For the record, I would like to first state that I'm an avid book reader. I love to read but I actually took a long hiatus during my high school years. Now, in my final year of my undergraduate experience, I've delved back into my literary habits. Anyway, I've just finished reading the Autobiography of Assata Shakur and it was good. Informative although not the best written piece of work. Right now, I'm supposed to be reading 2000 seasons but for some reason it just isn't grasping me as it should. Anyway, the purpose of this dissertation is to get opinions on some worthwhile books you guys may have read that I might be interested in. I'm mostly hoping for recommendations on books that have touched your lives or totally altered your ways of thinking. Additionally, could someone give me an explanation for 2000 Seasons' praised greatness?

P.S. I've already read the Celestine Prophecy, so please don't recommend it. I didn't like it very much, so could someone explain to me why I should?

Come to grips with the fact that most OKP's are of the Nut Hugger lineage, so, if you' re not part of the little cliques that exist 'round here, your posts will probably tank like Souljaboy's album sales.

>>I didn't like it very much, so could someone explain to me why I should?

you already said that you didn't like the book very much so why are you asking people to tell you why you should? what kind of damn sense does that make? if i tell people i like Kweli's music and they don't, why would I ask them to explain to me why I shouldn't like his music either. Or since i don't like or eat meat, why ask someone who does why I should? If i were a bootlicker and couldn't make a decision of my own, yeah maybe then, or if i just wanted to start some pitiful discussion over it, ok, but why?!?

i suggest reading the "Holy Authorized King James Version Bible" which is irrefutably the true word of God. that and "Classical Myths and Legends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance" by
H. David Brumble. they're great when read together.

(((((PEACE)))))
"if i dropped African thought, you'd probably lie and say it's greek philosophy" -TalibKweli

Eat shit and bark at the moon.

Where do you get off with all that condescension? Fuck off. Activist is not the place for sarcasm or ridicule, asshole.


~~~~~

I consider it a vice of the soul to fail to suffer over one's lack of profundity. Unless one's brain is dumb from birth, superficiality is a choice made by the self-indulgent. It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

Intellectual snobbery is your short suit. You would do better to ponder the meanings that can be extracted from apparent folly. (c) Norman Mailer

alas, a hardened and worn janey.

native son

not one to quote him but:

"There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same." -Norman Mailer

instead of letting just anything go around here, lets raise the bar. forget babying people and giving the impression that any kind of drivel can pass unnoticed/untouched. like i always say, "Step into the Realm, you bound to get caught" this goes for you and yours. stop babying and protecting people.

And what's with cursing me? it hurts me on the inside and i feel sad all over myself (Sol Rosenberg voice), after all its just my little bitty unimportant opinion anyways, and who am I???

i like the user name, was that made just for me? awwwwwwww that's cute! (leaning over keyboard laughing). in closing though, here is something i heard this morning on the way to work:

"cursing me like HAM cuz i'm ORIGINAL and you like the King James Version." -Talib Kweli

(((((PEACE)))))

Good looking out for having my back on that one, especially since I didn't have a chance immediately to reply. But don't worry, I'm going to state my point to dude.

Come to grips with the fact that most OKP's are of the Nut Hugger lineage, so, if you' re not part of the little cliques that exist 'round here, your posts will probably tank like Souljaboy's album sales.

Utamaroho,
Ya know--I read your response and thought, this is why I don't come to activist anymore.
Its unfortunate you feel the need to belittle others on this board--they don't deserve it.
Its also unfortunate because your ideas have merit--I know I have learned from previous posts--but you make it incredibly hard to listen.


Shimmy

"Don't let the bastards grind ya down" Motorhead

“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Anthony Bourdain

you are right, belittling others is wrong. they truly DON'T deserve what i have to give. and people like me are the reason i TOO am gonna go back to General discussion for better quality topics such as these:

"If she has a dick,......do you keep her?"
The Nipple Discussion
Women In Boxers
WANNA BUY A MINISKIRT!!!!???
Do Jehovah Witnesses get paid?
YOU AINT GOT MO MALT LIKKAH!?!...
puffy is a jackass
HOW SLEAZY ARE YOU?
