Ah, now I know why I thought last Tuesdays comedy thing was happening on Monday. My laptop clock is 12 hours ahead! I didn't THINK I was crazy.
I'm just passed the lion's share of my shift, a little under five hours to go, andI can't tell you how glad I am to be typing that out. I'm really enjoying this laptop ownership business. I don't even feel guilty about having spent money on the thing. It's like I've purchased my own (virtual) space, and I desperately needed my own space. Apparently.
Reading through all of this weeks comics, and there's a new Transformers series. I don't generally dig Transformers in comic form, the whole transforming aspect doesn't translate well into static images, but this issue blew me away. There's a tentative truce between Autobots and Decepticons, actually wait, what am I taling about? The Autobots won- otherwise how'd they get EXPLOSIVE DEVICES IMPLANTED IN ALL THE DECEPTICONS HEADS!!
So here's the deal: Bumblebee is now the highest ranking Autobot left on Cybertron, and he has to oversee the creation of a whole new society! All the while dealing with the resentment of both the losing decepticons, the distrust of the non-affiliated cybertronians (the Switzerland robots, essentially), and the power to blow up any decepticon he wants with the push of a button!
This stuff could easily be related to the real world; I see snippets of Iraq and Eqypt in this new devestated Cybertron. This is true science fiction- eerily reflective of contemporary society while still exploiting it's technologically fantastical elements.
Hmm, that should be my review right there. Add a line about the clarity of design and there you go.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Cool Geoff about what books he wants to review, but chances are Transformers is on the list. And Aquaman.
Man, Aquaman is hilarious. The cover is just him sinking in desert sand. The only thing that could've made it better would be if he had a thought bubble going "Worst. Day. Ever."
Or how about "My ONE weakness!"
Or just a good old "NOOOO!"
They really can't expect us to take Aquaman or Justice League seriously. Well, they are, so I guess they can. But man, I wish they were being funny on purpose.
Alright, I'll probably post this when I get home in... ah, still about 5 hours (curse the bus travel time it takes to get home..). Right now I'll pop in season 2 of Freakazoid and eat some rice.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
"Problem Solved"
With a little under an hour before I have to be out the door, it looks like I've got some time for a quick blog post here.
Just copied down to a "word pad" the last bajillion entries from "toobusythinkingaboutcomics" and I am so far behind. I guess that was clear when I said there were a bajillion entries to copy down.
So word pad is an improvement over the notepad I had been using, I don't know why both exist on this laptop, but whatever. I see neither seems to accept copy-pasted images, but that's cool for now.
I had accepted an invitation to go see "Problem Solved" on the facebook, a facebook which helpfully points out what date the event happens on, and reminds you of it.
Now, I KNEW it was scheduled for Tuesday. I KNEW it! So when, on Monday, I see the event happening that night, I was confused. I double check the screen, I triple checked the screen. I was sure I was reading this wrong- it couldn't be Monday.
But, not trusting my own instincts (because in this situation, that'd be crazy) I head downt town, late, but present. And when I arrive at the destination (I actually ran into a relatively new friend of mine rather randomly who pointed me in the right direction) the doors seemed quite locked, the interior dark.
Neither pushing, nor pulling yielded to me access to the complex. Circling around to the back was similarly fruitless.
So I called up a buddy and watched Anchorman with him and a bag of chips. Pretty sweet deal, eh?
So Tuesday I'm looking at the facebook, and behold- "Problem Solved" tonight!
But, what, and you, with, I said, and... huh? Fine, so, I was right the first time, and I somehow couldn't read event dates Monday. Possibly this was an elaborate prank. (Well, not so elaborate, you change the date, then change it back. Hmm, a two step prank, that IS elaborate...)
I made the trip again, the doors opened, and a good time was had by all. Sure, I could go into more details, but I've gotta get ready for work!
Just copied down to a "word pad" the last bajillion entries from "toobusythinkingaboutcomics" and I am so far behind. I guess that was clear when I said there were a bajillion entries to copy down.
So word pad is an improvement over the notepad I had been using, I don't know why both exist on this laptop, but whatever. I see neither seems to accept copy-pasted images, but that's cool for now.
