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Posted: **Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:15 am**

Bored013 wrote:
caldwell.the.great wrote:I'm spot on is what I am

if you don't see glimmers of what he's going to write later on in that book, I don't know what to tell you to convince you that they're there; his obsessions with energy, fascism, sexual violence, death, and "acephalism," as well as the foundations for his pseudo-poem-essay-thing "Formless" (informé), and his general economy. I've read several essays that conjecture relationships between Story of the Eye and Inner Experience, and do a fairly convincing job of making the connections.

there's even a hint of his Nietzschean obsession swimming about in the background, especially when the main character is gazing at the stars...

we could make a blueprint of his career from different chapters in that story; of course, it all gets fleshed out and becomes infinitely more nuanced... and the political aspect is essentially missing, so I guess it's not a complete outline, really... but all the ingredients are hiding in that book - and once you've read a huge chunk of his theoretical writings, going backing to that book is a bit of shock. It's haphazard, not nearly as poetic as Madame Edwarda, but perfect in its scope. He knew what he was doing very early on, and it only took time for him to elaborate on those early notions. I stand by that.
Ugh...terrible Ninja edit. Go to sleep.

C'mon, man.

no ninja edit, dude. stop playing the disgruntled scholar who knows better and start saying what you think.

I can't believe this thought shocks you so much; in fact, I remember you agreeing with it at some point in a conversation we had somewhere. I suppose I see what you're upset about, but you're either being too literal or we disagree about everything Bataille does.

Take a step back, look at his entire career, read more of his shorter pieces, go back through The Accursed Share, and then jump back into Story of the Eye. Think about general economy, dépense, informé, The Solar Anus ("It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another"), and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and then tell me that Story of the Eye doesn't present those ideas in a semi-narrative dress. I'm not sure what you think The Story of the Eye is about because all you've done is express your disapproval, but I'd love to hear why it's so crazy to see the beginnings of his theory in that book.

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:12 pm**

eh_d wrote:snow crash is actually better than neuromancer homes

Just finished Snow Crash and, while it picked up steam in the second half, I can't agree that it's on par with Neuromancer. I give it a 7.5 (or 4 stars on goodreads).

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:23 pm**

Yeah, the Space Rasta stuff is bizarre - they both take a stab at future tribalisms, but Gibson had an amazing understanding of technology's arc (especially for 19fucking84!).

Posted: **Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:56 pm**

Ellul was writin' that stuff in 55

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:07 am**

Bored013 wrote:
caldwell.the.great wrote: no ninja edit, dude. stop playing the disgruntled scholar who knows better and start saying what you think.
I don't even know how to reply to that.

He's asking you to posit something. Do it.

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:12 am**

Bored013 wrote:
Kurt Russell's Beard wrote:
Bored013 wrote:
caldwell.the.great wrote: no ninja edit, dude. stop playing the disgruntled scholar who knows better and start saying what you think.
I don't even know how to reply to that.
He's asking you to posit something. Do it.
Oh.

All zebras are purple.

Caldwell has an idea about this author. You're basically just telling him he's wrong without risking your intellect and saying what you think. But when shit gets hot, you crawl back into affectless zingers and sighs and whatevs. Just respond to him with reasons. That would, you know, be one way of "responding to that."

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:29 am**

Bored013 wrote:
Kurt Russell's Beard wrote: Caldwell has an idea about this author. You're basically just telling him he's wrong without risking your intellect and saying what you think. But when shit gets hot, you crawl back into affectless zingers and sighs and whatevs. Just respond to him with reasons. That would, you know, be one way of "responding to that."
Ah.

Well, the only response I can possibly make is to tell him to read more Bataille? His initial statement was so horribly wrong/off I thought he was either drunk or trolling.

Is it really my fault if my most pertinent response to a lot of what you guys say is to simply sigh and turn away? I know that makes you guys angry...it shouldn't. You just need to read more. So there, again, is my response: read/study more.

Ha ha. It takes two minutes to actually state why you think he's wrong, and it's not like you won't be here all day. Retreat back into wizened brilliant academic persona with coward taste in mouth, fail to create simplest of things: opinion. Default winner: Caldwell.

Pssst, you don't have the market cornered on "well-read."

Posted: **Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:44 am**

Bored013 wrote:
Just stop. I hate it when you get like this. It's embarrassing for everyone.