I Shrunk My BathRobe
F U SIDEWALK!!!!
~Tis Snowing In Statesboro, GA...

okaybootlickers- giving you the true shoeshinings since Walter Massey

farewell all

(((((PEACE)))))

Gd is a zoo and that is part of the appeal--its for entertainment.
Activist is a place where people are coming to discuss things on a more intense level.In order to facilitate this, there needs to be an expectation that ideas will be met with respect, otherwise the boards will dissolve into playground name calling.

It is well known that "the bar" hasn't met with your standards, believe me, you have done a good job of communicating that fact.
Does this give you the right to dump on others???No.
You are not the gatekeeper. If a post doesn't speak to you--then pass over.

Shimmy

"Don't let the bastards grind ya down" Motorhead

“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Anthony Bourdain

Being an intermittent poster to these boards, I often come across the occassional nayser who finds it their life pleasure to demean the opinions and statements of others, usually done to compensate for their lack of testicular fortitude. Although it usually doesn't make much sense to reply to the meaningless attempts at flashy quips these persons display, I have chosen to reply to you. My first rebuttle is that I take extreme pleasure in the dissection of the views of others, especially on topics that I am totally opposed. I have realized that after exchanging viewpoints with those who have something at least partly wholesome the say, you may be able to view a piece of work in a different light so as to appreciate that which you may have abrogated before. This being, barring the fact that I really need not explain myself to you, was the source of my initial commentary. I took great esteem in accepting your detraction at my statements, but in the end, as my drunken uncle always reiterated once he was inebriated, "Who gives a horses ass?"

Come to grips with the fact that most OKP's are of the Nut Hugger lineage, so, if you' re not part of the little cliques that exist 'round here, your posts will probably tank like Souljaboy's album sales.

i post in general. i get replies to diverse topics that rarely deal with sex, or puffy, or getting high. perhaps you didn't find an audience so you came here to pretend you're so intelligent and to marginalize others.

sad to see a waste of gray matter....

i mean...i'm sayin tho.

http://www.geocities.com/originalbluepeanut/

please tell me ur kidding w/ the bibal thang!
"King James" if u read some history u'll c is probably the furthest translation from the arameic scrolls.
The new world translation is probably the closest that is readily available.

the celestine prophecy is garbage. i dont know who you been talkin to or where you hearin a buzz thats makin you think maybe you should've liked it... yuck, its a such utter trash i can't believe i'm even bothering to say that.
you want profound? read "the tao of pooh" by benjamin hoff (?) i think. its enlightening and eeeezy, sweet like summer breezes.

sunny.

something else I recently read and was utterly disappointed in was _The Isis Papers_. I kept wondering when Dr. Francis Cress-Welsing was going to pull her head out of Freud's rectum...

Peace,

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

If you haven't read any of his earlier novels ("Go Tell it on the Mountain," "Giovanni's Room," "Another Country") then read them without delay. He is the heir of Joyce and Fitzgerald -- lyric American prose.

If you read those already, try the essays "The Fire Next Time" or the *severely* overlooked novel "If Beale Street Could Talk."

Alek

P.S. All the hostility in response to this post (and to its responders) seems totally unwarranted to me. I feel sorry for the original poster -- just asking for some reading suggestions, for cry-eye-eye.



_____________________________________
It's Planet Asia week:

"It's off the hook, yeah we took it there..."

"This be that cold shit of course, cause I was forced by the streets to rock beats and sell source..."

"A father ain't a father till he furthers your existence..."

"In a couple of seconds you'll be feeling fondled..."

"You got a beeper, but still you comin' up with lint..."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

I would suggest his essays.. to me, he is a far better essayist than fiction writer. _Fire Next Time_ IS brilliant. _Notes from a Native Son_ hits and misses, but _More Notes..._ is amazing...

Randell Keenan is someone I really dig... but haven't be able to convince people... because he is Southern... but it is an incredible read... (one book of short stories, a novel, and recently, a work of nonfiction which I browsed through...)

Peace,

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

>to me, he is a far
>better essayist than fiction writer.
