THEY'RE GREAT!

At this moment in time, my philosofamily is reading a book called The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, much to the dismay of Michael, who thinks this book is so horribly boring, that he would rather be doing something completely different. Wow, how original. I personally think the book is great, but it does take a little while for things to get interesting.

Once things do get interesting, we meet a wonderful character named Ray Gatsby, who lives the social life like never before. His house is packed with random strangers, many who just arrive by themselves. All the time he is just waiting for something, which I won't spoil. Our main character calls this man, "the great Gatsby", hence the tittle of the book. I know this is a pretty ordinary and vague question, but what makes someone great?

If a monarch or a athlete is particularly good at doing his or her job, then they may be referred to as great, but Gatsby is no Monarch. So why does he receive this illustrious tittle? Well, I think it is because he is somewhat of a legend. Even though great is not the best of word choices, if someone called me great, I would be very happy, and rather bashful. of course, Gatsby is always bashful, and...

I really lost track of my thoughts here.

Great is a tittle, I think is weak in word choice, but powerful as a complement.

Which of course is why everyone buys Frosted Flakes

Climbin' In Yo Windows (Blog Marathon 2)

Your house should be something you feel safe in. It is yours after all, why should you think any harm could come to you? Home has a feel to it that just feels so snug. A perfect feeling. But those feelings can be changed. Sometimes, horrible things can happen, which change your Ideas of everything you thought before.

In a book I just finished called Saturday, by Ian Mcewan, or main character, Henry, gets into some fisticuffs with some prestigious gentlemen from a lap dancing club. Unfortunately for Henry, the men are not happy with Henry's use of wit to take on their brute force. So they end up following his wife home, and intruding on his family reunion, with a knife. I will not spoil the ending, but I thought about how if this was a real person's story, that he would have a changed idea of how safe his house is, and rightfully so.

I hate the feeling of being traumatized. It has happened to me before, not the men coming into my house with a knife, but being traumatized, and I have to say it is life changing. You end up never thinking about the thing in the same way. No matter how hard you try, something big has changed in your mind, and you can do nothing. The feeling is there.

It's a horrible feeling.

Tickles Me Funny Bone (Blog Marathon 1)

Humor. The essence of many lives and careers, brought into focus through comedy. Being funny. It is a way many choose to relax, or make things better. Got fired from your job? Make a funny joke. Cat just died? Well, screw that, I feel like laughing, and so should you.

Why am I speaking of humor? What devil witchcraft has brought that word into my sacred blog? Well, I am reading a wonderful book by the name of Experience, by Martin Amis. In this book, subtle laughs are behind each page, and no story is without a chuckle. Even on the back does it say; "Experience is the only book I have ever read, that keeps me laughing all the way through." I almost entirely agree, except I am not one to laugh out loud at most anything, let alone a book. Still, high praise indeed.

It started to make me think about what makes a book good? I have read so many books, but all the ones that stand out have no comedy in them. They all are serious, and sullen, and sometimes witty, but never plain funny. As easy as it is to make a comedy movie, a comedy book seems to be impossible. Classics do not include those books about Butts, they came from Uranus or something. The Classics are Charles Dickens, Shakespeare and Tolstoy. No pure comedy.

The world needs funny books.

H to the I

It is finally time for me to come clean about something. I absolutely hate hipsters. They are all so stupid, with the way they try to act cool by acting like they are not trying to act cool (that was complicated, but you will get it). They all have such good lives, living in their condominiums with others of their kind, enjoying the luxuries of the upper west side, eating good but over priced food. I hate them all.

And yet I want to be just like them.

They are my Idols. Not the fake ones who wear expensive clothes and rip them with scissors to make them look wore. No, not them, but the poser generation X's. The ones who left lalapolooza for the joys of cafes. I want to sit in a cafe, read a Virginia Woolf novel, and sip an over priced but not half bad espresso. That would be the day...

Of course, I begin to think about all this because in my book, Saturday by Ian McEwan, The neurosurgeon comes downstairs to find his young adult son eating a yogurt with tons of dried fruits and granola. A very hipster - ish thing to do.

Just what I want to do.

I want to be a fireman!

In childhood, we all want to be famous, or something along those lines. A famous chef, a famous doctor, a famous musician, a famous athlete. The possibilities are endless. In the very start of a book I am reading called Saturday by Ian Mcewan. The book starts off with a day in the life of a neurosurgeon, who goes from surgery to surgery like he's a fat kid in a candy store. We soon meet his son, Theo (what a coincidence) who is in a minor London indie blues band. It shows the almost awkward father and son bond they have acquired due to the difference in their careers.

They get only about two minutes of conversation out of a airplane that recently flew by their house in flames. They have no bonds whatsoever. I thought about it in my life. Not how my father is a musician and I will never amount to anything in the world of music, but in the way that we will all soon be going off to high school, and most friendships will be broken, due to the fact that people are going to all different schools.

For some reason, the fickle condition of the human mind, will in most situations stop people from making or keeping friends who do not go to the same school, or are in the same line of work. I know that you don't always have much bonding time when you are not in the same place 7 - 9 hours a day. I simply don't think that statistic stops people from keeping friends who they have known for years.

Strong bonds shouldn't break.

Yay, shopping!

I recently finished a wonderful book, by the wonderful name of White Teeth. This book was so entertaining, that when I finished it, I thought that no book could possibly be better then this one. My life was in some dark times. For alas, no book could compare to the witty wonders of White Teeth. Just as I was contemplating suicide (kidding, kidding), a large blue object appeared in my sight. It was my bookshelf.

Like a superhero, my bookshelf popped out of no where and saved the day. For this bookshelf had books I had yet to read. Then came the problem. Which one should I read first? There was The Long Firm and Saturday, Experience and Dreamland, all at my fingers and waiting to be opened.

I have not opened any yet.

Do you know that feeling you get, when someone hands you a present, and you are just stuck thinking, "oh, goodie!" But then all of the sudden you open it and you get some socks, or a Bingo strategy guide. I have the same scenario. I don't want to open any because I'm scared of what might come. If I build up my hopes, just to have them crash down like a airless balloon.

But I will have to eventually.

Funny accents make funny books

We all know the British accent. That hilarious touch that makes the Brits so novel. In a world of English, they are the ones that make us laugh. The comedians. Not the really good ones that are gut wrenching funny, but the ones that are so bad that we don't feel sorry for them, we just laugh at their efforts. Of course, all of this is relevant to both the fact that I am English, and that the book I'm reading which is called White Teeth, has British people with accents in it.

 White teeth mixes humor, with the utter fact that in life, we can't resist the many deadly sins, (for their are more then seven) and morphine is totally bad ass. I'll touch on that in a moment. Basically for me, this book is no walk in the park. The language is complicated, the plot is tough to follow, but every single time I hear Archie say the words "init" or "'pose so" I just laugh a little inside. Do English people actually deny common sense, and completely ignore certain letters, or are they just a little dull? One things for sure, they're really good at football. Don't quite know where that came from.

The English Colloquies, or at least I think that's the word for a certain area's speech habits (Vocab test tomorrow), are freaking hilarious. Someone once said that you need to laugh at your self a little, but laughing at other people is just great. Laugh at the English.

But don't mention Morphine, it's a touchy subject.