Jamal

I just thought of a better way of putting things, which bypasses the confusions around what counts as enjoyable (or entertaining): what I’m talking ab...

That’s exactly what happened with me. As I got older the domestic violence really began to stand out, whereas before it was all about the mystery of t...

Yes, I saw the film first, many years ago. I though it was great. Somehow less disturbing than the book, although looking back now I can see it was an...

Georges Perec, member of the Oulipo group, wrote a 300 page novel, La disparition, that doesn’t contain the letter “e”. Avoiding the letter “L” should...

Well, what you’ve said is a pretty interesting side-issue so don’t worry. I may respond later, after I’ve done some thinking.

I read that years ago and yes, I can see the connection, though I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it. American Psycho didn’t hit me so har...

I’m not sure about this. I mean sure, it makes a lot of sense, but I think there’s room for cautionary tales that are only vaguely cautionary, that ma...

Nicely put, I like it. Yes, it was something like that for sure.

Also a fair comment, but I think what matters is whether it reads like Ballard was wallowing pleasurably in depravity, and I don’t think it does.

I can’t imagine better objections from someone who hasn’t read it. I’ll mull over your comments. One thing though: wallowing is pleasurable or comfort...

Lolita, by the way, is not in the same ballpark. It doesn’t attempt to say anything about society or make any moral point. It is a lovingly crafted se...

Intriguement. Maybe I shouldn’t have. Maybe it traumatized me. I see the misanthropy, but—if this isn’t a contradiction—I don’t see the moral nihilism...

I’m not sure. On the face of it it’s more or less repeating the analogical argument with empirical reality substituted for the landscape. Also, isn’t ...

Well, yes. I explicitly used it in the same way. Otherwise, I don’t see how you’ve addressed my question.

A very nicely presented argument which I think is substantially wrong. I hope you don’t mind if I boil things down… The following analogical argument ...

Meaningless platitudes are invariably what people say when they mean well. But what’s important is that they mean well, which I think @"L'éléphant" di...

User deleted. :up:

Then I started reading it all over again. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. Coming up next… Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To… Olga Ravn, The E...

Welcome back Tiff. Hope we’ll see more of you here :smile:

Meh, I’ve seen better.

In the OP you complained about the lack of realism and the illogical behaviour of the characters. But now I see what you mean. Sure, works of fiction ...

Well, he does state that he’s not into realism, so it’s too much to expect realism in his work. Or is the problem the lack of logic in the behaviours ...

I hesitate to share my opinion while you’re still digesting a book you enjoyed. That can be a real drag. But ok, we’re all grown-ups here. Here’s what...

Just finished it. Totally great. Better than Nova. Not exactly difficult to read—on the contrary, it’s great fun, even though the prose is … nuts—but ...

Banned @"simplyG" for being a returning banned member (@"invicta").

:yum:

I hope you succeed one day. We’d all like to see the Dalia Lama lose his shit.

Nice. For me it’s something I don’t plan for or try to force, making the moments when it does happen all the sweeter. Harrison Ford said fuck off to m...

When I was selling my apartment in Edinburgh, Ewen Bremner, who was Spud in Trainspotting, came to view it. When I opened the door I said, “It’s you,”...

Unless you shoot in RAW mode, all photographs are manipulated, either by the photographer or by the camera itself, whose settings define the manipulat...

Colour memory is a fickle mistress.

The bluest blue I’ve seen was the Klein blue paintings and sculptures in a gallery in Nice. I guess we wouldn’t want the sky to be that colour.

The exposure is knocked down so as not to overexpose the white building, so it’s darker than perceived reality. Even so, it really was very blue. Can’...

Took this on the same day at the cinema museum. The sky (unenhanced) is significantly bluer than yours, I think you'll agree. /uploads/resized/files/2...

Thank you, you are not mistaken. There is no shortage of trees, so it’s pretty good in autumn.

Blue! /uploads/resized/files/qm/igtikxxky2k7dwmc.jpg Pale blue sky with autumnal colours helpfully accented by a building and a small utility vehicle.

This is a thread for feature requests. If you want to ask or complain about moderator actions, start another thread in the Feedback category or send a...

:up: I will say that the cartoon is not funny, and not really meant to be. Certainly it’s in bad taste, but apparently that’s the tradition of French ...

Yes, it’s kind of a shame that it was the leprechaun that became most famous.

The cartoon is from February, and it is criticizing the Turkish treatment of the Kurds. There were anti-Kurd pogroms in the seventies and eighties in ...

And look what happened to him!

I googled it, because I’d never heard of autumn beginning in August. Turns out the Irish calendar uses astronomical seasons rather than meteorological...

I know nothing of figgy pudding. My early fig exposure was fig rolls, which I think you might know as fig newtons. I don’t think I saw an actual fig u...

You must have picked many fights.

Adhering to botanical nomenclature, the fig is my favourite edible inflorescence. In culinary terms, it’s one of my favourite fruits. I’ve been eating...

I wonder why I’m mildly offended by this. Anyway thanks.

I don’t currently have a bell on my bike so I sometimes shout “excuse me” or similar, in the appropriate language. But if the pedestrians are walking ...

I believe your complaint about vaping is an irrational moral judgment more than a concern for public health, and that you’re in the grip of a moral pa...

To me, vaping was a good way to stop smoking. No doubt it has helped many people that way, and this is a good thing. I don’t advocate vaping for peopl...

They is a bit awkward, but it’s probably the best option because we already used it to refer to people whose gender we didn’t know. As in, “Mildred, i...