Just getting off topic for a second:

In my continued quest to find the most crazy, most HILARIOUS stuff on the internet, I found this.

Chris and Shaun's Halloween Adventure.

It starts of timid, but gets progressively more demented as the adventure continues. Warning: image intensive.

What I understand to be great literature is what people _say_ is great literature, the point is if I read a book and enjoy it, then that's the bottom line. There's no cut-off point. No sense winding people up with requisites. On another note, the point of literature is wide: I learn stuff from literature. I have a soft spot for the writing and the events that authors set up in narration. I dream of doing the exact same thing.

French analysis is interesting, it's alot more colorful than English analysis. They use imagery and associative language, always drawing parallels, seeking comparisons. It's refreshing from English analysis where jargon, affectionately known to me as "fuck you" jargon, restricts the readership to a select number of people. No mistaking though, Edward Said adeptly talks about issues beyond my grasp with a mincing flow that is quite attractive, once I've gotten a better reading of the background information surrounding colonial rule, I'll go back and re-read his books. Sartre makes his allusions quite clear and despite also speaking above my realm of knowledge he doesn't penalise me.

i just had a thought about the great gatsby. something about how hard or maybe easy it is to love someone who is flawed, just like old f.scott and his woman zelda (the nutcase).

I liked the great gatsby, but only because of the simple message(s). I thought fitzgerald's writing style was about as pleasant and enjoyable as being stabbed repeatedly in my uterus with a knitting needle whilst simultaneously teaching bears to dance. I vastly prefer steinbeck too. (i think this is because of my dad though. he love steinbeck, or, as we call him affectionately, 'steiny').

last night i was standing on a pier talking to my friend about this very subject. he hates cs lewis and the narnia chronicles because he was ruined by the dodgy bbc production before he got a chance to get his hand on some of the books. (ps. australian band 'silverchair' ripped their name from the book 'the silver chair.') one book i can not bring myself to finish is madame bovary. hate it. i also hated the portrait of a lady. eat my asshole freshly, henry james.

what's the lamest translation of a book to screen that you have ever witnessed?
what's the BEST translation of a book to screen that you have witnessed?

oh, vin, i also forgot to mention - you're right, jane austen was kind of soap opera stuff for its time (and it was written by a woman, so it was probably automatically seen to be crap). i do enjoy austen, i have to admit. haven't read enough bronte.

we need to readdress what constitutes good literature and what should be included in the literary canon.

i, for one, nominate Archie's readers digest #349. Oh, that crazy jughead! Will he ever learn?

Sorry I haven't posted for a while guys. I've been looking for jobs. Have I been successful? Heh, no. I am feeling rather swollen though.

I don't know if I've posted this link before, but here it is now. Kevin Kendall's homepage. A pretty neat little site, go check it out. I know Mikko has already been there.

A question: what books, often touted as being "great works of literature" can you absolutely NOT stand? Books/poems that you can NOT get into, are totally lost to you, and are, as far as you're concerned, total and utter crap.

haha wicked, some guy called the guitar solo in TBM "glam". So Meeks, what do you think of all that criticism you got for your songs?

Yeah I wipe my ass with Browning, but oh well. I'm of the school of thought that says, "fuck thinking about relationships, love shouldn't be hard work". Of course this is the person who walks around with his head in the clouds, which is basically saying, "fuck thinking, just get from A to B".

Has anyone read the poem by Robert Browning, "Porphyria's Lover". Sick poem, it is, guy strangles his lover with her own hair. However, it's a metaphor for devotion in my opinion. You can find an illustrated version of the poem on Scott Mcloud's website. I've been examining the poem the past couple of days, the first poem I've really REALLY looked at, and it's quite a disgustingly simple poem. The rhythm actually stays constant for most of the poem, I mean from line to line there is a sense that the poem goes, "da dum da dum da dum da dum" and so on. It's a very controlled example of poetry. Maybe it's set up to a hypnotic effect, but it's just done in such an aesthetically pleasing way, all the words of the poem are key to it's overall appearance.
I can't find the Scott Mcloud's website address, peace out, eat some ninja food.

The ninja website totally rules. It is one of the funniest things I've seen on the web.

If you haven't already, go to the forums, and see some of the comments, including debate as to whether a pixie could kill a ninja in a fight,.

Yes. We live in a safe world.

I don't know how ninja's put those costumes on, they seem kind of small, plus there's a hundred different bits of fabric I'm not sure where it all goes. I like that line, "here's me ready to ROCK (or ready for bed)!!!"

hehehe

Things I'm not so sure about: feet exploding because of blood pressure, dogs evaporating

I think you all will find this very fucking amusing.

The Official Ninja Website .

Does 'rap' have a unique structure, like a fugue would or something?

ANYWAY. Perhaps it's time for me to throw another topic out there. Actually, more of a question than a topic.

Did any of you guys go to the ISKL reunion?

