RKNet Blog... Thing

Let me start by saying that this grouping is little more than a list of some of my favorite books. It in no way purports to be comprehensive in any sense, nor are the books presented in any particular order.

Many are distinctly Modern (I’m looking at you, Dave Eggers, Nicole Krauss and Lauren Slater). Others employ a favorite story-telling technique, Magical Realism, that I personally, can’t get enough of (thanks Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez). Still others are included because they’re beautifully told, utterly unique or just plain cool.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
Eggers’ first novel is part memoir, part fiction and all modern. This book is bigger than itself. Eggers’ wildly experimental prose, self-conscious narrative and sheer humanity make this one of my all time favorites. The story details his family’s struggle to adjust to the death of both their father and mother in the span of just 32 days- yet much of the book is sheer fantasy and Eggers takes creative liberties in calling this story a “memoir.” (See “Lying: Lauren Slater, below) I would highly recommend this book to aspiring writers.

100 Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
A legend in and of itself, this book traces the lineage of a family in a small, supposedly South American town “on the edge of nowhere.” Employing some stunning examples of Magical Realism, a literary technique that has one character literally being drawn into the sky never to return, Marquez’ style is resonant of a fairy-tale so that the impossible is readily, even eagerly accepted. The opening line alone speaks volumes about the way this book hooks you: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison)
Morrison needs little introduction on my part, and I had a difficult time choosing just one of her novels to highlight. However, Song of Solomon, to me, is perhaps her most experimental yet down-to-earth story to date. The story is a part coming-of-age, part alamentation of the lasting effects of slavery and part an examination of love, in all its strange and often distorted manifestations. Oh, and you’ll find some gorgeous instances of magical realism thrown in there for good measure as well.

Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie)
Hilarious, beautifully written, and impeccably structured, Rushdie constantly teases and tests his readers. The story, which traces a young man, Saleem, and his family as he grows up during India’s independence movement has been called a metaphor for the growth, and coming of age, of the country. Rushdie is truly a unique voice and Midnight’s Children is unabashedly accessible.

The History of Love (Nicole Krauss) 2005
A beautifully understated story with distinctly modernist leanings, The History of Love braids together the lives of three characters inextricably, yet distantly tied to each other: Leo, an old man who fears he is disappearing; Alma, a young girl on a quest to find happiness for her withdrawn mother; and Litvinoff, a mysterious and brooding Chilean man from another time. The History of Love truly stuns with some of it’s passages, one in particular stays with me:

“The first language humans had was gestures. There was nothing primitive about this language that flowed from people’s hands, nothing we say now that could not be said in the endless array of movements possible with the fine bones of the fingers and wrists. The gestures were complex and subtle, involving a delicacy of motion that has since been lost completely…”

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
Perhaps a bit pretentious, this work of modern/post-modern fiction examines the insignificance of each and every one of us through a couple and their various infidelities. Uplifting, no? While it’s fair to say that not much actually *happens* in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, so much is said. Kundera believes this “lightness” (our insignificance) to be somewhat wrenching. I myself find it a bit liberating. Whether or not you enjoy the story, Kundera’s structure and prose make this piece worth reading, and the points it raises might send you on a philosophical quest of your own.

The Ear, the Eye and the Arm (Nancy Farmer)
I’m biased because this was a childhood favorite. Set in Zimbabwe in the year 2194, this story follows three royal youths through the various underbellies, subcultures and cults they encounter after they’ve been kidnapped. Three detectives with genetic deformities (super sensitive ears; excessively perceptive eyes and the third with a sense of empathy that often causes him to break down in tears) are assigned to find the children. Yes, it’s science fiction. Yes, it’s a children’s book. Yes, it’s worth reading. Take it to the beach!

The Darling (Russell Banks)
Russell Banks is a beautiful storyteller with the unique ability to put himself in the shoes, and heart, of almost anyone. The Darling is the story of Dawn/Hannah, a middle-aged woman whose rebellious past led her into the depths of Liberia where she experienced all manner of horror and beauty. A striking story told with the fresh rawness of a new wound, passages from the Darling will haunt you for years after you put it down.

