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You know what blew my mind? Reading GG&S and then reading this book called Non-Zero by Robert Wright. Those two books, combined with a lecture I heard about futurism and computing power, made me think about human society for a month straight.
Yeah, Eurasia rocked.
In the Americas, we had . . . actually, I know pathetically little about American Indian history pre-Wounded Knee. So much for my ethnic pride.
I can tell you all about golems, though!
That damn north-south axis really screwed the Native Americans too. Gotta go east-west with that shizz.
I think I just might. I'm devouring GG&S...sometimes I just love reading textbooky-type books. It's like I'm back in school, without the annoying essay to write when I'm done with said book.
eta: I wanted to be a paleoanthropologist when I was in 9th grade. So...yeah, I really like GG&S.
I just came across the short story The Shawshank Redemption is based on. I've never said this before, but the movie was way better than the book. On many levels, too. But I'm reading the next story in the collection, about this all-American kid who becomes fascinated with the holocaust and then discovers a former SS officer hiding in his neighborhood. So the kid basically blackmales the old guy to tell him all his gory stories or he'll tell the police. Of course, the stories soon mess with the kid's head while reminding the old guy of his past glory. I'm not far into it, so I don't know where it's going, but it's already giving me creepy dreams that I can't remember in the morning.
They made that into a movie too: Apt Pupil. I never saw the movie, but the story sure was good.
Yup, that's it. Ian McKellen, huh? Not quite the image I was envisioning, but I bet he was good in the part. In fairness to Shawshank, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, so the story was at a disadvantage going in.
In fairness to Shawshank, it's one of my favorite movies of all time, so the story was at a disadvantage going in.
Me too, in terms of favorite movies. I read the story before I saw the movie, and they are quite different animals. Hard to beat the movie, though.
The Body is in that collection of Stephen King stories as well, which was made into Stand by Me.
No shit? That's another movie that ranks way, way up there. I think it won the Oscar that year for Best Performance by One of the Coreys in a Non-Corey-type Role. I bought the book for $1 at the library one day because it had Shawshank prominently advertised on the cover. I've forgotten more Stephen King than I can remember reading at this point so I figured it was a can't miss. Now, without having glanced ahead at the other stories, I feel like I hit a little jackpot.
Best Performance by One of the Coreys in a Non-Corey-type Role
Thank you.
Yeah, I read that book quite some time ago and I kept getting this unsettling feeling that I'd read it before, but then I realized I'd just seen all the movies. It really is probably my favorite Stephen King collection/book.
I think about Stand By Me every day when I cross the railroad tracks from where I park to where I go to work. Train dodge. Vern losing his comb. Good stuff.
Strange that we were just talking about Apt Pupil now that the kid who starred in it died today.
Strange that we were just talking about Apt Pupil now that the kid who starred in it died today.
Well, that just sucks. You always hate to hear about that kind of thing. Imagine what River Phoenix might have accomplished by now if he hadn't died so young.
Oh man, I was going to comment yesterday on Brad Renfro, and how it brought me back to the day. And then I didn't. Sad.
That's awful.
But not surprising. The only thing I really remember him from is Bully, which is not everyone's cup of tea to say the least.
That is sad to hear about him.
Brian, I also saw Shawshank Redemption before reading the story, and enjoyed the movie better (it's also one of my favorites). Same with Apt Pupil, actually, and I think the book creeped me out more...the main character was so much more violent and soul-less in the book. And to think of it, I read the short story of Brokeback Mountain after seeing the movie, and didn't like it (the story) at all. This is why I'm going to start reading Memoirs of a Geisha without having seen the movie. (Although I am almost done with the book version of The Princess Bride, and absolutely love it!)
Apt Pupil, the story, started out dark and creepy and turned violently disturbing to the point that I wish I'd skipped it. I think I should pick up Princess Bride just to cleanse my mind of any of that creepy residue.
Or watch Ferris Bueller. That's the feel good movie of whatever year it was.
Maybe it's my night to be disagreeable and cantankerous, but I just saw that Amazon rated A Thousand Splendid Suns the best book of 2007. Moronsayswhat? That book was half Message, half Oprah Stereotype, and half of Oprah Stereotype is Message, so it was three-quarters message. And the message was boring.
Who's with me?
I've never even heard of it.
Is it okay that I'm halfway through Special Topics in Calamity Physics and unimpressed?
Yes.
TSS was about Afghanistan, the Taliban, War, and how bad some women's lives were, sprinkled with a little bit of true love, Princess Bride-style.
It can't be a TWSS because women had no political voice in Afghanistan under the Taliban. That was part of the message. They weren't saying anything official, but to themselves they said oh so much!