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dear mr ian m banks
Please explain why you used such tosser names in your book surface detail. I am sure there was a good story there somewhere, but the names were so puerile i could not bring myself to look for it.
Ludicrous names (thanks, olly) do not create a sense of a different culture or the idea of a future time. They just indicate a tired author trying too hard.
dear mr ian m banks
Please explain why you used such tosser names in your book surface detail. I am sure there was a good story there somewhere, but the names were so puerile i could not bring myself to look for it.
Ludicrous names (thanks, olly) do not create a sense of a different culture or the idea of a future time. They just indicate a tired author trying too hard.
i can hardly bear it any longer and i can’t be the only one to notice. I read this book in the picador (pan 1978) weaver translation, and in the alchemist’s tale, the seven of cups appears (between the juggler and the seven of coins) but is never directly written about in the text – unless “as he handled his alembics and his retorts” is enough.
While it seems a trivial thing, it’s a glaring detail to me, either something lost in translation, or an oversight by mr calvino (could he have?) or something deliberate – my pattern-recognising software (in my brain) set off all the sirens at once.
What could it mean? Anything? Nothing? I ask calvino fans please, discuss.
After being enraged by horatio clare and pleasantly surprised by theroux’s dark star safari, i approached mr newsham with a strangely calm sense of unease. Any foreigner approaching the shores of my complicated continent raises this emotion in me now, as i have read the words of far too many of the clueless and moneyed as they sweep through in just a few days, judgementometer running on high and their propaganda-fed brains ready to burst. Read the rest of this entry »
there are very few data pieces that hit me like this one did. it came to my attention by someone sharing it, and i am eternally grateful or i would have missed out on an experience second to very few. it was the first and only piece that actually made me want to be a musician, so i could know enough about playing a guitar and singing and arranging a song to be able to create such a work.
it made me want to meet the artists, like no music has ever done, not even when i was a teenager coating the walls of my bedroom with a variety of embarrassing heroes. i wanted to know their names, and i still only know that the central long-haired singer is either Luminati Nicassio, or Gianni Luminato, or possibly both at once. what perfect names… and sarah, of course. – both of them look just like their names sound to me. (synaesthesia has its perks, although it is a cross to bear in a society obsessed with burglar alarms). i wanted to ask them all over for tea and cake, to ask them how the idea happened, how was it in the practise sessions? i wanted, very especially, to see outakes and “the making of” because i think they would have been hilarious and beautiful.
i never get tired of watching the piece, because given five lovely faces, ten hands and one guitar, there is a lot to see. i’m still sorting out who plays which sound (except the obvious drummer and the right-hand man). i haven’t yet been able to isolate sarah’s. i keep getting distracted. i love the verse singer’s eyes. he looks like a greatly improved version of a young bryan adams, and i mean greatly. i love the right-hand man’s deep sense of zen tranquillity. i yearn to know if these people are like they seem to be. i love Luminati’s passion, the incredible depth of emotion he puts into his choruses. i love sarah’s breathy voice and everso slight lisp; i love the drummer, who is just so very serious and never utters a peep, not even a backing voice. (could it be he’s all rhythm and no tone?) i love them all. deeply.
if i was in charge of what to send along with the voyager modules as they drift through the cosmos, hoping to find intelligent life, this video is on top of the pile. it is a wonderful example of what can happen when humans turn their attentions to working together, instead of just having lethal disputes over territory and who gets to fuck who over when and how hard. Walk Off The Earth and into a new and beautiful place. Long may they play and sing, many may their joys be. Tea and cake will always be ready in my house, for all of them. with or without that guitar.
NECESSARY PRE-BLURB
This entry may contain spoilers. It will definately barely contain my opinions, as well as vivid, possibly vitriolic and/or verbiolic expressions of the way the datapiece in question left me feeling. i do not pretend to have skill, professionalism or profundity. i write for my own mental health and/or entertainment. Whether you read my (gag)blog or not is irrelevant to me, as is your reaction to it. My opinions are opinions only and not to be mistaken for the ultimate truth about matters.
The authoress Sarah Hall is a beauty. Read the rest of this entry »
Alasdair Gray is not for everyone, but if he was, the world could possibly change into a saner place, thus eradicating the need for Alasdair Gray in this state of mind. Read the rest of this entry »
When will i learn? You can’t tell a book by (the reviews on) its cover. Read the rest of this entry »
NECESSARY PRE-BLURB
This entry will definately barely contain my opinions, as well as vivid, possibly vitriolic expressions of the way the issue in question left me feeling. i do not pretend to have skill, professionalism or profundity. i write for my own mental health and/or entertainment. Whether you read my (gag)blog or not is irrelevant to me, as is your reaction to it. My opinions are opinions only and not to be mistaken for the ultimate truth about matters.
Flame me if you like, til my skin melts off my bones, Read the rest of this entry »
