Saturday, February 25, 2006

 

the meeting at telgte

Many years ago I read gunther grass’ s novella meeting at telgte about a group of writers and intellectuals in the 17th century coming from all over germany to a small town (telgte) to discuss the state of german language, poetry literature and hopefully to give their inputs to the peace negotiation that was going on at that time … a very noble aim…but (the meeting) ultimately ended up with general debauchery and mayhem and finally the burning down of the barn where the group held the meeting. Sounds like a normal UN sitting (minus the burning of the barn of course)

… the idea of groups of writers and book lovers meeting together fascinate me….a couple of hundred years ago literary salons were common fixtures in European upper class society which these days have degenerated into ubiquitous book reading clubs where mostly ladies of literary pretensions but suspect merits sit over bowls of peanuts and potato chips and discuss their book of the day….it is a harmless enough pass time and quite likely a much better alternative than poring over mahjong and gossiping about jacky chan and the like I suppose…but the idea of these ladies trying to impress each other by deconstructing a literary work to me is not exactly something very joyful….

…reading, very much like writing is a solitary effort and I prefer to read and keep my opinion about books to myself and I like nothing better than to be in my own library with my books and a glass of iced tea perhaps and let my mind roam away far and wide….
But I read one interesting piece by julian barnes in a vol of GRANTA …my memory about this was not too trustful... but I think it was about an invitation to join a meeting of writers somewhere in france ( but for this francophile ..where else ?)… no agenda no nothing…just be there…and he went but some how lost his way and arrived after the time of the meeting has passed… I kind of like this kind of meetings and I suppose I wouldn’t mind joining a group of book lovers which meet but with no agenda…just be there and just talk about anything…if you have any group like this do call me… I might want to attend..preferably if it has a promise of possible debauchery...

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

 

psycho killers

Psycho killers

Something funny happened last night. As I was passing by my young boy’s room I saw he was completely absorbed in front of the computer but not playing his usual games. When he saw me he quickly minimized what he was doing but our eyes were very quick to detect even a blink … and while I did not suspect anything funny going on (surfing porn) I nevertheless asked him to show me what he was doing…just to be on the safe side… and what it turned out was he was updating his profile in one of those chat groups….the unexpected thing was that he put his age at EIGHTY FIVE YEARS OLD! And he put a picture of a CHIMPANZEE for his photograph! And he’s only just coming to twelve! Don’t know whether my brazzavile beach paperback which has a cover of a chimp on a green background lying around everywhere for the past couple of weeks had anything to do with him choosing this as his avatar.

I don’t know much about chat rooms and finding friends in chat rooms in cyber space to me is a rather sad way of making friends so I really don’t know what kind of crazy things are going on there…but putting your age at 85! That kills me…as Holden Caulfield would say…

Anybody past 30 would invariably lie about their age in cyber space and it stands to reason that a twelve year old would want to pretend to be older…but not THAT old!…I could imagine some middle aged serial killers somewhere pretending to be a young professional and chatting unsuspecting young girls but I don’t know what on earth my 85 yr old chimp chat about…

Speaking of serial killers ….several years back I took a long bus ride from Xian to a remote village in Gansu province where people still live in dug out rooms on the face of mountains …in caves!…I have this friend who works in Beijing and who was the only person that ever went to university from the whole of his village and that’s where I went. His dad is still around. Used to be a school teacher but one night when he come back from school (walking) he fell off the edge of a cliff in pitch darkness and he was only found the next day half dead with a broken hip and paralysed from the waist down. He still lives with his wife a daughter and another son there (nobody gives a damn about one child policy in remote areas of China)…all of them farmers planting wheat and rearing a few pigs…the family has two caves…one for the kitchen and another for bed room and living room. There is no electricity in the whole village but this family is the most progressive one as they have a generator powered by a small old wind mill enough to generate electricity for one electric bulb…or power a black and white television. When I was there I was given the honour of sleeping in the bedroom cave but I was too afraid of darkness that I asked my friend to come accompany me and for once in my life I slept in the same bedroom with another male. But before sleeping time the whole bunch came to this cave room for dinner with us and then a choice…to use the light bulb and have a good chat or to turn on the tv…black and white tv won of course…The whole time I was there (three days) I spent the day time reading the only book that I brought with me… killer clown: the john wayne gacy murders.


Like many people, I’m quite fascinated by these psycho killers and have several true crime books that I usually read when I go to the bathroom….i usually alternate reading Christian bible and books about serial killers in the toilet…

And oh… one of the best and earliest talking head songs was called psycho killers…
And one of the best rock concert ever is jonathan demme’s “stop making sense” …a demented concert of talking head with the great david byrne…..

