babylonboy
Bluelighter
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^Is that KLF book good? It was actually next on my list (well, either that or Principia Discordia).
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What are you currently reading? v2
- Thread starter Marmalade
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StoneHappyMonday
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 10, 2001
- Messages
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Definitely BB. As well as being a pretty good history of the KLF and their actions he diverges into all sorts of interesting debates about world events, how the world is run, the financial system and the power of belief. The Illuminatus! Is well referenced. Loads of interesting stuff.
pinkpapaver
Bluelighter
remind me to read this when I get round to it. should I demand they buy it for me at the library if they haven't got it?
I've just rea Ratta Ilias' Harley Loco.
A nice easy read.
O'm going to read Morrissey's autobiography. Shane McGowan's is good.
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
I can imagine Shane McGowans book being amazing, for an alocohol pickled long term alcoholic his genius and poetry is quite incerdible.
Top of my reading list now is the picture of dorian grey. I made it halfway through Clive Barker's Cabal. It's a good book, but i seem to have a lot of trouble finishing books these days. Its not like this is even one of those 'why am i bothering, this isnt in the least bit interesting or good' books.![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
Top of my reading list now is the picture of dorian grey. I made it halfway through Clive Barker's Cabal. It's a good book, but i seem to have a lot of trouble finishing books these days. Its not like this is even one of those 'why am i bothering, this isnt in the least bit interesting or good' books.
amanitadine
Bluelighter
quality book! I also enjoyed the Cancer Ward but it pales in comparison to the aforementioned......i go on a russian lit kick every now and then...proper.
just read a great bio on Leonard Cohen, "I'm your Man".....good stuff, quite revealing as to the mystery that is L. Cohen...
Drugs 2.0 by Mike Power is a good read, chronicles the rise of the RC trade in a quality way...plus he interviewed many of us!
Now reading "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer....it is certainly written by a 24 yr old (too many fugging adjectives!) but it is warming on me...I always willfully ignored him because of his everywhere presence and schtick but he is worth reading..."Armies of the Night" and "The White Negro" are oh so dated but also worth ones (mine) time......
Oh and the collected stories of Flannery O'Connor..........superb.
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Preface
"The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless."
He does come out with some clever-clever statements that these days he would be called an "arsehole" for making. Ive just discovered that the protaginist of the novel smokes opium. I think this book will be 'educational' if i can manage to not get annoyed by some of Wilde's more pretentious and controversial statements.
The Preface
"The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless."
He does come out with some clever-clever statements that these days he would be called an "arsehole" for making. Ive just discovered that the protaginist of the novel smokes opium. I think this book will be 'educational' if i can manage to not get annoyed by some of Wilde's more pretentious and controversial statements.
Sammy G
Ex-Bluelighter
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
I will continue to read it, and hopefully actually finish a book this time. I think i have it on audiobook somewhere, i may take to listening to it on my mp3 player whilst going out for walks etc. At least that way i wont fell asleep after a couple of paragraphs, which is what happens when i try reading in bed, last thing at night.
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
Yes, i did have it on audiobook. The only problem is that the mp3 file is in 1 6 hour chunk. I fucking hate that, if i fall asleep part way through it, which i almost certainly will, I'll have to start all over again. 
Anyone know of any software that can split down mp3 files into smaller chunks ? 10 or 20 minute segments would be ideal and far better.
Thanks for adding another word to my vocabulary today Sam: epigram.
Full Definition of EPIGRAM
1: a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought
2: a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying
There seems to be no better word to describe his work than that.
Anyone know of any software that can split down mp3 files into smaller chunks ? 10 or 20 minute segments would be ideal and far better.
Thanks for adding another word to my vocabulary today Sam: epigram.
Full Definition of EPIGRAM
1: a concise poem dealing pointedly and often satirically with a single thought or event and often ending with an ingenious turn of thought
2: a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying
There seems to be no better word to describe his work than that.
knock
Bluelighter
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
Perhaps you could try this link MDB?
thanks, for some reason i didnt expect them to be that easy to find. Inflorescence
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2013
- Messages
- 2,513
And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of Her Daughter's Murder
by Deborah Spungen
"'For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family."
Not quite what I expected, Actually fairly well written and would be interesting even if it wasn't about Nancy.
by Deborah Spungen
"'For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family."
Not quite what I expected, Actually fairly well written and would be interesting even if it wasn't about Nancy.
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
The Chelsea Hotel. What a legendary bastion of hedonsim and rock 'n' roll history that placed seems to be. I think the thing that i associate with it most strongly is Leonard Cohens great eponymous track.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."
And then you got away, didn't you babe...
I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.
Who says the Leonard Cohens songs are depressing or that he has no sense of humour ? I find those bolded lines hilarious, but i am not sure if he was trying to be funny or not.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."
And then you got away, didn't you babe...
I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.
Who says the Leonard Cohens songs are depressing or that he has no sense of humour ? I find those bolded lines hilarious, but i am not sure if he was trying to be funny or not.
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Inflorescence
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2013
- Messages
- 2,513
Had always wanted to stay there MDB and when I was there a few years ago..found out it has closed. Not quite sure why and what is/was happening without a google. Think I may purchase legends of the Chelsea hotel..
mydrugbuddy
Bluelighter
It was possibly closed down by LE, i get the impression it was notorious for loads of drug taking and prostitution, amongst the rock stars and others who stayed there.
Meant to be reading a book about travel writing (which, I have just found out, is a euphemism for 'British imperialist books' as far as uni is concerned) but instead am starting Slaughterhouse Five after chatting to my disability tutor this aft. He was comparing it to Catch 22 and caught my interest and it's been on my shelf for ages and it's short and anyway the bloody book didn't even get here today so!
StoneHappyMonday
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 10, 2001
- Messages
- 18,084
Kurt Vonnegut ftw.
I've only ever read one of his books, Cat's Cradle, and really enjoyed it, but dude told me Slaughterhouse Five did what Catch 22 did in about 1/6 of the page space. Catch 22 is my favourite book so I want to see if he's right or not, as far as my opinion goes, anyway. I think part of the charm of Catch 22 is its length, chapter structure, and timeline, so I'm interested to see how Slaughterhouse Five compares.
BlindHelperMonkey
Bluelighter
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knock
Bluelighter
A proper page turner, and I don't get that often.