A Grand Illusion

Dmitri decides, finally

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:20:00 +0000

I have not been blogging lately as I have been too busy with school. But I felt this needed to be said to finish a line of blogging I stated previously.

It seems the young Nabokov has finally decided to go ahead and publish his father's fragment. I, for one, can't wait.

Castro retires

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:03:00 +0000

Yeah, I know the title to this post sounds casual, but that’s exactly what happened today. After being at the helm one of the most destructive and insidious dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere for nearly 50 years, Castro bid adieu in a letter to the editor, and secured a transition of power–a victory of sorts in a continent and an era when rulers like Castro generally met less illustrious ends.

There is strong evidence that the new Cuban junta will need to implement some changes, and gradually modernize the country’s government. The new de facto leader, Castro’s brother Raul, has almost conceded the need to reform large parts of the economy. Beyond that, it is practically inconceivable that the new junta–devoid of Castro’s impelling charisma–will be able to continue to rule so effectively without making concession.

Today’s announcement is another reminder of the abject policy failure that is the U.S. embargo against Cuba. As long as Castro ruled, the United States provided a convenient windmill for him to turn into monsters. The embargo never weakened Castro’s government, in fact, it became a rallying cry for misguided, self-destructive leftists in Cuba and the rest of Latin America, and it metastasized Castro’s hold on power.

(I can imagine that today some of the more fanatical proponents of the embargo on Cuba will try to frame today as a victory for their cause, but the assertion would only make sense if you’re willing to believe an economic embargo can cause an intestinal illness.)

Today is a bittersweet experience for Cubans–yeah, I know that’s a cliché. It marks the beginning of the end of 50 years of dictatorship. But it also means that the man who engineered so much suffering–in Cuba, Latin America, and even Africa and Asia–will never see trial.

Magnum presents the other side of karaoke culture.

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:23:00 +0000

I know so many people who should read [watch] this video from Slate.com:

From http://www.slate.com/id/2182187

One night and one roll of film. Chien-Chi Chang's photographs of "a night in a karaoke bar" explore a different scene from that which we are used to in Western karaoke establishments.
He evocatively captures the other side of karaoke culture, in which divorced or married Vietnamese women entertain Taiwanese men, portraying what some suggest is a new "concubine phenomenon" emerging from karaoke culture in certain parts of Asia.

David Defeats Goliath, Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

It seems Starbucks might be in trouble. I think their coffee is overpriced and tasted burnt, but like so many people, I continue to drink it because it is everywhere. And because there is not enough of this going on.

I had no idea Starbucks was in trouble, but as I was searching for a pic to post, I came across this story, too.

I know at least one person that this will directly affect, so for his sake and the sake of his family, I hope Starbucks can keep it together. Hopefully, this is all a wake up call to give better service and to serve better coffee.

Bedding Lolita

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Following a previous post on the greatest American [Russian] novelist, I though this was pretty funny. Had these people been living in a cave? Who hasn't heard of the Lolita connotation? Even if it is not through the book, or the movies, or the Police song? Are there no guys working for these people who surf porn? I doubt it.

Gricel sent me the following story, which I quote here in its entirety:

Shop pulls "Lolita" bed for young girls
Fri Feb 01 19:01:27 UTC 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.

Woolworths said staff who administer the web site selling the beds were not aware of the connection.

In "Lolita," a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator becomes sexually involved with his 12-year-old stepdaughter -- but Woolworths staff had not heard of the classic novel or two subsequent films based on it.

Hence they saw nothing wrong with advertising the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for girls aged about six until a concerned mother raised the alarm on a parenting website.

"What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either," a spokesman told British newspapers.

"We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now."

Woolworths said the product had now been dropped.

"Now this has been brought to our attention, the product has been removed from sale with immediate effect," the chain said.

"We will be talking to the supplier with regard to how the branding came about."

(Reporting by Peter Apps, editing by Paul Casciato)

¿Mama, que será lo que tiene el negro?

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:19:00 +0000

It seems Andy has forgotten he owns a blog. This is an e-mail he sent me, and I thought it was interesting:

"The American election, according to Spain's El mundo:

"Yo voto por Hillary porque va a hacer más por los hispanos y va a
solucionar la cuestión migratoria", confesó Gerardo. "Del 'moreno' leí
su biografía y no me gustan sus raíces musulmanas. Nosotros no tenemos
nada que ver con eso".