>_Fire Next Time_ IS brilliant.

I don't know about "far better," but definitely better. When you compare to similar types of essays by Orwell, Percy, whoever, there's just SO much more feeling and lyricism.

Still, that dialogue...


_____________________________________
It's Planet Asia week:

"It's off the hook, yeah we took it there..."

"This be that cold shit of course, cause I was forced by the streets to rock beats and sell source..."

"A father ain't a father till he furthers your existence..."

"In a couple of seconds you'll be feeling fondled..."

"You got a beeper, but still you comin' up with lint..."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

No, I was talking about within his body of work... I prefer his essays to his fiction... that's all...

Peace,

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

>No, I was talking about within
>his body of work... I
>prefer his essays to his
>fiction... that's all...

I like them equally. But I think his essays are better as essays than his fiction is as fiction (if that makes sense).

Alek
_____________________________________
It's Planet Asia week:

"It's off the hook, yeah we took it there..."

"This be that cold shit of course, cause I was forced by the streets to rock beats and sell source..."

"A father ain't a father till he furthers your existence..."

"In a couple of seconds you'll be feeling fondled..."

"You got a beeper, but still you comin' up with lint..."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

*grins*

Yep, I feel that... and agree...

Q

********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

6) to make it clear in a metaphor
European Westernization is equivalent to a tobbacco.
while
American Westernization is akin heroin.

both will do you in one alot faster than the other... (illosopher)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

I second Alek's suggestion of 'Another Country' and add to it 'Just Above My Head'. I read 'Just...' a couple years ago & marveled at Baldwin's ability to break-down the way we lie to ourselves. I've read 'Another Country' numerous times.

Pick-up some of Octavia Butler's work, and, in case you cannot dig sci-fi, do not allow that classification deter you. 'Parable of the Sower' and it's follow-up 'Parable of the Talents' are quality work. "God is change."

If you dig poetry, I suggest Nikki Giovanni and Langston Hughes, but if you dig poetry, then I need not elaborate on their work.

Just thoughts.
peace(ful).

i know this is an old standard (i don't know why i just qualified this) but i suggest toni morrison because i have yet to read anything that moves me as profoundly as "song of soloman." and i read voraciously. i also love edwidge danticat. she's is a mighty, mighty writer. probably the best biography i've read is che by jon lee anderson. big book but it is well researched. for poetry, i like pablo neruda. okay, i'm all done...

i'm sorry ya'll i just get excited about books and stuff.

=================================
"I hope to never be at peace. I hope to make my life manageable, and I think its fairly manageable now. But, oh, I would never accept peace. That seems death." -Jamaica Kincaid

By Khalil Gibran. It's not exactly a novel, but is intersting reading nonetheless.

Peace,
Kream

i have a friend who has used the book as a barometer for determing people's overall politics. she says that if they can't get through the intro or at least stick it out then it is a signifier that their polical understanding is lacking. this is not so much because they don't get it as they were unwilling to absorb what was there. simply put, too bourgie/caught up to care. i have not tested this so i don't entirely agree, though the examples she gave me were very convincing. still, that intro is no joke.

basically (being very basic here) it is a fictionalization of the history of africa - all of africa rather than certain peoples because it is a near universal experience as far as africans are concerned - and the various internal problems and external attacks the lead to slavery/colonization and the people's fight to reclaim their land and themselves. it follows the experiences of one group of people throughout their development and struggles. all along it suggests the ways and means to make any work towards freedom successful, including an understanding of history and the need for a vision of the world to be built afterward. there is much to be gained if you're willing to read it (assuming this is your interest).

that's it from me. it may not be for everybody.

i've beem recommending these books to everyone: She's Come Undone and I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

"be careful of how you treat strangers. many of you have been in the presence of angels without knowing it."

"you funny duke-'cause really you think you could do me when you roll a 500 that's really a 320."

"don't forsake you. you are what you own. when you love you you'll never be alone."-me

check this out!
www.aliamarie.com

don't forsake you, you are what you own. when you love you, you'll never be alone

be aware of strangers. many of us have entertained angels unaware

One of the most incredible books I've ever read... there's so much packed in every chapter, it's insane. The second "Soul And Body" section (there are two) is the most intimate piece of writing I've ever read.