B-real is the latino guy from Cypress Hill

So when I say Vanilla Ice sucks, I'm not saying every white rapper sucks, I'm saying it's not pleasing to my ears. I don't get anything out of listening to it.Iit has nothing to do with the physiological structure of a white males body or the way his larynx has evolved in comparison to a black male (I'm skewing my argument once again by picking a certain gender, girls I find are more of a mixed bag). I'm thinking of purely looking at rap closely, examining it, upside down through different filters, blah blah. These are cognitive experiments, I don't know. I also find that setting up a basis of comparison for things, creates a representation of how those things are seen. A good case in point is music review, people who critically look at paintings as well. I'm trying to do these things because as Ezra Pound says, you cannot write without first reading. I'm not contemplating writing about rap or being able to seperate the good shit from the bad, I want to write rap in my own way. And this is the exercise to help me do that. I just want to listen to rap and be qualitative about what I find, when a person looks for a patterns in analysing something, do the patterns actually exist or does that person impose them on the piece. I'm not interested in telling people what I think is there in rap songs and that those are what make or break rap songs, I want to say what I think are good things in rap songs.

I think if you were going to study rap lyrics as 'text' you couldn't really compare them tothe poetry of Walt Whitman. Rap's from a different time, yo, *cough* and perhaps by people who come from a completely different world to old Walt. It would be damn interesting. Considering movies are now considered 'texts' you could pretty much do it with rap. Come to think of it, I hate it when people refer to movies as 'text'. I don't know why.

I would also like to know who B-real are.

Q. Towelie on South Park. Why?

Funny you should start talking about rap music, Han of the Willow. I was thinking about what a wacky English/Sociology course it would be to study rap music as texts like you would study Uncle Tom's Cabin or To Kill a Mockingbird.

JASON DONOVAN is a crackhead.

Han: do you want to be famous?
Mikko: do you want to be famous?

Meeko, you soo crrrazy

but if you want the answers, you better give a piece of ass
- system of a down

I'm thinking of doing a piece on rap music, I've been quite adamant on how there are different kinds of rap music, there is firstly lifestyle rap music. It's overtly stating the way they think, Eminem-style rap, "I don't care, I don't care, I don't care that you criticise the fact that I don't care". Kinda like alot of the American rap I see on MTV or Channel V. I think this rap sucks, I hate being told how people live with their extended freedoms of being a rock star. It's idolatrous, it's like looking up to these people and saying that I want to be like them, and that is the attitude that spawns reality competition shows like "Pop Stars" where people with iota of talent are given the chance make it big without knowing anything about the industry, and signing everything that comes their way; money off their image. Pop fame, I suppose, the most short-lived kind of attention society can spend on a person. Jason Donovan had sung a duet with Kylie in the 80s (was it?), now he just appears on TV coked to his eyeballs. People who get taste that fraction of the absolute attention of the world will forever base their lives upon it, after that delicious taste. That's my condensed take on the extremely complex range of emotion. So slap me.

Then there's the substance rap, I have a bias (ha) when it comes to this. White people cannot rap. I can't rap, B-real can rap. For split seconds I take a second out of listening to a song and listen to the words. I guess I look at the lyrics less in a substance rap. I don't see the jiggy chicks on the screen or the cars bouncing, fuck that. I don't see anything I just hear quality music.

Anyways, I know this is far from exact science, in fact if I were to set this up as "The cult of rap" I would probably indoctrinate dead people to get enough people for a congregational register. So I'm thinking of writing something like this, examining certain styles of rap, and writing down my findings, like Dr. Agassiz and the fish, like an ethnographer and the Yanomamos. Like a bad joke and yo mamma.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing Han quote Tiny Tim in the place of Y*hweh.

Apparently even after 3 hours they left a heap of shit out. (sources: imran sulaiman, some git that works at my local blockbuster and always criticises my video selection).

I may go see it today.

A bit $#@% long!? You're just asking for a beatdown

Vinny: Hello all, Lord of the Rings is a long movie [please kick my ass]
Han: Uh ok Vinny [just stop falling asleep and pretending that you didn't, you critical bastard]

... is a conversation that hypothetically takes place, and yet I foresee it actually happening.

But seriously... too long? It is a book after all, the complaints drastically outweigh what can actually be negatively commented about the movie which I think Vinny proves, so more power to the furry fetish people.

"Tip toe, by the window, there is where I'll be come tip toe, by the garden, with me"
- God to Adam

I haven't seen LOTR yet you bastards. I was going to go tonight to watch but I slept for 2 hours last night. Thus, I am knackered and can't concentrate to save my fucking life.

I hope you all had a good NYE.

My eyes are dry. I want to see you guys soon. But I won't. Because i'm poor and trying to make my gay way in this world.

Cheers all! I will work at Kmart.

Meeks, I've never seen momento before, I've seen requiem of a dream though, whose director also did Pi. He's also going to be doing a new Batman film, year one style. Happy new year bizatches!?