Mariana Fuentes, 53 años, protestó enérgicamente en cuanto vio a Bill
Clinton haciendo campaña en la entrada del 'caucus'. "Le di la mano
por pura cortesía, pero está bien de vagabundear por aquí", protestó.
"Ya hemos decidido a quien votar y no necesitamos que vengan a
comprarnos. Yo voto por el moreno porque es buen hombre y pasó más
hambre".

Translation:
I will vote for Hillary because she is going to do more for hispanics and will solve the immigration question," confessed Gerardo. "I read the "moreno's" biography, and I didn't like his Muslim background (connections? -- keep in mind I am not a professional translator). We have nothing to do with that.

Mariana Fuentes, 53, protested energetically when she saw Bill Clinton campaigning in the caucus. "I shook his hand out of courtesy, but he is welcomed to wander around here (again, probably not the best translation). "We have decided who we are going to vote for, and we don't need him coming by to try and buy us. I will vote for "el moreno" because he is a good man and has suffered hunger."

...I don't like the black one's Muslim roots, but I do like that he has
experienced hunger. ¿Mama, que será lo que tiene el negro?"

In response to Gerardo: Where is he getting that "el moreno" is Muslim? This report has been proven false for quite some time now. Just look here or here

And well... I'll leave it up to you to make some comments about that second comment. And what is it with these Spainards calling Obama "the black one"? Can't they just use his name?

Fire of My Loins

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:22:00 +0000

It turns out that the world might get to read Nabokov's last work. Thanks to Ron Rosenbaum who has been writing Nobokov's 70 year old son and telling him to let the world have the elder Nabokov's last work.

I can see the conflict: you want to respect your father's last wishes, but you also want the world to see his greatness one last time. Especially as a son respecting his father's wishes. It, I believe, was a different situation when Max B. ignored Franz Kafka's wishes. Max was a good friend (not a son). Nonetheless, thank God Max didn't listen to Kafka and gave us all his disturbingly existential literature.

And I hope that Dimitri will do the same. He shouldn't worry that the "Lolitologist" will ruin his fathers work with their misinterpretation. After all, the different critical readings are only read by the critics and scholars... Which is no reason to keep your average, everyday bibliophile from reading the last great words of the greatest [Russian] American writer.

Sad? Good!

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:56:00 +0000

There is a great article talking about the value of melancholia here.

It talks about modern society's obsession with wanting to be happy while ignoring sadness, and the problem with this will be the end of beautiful art that taps into that sadness in order to create:

I for one am afraid that American culture's overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness might be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life. I further am concerned that to desire only happiness in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic, to settle for unrealistic abstractions that ignore concrete situations. I am finally fearful of our society's efforts to expunge melancholia. Without the agitations of the soul, would all of our magnificently yearning towers topple? Would our heart-torn symphonies cease?

Jung said

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

So I think the article has a point. We cannot have one without the other, and even worse, we would have no art without both!

No Time

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:44:00 +0000

So I have been slacking on the posting. It has been hard for me to get back into the swing of things since the holidays. I just don't seem to have enough time. But it turns out that time might not even exist. I love the way Western science has wrestled with this for years.

Meanwhile the Buddhist have been saying the same thing for years (even before Jesus Christ):

Regarding the Buddhist concept of time, our philosophy has. adopted several positions. The Sautrantika school, also known as the "Holders of Discourse," affirms that all phenomena and events exist only in the present moment. For this school, past and future are nothing other than simple concepts, simple mental constructs. As for the Madhyamika-Prasangika school, the Consequence School of the Middle Way, it generally explains time in terms of relativity, as an abstract entity developed by the mind on the basis of an imputation, the continuity of an event or phenomenon. This philosophical view &scribes, therefore, an abstract concept whose function is dependent on the continuum of phenomena. From this point on, to try to explain time as an autonomous entity, independent from an existing object, proves impossible. That time is a relative phenomenon and can claim no independent status is quite clear; I often give the example of external objects which can be easily conceived of in terms of the past or future, but of which the very present seems inconceivable. We can divide time into centuries, decades, years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. But as the second is also divisible into multiple parts, milliseconds for example, we can easily lose our grasp of the notion of present time!

As for consciousness, it has neither past nor future and knows only present moments; it is the continuum of a present moment being trans . formed into another present moment, whereas with external objects the present disappears in favour of notions of past and future. But further pursuit of this logic will lead to absurdity, because to situate past and future we need a frame of reference which, in this case, is the present, and we have just lost its trace in fractions of milliseconds.. . .