-thebigfunk

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

I ADORE MILAN KUNDERA.

From him, I learned the beauty of a descant in writing... using my background in music to inform and give new forms to my writing as he does...

He is... probably one of the, if not best, non-American, living writer EVER....

yes, in the back of my mind, I hear Rushdie making a ruckus, but I am going to stick to that... I love that man...

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

I'm in the middle of "The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting." I'm diving deep into Kundera... very cool stuff.

I've also found myself in the thick of other "magical realism" books... particularly Garcia Marquez.

But my favorite author of all time is still Nabokov. He's my man. Pale Fire, Bend Sinister, Pnin and The Real Life Adventures... shit, all his books still have not seen the fame that they one day will...

-thebigfunk

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

is the shit!!!

Shimmy

"Don't let the bastards grind ya down" Motorhead

“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Anthony Bourdain

Dunno if I would classify him as magical realism... but I can see the thought...

There is a book called Middle Passage by Charles Johnson that is pure magical realism... it is too brilliant for words...


_Book of Laughter and Forgetting_ was my first exposure... then _...Lightness..._ ... _Slowness_ is beautiful... I can't think of the other ones (I have them... but my glasses are elsewhere _Life is Elsewhere_ is brilliant, too... but a little sly... has to be read with the one before it or have to read lit. crit. on it for it to make sense... and I am feeling too anky togo get them...)

Peace

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

No doubt, Johnson outdid himself with this one.
peace.

is the MAN! along that kinda magical realism tip is "like water for chocolate" by esquivel... its beautiful and brilliant.

marquez did this little book, not so easy to find, that's a true story about this chilean exile who goes back to chile (under pinochet's regime) in disguise, to film a movie about living conditions, but that's disguised too. "clandestine in chile" is the title. thousands of copies of this book were burned when it came out in some latin american countries. real life adventure and politics as recorded by marquez, great reading.

sunny

hopefully i'll take some of these too, glad somebody raised the issue. but i still can't believe nobody mentioned joyce. maybe he's not what yall are after but you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't at least attempt to experience his work, starting with dubliners, then portrait, then ulysses and if you're brave, then finnegan's wake. won't change your thinking as much as they'll change the way you perceive thought itself.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V I V R A N C E
TinkyWinky - marley marl
Vivrant - Pete Rock
bfnh - Premier
guinness - Jay Dee
Mosaic - Hi Tek
Illwill - Hank Shocklee
SqueegieXM - Prince Paul
Kay Dee - Buckwild
Raina - Jazzy Joyce
phil - The Rza
nickelz45 - Diamond D
Donwill - Automator

"Where the F*CK is my purse icon??????"

:::::::::::::
"And I know what the fuck an option quarterback is. He's the black QB under six feet that ends up being converted to wide receiver once he's selected on day two of the NFL draft because he can't hit the ocean from the edge of a boat."

--

any thoughts on don quijote? the book has been popping up for a while and i am curious if it is worth the time to read.

native son

Don Quixote... *sighs*

When I was 12, a high school girl I had a crush on was in a production of _Man of La Mancha_ which is the musical version of this play. Excellent.

I have never read the book. I have seen movies, watched its plot unfold in other books (which escapes me at the moment... but if you think about it... _Don Quixote_ is a retelling of Hamlet... in some ways this works... in others it doesn't... upon this great papers are written!), I have watched _Don Quixote_ used as an illustration by Jorges Borges (this cat is AMAZING)to prove engenderment as a postmodern function...

but I have never really been that interested in reading the book.

My partner read _Don Quixote_ in Spanish when he was in high school.

I was almost _killed_ by Kathy Acker's _Don Quixote_ which beat me up and talked ish about my Mama and when I finished it, I knew I would have to swim through those waters again because I didn't get a fifth of what was going on and all of these varying ways I got _Don Quixote_ didn't matter to that Genuis because she was going to just fuck it all up, anyway and laugh, and talk shit about my mama, and dare me to do anything about it.

