“Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”
― Stephen King, The Stand.
Something tells me it's high time I start reading Stephen King.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
15 literary influences in 15 minutes
No seriously. 15 minutes. Another minute of deliberations, and the list would have changed. So here goes:
1. Merchant of Venice - It took me 3 reads to start appreciating this one. And another 3 to be able to say 'To bait fish withal: if it feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.... The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction' from memory. And 3 more before my ICSE boards. But if it was not for this one, I may never have been able to appreciate the rest of this list. So numero uno it is, Mr. Bill.
2. Dennis the Menace - 'You can fool some people all the time, and all the people sometime. But you can never fool mom'. Life lessons learnt from pencil boxes, posters and newspaper cuttings. Damn, where did all that go?
3. Asterix - History books were never the same after reading this series.
4. Short stories by O' Henry - Wit. Wordplay. Warmth. And clever twists in the end. Damn, he'd be one hell of a copywriter.
5. Short Stories by Somerset Maugham - This man can inspire you to write. Period.
6. Short Stories by Saki - He taught the rules of English by day. And tried to rewrite those very rules at night. Uber cool!
7. Calvin & Hobbes - “We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are.” Yes, it took a 6-year old to teach me that one. What a philosopher, I say.
8. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger - Everytime I fuck up, I think of Holden Caulfield. And then I realise that things could have been worse.
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Forget James Bond. If there really is a personification of 'GQ man', than that honour should go to one Mr. Atticus Finch.
10. Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - It's an absolute must-read if you are in college and trying to hit on women with literary leanings. Quoting it always follows countless hours of conversations over coffee. ;)
PS: Whether you agree with the woman (the one you are hitting on, not Ayn Rand) or not, you better have an opinion of your own before attempting a pseudo-intellectual heist. Cheers!
11. The Trial by Franz Kafka - An awesome satire on the judicial system. Really makes you feel impotent. Not for the weak of heart and mind.
12. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - If you are the kinds who has bottled up anger for many years, than take a deep breath, try and channelise it into wicked bursts of sarcasm and other unprintable variants. And hell, win the GODDAMN BOOKER as a consolation for anger management!
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell - This one inspired me to write a street play. And I must say, it was a one-hit wonder. At least as far as lit events at colleges in the proximity of South Canara go. :P
14. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, and Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin - It took the first book to inspire me to make a holiday list, and the second one to believe it was possible. I'd give myself 80 years for this adventure, though.
15. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol - One Reverand Dodgeson starts taking a trip of one bored 10-year old Alice Liddle, on a boatride. And the rest, they say, is hysterical. This book drove the literary world crazy with one question, "What was Lewis Carrol smoking?". Once revealed, with conclusive evidence, the stimulant in question ought to be legalised.
1. Merchant of Venice - It took me 3 reads to start appreciating this one. And another 3 to be able to say 'To bait fish withal: if it feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge.... The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction' from memory. And 3 more before my ICSE boards. But if it was not for this one, I may never have been able to appreciate the rest of this list. So numero uno it is, Mr. Bill.
2. Dennis the Menace - 'You can fool some people all the time, and all the people sometime. But you can never fool mom'. Life lessons learnt from pencil boxes, posters and newspaper cuttings. Damn, where did all that go?
3. Asterix - History books were never the same after reading this series.
4. Short stories by O' Henry - Wit. Wordplay. Warmth. And clever twists in the end. Damn, he'd be one hell of a copywriter.
5. Short Stories by Somerset Maugham - This man can inspire you to write. Period.
6. Short Stories by Saki - He taught the rules of English by day. And tried to rewrite those very rules at night. Uber cool!
7. Calvin & Hobbes - “We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are.” Yes, it took a 6-year old to teach me that one. What a philosopher, I say.
8. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger - Everytime I fuck up, I think of Holden Caulfield. And then I realise that things could have been worse.
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Forget James Bond. If there really is a personification of 'GQ man', than that honour should go to one Mr. Atticus Finch.
10. Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - It's an absolute must-read if you are in college and trying to hit on women with literary leanings. Quoting it always follows countless hours of conversations over coffee. ;)
PS: Whether you agree with the woman (the one you are hitting on, not Ayn Rand) or not, you better have an opinion of your own before attempting a pseudo-intellectual heist. Cheers!
11. The Trial by Franz Kafka - An awesome satire on the judicial system. Really makes you feel impotent. Not for the weak of heart and mind.
12. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - If you are the kinds who has bottled up anger for many years, than take a deep breath, try and channelise it into wicked bursts of sarcasm and other unprintable variants. And hell, win the GODDAMN BOOKER as a consolation for anger management!
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell - This one inspired me to write a street play. And I must say, it was a one-hit wonder. At least as far as lit events at colleges in the proximity of South Canara go. :P
14. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, and Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin - It took the first book to inspire me to make a holiday list, and the second one to believe it was possible. I'd give myself 80 years for this adventure, though.
15. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol - One Reverand Dodgeson starts taking a trip of one bored 10-year old Alice Liddle, on a boatride. And the rest, they say, is hysterical. This book drove the literary world crazy with one question, "What was Lewis Carrol smoking?". Once revealed, with conclusive evidence, the stimulant in question ought to be legalised.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Mr. Teavee is such an idiot
Found this awesome piece of verse from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Remember those great Volkswagen ads?
Surely you do. If you're in advertising or if you're an auto enthusiast. And if nothing else, you are old enough to have seen Dick Cheney with all his hair.
In the days when Sports Entertainment was no more than an hour of physical activity, and reality TV was a distant reality, people spoke of advertising. And they certainly spoke of Volkswagen ads.
That's because the Volkswagen and its advertising enjoyed a successful marriage. If you looking for evidence to verify the success of the marriage, see how every flaw of the car was spoken in such an affectionate tone, thus endearing the Beetle to the whole generation that was lost in space.
The honesty of the car was articulated through smart, honest advertising. It would have been a pity if such a successful marriage was without a family album. Hence the book.
And like any album worth its nostalgia, it's bound to elicit a few chuckles.
This book is a must buy for people who believe in the power of advertising, and those who believe in the power of their dreams. Afterall, don't we all like the fairy tale of the ugly ducking within us becoming a pin-up boy?
Friday, August 3, 2007
In my good books...
Here's the list of books I read in the month of July.
The Jungle books by Rudyard Kipling.*
Geetanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
How to be good by Nick Hornby
Life of Pi by Yann Martel*
Matilda by Roald Dahl*
How to Advertise By ....
Airforces of the World By David Wragg
Fables by Bill Willingham which includes
Legends In Exile (issues 1 to 5)*
Animal Farm (issues 6 to 10)*
Bag 'O Bones (issue 11)
A Two-Part Caper (issues 12 and 13)
Storybook Love (issues 14 to 17)
Barleycorn Brides (issue 18)
The Last Castle
March of the Wooden Soldiers (issues 19 to 21 and 23 to 27)*
Cinderella Libertine (issue 22)
War Stories (issues 28 and 29)*
The Mean Seasons (issues 30 to 33)
Jack Be Nimble (issues 34 and 35)
Homelands (issues 36 to 38 and 40 and 41)*
Meanwhile (issue 39)
Arabian Nights (and Days) (issues 42 to 45)
The Ballad of Rodney and June (issues 46 and 47)
Wolves (issues 48 and 49)
Happily Ever After (issue 50)
Hitman by Garth Ennis which includes
Vol. 1: Hitman
Vol. 2: 10,000 Bullets
Marvels By Kurt Busiek *
Its very unlikely I'll better this in August. The ones with the * are highly recommended.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Harry Today gone tomorrow?
1.7 Lakh copies sold in India yesterday. My kid sister is a proud owner of one of those copies. I must admit I was one of the victims of the pre-sales hype and had to see this for myself. And the experience was so overwhelming, that I'm still at a loss for words.
So i'll make it easier both for the reader and myself. Uploading these pics will save me an effort of furnishing some six thousand words at least. Check it out...
Duh! and you thought booking the tickets for the latest harry potter movie was any easier?
we've come a long way baby!
So i'll make it easier both for the reader and myself. Uploading these pics will save me an effort of furnishing some six thousand words at least. Check it out...