I had accepted an invitation to go see "Problem Solved" on the facebook, a facebook which helpfully points out what date the event happens on, and reminds you of it.
Now, I KNEW it was scheduled for Tuesday. I KNEW it! So when, on Monday, I see the event happening that night, I was confused. I double check the screen, I triple checked the screen. I was sure I was reading this wrong- it couldn't be Monday.
But, not trusting my own instincts (because in this situation, that'd be crazy) I head downt town, late, but present. And when I arrive at the destination (I actually ran into a relatively new friend of mine rather randomly who pointed me in the right direction) the doors seemed quite locked, the interior dark.
Neither pushing, nor pulling yielded to me access to the complex. Circling around to the back was similarly fruitless.
So I called up a buddy and watched Anchorman with him and a bag of chips. Pretty sweet deal, eh?
So Tuesday I'm looking at the facebook, and behold- "Problem Solved" tonight!
But, what, and you, with, I said, and... huh? Fine, so, I was right the first time, and I somehow couldn't read event dates Monday. Possibly this was an elaborate prank. (Well, not so elaborate, you change the date, then change it back. Hmm, a two step prank, that IS elaborate...)
I made the trip again, the doors opened, and a good time was had by all. Sure, I could go into more details, but I've gotta get ready for work!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Iron Man and Philosophy
Just finished the "Iron Man and Philosophy" book- I was going to reread the bit about the chinese door problem... or whatever it's called, about the man in the closed room that is fed chinese characters and then must use chinese characters to communicate with the outside world to escape, all without speaking a lick of chinese. I liked that bit.
And there was the talk about unified virtues, that possessing one virtue to perfection would necessarily lead to possession of all the virtues. Specifically, they were wondering if Iron Man could be considered a virtuous person despite his serious moral failings.
They went with him being a relatively virtuous person, certainly better than a Doctor Doom, that we could look up to this person in that at least he wishes to improve himself and works towards a fulfillment of being a virtuous person. <- that's key right there, that good faith attempt at self improvement.
I actually was VERY interested in this topic, it's something I think about a lot. Does someone have to be good all the time to be good? Can a bad person do good things?
If we take the virtues as practical knowledge (which was the Platonic position, if I read this right), and that a full possession of one virtue necessitated full practical knowledge of that virtue and the extenuating facts surrounding that virtue, in the end meaning a full understanding of the one virtue meant the full understanding of all the virtues THEN:
If someone possesses ONE virtue, but then doesn't possess the others, is this a case of willful ignorance for the sake of vice? Is this person choosing to be bad, and therefore is totally reprehensible?
What the essay reminded me of was that I shouldn't assume full realization of the one virtue is even possible. More likely is the situation where they have say, 90% of the full realization of a single virtue, and it's that 10% that prevents, possibly, ANY understanding of the other virtues. From that perspective it's hardly their fault if they don't possess all the virtues- it's an impossible ideal.
In that case, while it can be the case that someone is willfully ignorant for the sake of their own vices, they aren't necessarily so, and without a clearer understanding of their character on my part I should really be more open to giving the benefit of the doubt.
The other wrinkle was the forwarding of the theory by Aristotle of a natural inclination towards particular virtues, an instincive knowledge versus aquired knowledge. He supposed that someone needs this natural inclination towards the virtues PLUS the aquiring of that practical knowledge, to achieve the full realization of the virtues.
Again, in relation to the book, they suggested Iron Man had a natural inclination towards couragousness and... something else, I forget, but suffers from the vices of narcissism, alccohol abuse, and womanizing (yeah, yeah, those would probably fit under a particular vice category and I needn't list the specific names, whatever.).
What there was no mention of was the concept of a natural inclination towards vice. In the terms of virtue as knowledge then I suppose a natural inclination towards vice would translate as some kind of inability to learn particular knowledge. But phrased like that, vice would be another possiblity of an unformed person. People born either good or bad. Not sure how I feel about that idea. But regardless, at least with that framework people could be born bad but become good with the application of knowledge, people would be able to change for the better, and short of a memory erasure device or something, wouldn't get worse. I've heard worse ideas.
I like these books every now and again; they give me a little insight into my lovely friend from London(Ontario)'s world. Ah, ha ha, yes, even though she said she hates these books! Well, what can I say? I learn best when concepts are presented in terms of super heroes!