People like Borges and Calvino and Acker hail _Don Quixote_ as a work that is unlike any that has ever come after it. Written a long time ago, under a bunch of interesting intersections of time and space and folly...

I might read it one day,

but I am deeply into the study of it...

which means that one day, I'll have to read it.


Peace,

Q




********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

6) to make it clear in a metaphor
European Westernization is equivalent to a tobbacco.
while
American Westernization is akin heroin.

both will do you in one alot faster than the other... (illosopher)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

I wouldn't mention Joyce for many reasons... not because I haven't read him... I read _The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_ when I was 14. And I loved it. But as an adult, myself, I have found a strain of anti-Joycean spirit:

1) he gives me a headache

but this isn't special because

2) all modernist writers give me a headache

I have been trying to finish Ralph Ellison's _Junetenth_ for almost two years now. I can't. Know why? Because I hate the writing and see no poetry in it, only someone who seems to be stalling... is it possible the story isn't as interesting as you thought?

3) Yes, very much so, I am a PoMo child...

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

6) to make it clear in a metaphor
European Westernization is equivalent to a tobbacco.
while
American Westernization is akin heroin.

both will do you in one alot faster than the other... (illosopher)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

I feel you on the Juneteenth verdict. That unfortunately was the first book that I picked up when I got into my "I think I'll try reading for fun again" spurt. It turned me off completely. It took me another 6 months to get back into reading again. Disappointingly, I think 2000 seasons is doing the same thing. I mean, I love the topic and I feel where he's coming from and where he's going, but he looks like he's trying to transport you there in a U-Go instead of a smooth riding Lexus.

Come to grips with the fact that most OKP's are of the Nut Hugger lineage, so, if you' re not part of the little cliques that exist 'round here, your posts will probably tank like Souljaboy's album sales.

I feel ya.

I will attempt _Junetenth_ again... but it will be a while. Because everytime I pick it up and put it down again, my critisms grow. Like, I am unsure if it should have been published since it is unfinished and it seems to need a lot of work. I mean, my experience reading _Invisible Man_ was... beautiful. Still a modernist, but the prose is much better. It moves towards something instead of trying to paint pretty pictures that don't serve the story or characterization and seem to be there just for the sake of being there...

which is why I couldn't did _Ulyssess_. I wanted it straight between the eyes. Ok, I read Kathy Acker; ok, I am a writer -- I don't need a linear story. But if the writer can't put his finger on the _pulse_ of the story, why expect me, a reader, to do what the writer couldn't do?

But to tell you the truth, reading Borges really fucked with me -- in a good way. He writes stories like a mathematical theory. Also, he believes that if a story takes hundreds of pages, that perhaps it isn't thought out. He thrusts his hands into a story and pulls out only the most salient parts of it -- the heart/meat, whatever you wanna call it. His writing is thick, but the way he tells it is sparse, and when you finish it, you actually have to sit back and think about all the different issues he brings up... in a story that might only be three pages long! He is so intense.

Someone else I absolutely adore is Kathy Acker. What I like about her is that she takes writing to, yet, another level. She, like Borges, thrusts her hands into the thick of a story. But instead of trying to bring it out, she explores other implications of story -- story as _thing_. Story as document to be messed with, changed... basically fucked with. In an interview, she explained her method of writing through the metaphor of working out -- where there is a place where, when you are body training, that you aren't helping your muscles anymore. Her words... her words are like... just there. They exist for themselves, very selfishly. But she has many differnet techniques. For example, she _BETTERED_ Burrough's "cut-up" method. In fact, she would take whole books and "cut" them "up". Her writing is sexy, graphic, daring, and dangerous.

Too bad she died in '97.

I'm going to look at the sky and ask why for a little bit.

Q


********************
Reasons why I love OkayPlayer (a work in progress):

1)Then she was like gurl he nutted all on my weave... (Sha on hoes)

2) Ay man yo' hair looks like taco meat!-One of my boys janking on this dried up head cat (Kemp)

3) i here shook like that dayum
i cant say shit im leave her alone (Sundasill on ???)

