Whenever I try to write something I’m reminded of some various lexical issues my brain has. For instance I have always had an issue with spelling some words that have double letters in them…or sometimes putting double letters where they don’t belong. Just something my brain does from time to time…no biggie overall. The big nuisance (I just tried to spell that as nuissance by way of example) of it is that it is usually the same words over and over. I can’t seem to correct it.
I bring this up because there’s one of these things that really drives me crazy. I know how the word is spelled, but for some reason when I type it my hands inject an extra T. The word? Fantasy. For some reason it usually types out as Fantasty. Fan-tasty. What the fuck is with that?
Come to think of it I think I have an answer: Boris Vallejo, Louis Royo, et al. Their book covers were definitely a case of Fan-Tasty!
With the usual holiday hullabaloo over I finally got around to finishing off Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. All said I really enjoyed it. The characters are quite memorable with that nice combination of interesting and realistic, which can be hard to come by in fantasy novels.
The biggest complaint I have comes from my friend John, an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi who as a physicist spends his days smashing atoms, measuring gravity waves, and searching for invisible clouds high in the stratosphere. One of his particular dislikes in literature is when someone tries to over-explain the science behind something when science doesn’t quite mesh up with the explanation, for instance the lodestone resonators in the HDM trilogy. I didn’t find it such a bother, but we all have things that bug the shit out of us. Hell…anyone who has talked to me long enough knows how much I love to fly off the handle about the endangered status of the adverb, especially in the media.
Beyond that most people view the occasional smack at religion with a grain of salt, especially since the particular comments are true of the Church at various times in its history. I don’t think it should be any more of a turn off than my having to read CS Lewis talking about how rotten little girls become when they grow up in true to life bible-thumper form.
Oh yeah, and as far as the movie for The Golden Compass goes according to WorldwideBoxoffice.com it came in at about #13 for revenue last year and has earned $249.8 million. Since the budget for the movie came in around $200 million, it looks like we’ll get to see the other two made. Funny how many people keep talking about how the movie flopped when the numbers tell a vastly different story. I guess their own agendas are showing.
Hmmm…I wonder if the Atheist Agenda fits in with the Liberal Agenda or the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
I finally got to finishing Crash by J.G. Ballard this morning. Whether or not you’re a fan of Cronenberg (though I certainly am) I highly reading it. All said I think it is a marvelous work and definitely recommend reading it. Ballard spins a wonderful tale about the transformation of humankind, both mind and body, at the hands of some of our most prevalent technology: the automobile. At the end I now see his point, how we have been transformed not by the majesty of our creations but by mutilation…mentally, sexually, and physically. Our new beings have healed together to fit a new way, new possibilities, new fantasies. Looking at the Internet I find myself thinking of how it hasn’t benefited our world in the way anyone had thought. Well, to be fair in many ways it has, but it is the unforeseen side effects that have ultimately truly changed us and given us a view inside the guts of humanity that we couldn’t see before accelerating our birth into something else.
For all the beautiful information the Internet has to provide, for all of the wonders I have seen because of it I realize that such things as Goatse and 4chan have truly had the most impact. They are horrors played upon the mind causing me adjust around them so my mind can work within the mangled cabin of modern human thought: revolution in its highest form.
I’m also reminded of my knee, functioning as it is - a collection of scar tissue, relocated connective tissue, manually carved cartilage, and metal. Destroyed from what it once was, but reborn into something else at the hands of a skilled surgeon through the violent transformation of an accident on the gym room floor. It is a knee in much the same sense that we are all still human: in function perhaps, but not entirely in form.
I find myself disliking a lot of things that people keep telling me are supposed to be great. Nothing unusual there. For instance I don’t really see what all of the hoopla is about with the Godfather trilogy. Yeah, I can see some good points to it, but overall it doesn’t do much of anything for me. Brian, from Family Guy, had a nice comment on the movie: “It insists on itself”. I find the issue more simple - I can’t stand the sound. I’m not quite sure what Coppola was trying to accomplish with it, but all said something about the aural assault I receive when watching it really turns me off to it. I can only take clinking china and people arguing for so long. I should read the novels at some point to see if I like it better in written form.
Another one that didn’t impress me in the slightest was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I read it, put it down, and thought “Meh.”
What’s my beef? Two things. First off nothing really happens. The novel sums to zero in the end. His grandiose rebellion that I have heard so much about doesn’t yield anything outside of himself or with himself for that matter. Secondly, and far more importantly, I don’t find Holden to be the slightest bit interesting. I was hoping that after the first few chapters we’d get to see something about this character that would be mind bending, but we don’t. Yeah, he had a big tragedy in his life, but once again, nothing really comes of it. Instead of becoming a motivating factor in the development of his personality it becomes more of a footnote as to why he doesn’t get around to doing much of anything.
In short nothing happens to a generally unlikable and thoroughly uninteresting youth. I spent the whole time hoping we’d get a character that was like Estella in Great Expectation: unlikable but interesting, but it never delivers. Instead I kept expecting Holden to say, “I’m going back to my room to listen to Linkin Park!” I guess I don’t find teenage angst as interesting as most. Perhaps if it didn’t happen to absolutely everyone I may have found it more interesting. If a similar story was written about a woman experiencing depression after a miscarriage I’d be glued to the pages since I haven’t and never will experience it first hand.
Pkmoutl, my friendly neighborhood literary nut (well, one of them) has told me that Catcher was Salinger’s worst work. I’ll have to read his other novels and shorts just to clear the bad taste from Catcher left in my mouth.