And there was the talk about unified virtues, that possessing one virtue to perfection would necessarily lead to possession of all the virtues. Specifically, they were wondering if Iron Man could be considered a virtuous person despite his serious moral failings.
They went with him being a relatively virtuous person, certainly better than a Doctor Doom, that we could look up to this person in that at least he wishes to improve himself and works towards a fulfillment of being a virtuous person. <- that's key right there, that good faith attempt at self improvement.
I actually was VERY interested in this topic, it's something I think about a lot. Does someone have to be good all the time to be good? Can a bad person do good things?
If we take the virtues as practical knowledge (which was the Platonic position, if I read this right), and that a full possession of one virtue necessitated full practical knowledge of that virtue and the extenuating facts surrounding that virtue, in the end meaning a full understanding of the one virtue meant the full understanding of all the virtues THEN:
If someone possesses ONE virtue, but then doesn't possess the others, is this a case of willful ignorance for the sake of vice? Is this person choosing to be bad, and therefore is totally reprehensible?
What the essay reminded me of was that I shouldn't assume full realization of the one virtue is even possible. More likely is the situation where they have say, 90% of the full realization of a single virtue, and it's that 10% that prevents, possibly, ANY understanding of the other virtues. From that perspective it's hardly their fault if they don't possess all the virtues- it's an impossible ideal.
In that case, while it can be the case that someone is willfully ignorant for the sake of their own vices, they aren't necessarily so, and without a clearer understanding of their character on my part I should really be more open to giving the benefit of the doubt.
The other wrinkle was the forwarding of the theory by Aristotle of a natural inclination towards particular virtues, an instincive knowledge versus aquired knowledge. He supposed that someone needs this natural inclination towards the virtues PLUS the aquiring of that practical knowledge, to achieve the full realization of the virtues.
Again, in relation to the book, they suggested Iron Man had a natural inclination towards couragousness and... something else, I forget, but suffers from the vices of narcissism, alccohol abuse, and womanizing (yeah, yeah, those would probably fit under a particular vice category and I needn't list the specific names, whatever.).
What there was no mention of was the concept of a natural inclination towards vice. In the terms of virtue as knowledge then I suppose a natural inclination towards vice would translate as some kind of inability to learn particular knowledge. But phrased like that, vice would be another possiblity of an unformed person. People born either good or bad. Not sure how I feel about that idea. But regardless, at least with that framework people could be born bad but become good with the application of knowledge, people would be able to change for the better, and short of a memory erasure device or something, wouldn't get worse. I've heard worse ideas.
I like these books every now and again; they give me a little insight into my lovely friend from London(Ontario)'s world. Ah, ha ha, yes, even though she said she hates these books! Well, what can I say? I learn best when concepts are presented in terms of super heroes!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Ah my knee... is the laptop okay?
I keep not getting a chance to update, my working weekend has been an especially stressful one- all the more unfortunate because I wanted to talk about the amazing two days off I had wednesday and thursday but now those days are slightly off my mind.
Hopefully I'll get to them soon- well I'd better! The month is almost over and I'm way behind!
I will say this about Friday now: I finally picked up my own laptop. I got hit with some relatively bad financial news the day or two before, and I was considering putting the purchase off some more, but I always do that. At the rate I was going, it was never going to happen. And that can't happen.
So I walk through the little parkway mall a few hours before work with my brother: "okay, keep your eyes clear for some place to get a computer."
Then I look beside us and see a sign for "Computer Store" (read the quotes in a Homer Simpson voice).
Yeah, that'll work.
And would you believe that I'm walking to work with my new laptop, my usual bag for work stuff, and my backpack- I'm loaded up/down- and I slip and fall in the snow! You know how long it's been since I've full on fallen? No, I'm seriously asking, because I'm not sure myself. THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN.
My protective instincts kicked in, I held the laptop way above ground, it didn't get damaged (super *WHEW*) but I've got a little bump on my knee and an abraision on my left uh, that fleshy bit of muscle that controls my thumb. It's not quite my palm, that's too general a term for the whole under hand area.
So, it seems, my anatomy knowledge is limited. You still get where I'm talking about.