4)"oh boy vicky martin"
homosexual poster child for mexican border jumping (Sundasill on Ricky Martin)

5) Also don't list those three years as a crack whore under "entrepenurial experience". that should go in the "hobbies/interests" category. (Guinness on Resume don'ts)

6) to make it clear in a metaphor
European Westernization is equivalent to a tobbacco.
while
American Westernization is akin heroin.

both will do you in one alot faster than the other... (illosopher)

____________


"When the revolution comes, "faggots" won't be so funny." - The Last Poets

** Most people mis-read this line. I don't think he is being homophobic. I think he's making sure you folks know, within our communities, those of you who laugh at

certainly not for everybody. there's not really a story involved in a lot of his stuff. it's more about character and, of course, overwhelmingly about technique. faulkner's definitely got something going on with story though, _The Sound and the Fury_ is frighteningly powerful at times. may not fit the "racial" climate many on these boards seem to inhabit, but it certainly messed with my head plenty. most people won't get past the first chapter though, and i don't blame them. damn faulkner and his idiot manchild.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V I V R A N C E
TinkyWinky - marley marl
Vivrant - Pete Rock
bfnh - Premier
guinness - Jay Dee
Mosaic - Hi Tek
Illwill - Hank Shocklee
SqueegieXM - Prince Paul
Kay Dee - Buckwild
Raina - Jazzy Joyce
phil - The Rza
nickelz45 - Diamond D
Donwill - Automator
honorable mention:
fire - fire

"Where the F*CK is my purse icon??????"

:::::::::::::
"And I know what the fuck an option quarterback is. He's the black QB under six feet that ends up being converted to wide receiver once he's selected on day two of the NFL draft because he can't hit the ocean from the edge of a boat."

--

anybody read 'negrophobia' by darius james? it's this really surreal, bugged out hilarious novel about this racist white girls odyssey into a black nightmare...it's written like a play, and is very scatological (pilsbury doughboys farting biscuits, a dreadlocked robot that masturbates on black mupptes,etc), it's wild yet beautiful...paul beatty (white boy shuffle) is also dope dope dope...

has anybody read any of woody allen's books? without feathers and side effects are intelligent yet ridiculous ("the whore of mensa" clowns!)

I definitely agree with you on Paul Beatty's writing. I got back on the horse as far as reading goes last summer with "Tuff," his second novel. On the strength of that novel alone, I had to get "White Boy Shuffle." Both are coming of age type books and well worth the read. I think he finds the universal experiences of young black males and captures them on the page. At least it seemed like they were similar tomy experiences, but I wasn't from Cali or Harlem (I'm Bronx's own). But, hey, what do I know, all I do is paint...

the old man cometh. it is you. before the twilight. the gray years.
-B. Ford

> has anybody read any
>of woody allen's books? without
>feathers and side effects are
>intelligent yet ridiculous ("the whore
>of mensa" clowns!

i played the husband in a short-play adaptation of this last spring. it was fun, interesting story, poorly directed adaptation though.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V I V R A N C E
TinkyWinky - marley marl
Vivrant - Pete Rock
bfnh - Premier
guinness - Jay Dee
Mosaic - Hi Tek
Illwill - Hank Shocklee
SqueegieXM - Prince Paul
Kay Dee - Buckwild
Raina - Jazzy Joyce
phil - The Rza
nickelz45 - Diamond D
Donwill - Automator
honorable mention:
fire - fire

"Where the F*CK is my purse icon??????"

:::::::::::::
"And I know what the fuck an option quarterback is. He's the black QB under six feet that ends up being converted to wide receiver once he's selected on day two of the NFL draft because he can't hit the ocean from the edge of a boat."

--

...right on the same wavelength.

>faulkner's definitely
>got something going on with
>story though, _The Sound and
>the Fury_ is frighteningly powerful
>at times.

Faulkner is one of my big four (Joyce, Eliot, Yeats, Faulkner). Still, I think I'd start with "Light in August" or "As I Lay Dying" to get into Faulkner. _Sound and the Fury_ and _Absalom, Absalom_ (my favorites) are maybe a little too intense for a first-time reader (at least, that's what I experienced when I tried to get my girlfriend to read _Absalom_).