Ah, there we go, slide right into avuncular tone. You're like a finely tuned set of gears, shifting from blowhard to combative to mock-concern to rage to hasty exit. I can probably take you all the way down, stop, then bring you all the way back if I felt like it. Not because I'm a narcissist, like you claim, ha, but because you're that predictable. You're like a bot that chides others and occasionally goes on the fritz.

Well professor, I dare you to answer Caldwell with three genuine thoughts about your discussion with him.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:37 pm**

The Fall is getting bumped up to a 9.5.

Something is very wrong with me when all I could think was THIS GUY KINDA REMINDS ME OF BORED at three or four points along the way. Starting Steppenwolf tonight.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:54 pm**

father of lies wrote:Starting Steppenwolf tonight.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:21 pm**

I've read Siddhartha, but not Steppenwolf...
guess that needs to change.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:40 pm**

Yeah, Steppenwolf is great. Siddhartha is for Hesse n00bs.

I don't why it bothers me, but the parallels between Siddhartha/Steppenwolf/Narcissus and Goldmund/Demian really irritated me when I went on my Hesse kick back in the day. I know reading each book should somehow deepen my appreciation of his oeuvre, but instead it feels like cheating.

Re: the earlier conversation. I used to love love Hesse. I still appreciate him, but looking back I can't help but feel that he's a self-indulgent dick who justified his narcissism with his art.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:45 pm**

I read it when I was 16

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:50 pm**

That's when I read it! I think it's the best time to read it.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:52 pm**

Bored013 wrote:Also, I didn't want to post in this thread again, as Matt seems to be on the edge of another meltdown...although I don't know why. But, as I think of myself a humanist:

Matt, that whole thing where you desperately seek approval/attention from your betters and then (equally desperately) attack them when they don't give it to you? Daddy issues? You might want to take a closer look at that.

RE: the statement about me "being here all day", etc. Terribly petty attempt at being cruel and eliciting a response. I thought you were better than that. Oh well.

What I find funniest about Bored is that he reads so much heavy, philosophical shit but all his psychological insight seems to come out of a Psych 101 text.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2011 7:18 pm**

Howard Bloom: The Lucifer Principle - 9
Stella Bruzzi: New Documentary - 8

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:18 pm**

Started reading the Stieg Larsson series cause it was around, just finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", if I judge this against all literature it probably gets a 3-4/10, but for the standards of it's genre it's a lot of fun, maybe an 8/10 on a curve.

Really posting here to drop this link, which I think you may enjoy:

http://flavorwire.com/188138/the-30-har ... #post_body

4. Mark Twain on Jane Austen (1898)

“I haven’t any right to criticize books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

13. Gore Vidal on Truman Capote

“He’s a full-fledged housewife from Kansas with all the prejudices.”

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 3:36 pm**

altars of radness wrote: What I find funniest about Bored is that he reads so much heavy, philosophical shit but all his psychological insight seems to come out of a Psych 101 text.

he certainly talks about reading a lot of heavy philosophical shit, anyway
all those french theorists he blows can take a long walk on a short pier though

A Confederacy of Dunces - 8/10
The ending of this is similar to Lucky Jim (and some other books i can't remember) where

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

the dude manages to clear out of the environment that he has been struggling against but usually not under his own steam

I don't quite get those kind of endings, though I'm relieved by them

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 3:42 pm**

Bored013 wrote:that whole thing where you desperately seek approval/attention from your betters and then (equally desperately) attack them when they don't give it to you?

wow that's a hell of a missile to come from a glass house

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:08 pm**

that sort of shit must be pure trolling though
there is no way anyone could be so deluded

right?

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:43 pm**

"... and distributed it to whoever had need."
The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics
9
Short little booklet(66 pages) does the job

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:45 pm**

Chevalier Mal Fet wrote:Really posting here to drop this link, which I think you may enjoy:

http://flavorwire.com/188138/the-30-har ... #post_body

Hah, I saw that today (via Andrew Sullivan) and really liked:

12. Oscar Wilde on Alexander Pope

“There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.”

Not that good Oscar Wilde quotes are hard to come by...

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:51 pm**

Aya - 6/10
Nostalgic graphic novel about teenage girls in 1970s Ivory Coast. I liked it fine, but won't continue with the series.

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:53 pm**

ibn Horowitz wrote:that sort of shit must be pure trolling though
there is no way anyone could be so deluded

right?

i'd like to say yes, i would

and certainly all rational thought would point to it of course being trolling

but

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:53 pm**

Can't it be both?

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