It's actually cool, because I never get bruises; either because I'm such a careful delicate flower, or because I'm a really tough flower.
Also, having something a little wrong makes my more nebulous hypocondriac-al knee and whatever pains go away. So I actually feel BETTER after the fall.
I mean, unless you touch riiight there. (I mean the knee, man.)
And that's all the time I have. Will be disciplined and write tomorrow, see you then.
Hopefully I'll get to them soon- well I'd better! The month is almost over and I'm way behind!
I will say this about Friday now: I finally picked up my own laptop. I got hit with some relatively bad financial news the day or two before, and I was considering putting the purchase off some more, but I always do that. At the rate I was going, it was never going to happen. And that can't happen.
So I walk through the little parkway mall a few hours before work with my brother: "okay, keep your eyes clear for some place to get a computer."
Then I look beside us and see a sign for "Computer Store" (read the quotes in a Homer Simpson voice).
Yeah, that'll work.
And would you believe that I'm walking to work with my new laptop, my usual bag for work stuff, and my backpack- I'm loaded up/down- and I slip and fall in the snow! You know how long it's been since I've full on fallen? No, I'm seriously asking, because I'm not sure myself. THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN.
My protective instincts kicked in, I held the laptop way above ground, it didn't get damaged (super *WHEW*) but I've got a little bump on my knee and an abraision on my left uh, that fleshy bit of muscle that controls my thumb. It's not quite my palm, that's too general a term for the whole under hand area.
So, it seems, my anatomy knowledge is limited. You still get where I'm talking about.
It's actually cool, because I never get bruises; either because I'm such a careful delicate flower, or because I'm a really tough flower.
Also, having something a little wrong makes my more nebulous hypocondriac-al knee and whatever pains go away. So I actually feel BETTER after the fall.
I mean, unless you touch riiight there. (I mean the knee, man.)
And that's all the time I have. Will be disciplined and write tomorrow, see you then.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Scratch that day
It's currently Saturday morning, 4:20am. What happened on my Friday? Nada. Excepting the few hours where I had some food, checked e-mail, and watched the last few minutes of an old House episode then saw the Family Guy Return of the Jedi thing, and that's it. The rest of my time was in bed.
Didn't hit the gym, didn't go fetch a new laptop, didn't work on comic reviews, didn't write anything here, didn't read any library materials, didn't even play any video games or nothing.
So yeah. I guess it's lucky life isn't precious-oh wait!
If you want to get technical and include what happened on my Thursday shift, then okay, there was some other stuff I did that Friday.
At 1:30am I got a call from home. Now, when I call home (usually no later than 12:30am, as though that were a big difference) it's because I'm asking for something to get looked up on the internet. A definition, or a song title or something. But if I get called, well, late night calls are generally scary. Has something gone horrible wrong? Did something happen with Simon's surgery? Is everyone okay?
Isaac, can you pick up some milk on your way home?
*Whew* yeah, okay, no problem.
Luckily they didn't take too long to get to that pertinent info.
As you know, it was snowing yesterday, and I got to be out in its infancy. During my last patrol that meant tiny daggers (more like shuriken I suppose) were bouncing off my face. Bundled up for the trip home; scarf, extra sweater, my cool new touque- only the tiniest of areas was now exposed to the elements. As far as it goes, I was pretty comfy.
But oh so tired! I have to keep yelling at myself during the final leg of my trip hom so that I don't fall asleep and miss my stop. I haven't had any problems yet- and by problems I mean missing the stop- but this time was another close call.
Coming up on Victoria Park, standing now to exit, and my balance is shot. Every stop and go of the bus is seen in my person, as I've lost the power to resist, and have to lean like there's no tomorrow on the... wall thing. I suppose it'd be referred to as a partition between the seats and the exit. Cue the street and my departure.
Before me is the expansive parking lot, maybe it should be called Victoria Parking Lot! (haha haha ha heh. But seriously, that'd be super dumb.) There's the 24hr Metro in front of me. I consider my options.
I could go to that McDonalds to my left, get a Mc...Egg McMuffin! That's what it's called! (another close one). Eat up, recover my strength. But I HAVE cereal at home... one should be responsible with money... ah, right, but I don't have MILK at home.