Ulysses (James Joyce)
Read this book just to say you did it. Ulysses is an epic novel, yet spans just one day in the life of its protagonist, Leopold Bloom. Some say the book is pure genius. Others denigrate it as over-hyped fluff. Personally, I’d need to read it about five more times to make a fair assessment… But one thing is certain: Joyce went places with Ulysses (which was banned in the United States for obscenity in 1933) that few writers had gone before, and few have gone since. From his topical choices to his stylistic ones, Joyce has a voice and character all his own.

Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir (Lauren Slater)
This book will change the way you think of the term “memoir.” Slater challenges the concepts of truth, its contexts and even its very existence at the core of the human experience. Beautifully written and constructed with a modern twist, Lying has been called “metaphorical memoir,” (though she begs throughout to be understood as non-fiction.) This book continues to frustrate and enchant me, yet Slater’s beautiful prose and (here it is again) modernist tendencies keep me coming back for second, third and fourth readings.

Honorable Mention:
The Angel on the Roof (a collection of short stories by Russell Banks), How We are Hungry (a collection of short stories by Dave Eggers), What is the What (a creative non-fiction account of the life of one of Sudan’s Lost Boys, as told to and expanded upon by none other than Dave Eggers)

Note: If my liberal use of terms like “modernism” and “magical realism” annoyed or offended you, please see my upcoming post detailing these literary techniques and my interpretation of them. Until then, click the links, fool! Modernism - Magical Realism

From the UN’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, and MonkeyFilter comes this link to a beautifully presented full translation of the Tale of Genji. The web layout comes in small, easy to read chunks for those of us who have trouble staring at large blocks of text, and it also presents the gorgeous illustrations in black and white. There is a PDF version available, as well as web-based (shtml) full-text version.
For those unfamiliar with the story:

The Tale of Genji (源氏物語 Genji Monogatari?) is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century, around the peak of the Heian Period. It is sometimes called the world’s first novel, the first modern novel, or the first novel to still be considered a classic. The issue remains debated among scholars.

– Via Wikipedia

I dreamt about a lot of things. I dreamt about being interrupted during what was ostensibly my high school graduation by a flirty boy who was also graduating by some kind of satellite deal so he was there/not there. The majority of my “class” was people I work with. Some strangers. Some people I actually went to school with. I kept getting distracted by that boy, and by thoughts of Zelda 2 for whatever reason. There was some EXTREMELY awkward joke about some kid with terrible hair being gay and I told him his back hair wasn't that bad at all. (Although it was pretty fuzzy.)

In another dream I was partly an observer and partly behind the eyes of a blond assassin woman who had Athena, Inc type abilities including hiding a sword in her throat! She said it was encased in a tube of that “movie glass” stuff, apparently after drawing the sword from her throat, she'd then shatter the “glass”. Since it was movie glass, her stomach would dissolve it since it's some kind of sugar and corn syrup mix or something. She was laying behind some kind of barrier with a wide crack between it and the ground. Sidling forward, she pulled out some kind of blade, she was going to ham string one of many soldiers just for the hell of it and something held her back. What it was I don't rightly remember, probably the vulnerability of her position. At any rate, she kidnaps Patton, who was played by some guy I know from work (so, assassin is fictional girl on the outside, me on the inside, this person is fictional on the inside and real on the outside), and proceeds to hold him captive for days, during which time they become lovers. She reveals to him that she's been successfully cloned many times, each clone being taught enough unique personality traits to be planted in subversive roles throughout the US without too much of a fuss. Yet she advises Patton not to worry because while her side has terrifying technology, they are also insane at their core and will fall apart. She eventually lets him go, with some story about defeating some large number of attackers and whatnot. With the excuse of completing her mission to eliminate him, she returns to where he is stationed. Some alarm is sounded at this stranger in their midst but “Patton” makes an excuse for her, including in front of his wife who appears obviously dismayed. Yet some joke was made of it that instantly mollified the situation. There was more canoodling and fretting and then the last I remember of it was she was leaping about through some kind of warehouse or some place with pipes.