>may not
>fit the "racial" climate many
>on these boards seem to
>inhabit, but it certainly messed
>with my head plenty.

Disagree. Faulkner is one of the most valuable writers (along with Flannery O'Connor) for understanding the turn-of-the-century (and afterwards) racial atmosphere of the south. Sure, there are some racist characters, but there's also Joe Christmas, Dilsey, Ike McCaslin (more complexity there).

>most people won't get past
>the first chapter though, and
>i don't blame them.
>damn faulkner and his idiot
>manchild.

Another reason to read others first. Especially since _Sound and the Fury_ isn't really a novel, anyway. Four related novellas.

Alek

____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

I attempted Dubliners about a year ago...

I died. Of Boredom.
Really, I did. It did not capture my interest at all. And then an old English teacher of mine said "try The Dead"... he doesn't like Joyce, but he really likes that story. So I pull out my copy of Dubliners and turn to the Dead... start reading... get about ten pages in and once again I can't go on. It didn't do anything for me.

But I'm watching for a course on Joyce... I'd really like to figure out why people drop jaws over him Although it does make me quite the outsider at pretentious parties...

Start Joyce Convo:
Them: Well, I think Dubliners gives us such a sampler of the moods Joyce is capable of conveying...

Me: You actually like Joyce!?!?! I thought it was just a myth, I didn't think people ACTUALLY liked Joyce... I thought they just said they liked him to get As in classes.

Them: You don't like Joyce? Why?

Me: Bah! You'll never understand! (that's my cop out, cause I don't really understand either... it just never captures my interest, there has to be that hook)

There are my thoughts on Joyce. Any questions?

-thebigfunk

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

well, dubliners won't quite give you the joyce people bug about until you've read something like ulysses. then you'll realize that what seemed simple in dubliners was just too understated to notice most of the time. joyce had more control over his language than anyone in the history of existence. anyone. anywhere. any language. ever. period.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V I V R A N C E
TinkyWinky - marley marl
Vivrant - Pete Rock
bfnh - Premier
guinness - Jay Dee
Mosaic - Hi Tek
Illwill - Hank Shocklee
SqueegieXM - Prince Paul
Kay Dee - Buckwild
Raina - Jazzy Joyce
phil - The Rza
nickelz45 - Diamond D
Donwill - Automator
honorable mention:
fire - fire

"Where the F*CK is my purse icon??????"

:::::::::::::
"And I know what the fuck an option quarterback is. He's the black QB under six feet that ends up being converted to wide receiver once he's selected on day two of the NFL draft because he can't hit the ocean from the edge of a boat."

--

____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

>I attempted Dubliners about a year
>ago...
>
>I died. Of Boredom.

...because I love it so much and the thought of someone else not getting to experience the kind of pleasure that I do, because I wish so hard that everyone did.

>So I pull out my
>copy of Dubliners and turn
>to the Dead... start reading...
>get about ten pages in
>and once again I can't
>go on.

Oh, but you almost got to the most heart-wrenching scene -- I won't spoil it, but you've got to read a few more pages.

> Although it does make
>me quite the outsider at
>pretentious parties...

Try whipping out Borges or Raymond Carver. Or you can just whip it out. That's an icebreaker at pretentious parties...

Alek

____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

>Try whipping out Borges or Raymond
>Carver. Or you can just
>whip it out. That's
>an icebreaker at pretentious parties...

Nah, I whip out Nabokov. I'm the Nabokov king at pretentious parties... shit, I've read certain chapters so many times I can recite them by heart - no joke That's how much I love the guy

-thebigfunk

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Yeah, I whip out my Knob-akov pretty often at parties too.

Alek

p.s. don't know why I felt I had to make that same joke twice (and worse the second time). Sorry. I need to get more sleep.