I could pick up a single bag of milk now at the Metro and head home, but I have a grocery bag already full of my stuff from work, and to me it'd be more than a little awkward to walk into a store with something that could easily be used to shoplift with. "What a nice bag of chips?" *stuffed under my work short, effectively invisible*
No, I don't like the appearance of that at all.
So here is what I do. I trudge home, braving the elements. Remove my bag and backpack from the equation. Replace my gross work pants with my jeans. Pick up the $25 gift card to Tim Hortons I got during Christmas at work. Consider wearing my easy to slip on shoes, but, you know, snow, and go for the work boots. Brave the elements.
I stop at the nearby Tim Hortons and have two, you know, breakfast sandwiches. With egg and everything! It feels pretty great, to be awake on an early hour (it's just past 7am at this point, though obviously I'd been awake much earlier than that...) on a dark blustery morning. The only other patron is wearing jeans and flannel. I've still got my touque on, and I can pretend I'm on my way to do something hard core with MY day. Like I'm in construction or something. Yessir, gotta hit the pavement, build something useful, that's me. It's like I'm participating in some kind of authentic Canadian experience.
True, you say, Tim Hortons doesn't equal REAL Canadian experience- they market themselves that way, and crushed any competition that says different... however, they've been so successful that an inordinate number of Canadians would in fact say I'm participating in a REAL Canadian experience. It almost makes it so. Reality is funny like that.
But then again, the other guy in the store has an earring and is reading the newspaper (far too metropolitan), and I'm nibbling on the sandwich wrapper for the tiny bits of melted cheese because I'm a goofy looking guy, and not very hardcore at all.
So much for authentic Canadian experience.
Rejuvenated, I trek on out for the milk. I grab two bags, one for each (gloved) hand of course. The guy with a bunch of items lets me go in front of him, which was very nice.
Trek back home. Brave the elements. Milk bags in each hand, arm starts to burn real good at the 3/4's mark. Suddenly I'm a little hardcore.
Milk mission accomplished, I crawl into bed. And now it's 5:03am Saturday 14th.
Didn't hit the gym, didn't go fetch a new laptop, didn't work on comic reviews, didn't write anything here, didn't read any library materials, didn't even play any video games or nothing.
So yeah. I guess it's lucky life isn't precious-oh wait!
If you want to get technical and include what happened on my Thursday shift, then okay, there was some other stuff I did that Friday.
At 1:30am I got a call from home. Now, when I call home (usually no later than 12:30am, as though that were a big difference) it's because I'm asking for something to get looked up on the internet. A definition, or a song title or something. But if I get called, well, late night calls are generally scary. Has something gone horrible wrong? Did something happen with Simon's surgery? Is everyone okay?
Isaac, can you pick up some milk on your way home?
*Whew* yeah, okay, no problem.
Luckily they didn't take too long to get to that pertinent info.
As you know, it was snowing yesterday, and I got to be out in its infancy. During my last patrol that meant tiny daggers (more like shuriken I suppose) were bouncing off my face. Bundled up for the trip home; scarf, extra sweater, my cool new touque- only the tiniest of areas was now exposed to the elements. As far as it goes, I was pretty comfy.
But oh so tired! I have to keep yelling at myself during the final leg of my trip hom so that I don't fall asleep and miss my stop. I haven't had any problems yet- and by problems I mean missing the stop- but this time was another close call.
Coming up on Victoria Park, standing now to exit, and my balance is shot. Every stop and go of the bus is seen in my person, as I've lost the power to resist, and have to lean like there's no tomorrow on the... wall thing. I suppose it'd be referred to as a partition between the seats and the exit. Cue the street and my departure.
Before me is the expansive parking lot, maybe it should be called Victoria Parking Lot! (haha haha ha heh. But seriously, that'd be super dumb.) There's the 24hr Metro in front of me. I consider my options.
I could go to that McDonalds to my left, get a Mc...Egg McMuffin! That's what it's called! (another close one). Eat up, recover my strength. But I HAVE cereal at home... one should be responsible with money... ah, right, but I don't have MILK at home.
I could pick up a single bag of milk now at the Metro and head home, but I have a grocery bag already full of my stuff from work, and to me it'd be more than a little awkward to walk into a store with something that could easily be used to shoplift with. "What a nice bag of chips?" *stuffed under my work short, effectively invisible*
No, I don't like the appearance of that at all.
