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Compulsory viewing/reading for barbelith

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21:03 / 29.11.02

only a game...

give me something new to chew on. i'll start.

1. all of Jean Luc Godard's films, particularly 'Le Mepris/ Contempt'

in conjunction with

2. T.S Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. Must be spoken aloud as well as 'understood'.

Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes

22:37 / 29.11.02

A book called Netocracy by Bard & Soderqviat.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

20:57 / 30.11.02

Robert Anton Wilson's work, especially 'The Illuminatis Trilogy' and at least book one of the 'Cosmic Trigger' books, even if you then go on to dismiss him as a Joyce-loving hippy.

'Dark City'.

09:33 / 01.12.02

The Wicker Man - a joyful affirmation of the traditional values of community, faith and love of the land. It even ends with a singalong.

The Illuminati - Larry Burkett. Yes, the other one. A fundamentalist's-eye view of everyone's favorite conspiracy, from a retired aerospace worker. Humorless, yet over the top enough to be funny. The ending confirms my long-held suspicions of those end o' the world people.
in a similar [jugular] vein...
666/1000 - double novel by Salem Kirban. 666 is pure biblical apocalypse porn, like the Left Behind novels, but shorter and snappier. Cuts to the chase very quickly. 1000 is about the 1000-year reign of Jesus, *another* final battle between good and evil, then a happy ending. Both have great pictures.

These two books are most likely out of print, and came from Christian publishing houses. In the US you'll probably find them at large charity shops like Salvation Army. In the UK maybe they're at large religious charity shops.

Relive those happy pre-millennial days and wonder what the hell they were all thinking (not too sure about that "were")

Or...

http://www.vermilion-sands.com/library/library.html

My personal list. Needs updating. Badly.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:04 / 01.12.02

The Evil Dead (the first one). Wasn't what I was gonna choose, but having spent the early hours of this morning, post-party, watching this purely because my flatmate had just confessed to NEVER HAVING SEEN IT (I mean, what's with that?), thought I should bung it in for the sake of completeness. Although- everyone in the world HAS seen it now, right?

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:52 / 01.12.02

Um, nope.

Rollo Kim, on location

12:13 / 01.12.02

Two films: "if...." and "O' Lucky Man!" with Malcolm Mcdowell

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:53 / 01.12.02

This is going to be one of those threads where people try to show off how clever they are and end up looking like idiots, isn't it?

13:02 / 01.12.02

Hope so.

So I'll nominate Ground Force which is on over the Christmas period because its Alan Titchmarsh's last ever episode, I imagine they'll even have some sort of suprise for him at the end, possibly a gnome version of himself.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:24 / 01.12.02

I'd never dismiss Robert Anton Wilson for "Joyce-loving". I think Joyce did a very good job of raising a daughter (or two, depending on yr perspective) largely in the absence of a father and in increasingly unusual circumstances, until her tragic and sudden demise. I would however dismiss him for writing some of the most eye-bleedingly bad prose it's ever been my godforsaken-why-god-why-please-can-I-have-those-hours-back misfortune to read.

Required Barbelith viewing/reading:

Viewing: Dawson's Creek, series 5. It will open yr MIND and make you see the TRUTH about the world in a way the dumb mindless sheep prole herds never do, with their Godspeed albums and their David Lynch.

Reading: the Daily Mail. See above.

16:54 / 01.12.02

perhaps haus, but for a place that loves all things weird or radical no-one ever seems to discuss the head fuck that is Godard and i thought people here might not know about him.

18:56 / 01.12.02

Essential listening would prove to be... Don't laugh -- Mariah Carey!!! She has it all, beauty, brains, restrictively, seductive voice, and a killer back catalogue worth of songs, and besides, her dress on the latest single is so fitting.

Post-Next Men Byrne -- Generations, Spiderman Year One, LabRats, Wonder Woman, the list is endless. Endlessly exciting, that is.

Ain't it cool news for all your latest gossip.

