Picked up any good reads at the bookstore?

[feral]

Jun 9, 2010 9:42:32 GMT Minge är en jävla besserwisser said:

One of my punters sent me a DVD of him salmon fishing in Canada

Was he wearing rubber waders a lot, by any chance?

;D

In the 5 minutes I watched of the DVD -yes

[lala]

LINE SIX: From the middle of the gulf the point of the land itself is not visible at all; but the shoulder of a steep hill at the back can be made out faintly like a shadow on the sky.

After a heavy and symbol-ridden opening paragraph, Conrad takes it easy for a couple of sentences. Like it's predecessor, this line is not of great significance; the only importance it conveys is the vastness of the gulf, and the utter sense of isolation someone stranded there would feel. Which may worth remembering for later.

[Deleted]

You need help.

[feral]

At least we know why he calls himself lala : It's cos he meets so many people who stick their fingers in their ears and go " la la " when he starts talking

[lala]

Well, I was going to give up, but since you're being so difficult, I'll carry on a bit longer.

LINE 7: On the other side, what seems to be an isolated patch of blue mist floats lightly on the glare of the horizon.

Another line that is of limited symbolic or thematic value, but does help sketch out the geography of coastal Costaguana. It is also the first line of the third paragraph, a paragraph of intense symbolic and thematic importance, although it appears at first to be a relatively unimportant anecdote.

[Scooby Do]

Is this a book for the "gay" community?

[voice]

why, do you like it?

[lala]

If your taste is for rugged Italian types, effete hispanics, or buttoned up mustachioed English men, you might find something to like, Scooby. Glad to see you're finally comfortable with your sexuality. You aren't David Laws, are you?

(Pedants' corner: I'm aware Charles Gould isn't English, as he points out frequently, he is a born Coastaguanan. But his characteristics are English, and if that's what Scooby likes ...)

[Psalms]

Bought a used paperback of a John Lennon biography several weeks ago.

(Maybe I'll add the name of the Paperback Writer
sometime ;-))

[Scooby Do]

Jun 9, 2010 23:17:32 GMT voice said:

why, do you like it?

Wow, spell checker at work.

Have you read it vor?

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

By my reckoning, lala, if you can ramp up your rate to three lines a day we should hit the finish line hand in hand.

[lala]

I'm ashamed to admit to having missed a couple of days, so, big breath everyone, we're going to tackle THREE lines at once here. Ready?

LINES 8-10: This is the peninsula of Azuera, a wild chaos of sharp rocks and stony levels cut about by vertical ravines. It lies far out to sea like a rough head of stone stretched from a green-clad coast at the end of a slender neck of sand covered with thickets of thorny scrub. Utterly waterless, for the rainfall runs off at once on all sides into the sea, it has not soil enough -- it is said -- to grow a single blade of grass, as if it were blighted by a curse.

It should immediately be apparent that the first line contains more descriptive information. Conrad, however, has started to reintroduce thematic concepts, albeit in a wonderfully subtle way. Colonization is a process of imposing order on the natural or primitive world, to make it ready for exploitation. We will see this later on when he describes the restoration of the old San Tome mine, which - when first glimpsed by Emily Gould - is as chaotic a scene as Azeura - described by Don Pepe as a 'paradise of snakes,' - an interesting suggestion that paradise annd choas are at least related, if not identical.

As later descriptions of the development of the mine make clear, that chaos has been thoroughly brought under control, in the name of "progress" or, as Gould or Holroyd might put it, "material interests." viewed from an environmental standpoint, or that of a Costaguanan patriot, of course, different terms might be found.

Now, it is worthwhile looking ahead to line 11, as it deals directly with the supposed curse alleged in line 10: The poor, associating by an obscure instinct of consolation the ideas of evil and wealth, will tell you that it is deadly because of its forbidden treasures.

This is an astonishingly important sentence, as the next 500 pages will demonstrate how, in fact, the superstitions of the poor are proven right. The treasure, of course, is not the lost silver of Azeura (more of that shortly) but the treasure of the San Tome mine which will become the obsession, and finally master, of all who are touched by it.

It is interesting that it is poor people are given this insight and the wealthier ones are either denied it or do not heed the warning - Charles Gould perceives how San tome blighted his father's life, in one of the books most comical but tragic passages, but is incapable of resisting its allure. The true curse does not lie on Azeura, but on Costaguana as a whole, as its history - recorded and experienced by the tragic Don Jose Avellanos - bears out. Coastaguana, with its cargo of treasure, proves deadly to all.

[hammerhead]

Have you ever written creatively lala, or is it your lot to endlessly over-analyse?

I'm merely curious.

[lala]

Yes and yes.

[voice]

don't give up the day job

[lala]

The horror of all horrors is that my current opus - currently sitting at just under 90,000 words after it's first edit, is actually inspired by Yord.

[hammerhead]

;D

By his philosophical nature, or perhaps his insight into the economy?

[hammerhead]

I suppose a comedy based on his knowledge of computers might be an idea

[Deleted]

The years he's been online and all the advice you have given him over the years, he should be an expert by now.

[hammerhead]

Yeah but I was talking crap all the time, just for a laugh like.