Ocean said:

read the DaVinci code yet hon?

Natisse said:

She said 'good' book...

Natisse said:

Yep!!
Just finished The Naked Husband and The Naked Heart...they were pretty good!

IstenSzek said:

It's amazing again. Remember Elementary Particles' David?

Well, skip ahead a few millenia and enter Daniel24 and Daniel25, the cloned versions.

Just go ahead and buy it. It is so you, somehow...

HamsterHuey said:

do mean what the movie "the island" is based on?

HamsterHuey said:

sounds very promising. i'll check it out!

charlottegelin said:

The Island is based on so many ideas. They were sued a few months ago by the makers of another movie with the exact same plot. Humanity will always repeat it's own tragic, I am afraid. That counts when it comes to movies, stories and it's own history. We'll never learn.

Alberto Moravia - The Indifferent Ones
but I read it in Dutch (De onverschilligen).

I read the first chapters and I like it. There isn't a lot of action, it's more about what the characters think and about their situation.

HamsterHuey said:

charlottegelin said:

...but I appreciate the thought.

Today I read "The Legend of St. Julian Hospitator" a short story by Gustave Flaubert.

Apparently he based the story on some medieval stained glass window or something?

It was about this King and Queen who are having a child. They each have a vision of their son's future, visions that they don't share with one another. This scenario could lead to hilarity or it could lead to a cycle of despair and salvation. This being Flaubert there is not much hilarity.

In both cases, their visions indicate big things for their boy. The mother was assured that he would be a saint and the father heard it that he would become a successful ruler. Throughout the boy's youth, they each have their eye on him and each sees in his behavior things that confirm their own still-unspoken beliefs.

The boy's a bit of a loose cannon though. He delights in gore, especially when that gore is coming from the entrails of an animal or two (or a thousand). He first kills a mouse that he sees crawling on the altar (so much for Sainthood), then he starts killing birds and wolves and goats. He goes out on what can only be called sprees. Kind of a Middle Ages version of Grand Theft Auto, I suppose. At one point, he hurls a javelin or something through the air at what he thinks is a falcon. But it turns out to be his mother. He doesn't kill her, but he sort of pins her ludicrously to the wall by her flowing garments. He feels so, I don't know guilty, that he leaves his home forever. (There has also been this prophecy that he will kill both his parents, and this he wants to avoid.)

The first thing he does is join an army, because, you know, he doesn't want to kill his parents but he does so love to kill. Apparently all those sprees paid off because he is very good at what he does and becomes quite the celebrated soldier. He is often summoned by Princes and Kings to help protect their empires or castles (not so much their zoos and aviaries). One ruler he helps is so grateful he gives him his daughter. She's such a stunner that for a time she makes an honest man of him.

One time he is out for a few days...killing I think...and this old couple shows up at the door, quite the worse for wear and tear, and ask to see Julien. The wife lets them in and they eventually reveal themselves to be Julien's parents, who have been wandering around looking for him.

Well it doesn't take an alchemist to figure out what is going to happen next. The wife lets them take her bed for the night. Julien comes stumbling home late. Thinks his wife is in bed with another man. Kills them. Runs away.

He becomes this kind of hermit and lives by the edge of a river in this old hut. He spends his time ferrying people across the river and doesn't ask for any kind of pay. Which is nice of him. I'm sure most people would just be glad enough that he doesn't kill them.

One night in a storm, Julien hears the voice of someone who needs to be taken across the river. He heads out sees this white-haired (I think) man with these glowing eyes who calls him by name. He is also suffering from leprosy and has all these sores all over his body. Maybe the sores remind Julien of entrails because he ferries him across in the storm. He then lets the man into his hut. Feeds him. Gives him his bed. When the man asks him to keep him warm, he doesn't hesitate to climb into bed with him and warms his pustule-covered body.

The story ends in this kind of homoerotic apotheosis, as this leprous man it turns out is really Jesus, who ascends into heaven along with Julien...who hopefully won't start randomly killing things when he gets to the pearly gates.

