Thursday, December 15, 2005
A few things of note.
I just finished reading three things that I will give you running *something* on.
Dead Babies by Martin Amis
Holy fuck is my head hurting, and do I feel like gouging out my eyes. I thought (read: ok, maybe reveled in a little) I'd read some pretty fucked up shit in my time, but I was so remorsefully wrong. The whole time that my mind was being sandblasted with small pills spewing forth from the pages at lightening speed, I kept wondering if I dare read another one of his books for comparison. At this point, I have no other books of his, but could possibly pilfer another, but am also slightly fearful of subjecting myself to the mindfuck of it all.
In a nutshell, there is taking a lovely british summer holiday in the sun and with free young spirits, and THEN there is taking a lovely british summer holiday in the sun with free young spirits on drugs who fuck anything that moves, and where sobriety is only a necessary evil, like taking a dump or cleaning out the coffee filter. Throw in a good handful of psychosis for each party, and motion-sickness inducing pace of writing, and you're left where I'm at now, huddling on my couch and feeling slightly violated.
Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman
Strangely enough, it was a refreshing transition from Amis to read a comic about the Holocaust. I'd been meaning to read the two books for a while, but hadn't had the time until today. They're really well done graphic novels. I've read a lot of literature about the Holocaust before these, but these touched me profoundly, because they were so personally written and related (true) from the author's father's experience of surviving World War II as a Jewish person with his wife. Not only this, but there are things occurring after the war included that give the full extent of "fallout" that even those who survived would endure for the rest of their lives.
For me, the most jarring part of the novels was seeing the diagrams of the crematoriums or the showers, as relayed by Art Spiegelman's father, and hearing about the many daunting things that he experienced or saw firsthand around those. Chilling also was the inevitable thing that happens towards the concept of "death" in a time of crisis (that is to say that the death of another becomes insignificant, except to be something to avoid for yourself in the pursuit of survival).
Last but not least, Fenton and I watched "City of God", to cap off the day, stretched out on the blue bed of doom watching turqoise subtitles (how vibrant and hard to read!). This one is still sinking in I think, but I'm very glad that someone recommended it to me, because it's an outstanding movie. It sure gives you a different outlook on how "organized" crime works though, granted things work differently in different places I suppose. But yeah, maybe more on that later. I couldn't stop thinking about Tookie Williams while I was watching it. The featured link is...interesting. Mind that flashy scrolling banner of death!
To those not in the know, I am now free like wildabeast until January. I have no fucking clue how to while away the time. ¶ 10:28 PM
I just finished reading three things that I will give you running *something* on.
Dead Babies by Martin Amis
Holy fuck is my head hurting, and do I feel like gouging out my eyes. I thought (read: ok, maybe reveled in a little) I'd read some pretty fucked up shit in my time, but I was so remorsefully wrong. The whole time that my mind was being sandblasted with small pills spewing forth from the pages at lightening speed, I kept wondering if I dare read another one of his books for comparison. At this point, I have no other books of his, but could possibly pilfer another, but am also slightly fearful of subjecting myself to the mindfuck of it all.
In a nutshell, there is taking a lovely british summer holiday in the sun and with free young spirits, and THEN there is taking a lovely british summer holiday in the sun with free young spirits on drugs who fuck anything that moves, and where sobriety is only a necessary evil, like taking a dump or cleaning out the coffee filter. Throw in a good handful of psychosis for each party, and motion-sickness inducing pace of writing, and you're left where I'm at now, huddling on my couch and feeling slightly violated.
Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman
Strangely enough, it was a refreshing transition from Amis to read a comic about the Holocaust. I'd been meaning to read the two books for a while, but hadn't had the time until today. They're really well done graphic novels. I've read a lot of literature about the Holocaust before these, but these touched me profoundly, because they were so personally written and related (true) from the author's father's experience of surviving World War II as a Jewish person with his wife. Not only this, but there are things occurring after the war included that give the full extent of "fallout" that even those who survived would endure for the rest of their lives.
For me, the most jarring part of the novels was seeing the diagrams of the crematoriums or the showers, as relayed by Art Spiegelman's father, and hearing about the many daunting things that he experienced or saw firsthand around those. Chilling also was the inevitable thing that happens towards the concept of "death" in a time of crisis (that is to say that the death of another becomes insignificant, except to be something to avoid for yourself in the pursuit of survival).
Last but not least, Fenton and I watched "City of God", to cap off the day, stretched out on the blue bed of doom watching turqoise subtitles (how vibrant and hard to read!). This one is still sinking in I think, but I'm very glad that someone recommended it to me, because it's an outstanding movie. It sure gives you a different outlook on how "organized" crime works though, granted things work differently in different places I suppose. But yeah, maybe more on that later. I couldn't stop thinking about Tookie Williams while I was watching it. The featured link is...interesting. Mind that flashy scrolling banner of death!
To those not in the know, I am now free like wildabeast until January. I have no fucking clue how to while away the time. ¶ 10:28 PM
