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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:
My body language betrays a subtle fact--the harder I push away, the stronger the attraction.
I do not think this is the case. I saw the girl pictured a few years ago, with her four children and one in situ, after she married John, a pediatrician, like her father. I do not envy her life. We briefly recognized each other, and then left.
I had a psych patient recovering from an aortic aneurysm repair yesterday. It made me realize that he was a product of abuse. Coming into the room, he shuddered and screamed defensively about being abused; and he was likely sexually abused as a child, and then mishandled by abusive caregivers in the state psych hospital.
For two weeks, everyone has been afraid to go in this man's room, and the nursing supervisor has rounded every shift to ask if he has been disruptive.
I asked Aaron if he was ready to get his drains out, clean up and getting ready to leave tomorrow, and with mild protest, he did.
It reminded me of one of my favorite Cronenberg films (2002), Spider, about finding the panes of plate glass, which are eventually brought back by the residents. They are not hopeless; otherwise, they would have used the glass on themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azNAno-DL0M
https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-doig
https://friendshipphl.bandcamp.com/track/free-association
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/peter-doig-man-in-waterfall-wow-project-beach-towel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_fN-Ghb2w
"And on good nights, trading our fixations
A couple unwitting agents
In a million combinations"
"There is no human being who is not tested by Hashem. The rich man is tested by how he treats the pauper, the poor man with his poverty, the wise man with [how he uses his] wisdom, the one who suffers with his pain, the businessman with his integrity and the craftsman with his specialty."
Pele Yoeitz, "Nisayon" (1824)
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