I read this at the gym. Next time I'm reading Maxim.

2the9s said:

Like, while you were lifting weights?

so, ninesy, was it a good story? no point recommending it, your synopsis is probably as detailed as the story itself should've put in a spoiler alert

I'm reading "DANCE,DANCE,DANCE":Chic And The Politics Of Disco, it's a good one so far!

[Edited 11/29/05 22:41pm]

2the9s said:

oh how lovely although, knowing Flaubert's style, your synopsis is
no doubt a million times more entertaining.

for some reason this story reminds me of "Christ in Flanders", a short
story by Balzac. you can download and print it here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/...1940-h.htm

perhaps an idea for your next time at the gym. anyway, why are you at
the gym reading short stories?

The Bible. Great read!

What Other Book

· has influenced as much of the world’s greatest art, literature, and music, while also having a profound impact on law?

· has survived thousands of years of recopying by human hand and yet has come down to us essentially as it was written?

· has inspired such unselfishness that some have been willing to suffer hardships and even risk death in order to translate it?

· has been translated into more than 2,100 languages, making it available to over 90 percent of the human family?

· mentions scientific truths not discovered until many centuries later?

· contains timeless principles that can help people of all racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds to improve their lot in life?

· contains unambiguous predictions that came true, as proved by historical facts?

Would it not be worth examining such a book?

NewSystem said:

has inspired so many people killing others?

HamsterHuey said:

Religion has been at the forefront of mass slaughter throughout the centuries. However that has nothing to do with God’s word. Violence of any sort is strongly condemned in the Bible. The fact that religion has caused so much trouble shouldn’t be a surprise because the Bible warns over and over again Satan’s designs, one being false religion.
[Edited 11/30/05 4:26am]

If "God" knew his word would create such bloodshed, then why spread it?

If "Satan" really excisted, the first thing he would have created was religion.

HamsterHuey said:

As I said Huey, God’s word is not responsible for the bloodshed. Mankind has used false religion as a political force to oppress mankind.

The reason why Satan the Devil used a serpent to deceive Eve was because he craved worship for himself rather than giving praise to the One that it rightly belongs. So Satan did create his own brand of religion right from the beginning.

Of course whether you believe in an Almighty God, Satan the Devil or Adam & Eve is another topic.

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Oohh...how is it? I love Tom Robbins

Oh, and I'm reading Harry Potter VI.

applekisses said:

pretty good so far - i love his books, too!

A whole bunch of Taoist texts I laboriously copied and pasted from sacred-texts.com into word files because I was too tight to pay $50 for their CD-ROM of pretty much every religious text ever (well, a thousand books anyway)

I hate reading on the computer.

Fauxie said:

me too. short stories and stuff like org threads are no problem but
to read a complete e-book is hell for me. i hate that.

IstenSzek said:

I put the first one in a single document before realising I'd be better off splitting them into chapters. There's no way I'm going to sit here and read for longer than maybe 20 minutes at a time. Still, if I were to buy the books (if I could even find them!) I'd be spending several hundred dollars.

I was reading research journals about computer assisted language learning and SLA for 3 days straight last week as part of helping a friend in need with his education masters, and on the Sunday night I just lost it. My brain just stopped working and the words were all jumbled as I read them. Reading from a computer screen is horrible.

i agree. i particularly hate programms like word or excell with
big white backgrounds. it's like the light that comes from such
computerscreens really hurts my face. it makes me go all greasy
and my eyes drie up and start to itch.

it's gotten a bit better since I got a flatscreen monitor but I
still can't stand sitting at my desk hours on end without being
away from the computer.

especially when there is no daylight in the room and just the
light from the computerscreen and the electric lights up on the
ceiling. it's like i'm being brainwashed. it gets on my tits.

I'm reading a book by Martha Nussbaum where she's making an extremely interesting interpretation of Artistotle's ethics.

Fauxie said:

thankx 4 the idea