I remember being throughly confused when my philosophy professor was explaining how Kant says time starts at the same time of space, and that while both are, in a sense, constructs-- it is the only way we can experience our surroundings...

Now, don't quote me on that as I am pretty sure I got the concept wrong. I better go read Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics again. If anyone knows, please, feel free to post the proper concept in the responses.

Philosophical throw-down!

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:03:00 +0000

I have been on vacation (and more), so it has been hard to concentrate. I did come across this, though, and thought it was pretty funny.

Turns out there is an intellectual dispute among philosophers and one of them is a Miami boy. I can't wait to get a Phd. and get into stupid arguments that no one cares about.

This Just In

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:17:00 +0000

Our friend Alan is a big time reporter for USAToday. When I am bored at work, I read his stories and try to pick out any mistakes that were made--mostly grammar mistakes. In his defensiveness he showed me the recent AP story, and while I hate to be the grammar police can anyone tell me what this lead means:

Motorists slid off roads Sunday across the Great Lakes states and into New England as a storm already blamed for three deaths cut visibility and iced over highways with a wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain

Anyone?

Sunday Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:26:00 +0000

There is an article in The New York TImes about a "new" philosophy. Though I don't see how this is any kind of new philosophy.

Maybe someone knows better than I, but this seems like it would fall under some kind of philosophy of science and technology.

And then there is the thought experiment that the article brings up:

Kripke offered a thought experiment: Suppose, he asked us to imagine, that Gödel’s theorem was actually the work of a fellow named Schmidt; it’s just that Gödel somehow got hold of the manuscript and thereafter was wrongly credited with its authorship. When those of us who know about “Gödel” only as the theorem’s author invoke that name, whom are we referring to? According to Russell’s view of reference, we’re actually referring to Schmidt: “Gödel” is merely shorthand for the fellow who devised the famous theorem, and Schmidt is the creature who answers to that description. “But it seems to me that we are not,” Kripke declared. “We simply are not.”

To which experimentalists reply: What do you mean “we,” kemo sabe? Recently, a team of philosophers led by Machery came up with situations that had the same form as Kripke’s and presented them to two groups of undergraduates — one in New Jersey and another in Hong Kong. The Americans, it turned out, were significantly more likely to give the responses that Kripke took to be obvious; the Chinese students had intuitions that were consonant with the older theory of reference. Maybe this relates to the supposed individualism of Westerners; maybe their concern that we get Schmidt’s name right isn’t shared by the supposedly more group-minded East Asians. Whatever the explanation, it’s a discomforting result. “We simply are not”: well, that may be so at Princeton or Rutgers. On the other side of the planet, it might seem we are. What should philosophers make of that?

My problem with this question is that what we are really refering to in this example is not Godel or Schmidt but the actual theorem. Words are, after all, just empty signifiers, so what we call the theorem (the words we use to "name" the theorem) matters very little. It doesn't matter if we call it Schmidtz or Godel.

Did I miss something? Also, why do philosophers have to justify what they do now? I am not saying that mixing genres here is bad. I have been wondering why philosophy isn't used by more professions, but as soon as something is a little too hard, no one wants to put in the time and effort to understand it and use it. What I am asking is why are these people using outdated philosophical concepts.

Philosophy is behind our laws and religion, and is involved in psychology, literature, art, language etc. We should be embracing it more and using it more in our daily life.

Book of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:06:00 +0000

I finally finished The Crying of Lot 49 after doing all my grading and such.

The plot is a simple one: Opedia Mass, a restless wife and thinker, is married to a somewhat vapid disc jockey. The novel starts off with her getting a letter informing her that she has been made the executor of her ex-boyfriend's will, Pierce Invararity, who is some rich guy in California. She decides to go to (the fictional) town of San Narciso to fullfill her duties. After meeting her lawyer, the once child star, and the Paranoids--she begins to unravel a world-wide postal conspiracy dating back to the 1400's.

The novel then becomes a satirical detective novel as Opedia meets strange characters that all seem to be connected in some way to W.A.S.T.E--it all has to do with the postal conspiracy. She continues to search through Southern California even though she starts to see the people around her crumble into insanity (mostly from using too much LSD), and she wonders, herself, if she is not falling into the same kind of paranoid fantasy.

The actual plot of the novel is almost secondary. It is not so much what Pynchon is saying, but the way in which he says it. And the way that Pynchon tells his story is fascinating. The novel is, first of all, funny. Secondly, the novel deals with all those complex post-structural ideas that make a English Lit. nerd like myself toes tingle.