____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

i swear to god, this kid's a slightly younger, much smarter version of me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V I V R A N C E
TinkyWinky - marley marl
Vivrant - Pete Rock
bfnh - Premier
guinness - Jay Dee
Mosaic - Hi Tek
Illwill - Hank Shocklee
SqueegieXM - Prince Paul
Kay Dee - Buckwild
Raina - Jazzy Joyce
phil - The Rza
nickelz45 - Diamond D
Donwill - Automator
honorable mention:
fire - fire

"Where the F*CK is my purse icon??????"

:::::::::::::
"And I know what the fuck an option quarterback is. He's the black QB under six feet that ends up being converted to wide receiver once he's selected on day two of the NFL draft because he can't hit the ocean from the edge of a boat."

--

Thanks.

BTW, I think I'm just a younger, dumber version of myself.

Alek
____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

>
>Yeah, I whip out my Knob-akov
>pretty often at parties too.


-thebigfunk

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

>but i still
>can't believe nobody mentioned joyce.

I mentioned him briefly under Baldwin.

........>He is the heir of Joyce and Fitzgerald

I would have said something more particular, but I was in an Okayactivist frame, so "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" didn't immediately come to mind (although on second thought it really should have -- it's still all about politics).

> maybe he's not what
>yall are after but you'd
>be cheating yourself if you
>didn't at least attempt to
>experience his work, starting with
>dubliners, then portrait, then ulysses
>and if you're brave, then
>finnegan's wake.

Who's that brave? I'd go to _Exiles_ next.

Alek
____________________________
"All I want is some truth,
just gimme some truth."

____________________________
LEFT side of the bedroom, fool!
What? What?

harlem renaissance author

poetic

urz


silence~

_____________________________________

The cry I bring down from the hills
__________belongs to a girl still burning
__________inside my head. At daybreak

____________________she burns like a piece of paper. - YK

is jean toomer the author who declared that his writing was not african american literature, but american literature? i remember discussing this author in an english class i had, and i think it was jean toomer

----
IM and ICQ name: reefdogg1 (number one at the end)

Mondays, 8pm-11pm EST: a hip hop radio show on the rocks ... eff the watered down ish
http://www.bsrlive.com/ - click on the hi fi/low fi right under the picture

nas is like ...

i scream at the mirror, curse, asking god, why me? / run in the black church, gun in my hand, y'all try me / i'm god son, son of man, son of marcus garvey / rastarfari ari, hail ali salasi / police try to break us, but the streets rasied us / it takes more than metal bars, we're destined for ours / i hear murder plans from dope fiends, with elephant hands / snot's in their nostril, the block is hostile / there's no pots to piss in, blocks is spit / rocks is cookin, underground bodies stiffening, cops lookin / bird shit, droppin on the window pane / the oxygen is cocaine, it drove lots of men to die with no name / i've been on boats, nut down throats, pee on bitches who are famous / pretty dick, leavin stitches in their anus / i'm the animal that hugh heffner created / the only nigga that sade dated, the most hated, nas nigga

i heard you fags wanna catch me off guard, put techs in my heart / the death of escobar under ya rep, whispers in the dark / i hear it cause the street ain't loyal to choose sides / prepare for the beef whoever lose dies / rich and i'm thuggin, i can't trust nothin / this bitch that i'm fuckin, this clip that i'm bustin / could jam in my fist, look at my hand / fingered pussy more expensive rings cut coke cookies / wrote poetry and broke noses b / voices heaven, i'm god son, of course a legend / this is part one, speak my sermon, the hood reverend / blunted eyes red, see ass a hundred times five res / cds blast, speed fast haters drop dead / i'm gorgeous, black artist flip the armrest and grab the cordless / somebody stacks the best, ass is flawless / finally the long awaited shit ghetto people / the sequel, nas, cnn, nobody's equal

noreaga is like ...

b eeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzeeeeee, keep the club off the heeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzeeeeeee, see us thuggin in the back, drinkin greeeeeeezzzzzeeeeeeee, see we still smoke trrrrreeeeeeeeeezzzzzeeeeeee, see us rippin the shows with darryl eeeeeeeeezzzzzzeeeeeeeeee

read the post titled, "james, mos def, my brother & me" on this okayplayer page.