The last dream I remember was quite a doozy. It actually takes place after the high school dream. Outside, sitting on the ground, some moderately heavy-set woman in a very loose knit red fuzzy body suit (and various other whatnots) made a bunch of awkward comments to me. Then I or someone was studying a bunch of paintings. 3 large panes, 2 of which had many of smaller images within the main frame, coming up with this insane theories and running into this building next to him/her/me yelling at some woman who was supposed to be a clarvoiant or something in regards to the meaning of the paintings. Then the paintings started to shift, and things got real meta, since it became the memory of a dream within a dream itself. There wer adorable colorful monsters in a crowd, and something else with an equally fat-lined drawing style. It was all moving and shifting colors a wash at a time. Then there was some business with me being in charge of some magical soda machine, which appeared to have gotten mixed up with reality since there was frozen corn and whatnot in it. Things started to fall apart right about then.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061114/od_nm/court_davincicode1_dc

Because if your quasi-similar novel doesn’t sell, you can always sue, right? It’s nice to know that the justice system might work. Not that I have any love for Dan Brown. I couldn’t even finish Da Vinci Code, I found the writing to be a lot like someone describing a cheap action movie. And by the time I considered bothering with the book, it had been spoiled nine ways to Sunday already. I’m half-tempted to read both books now to determine who really should have won this one.

Go here: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 pick five quotes you like a whole lot, and post them.
Forcing the spread of a trend/meme/whatnot is sooooo myspace. pfft.

That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment. Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967), ‘But the One on the Right,’ in New Yorker, 1929

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), “Song of Myself”

I felt like poisoning a monk. Umberto Eco (1932 - ), on why he wrote the novel “The Name of the Rose.”

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein (1886 - 1982)

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)

After visting the TokiDoki site I have found something to lust after. A crazy-hot slipcover for my iPod Shuffle. Mmm….. it’s Shuffle-icious. I discovered after a little poking about that they’re available from iSkin. There’s covers for iPod Mini also. I spend a good deal of time attached to my iPod, escaping the mindless chatter and din of the office, so to be able to feign a little style while I’m at it would be dead sexy. That, and it’d go well with my TokiDoki clutch purse that I picked up while in Vegas this past Feb/March. It was quite the find, in a little shop operated by some sweet, shy asian ladies. I can’t remember off the top of my head the details of the shop, but I’ll likely edit that in when I get home.

I was also shown a really neat little app earlier (courtesy of Doctor Launch from the Ormgas IRC channel). You can locate this app at Virtual Constructs under Downloads. Remember Mega Man 2? Remember the intro screen for the Robot Master stages? Well, how would you like your apps to launch like Robot Masters? Word. I like it a lot. If that makes no sense to you, visit the guy’s site and check out the details yourself! Nyah! It’s a novelty I’ll use myself for a bit, and probably expose others to at every given opportunity.

I will be the first to admit that I have been off the deep end lately. So I was not actually thinking when, earlier today, I pulled any and all notes of interest or personal information off of my profile page. However, upon further consideration I have come to a solid reason as to why it’s a good idea to leave it blank.

That reason is, I prefer not to be yet another willing whore to statistical marketing. Every bit of information that is input here in terms of what one is interested in, what category of things one clings to, the type of profiles one is linked to, is all juicy advertising feedback that you just willingly forked over. I never had a particular issue with standardized testing when I was in grade school (remember that stuff?) with the strong exception of one part: the personal data part. That being all the requested statistical data one was “strongly encouraged” to fill out prior to taking the test. I always had a problem with this procedure. “Why,” I thought to myself in my youth, “do they need to know if i’m white or asian, male or female, if this is a standardized test? It should be based on standards of education, not standards of human types, right?” Well, of course not, how can we continue to compartmentalize people by gender, race and religion in this country unless we do so via proper education and of course proper marketing? There are disadvantages to be had within a free, democratic, capitalist environment.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of this new wave of contextual advertising sites and blogs and the like. Hell, it’s very likely that it will make me some money as well, in which case I suppose that will make me some kind of statistical whore master, but I’d much rather be the master of this situation than the slave.