And here’s the lyric of psycho killers






Psycho killers
By Talking heads

I can’t seem to face up to the facts
I’m tense and nervous and i
Can’t relax
I can’t sleep ’cause my bed’s on fire
Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire

Psycho killer
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away
Psycho killer
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away

You start a conversation you can’t even finish it.
You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything.
When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed.
Say something once, why say it again?

Psycho killer,
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away

Psycho killer
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away

(* spoken interlude in french *)

Psycho killer,
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away

Psycho killer,
Qu’est que c’est
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh....

Saturday, February 18, 2006

 

the fold disturbance

Reading fiction sometimes can lead you to some unexpected new interest…such is the case for me with william boyd’s 1990 brazzaville beach ( just finished reading it a few days back)….the book piqued my interest to know more about Pan troglodyte otherwise known as chimpanzees…not sure how scientifically accurate his description of chimp behavior is but seems very convincing enough…may be thanks to Jane Goodal whom he reputedly consulted for this book…..it’s news to me that chimps can be warlike like us humans because all the while I always thought that only us evil humans have the unique thirst and hunger for premeditated killing of each other for reasons other than for food….

Though I would not rate this book as one of my all time favorites it was nevertheless quite memorable …and I was touched by the troubled & brilliant mathematician husband of the main character of the novel…and those musings on obscure and arcane mathematical concepts are actually very fascinating…and one of which in particular - about the many forms of ‘disturbance' (six) ..one of which is ‘fold disturbance’….an event of no point of return…like the bursting of a balloon.

I’ve had my own share of minor and major fold disturbances in my lifetime as everyone else…and yes, a good example of a big fold disturbance is that idiot’s action in drawing the cartoons insulting the prophet Muhammad….


…and now that I’ve finished reading this book I’ll continue with the biography of artatuk which I left mid way …but now I just picked up Mario vargas llosa’s memoir ‘fish in the water’…about among other things his run for peru’s presidency (which he lost)…so I’ll be off on a tangent again it seems….

At this rate I need to live for a thousand years before I can finish all the books that I have…and that’s not counting the new books that I’m sure to buy in the coming MPH and TIMES clearance and warehouse sales….but I’m not complaining….

Thursday, February 02, 2006

 

religious hatred bill and the offensive cartoons

Seems like religious bigotism is rearing its ugly head in the western front again. First we hear that UK "religious hatred bill" was defeated ...and my feeling is the ruling labour party was really not too keen to get this bill passed anyway..if not how can we explain the bill was lost by one vote and that was Tony Blair's himself ! ....i personally don't give a damn what happens in british parliament and anyway i'm all for freedom of speech and all that.... and of all person "Mr Bean" rowan atkinson wrote a very good defense on why the bill should not be passed and performers should be given the "right to criticise religion"....

well..i'm all for criticising religions and my biggest wonder is how on earth can billions of intelligent people can worship a bumbling mediocre jew at best and quite possibly not even a historical figure as GOD!!...but i respect everybody's right even if he wants to be an idiot...but but but...making fun , making jokes and insulting any religion is quite a different thing....

...and may be it's not a coincidence that immediately after this farcical defeat of the religious hatred bill today's guardian unlimited had a big news about more papers publishing controversial cartoons that allegedly making fun of Prophet Muhammad...I said allegedly becaus e I do not know how offensive they are as I've not seen them....

Well, we'll have to wait and see if there are any strong reaction from some sections of muslim world to this...may be this time ...when the hardliners are on the defensive in every corner of the world the reaction will not be too intense such as what happened to that fool salman rushdie - i in fact love his writings and have all his books with the exception of his latest but he just went too far with his ( ironically ) very good "satanic verses"....

it may be that the muslim response (to the insulting cartoons) this time is like the response to michel houllebecq's infamous "islam is the stupidest religion" outburst (which i think was the right one too) is just to ignore and let it die out....but then again despite winning dublin impac prize for 'atomised' houllebecq does not have a big enough stature for anybody to take him too seriously...and i agree with Will Self (who writes much better ) that he is just a little prick who doesn't get enough sex.....

i've tried to read atomised a couple of times but never get past page 30....but i did finish his short novel...more correctly a novella or just a long short story...Lanzarote...a forgettable book apart from one quite genuinely singular observation...on the third page he wrote this which i find quite amusing...

'it's not arab countries i don't like, it's muslim countries' I went on.'I don't suppose you have any non-muslim arab countries , do you?' It would be a tough question on Question pour un champion: a non-muslim arab country....you have forty second.

but again...we never know...may be we just need a couple of suicide bombers to blow themselves in some newspaper headquarters somewhere to teach these western bastards not to fool around with islam....

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

<$BlogItemTitle$>