So here is what I do. I trudge home, braving the elements. Remove my bag and backpack from the equation. Replace my gross work pants with my jeans. Pick up the $25 gift card to Tim Hortons I got during Christmas at work. Consider wearing my easy to slip on shoes, but, you know, snow, and go for the work boots. Brave the elements.
I stop at the nearby Tim Hortons and have two, you know, breakfast sandwiches. With egg and everything! It feels pretty great, to be awake on an early hour (it's just past 7am at this point, though obviously I'd been awake much earlier than that...) on a dark blustery morning. The only other patron is wearing jeans and flannel. I've still got my touque on, and I can pretend I'm on my way to do something hard core with MY day. Like I'm in construction or something. Yessir, gotta hit the pavement, build something useful, that's me. It's like I'm participating in some kind of authentic Canadian experience.
True, you say, Tim Hortons doesn't equal REAL Canadian experience- they market themselves that way, and crushed any competition that says different... however, they've been so successful that an inordinate number of Canadians would in fact say I'm participating in a REAL Canadian experience. It almost makes it so. Reality is funny like that.
But then again, the other guy in the store has an earring and is reading the newspaper (far too metropolitan), and I'm nibbling on the sandwich wrapper for the tiny bits of melted cheese because I'm a goofy looking guy, and not very hardcore at all.
So much for authentic Canadian experience.
Rejuvenated, I trek on out for the milk. I grab two bags, one for each (gloved) hand of course. The guy with a bunch of items lets me go in front of him, which was very nice.
Trek back home. Brave the elements. Milk bags in each hand, arm starts to burn real good at the 3/4's mark. Suddenly I'm a little hardcore.
Milk mission accomplished, I crawl into bed. And now it's 5:03am Saturday 14th.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Lame post. Short and Lame
I don't particularly feel like writing here right now, I'm tired but if I go to bed now I will wake up, oh, around 5 or 6 am, and then I'll have a hard time getting back to sleep. I work tomorrow! A normal sleep schedule makes things incredibly difficult for me!
In a much better mood today than yesterday, I was really just too tired for the day. Now I'm just depressed that I had to fritter away my first day off on recovery sleep- just like after every period of work! Man this is rough.
May get a laptop of my own soon, so I can do blog posts, my comic reviews and other writings while at work. That will be very ideal, I'd be able to deal with things better then.
Checked out two movies with Jordan and Cool Geoff (I'm really grateful they came along, movies by myself=unfun)- Tin Tin and Sherlock Holmes. My brother wants his computer back, and I don't care to fight about it. (not that we'd fight, just that I'd have to spend energy extending my time here)
In a much better mood today than yesterday, I was really just too tired for the day. Now I'm just depressed that I had to fritter away my first day off on recovery sleep- just like after every period of work! Man this is rough.
May get a laptop of my own soon, so I can do blog posts, my comic reviews and other writings while at work. That will be very ideal, I'd be able to deal with things better then.
Checked out two movies with Jordan and Cool Geoff (I'm really grateful they came along, movies by myself=unfun)- Tin Tin and Sherlock Holmes. My brother wants his computer back, and I don't care to fight about it. (not that we'd fight, just that I'd have to spend energy extending my time here)
Monday, January 9, 2012
The General of the Dead Army (no real info on wikipedia, maybe not so surprisingly)
Called to hang out with someone, was asked if I was okay- dude, can a guy just call and hang out? Conversely, if I am feeling less than great, man, don't mention it. I'd prefer you didn't decide I was an object of pity that needs protection. (Well, it's fine if that's what you think, but don't let me know)
Hopefully it was just the scratchyness of my recently sick throat that ellicited that reaction. At least that can be explained away.
I like how I can feel a twinge of jealousy at the exchange of two people, then when I call one of the two they bring up the other person completely out of the blue. Aaaaaaaaah I need to do... something. Get out of my own head. Ditch Toronto?
Too extreme maybe.
What is it, the ninth? I'm only just now getting to my first post of the year. Eh, I've been working and sick, so back log happens.