I am aware that every single day that goes by, I need things. Things to get my job done, things to stay alive, things because I want things. That isn’t slated to change any time in the near future. This site network is so bloated with advertising that I think it’s safe to say I’ve seen over-fed ticks that were more attractive. A very large percentage of this advertising is absolutely nothing that I want, need, or could be persuaded to buy. The beauty of the internet should be finding what you want, and need, faster than just having a bundle of Madison Avenue folks decide after months of grueling testing what you might want based on the reactions of a handful of people who are presumably just like you. How many times do you not give a shit what commercials are playing on TV? Unless you like making fun of them, my money is on a lot of the time.

And poor The Internet. It was once a paragon of searchable, on-demand information. Now with the advent of dummy sites, multiple sites with marginal differences, splogs, spam, and onmouseOver advertising media (fucking smilies can fuck off), how is it any different from from any of the other boxes that talk at us all day? Radio, papers, magazines, tv, you know, “traditional” media.
Anybody remember the old cartoons where the protagonist was trying to avoid something? Eating, or sleeping or killing some canary? All they would see everywhere would be signs for food, or rest, or roast chicken or something. And it would become a blur of neon signs until they could think of absolutely NOTHING besides that which they wanted to avoid. Traditional media (including billboards and shopfronts) pretty much innundates us with this kind of constant exposure conditioning towards consumption of goods and services. (When they aren’t taking a cue from our lovely government and using the fear tactic.)

This is the part where I get back to the idea at hand. Remember the concept of a searchable, on-demand, useful source of information…what was it called again? The Internet, right. Except for the part where we’re going to have to wait for Internet 2: Because We Fucked it Up Royal in Part One! Just like government, and any actual market for any goods or services, the end product is controlled by those allowed to be in control. In the case of the internet, control of the most visible sites is being left to the same type of people who convince you that Budweiser isn’t canned old people urine every year during the Super Bowl. This, I believe, falls under the category of “Just Fucking Lame”.

Myspace is a really convenient way for all types of marketers to mine for interest-related data on a very large group of people without having to pay for it or talk to anybody. I hate to pay for things, and I hate talking to people a little more every day, so I understand the allure here. How is anyone going to know that you have goods and services available unless you actually get the word out? The short answer is they won’t. In walks advertising to remedy the situation of woeful product anonymity. Yet there are more respectful ways to advertise on the internet without relying on a series of “personalized” pages that look like some kind of crayon box full of reconstituted dog shit and leet. (Note from the author: My current profile set up is hopefully minimized of these characteristics, however I have never been the most color-savvy web developer.)

I do have faith in search engine marketing, if the power-houses of search keep putting their foot down as much as they can about what sites are and are not authorities on keywords. I have faith in contextual advertising to an extent, although I fear the potential for rampant abuse is going to lead to issues with that as well. I would just like to move away from the constant bump-and-grind of the public media, and I was pretty sure that the internet should be able to provide that for me. Two types of sites seriously bother me: those with little control or direction in their actual visible marketing, those too much control over how interests are categorized and turned against the users, and those that fall under both catagories. As long as those type of sites exist, and are wildly popular, I find it hard to believe that the broadcasting medium of the internet will continue to hold much validity. All forms of media have had their novelty period, heyday, public trial, and ultimately have ended up as mistrustful sources of information. Yes, even the Almighty Internet. The cynicism isn’t too deeply ingrained in regards to the internet yet so I do reserve some hope for virtue over profit margin.

Not MySpace though, MySpace was created for the marketers, by the marketers, and unless you know a way to overthrow a dot-com, that’s what it’s here for and how it will stay.

Recommended Reading for those unimpressed by MySpace: http://www.trentl.com/?name=News&file=article&sid=50