Explorer Channel, because -- and just that.

The Bee Gees. Disco RLZ!!!

W. Bush. He are not stupid. Much intelligent. He is our leader of the free world.

Soft Porn.

The Michael Bay oevre.

Alpha Flight, post-Nizieza.

I'll be back with more.

19:02 / 01.12.02

I would however dismiss him for writing some of the most eye-bleedingly bad prose it's ever been my godforsaken-why-god-why-please-can-I-have-those-hours-back misfortune to read.

Well said. He's written some good articles though, or at least they seemed good when I was reading them.

Dunno about stuff that's essential before "getting into the lith" - I'm not by any means an exemplar of Barbelithishness, my Barbeclique card is an unconvincing fake and I don't buy many comics. However, if you're into the same aspects of Barbelism that I am, then I'd suggest you read or view, um...

- the Neuromancer trilogy
- Robocop and Starship Troopers (the Verhoeven, not the shitty Heinlein novel)
- Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
- Mind Tools: the mathematics of information by Rudy Rucker
- The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Princess Bride
- there's a really good article in this month's Wired about the philosophy of computation which I really recommend if you're not into that area

And other stuff. I can't come up with anything that makes me look clever right now.

20:07 / 01.12.02

'Illuminatus...' while very poorly-written prose, in the classicist's sense, is a lot of fun, and has some very interesting things to say.

There would be no 'Invisibles' without it, and that is where this site has acquired its' name. Just saying...

I've seen a late Godard film, sean - he's in it; all cut-up and like. I enjoyed it very much.

Um.

Haruki Murakami, though I may well have spelt his name wrong. Bill Burroughs. The Flaming Lips, apparently. Pier Pasolini. Alan Moore. Katsuhiro Otomo. Masamune Shirow. Jeff Noon. Bill Hicks. Franz Kafka. Harold Bloom. Infesticons. Shudder to Think. Eddie Izzard. Ol' Dirty Bastard.

No women, obviously. Well, Miss Kittin, then. And Peaches.

And lest I forget: Justin Timberlake. I am not joking.

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:27 / 01.12.02

...presumably because The Unconsoled is the equivalent of Instant Zen? Because it sucks your brain out?

Good Christ, but I hated that book.

Flyboy: MASSIVE props to you for RAW outlook. Every page of that damn tome I cursed his eyes.

Now, all go listen to Scott Joplin tunes.

20:36 / 01.12.02

Um... I've not seen The Evil Dead. I have a video of it in my room tho. Been there for about a week now. When I've watched it, I can give it back to the person who leant it to me and they will give me Blue Velvet.

I'm just lazy. Like really, really lazy.

20:40 / 01.12.02

Um... I've not seen The Evil Dead. I have a video of it in my room tho. Been there for about a week now. When I've watched it, I can give it back to the person who leant it to me and they will give me Blue Velvet.

I'm just lazy. Really lazy.

22:00 / 01.12.02

Can I second the pointlessness of this thread? We've tried it in Film/TV/Theatre, we've had a "Barbelith albums" thread in Music (where people discussed how Invisible various CDs were)...

Surely, if you're on the board, a quick glance at some of the threads in the Spectacle would start pointing you in the right direction... and show you how much material there is to consider, and how impossible it is to do so in a single thread.

But if I had to vote for one thing, The President's Analyst. Just because well, it's something everyone, Barbelith or not, should see. And probably haven't.

22:18 / 01.12.02

Can I second the pointlessness of this thread? We've tried it in Film/TV/Theatre, we've had a "Barbelith albums" thread in Music (where people discussed how Invisible various CDs were)...

Well duh, the whole point is to reveal stuff about the people making choices and what they consider to be "Barbelith". Serves very little other purpose. Good conversation material.

22:21 / 01.12.02

And you nail your colurs to the mast. Which I'm happy enough to do.

What's The Unconsoled?