Duh! and you thought booking the tickets for the latest harry potter movie was any easier?
we've come a long way baby!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Matilda: Dahl at his best.
" It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful"
I was so mesmerised by the first lines that I could'nt put the book down. What followed was a fascinating adventure of Matilda, easily the most endearing five year old you'll ever find in literature. The story unfolds with the readers being introduced to the Wormwood household who are queer folks.
"Occasionally one comes across parents who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones". Words that seem to be spoken by one very experienced school teacher. The Wormwoods' indifference towards their five year old daughter turns to plain old underestimation when she starts showing signs of being a precocious child. As an act of defiance, Matilda enrols as a member at the public library, and despite being forbidden and even admonished for reading books, she finds solace in the literary works of Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemingway and George Orwell to name a few. These books had a profound effect on the child as she is magically teleported to different lands where she meets new people and discovers new cultures.
By the time she is admitted to school, She's quite in a league of her own. But her extraordinary abilities do not get her into the good books of the head mistress, Miss Trunchbull.
"The Trunchbull," as she is known, is a vicious evil monster.She punishes students who give incorrect answers in class or who talk back to her by forcing them to undergo some form of physical torture. The old-school pedagogue, literally and figuratively speaking will go to any extent of intimidation to enforce discipline. Often the head mistress crosses the acceptable line of punishment.
However Matilda finds an ally in Miss Honey, her kind and soft spoken teacher.Dahl successfully adds interesting twists to this simple tale and unveils a supernatural facet of the protagonist towards the end of the story. Though one may find his excesses with his character sketches too difficult to accept, what I admire is the way he addressed some very serious issues like child abuse and domestic violence and its effect on the psyche of a child without ever compromising on humour. Easily one of his best works and most certainly worth its money, this one ought to grace your bookshelves even if you remotely have an affinity for childrens literature.
Having read this book cover to cover, I've decided that if I ever venture out to become a writer, I'll author a childrens book. And it'll be nothing like the works of Mr.CS Lewis or Mr. Tolkein, who with all due respects are great writers. Their works in Matildas opinion have one failing, in that they lack sufficient "funny bits".
So my book will be full of funny limericks like this one,
" An epicure dining at Crewe,
Found a rather large mouse in his stew,
Cried the waiter," Dont shout
And Wave it about
Or the rest will be wanting one too."
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Spelling Bee!!
This one's a tribute to miss spell and her charms, JK Rowling. It is said about LOTR that the world is divided into two, those who've read LOTR and those who have'nt. I must admit, the same can probably be said about Harry Potter in the muggle world today. Though among the readers,
there is a schism. Those who blindly swear by it and those who dismiss it as a juvenile replication of Tolkein's magical works. To be honest, I very disparagingly took to it when it was recommended to me by my kid sister. Can't say i was awestruck by its brilliance, but i'd give the lady her due.
She belonged to a generation in which book worms were an endangered species; television had been driving away prospective readers, as a result the major impediment that every writer faced in the 90's was to get readers( young adults and adults likewise) to pick up a book.
To say Rowling has successfully started a new genre of literature, which is a threat to all other forms of entertainment is far from being a tall claim.The sixth book in the series, Harry Potter and the half-blood prince earned more revenues in 24 hours then Tom Hanks' Da Vinci Code did in theatres all over the world. Astonishing, to say the least!
In 1995, Rowling completed her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter.Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evans, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters, an agent agreed to represent Rowling in her quest for a publisher. The book was handed to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected it. A year later she was finally given the greenlight (and a £1500 advance) by editor Barry Cunningham from the small publisher Bloomsbury . The decision to take Rowling on was apparently largely due to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of the company’s chairman, who was given the first chapter to review by her father, and immediately demanded the next. Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, Cunningham says that he advised Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children’s books. Soon after, Rowling received an £8000 grant from the scottish arts council to enable her to continue writing.
Today Ms. Rowling is the first author to earn one billion dollars from writing. I cannot claim to be a fan of harry potter yet, but these astronomical figures do pique my fancy. I guess i will disembark on this fascinating odessey to see what this fuss is all about!
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