I wanted to talk about The General of the Dead Army by Ismail Kadare (pronounced 'Ka-da-ray', or so I'm told). The super in my building suggested it, he loves the book. He's Albanian, Kadare is Albanian, the book takes place in Albany (kidding, Albania). Makes sense so far.
So I'd never heard of Kadare before, but apparently he's been a runner up for the nobel prize for literature (I think I got that right) a bunch of times. This was his first novel. I think it shows.
The story follows an Italian General in the 60's returning to Albania to exhume the bodies of fallen soldiers from WWII with a priest and a bunch of workers.
Man, I'm distracted by Die Hard right now.
It's written in a very sparse style, you'll have to forgive me for thinking that Hemingway was an influence on Kadares style, but that's what I'm seeing. It's sort of a villain protagonist scenario, with our attention focused on the eponymous General narrating in such a way as to ask for our sympathies, but if we take any time at all we remember, right, all that stuff his army did.
There are separate italicized sections that I assume are supposed to be bits from the journals of dead soldiers that they've found- those were the most interesting parts of the book.
Ah, I'm really not into this right now. Uh, ONE of the endings was amazingly gothic and would have been great. But then the book kept on going. And then the General got paranoid about the body of this famous Colonel Z that they'd been looking for and he finally dumped it in a river despite the priests objections. THAT would also have been a cool ending, get some Tell Tale Heart going on.
But then it keeps going! And now the General, chilling out with his counterpart from the German army, drinking in a hotel, and both are talking about how cold and lonely their mission is, but they hear a sound and are afraid the Albanian town had taken up arms against them (that'd have led to a gruesome, and very suitable, ending) but nope, everything was fine. The end.
Ooo three perfectly good endings, all thrown away. It's the thing where a writer doesn't want to take dramatic licence for the sake of reality, but at the cost of the story's ability to engage the audience.
All right, done, I'm out, that's it. (I've got to get in a better mood, yeesh.)
Hopefully it was just the scratchyness of my recently sick throat that ellicited that reaction. At least that can be explained away.
I like how I can feel a twinge of jealousy at the exchange of two people, then when I call one of the two they bring up the other person completely out of the blue. Aaaaaaaaah I need to do... something. Get out of my own head. Ditch Toronto?
Too extreme maybe.
What is it, the ninth? I'm only just now getting to my first post of the year. Eh, I've been working and sick, so back log happens.
I wanted to talk about The General of the Dead Army by Ismail Kadare (pronounced 'Ka-da-ray', or so I'm told). The super in my building suggested it, he loves the book. He's Albanian, Kadare is Albanian, the book takes place in Albany (kidding, Albania). Makes sense so far.
So I'd never heard of Kadare before, but apparently he's been a runner up for the nobel prize for literature (I think I got that right) a bunch of times. This was his first novel. I think it shows.
The story follows an Italian General in the 60's returning to Albania to exhume the bodies of fallen soldiers from WWII with a priest and a bunch of workers.
Man, I'm distracted by Die Hard right now.
It's written in a very sparse style, you'll have to forgive me for thinking that Hemingway was an influence on Kadares style, but that's what I'm seeing. It's sort of a villain protagonist scenario, with our attention focused on the eponymous General narrating in such a way as to ask for our sympathies, but if we take any time at all we remember, right, all that stuff his army did.
There are separate italicized sections that I assume are supposed to be bits from the journals of dead soldiers that they've found- those were the most interesting parts of the book.
Ah, I'm really not into this right now. Uh, ONE of the endings was amazingly gothic and would have been great. But then the book kept on going. And then the General got paranoid about the body of this famous Colonel Z that they'd been looking for and he finally dumped it in a river despite the priests objections. THAT would also have been a cool ending, get some Tell Tale Heart going on.
But then it keeps going! And now the General, chilling out with his counterpart from the German army, drinking in a hotel, and both are talking about how cold and lonely their mission is, but they hear a sound and are afraid the Albanian town had taken up arms against them (that'd have led to a gruesome, and very suitable, ending) but nope, everything was fine. The end.
Ooo three perfectly good endings, all thrown away. It's the thing where a writer doesn't want to take dramatic licence for the sake of reality, but at the cost of the story's ability to engage the audience.
All right, done, I'm out, that's it. (I've got to get in a better mood, yeesh.)
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