Friday, December 30, 2005

Hey man, it was a learning process.

Less sin? No. Definitely not. I'm killing too many nuns as is. But I am listening to music.

I hate something. This is a tricky proposition that I really should get to the bottom of, but you know. I'd rather not. Sometimes it's better to fester. You can poke it for entertainment on a dull day. Not that it's ever a dull day in casa de Rishi.

By which I mean my brain.

We can debate the theological implications later; what's important now is that I reread and finished Garp. I like it more now. The book says a lot of things; in a way it's that superficial, shallow book that still manages to say something meaningful. Just to define what that meaningfulness is a relatively thankless job. I suppose you could primarily boil it down to a novel about a novelist, written snappily, with writing tips along the way.

It's weird, though, because there are so many things in it that are oddly metafictive and self-referential, and yet the author eschews the severely postmodern anyway. He mentions in the afterword for his motivations for this to be a character-based novel, and obviously maintains that, but still.

The other issue is of control: Back in the days of 4-unit, something I picked up from that awesome prof was the large works are harder to control. It's relatively easy to control a 40 minute essay; that much harder to control a 2000 word piece. So it kinda got me thinking on how he was able to maintain control over this 500-odd page behemoth. He's done a commendable job, but damn, this thing sprawls so much it could become a national trailer park. It was his breakout novel and all, and it's turned out well.

It's a good book though. Worth reading once. Twice even. I read it twice mostly because I was rather uninspired the first time, it being a character based novel and all. But I suppose it was just a case of cold feet. Or something.

I'm reading the collected short stories of Roald Dahl (which is just so unfair, as it's something like 6 different short story collections, but i'm counting it as only one book) and he's a weird fellow. I've read one collection, possibly his most famous, or because i've read that one before. I like it. More on that later when I finish.

I finally have a day off, and yet I have to several piddly things like bodily functions, call that place which I forget, change or atleast procrastinate and agonise over changing my prefs, and listen to Franz. The latter is good though. I also got This Fffire, which is sorta a remix/BETTER version of This Fire. Tschuss Tschuss! (imagine the umlauts are there. Just imagine.)

Two things that I must write down: line from Chrno Crusade "No, I spent most of my time trying to keep my family from hating me."

And this:
"What's the opposite of heaven?!"
"Hell!"
"What's the opposite of float!?"
"Sink!...Helsinki?!"
- correct answer to question in Articulate, with me answering, and Kyle questioning.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rish-rish, Alt + 0252, ok? Then, the umlauts need no longer be imaginary. Please.

Inu

rishimon said...

Roger! Umlauts are go! ΓΌΓΌ