at first seems
horrific to you, but you are slowly able to adjust to the facts of the matter
and settle down and make do with what you've been given. There are those that
would say you're pointless and absurd, but you're really just trying to
demonstrate that people can (and do) adapt to anything, no matter how absurd
it is. Not that this will really inspire them to change, because they probably
don't understand.
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
About Me
- Σφιγξ
- possesses wholly unmerited academic pretensions; examines love as an entomologist; collects haunted dollshouses; notes the lunar phase as regularly as the temperature; peruses field guides; reads like a serial magazine subscriptionist; functions through coffee and "mood" music; draws to the very corners of the page; takes notes on unlined paper; reads poetry as prayer; observes textual authority with the incredulity of fiction; suppresses the smart-ass answer(s); adapts as well as anyone beseiged by her own bibelots; she is a sensation seeker in spite of all of this.
6 comments:
Jan Saudek
Exercise 91.
https://youtube.com/shorts/iWASYMdb5NY?si=p8Zkg3HNiMBgMIoa
I found this, which was first published in 2007, and I bought it new, and then gave it away. I did not read to the end deliberately. I doubt such a text would be included in the curriculum since it lacks the fruit salad of diversity; and with it, the (lower) levels of ability.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Break_Blow_Burn/uW1j8ZCEpRQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Break%20Blow%20Burn%20Paglia%20%22Chuck%20Wachtel%22%20%22%20A%20Paragraph%20Made%20Up%20of%20Seven%20Sentences%20%22&pg=PA205&printsec=frontcover
I listened to "The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)" by Joni Mitchell yesterday for the first time. She was apparently frosted by a maid extorting her. Culture is like this, and by the time a cultural artifact trickles through parody, remixing and protest, the substance has evaporated away. One time, I asked someone, at what point in the centuries is the debt paid? When does the victimization end, and the sum of one's achievements stand alone?
The point is well taken: the numbing through busyness and empty sensory wallowing is observed. Cheshvan is the month when one is buried by the material.
The amaryllises are planted on the window sill, and awaiting the month of dreams.
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