SUMMER 2007
READ THIS!

AUTUMN 2006
READ THIS!

SUMMER 2006
READ THIS!

SPRING 2006 READ THIS!

WINTER 2006 READ THIS

AUTUMN 2005 READ THIS!

SUMMER 2005 READ THIS!

SUGGESTION BOX

« Sidney Thompson’s “The Chameleon” | Main | Q&A: George Ilsley »

Oct 29, 2006

Comments

Anne

The book kept me reading because it's so funny and strange and the chapters are just too short enough (not grammatical, but accurate) that I always wanted to read just one more little fragment.

As for the stuff on labels, I always love stuff that "transcends" labels--be it music or fiction--but I like labels and play with them. For me, that's a lot of the fun of the book. Once you've labeled someone "bisexual" all kinds of prejudice seems to enter, but labeling him a "dyslexic Buddhist bisexual" is so specific that the absurdity takes over from the harm.

CAAF

Like Anne, I read for the funny strangeness. Also some of the freshest, swiftest descriptions of being in love, or intoxicated by a person, I've read.

One bit related to labels I liked is Sebastian's chagrin at coming in before the rise of both the "gay chic" and "geek chic" curves. Still to come, of course, is the "gay geek chic" curve that he is trailblazing.

What I like about the longer labels in play in the book ("dyslexic bisexual Buddhist" "gay geek chic" etc.), with their pile-ups of qualifiers, is how one gets a sense of these increasingly small Venn Diagram islands, each boasting a population of 1 or 2 lonely constituents....

Jeff

Labels are useful (such as using 'car' to describe those gas guzzlers we drive around in) insofar as their meaning is fixed and generally agreed upon. What's interesting about talking about, say, a 'dyslexic Buddhist bisexual' is that we're not really sure what the connotations are--those quick connections we make in our heads when someone says 'car' are no longer in play, and in fact we may make no connections at all and instead struggle with trying to generate meaning. For me, 'dyslexic Buddhist bisexual' is a kind of short hand for 'weird' 'different' 'alternative'--and causes me to reflect on the nature of labels--sometimes useful, sometimes silly.

Health News

This is a wonderful site. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.

Inversiones en petroleo

I think that this post is very good because has useful information.

The comments to this entry are closed.