Tryphena Absent

22:23 / 01.12.02

The Sound of Music. If you don't understand the cult beauty of Julie Andrews or at least the concept behind it then I think you're well and truly screwed.

Oh and I second Murakami though I don't like the end of Sputnik Sweetheart.

22:44 / 01.12.02

What's The Unconsoled?

The Unconsoled is a lengthy oneiristic piece by Ishiguro, sort of about someone who is a cello player in a dream but not quite, which I absolutely love, and Rothkoid apparently hates, though s/he is obviously deluded here.

I'd suggest that if you've read and enjoyed When We Were Orphans, you'll like it even more. If you haven't, I suggest you read some Ishiguro because... I think he's great. If he keeps on in the same vein I may change my mind, like I did with Brett Easton Ellis, but I haven't yet.

01:51 / 02.12.02

Cool.

I think I will. I like lengthy oneiristic pieces.

And the thread becomes a winner!

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

02:14 / 02.12.02

Simple.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV show...simply because it combines the sheer cheesiness of pop-entertainment with meaningful storytelling and an attempt to show something beyond itself.

Just like us.

One of us. One of us. One of us.

The Return Of Rothkoid

02:36 / 02.12.02

Rothkoid apparently hates, though s/he is obviously deluded here.
Ze.

Deluded? Whatever. Some people enjoy nailing their generative organs to planks, too. To each their crap-tastic own.

The Return Of Rothkoid

02:44 / 02.12.02

And given that it revolves around a pianist, not a cellist, perhaps you have less-than-perfect recall of its awfulness? Just a thought.

03:17 / 02.12.02

Pianos. Cellos. They're all instruments, and they all end in "o". Don't let's get started on "ze" again.

Nietzsch E. Coyote

06:30 / 02.12.02

Roth, I didn't believe you when you said this, "Some people enjoy nailing their generative organs to planks, too." So I looked it up on Kaaza. OH MY @#$$% GOD NO!

The book can't be that bad.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:50 / 02.12.02

Wll, he did say it was "sort of about a cello player". One could argue that a book about a pianist is sort of about a cello player.

I look forward to further comments of the same stripe.

Secret societies, Secret Squirrel, what's the diff? The Illuminatus Trilogy is still great. And just becasue she slays vampires, rather than being covered in a thin layer of vampires, I don't see any reason to retract my recommendation.

11:11 / 02.12.02

Let's everyone just listen to Black Sabbath and have done with it.

(that's the name of my auto-biography, btw)

12:17 / 02.12.02

I apologise for disappointing anyone who picked up a copy of The Unconsoled last night, expecting it to be all about cellos and cellism, but:

1. I was testing you.

2. And a piano is a cello, really, just with more strings, using mechanical hammers to hit those strings, and horizontal.

3. And in the copy I have, he's a cellist. Of course, I've got the exclusive remix version on white label, which I wouldn't expect you lot to have.

4. And anyway, I never said "cellist" at all. Someone edited my post.

If the Illuminatus Trilogy was about Secret Squirrel, it might actually be worth reading.

12:26 / 02.12.02

In any case, I loved The Unconsoled. But When We Were Orphans didn't really work for me, unfortunately.

*goes off to listen to Black Sabbath*

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:27 / 02.12.02

Wow. Coldwater Suplex moves into the print world.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:42 / 02.12.02

Rothkoid, if you were in any sense enlightened rather than one of the lobotomised drones of anaesthetised conformism, you would know that Ludo from Coldwater Suplex (drums, theramin, self-harm) has self-published two small volumes of experimental prose, Facecocking and The World According To Ludo, whilst hir co-conspirator in subversion Revlon (vocals, synths, cowbells, concepts) is a member of the Prometheus Collective, whose limited edition works of 'graphic assault' mix text and pornographic scrawls and are a joy to behold.

13:19 / 02.12.02

... a joy to behold

I just knew the Prometheus Collective had sold out! Fucking poseurs.

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