If we merely look at the name of the town and the hotel Opedia stays at, into account, we see the reference to the Greek myth of Narcisus and Echo. Opedia is an obvious allusion to the odyssey that Opedia takes. There is a motif in those stories that is seen throughout this one: the problem of communication, the problem about how language is never fully present, about how people are disconnected from each other because they can not understand each other through words. The tension in the novel is achieved through this mis-communication.

I will not get into the deeper philosophical issues here as I promised the owner of this blog that I would stay away from the mental masturbation, but feel free to make comments if you would like to discuss these issues and the many others that arise in the book.

I discovered Pynchon through a great short story called Entropy , and I have been meaning to read Crying for a long time. I highly recommend both of these stories to anyone looking to get into Pynchon and the ideal post-modern novel.

You can read an excerpt of the novel here.

Brooklyn's Books of Wow

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:08:00 +0000

As I procrastinate in grading papers, I came across this highly aggressive review which states how this crop of BBoW books are trite and something yadda yadda...

The only book I have read of the books being "reviewed" is "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by David Eggers. While the book has its flaws, it is still, in my opinion, a wonderful and wonderfully original work. And when I see the author say:

Maybe I’m taking literally what’s meant to be sarcastic, but beneath the sarcasm lays real disdain. This is most evident at his sister’s wedding, a presumably significant event in Eggers family annals. Instead of extending the lattice, however, the sole, incredibly tepid description he gives of the groom is that he’s “a nice young man named James.” As for the other guests, Dave thinks, “I am not them. I am . . . a hundred years old.”

This, in my opinion, is a complete misread of the story. It makes the review sound as if he hadn't read the rest of the book. Eggers says he want to be the lattice, but that he can not/does not know how to achieve it. And the reason that Eggers says, "I am not them. I am...a hundred years old" is because of his situation. He was thrown into raising his little brother while still being a bit of a child himself.

A critique like this reminds me of Roland Barthe's "Mythologies" in which Barthe points out how critics claim to "not understand" something-- and in that-- they imply that there is a deficiency in the writing, rather than in their critique. The problem in Eggers's book is not in its hyper self-awareness, but in that Eggers uses that hyper-awareness too much.

And yet, I feel it works even if it is a bit too much shtick. AHWSG is one of the funniest and most original books I have read in a real long time.

I can't comment on the other books this guy is reviewing as I have not read them, but going off of what he says about the Eggers book, I have to assume he is just as myopic in reviewing those books as well.

Oh, Bush--I hate you

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:38:00 +0000

And and this is why

When will Bush learn to play well with others?

Me fail english, unpossible

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:16:00 +0000

As I sit up at night unable to sleep, I came across this article. No commentary necessary other than "duh." But I'll comment for the hell of it.

As I started teaching English Composition and Rhetoric (as ENC 1101 at FIU is now called), I start every semester asking all the students what their favorite books are and more and more the answer is: Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, and The Alchemist.

The way the students answer the question makes it sound like their favorite book is the only book that they have read. Time after time it is the student who can't answer that question (because he/she has too many favorites) who is the better writer.

So my question is: are these finding really a suprise?

Seeing the school I teach at take out Literature from the composition classroom, it makes me wonder if the students leaving my classroom aren't leaving without the tools needed to succeed? I also wonder: if these kids don't read a book in my English class, and they are only required to read one story in their ENC 1102 class, well, then, are they ever going to read another book besides Harry Potter and the one in 1102? After all, as the report states:

In seeking to detail the consequences of a decline in reading, the study showed that reading appeared to correlate with other academic achievement. In examining the average 2005 math scores of 12th graders who lived in homes with fewer than 10 books, an analysis of federal Education Department statistics found that those students scored much lower than those who lived in homes with more than 100 books. Although some of those results could be attributed to income gaps, Mr. Iyengar noted that students who lived in homes with more than 100 books but whose parents only completed high school scored higher on math tests than those students whose parents held college degrees (and were therefore likely to earn higher incomes) but who lived in homes with fewer than 10 books.

Well parents... Don't expect your kids to read any books in their college English class either. Try the library, they got the books in there for free-- although, last I checked, FIU stopped ordering any new books. Let's hope ignorance really is bliss.

Something New

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:44:00 +0000

As promised earlier... It seems the kids over at FIU have joined forces with the kids over at the University of Miami and Miami-Dade College to start a new magazine. The way Robert, the humanaties editor describes it is:

Basically, the magazine is about topics that are interesting to the College student.
Some of the sections are:

The Humanities: (My section. I deal with Arts, culture, and topics like religion and philosophy. I do reviews of interesting arts events around the Miami area, book reviews, T.V. reviews, and upcoming movie reviews. The section also deals with Fiction/Poetry/Prose.)

Spit it Out UM, MDC, and FIU: (Deals with upcoming events in each of the campuses, gossip, and anything directly related to each university)

Hot Spots: (Cool places to visit. Mostly underground, undiscovered places which Backslash wants to bring attention to)

Fashion: (Deals with trends)

The Who: (features interesting persons that have something to do with the universities)

Politics: (Deals with Politics or events somehow related to)

The Future: (Has to do with neat technological advances that a reader might be interested in reading about. Such as bionic parts or melanin pills that are meant to give a supposed natural-artificial tan)

These are only some of the already outlined sections. Still, the magazine is evolving until the specific mood that we envision is established. What the Backslash staff see is a magazine that is slick and humorous, informative and exciting.

I've looked around at the on-line content and some of it is pretty good and some of it is horribly written. It seems that the zine is still trying to find its identity, and once they do, I'm sure it will be something that can last for years to come.

I remember as a young Beaconite (well, I wasn't really a Beaconite. I brought beer around the office, late night production nights, and then I wrote some horrible opinion pieces for both Brad and Andy), there was constant talk of doing something like this-- I guess the only way to get the money was for three universities to combine forces.

Take a look around the on-line content, and the print version should be out in January, I believe. Also, keep in mind that the magazine is still trying to find its voice and is still young and from what I've seen, still needs a little work. Nonetheless some interesting stuff, I mean, they are publishing the Chuck Palahniuk review I wrote (below), after all.

Metal Health

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:43:00 +0000

As a child when I was first becoming interested in music, I was, of course, influenced by the high pitched vocals, grimy guitar, and pounding drums blaring out of the stereo speakers as my older brother played his heavy metal. Additionally, after about a year of not having some new channel called MTV, my family finally got cable, and I got to see images attached to the music.

One of the first video's I remember was this Quiet Riot video. I would put a speaker up to the screen door of the house and blast this song as I played basketball with my brother. The song was loud and obnoxious and (for a 10 year old) dirty.

Years later as a 24 year old, I was at Bennigan's waiting for a friend when some 36 year old started talking to me. She mentioned to me how she had gone out with the guitarist from Quit Riot (not the gay one), and how she went to Randy Rhodes funeral. After many many drinks, the cougar and I ended up in my car-- and I will leave out the details, but it was a good time.

What I am saying here is that Quiet Riots has a special place in my heart because I associate it with many fond memories. And with that said, tragedy has struck

It turns out Kevin Dubrow has passed at the age of 52. I ask that we have a moment of "quiet" for the dearly departed. Quiet Riot was one of the first bands that began the hair metal scene. They were the first to mix the pop and metal genre for better or for worse with thier cover the Slade song by the same name ("cum on feel the noise").

"Metal Health" was another song of theirs that I always liked.

Metal Health'll cure your crazy
Metal Health'll cure your mad
Metal Health is what we all need
It's what you have to have

As a youngster, I was enchanted by those words. You can read the Slate obit here.

God Hates Fags

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:21:00 +0000

I'm sure you have heard about these people. They think that anybody that is not in their church are "fags" and are going to hell. I mean, I'm all for freedom of speech, but this is invasion of privacy. Of course, I'm sure Andy knows more about the law than I do.

I am going off of this (article), and there seems to be two conflicting issues here: freedom of speech vs. privacy.

On one side you have

"It's a very unattractive defendant, but the law is on their side," said Mark Graber, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maryland School of Law."

and on the other:

"This has come up before in abortion cases. You can't go outside a doctor's house and protest because you're targeting that person," Summers said. "This isn't 'I love the war, I hate the war.' You're targeting that family."

I'm going to have to agree with the latter. One thing is freedom of speech, but
these people are just evil. Where does the Bible say to hate anyone? You hate
the sin not the sinner. Their sign should read "God hates sodomy", not "fags."
Fags are people too. If these nut-jobs hate gays so much, why don't they go protest outside some gay club or something. I think the reason they don't is because they would get what they deserve--an ass pounding.

The Supreme court, I'm sure, will put in its two cents soon enough on the issue. We'll just have to wait and see.

Hello...

noreply@blogger.com (Apa) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:35:00 +0000

Hello. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Jose (Apa), and in recently talking to the owner of this blog (Andy), I expressed to him how I was thinking of starting my own blog. He graciously invited me to just join his, so here I am. Forgive me as I become acquanted with this system and learn how to "blog." As a new contributor, I would like to start a weekly (though it will probably end up being a monthly) post on what I'm reading. I know this sounds a bit self-absorbed, but isn't blogging in general such an activity?
Of course, I would love to hear people's responses and opinions on the books being discussed. I offer a review of Chuck Palahniuk's latest work as the first installment of hopefully many. This is a review I wrote for a new magazine (called Backslash, I believe) that is going to be published through FIU, UM, and FAMU (though I'm not sure about that last university). I will post the details as they are made available to me.

Here is the review:
Chuck Palahniuk. Rant: An Oral Biography

Chuck Palahniuk has a knack for presenting characters one hates to love (think Tyler Durden in Fight Club, charismatic and boisterous but with fascist tendencies). In Rant: An Oral Biography, Buster “Rant” Casey is the kid you remember from elementary school who was always dirty and smelled of urine and old Tampons, but he fascinated you because he flustered the teacher.
The reader learns—through the ranting (pun fully intended) of family, friends, acquaintances, doctors, and psychologist— Rant’s story which involves rabies, the tooth fairy, a trained, heightened sense of smell and taste, a game involving people crashing their cars into one another, virtual reality implanted in your brain a la Matrix, time travel, and possibly incest.
In one of the tamer scenes of the novel, the reader learns how Rant got his name from a Halloween prank he pulls off in which he makes all the school children of his little town vomit. Remember those Halloween parties in which you were blindfolded, and then told to put your hand into a bowl of “brains” and “eyes”? Take out the quotation marks, and you have kids ranting after touching cow eyeballs and pig intestines.
Tension is added in the novel through the use of a myriad of contradictory anecdotes detailing not only Rant’s life but also the setting of the story: a pseudo-apocalyptic future in which over-population has led to laws which relegate people to “Day-timers” and “Night-timers,” and in which the government has an Orwellian eye on their citizens.
The anecdotes are entertaining, and leave the reader wondering what is real and what is artifice. Until the final fourth of the book when Palahniuk tries to explain all the obscure time travel and rabies he's deftly introduced rather than leave the reader in the dark, and let the reader use his own imagination. It is like getting food poisoning. You enjoy the meal while you eat it, but then you are left (excuse the pun) ranting afterwards. Palahniuk should stay away from the pseudo-sci-fi and stick to the pseudo Gothic he is much more talented at.

Greatest video ever

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:53:00 +0000

El Rey le grita a Chávez
Uploaded by frankib

Here's the story.

And now, a lesson from Bill Clinton

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:39:00 +0000

As Matthew Yglesias points out, Clinton shows Democrats how you respond to Republican attacks:

Damn, he's good.

One more thing

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:06:00 +0000

We all love Springsteen, but it's important to note, as Howie Klein reminds us, that he had no business covering this song, even though he's from Jersey and doesn't want you to forget, because it was already perfect.

C'mon Bruce, you should know better than to add lyrics to a Tom Waits' song.

Globalization and politics

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 03:55:00 +0000

Yep. Failure in American politics only means you could probably get a job somewhere else, like the Ukraine, as a senior aide for Bob Dole found:

But Mr. Yanukovich has not done it all on his own. From an anonymous office off Kiev’s main square, a seasoned American political strategist who was once a senior aide in Senator Bob Dole’s Republican presidential campaign has labored for months on a Yanukovich makeover.

Though the strategist, Paul J. Manafort, has sought to remain behind the scenes, his handiwork has been evident in Mr. Yanukovich’s tightly organized campaign events, in his pointed speeches and in how he has presented himself to the world.

Mr. Manafort is by no means the only well-known American strategist lured to Kiev by the prospect of sizable fees and the chance to shape the course of a young and tumultuous democracy.

President Yushchenko’s party, Our Ukraine, has received advice from the firm run by Bill Clinton’s pollster, Stan Greenberg; from Stephen E. Schmidt, campaign manager for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California; and from Neil Newhouse, a pollster who worked for Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, when he was Massachusetts governor.

Okay, so it's not only failures, which is probably good news 'cause it means endless retirement options for aging political hitmen. Any Bahamian candidates looking for a communications director?

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 18:22:00 +0000