III

Sense, or the Lack of It

i) Learning to Read FW; Ross Noble; Swallowing Pride


Lets face it, about 10 pages in, Finnegans Wake feels like being punched in the head with puns (shit, that should've been "pun-ched"). I'm about 125 pages in now, and am starting to regain some feeling in my face. Because the thing that actually makes FW problematic is not the book itself, but the aura of evil impenetrability that other people have surrounded it with. Sure, it's different, but fuck, man, it's funny! Once you understand this all the dread disappears and you start to get it. The same way you get "The Jabberwocky" or Ross Noble's verbal meanderings. Why is something that is both nonsensical and understandable at the same time so funny? Hell knows, but the point is always to flow with it, allow yourself to drift with it and pick up its internal logic. But even so, if you want to tackle FW, you may as well do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of Campbell and Robinson's A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. Initially it felt like cheating, but it's good to have around at that page 10 panic. I mostly just read the short summaries of each chapter at the beginning of the Skeleton Key, just as I would read the Argument of Paradise Lost or the Iliad. Anyway, just stop worrying and learn to love the pun-bomb.

ii)

I love the barefacedness of this trailer. I'm a big fan of trash of all types, but especially when it so ridiculously disregards any kind of sense in order to mash as much awesomeness into a single film. My only fear is that it may try to make some sense, and that would be a tragedy.

II

or Why I'm Sick of Hearing About How Weed's Never Killed Anyone

Pretty self-explanatory, really. Whenever I'm sitting back, contemplating the fuzziness of my elbows, there's always some dick ready to talk about the great benefits of weed. This rant is aimed at that anyone who has tried to engage me and other people in this kind of conversation. First of all,

                TALKING

In most situations talking is classified as ok, and even when I can't be assed to utter words myself, listening to people talk shit is just the kind of airy activity that keeps my brain on the pleasant side of consciousness. However. If talk drifts away from the slow, spacey "dude, what if..." monologues to that earnest, cheese-grater tone, I'm gonna blog your ass back to 1995. So:

               EVER HEARD OF A GUY CALLED BOB MARLEY?

I don't want to get too controversial now, but something tells me there was more to his cancer than his love of jam. Know what I'm sayin'? At any rate, even without resorting to unproven celebrity examples, the idea that weed is actually good for you pisses me off.

Ok, think about this a second: how many people do you know who drink? And how many of them are debilitated in their day-to-day life by it? Now think about how many people you know who smoke weed. How many of them are permanently fucked? I guess it's because weed becomes some kind of cult for some idiots, like the above-mentioned perpetrator.

But hell, I'm not trying to make some great, structured argument here, my main point is this:

.

Cheap trick. But I digress. Most of us don't smoke because we think it's good for us. We know it's a stupid idea and part of the enjoyment is in doing something stupid. Hell, most of it is. And to have some poor deluded soul try and ruin it for me because he needs reassurance is as bad as someone running into a cinema and shouting spoilers at me. Doing stupid stuff is fine, as long as you know it's dumb and you don't pretend it's actually a great idea and decide to dedicate your life to it.

I actually don't care if I'm right or not. Maybe weed doesn't harm anywhere near as much as alcohol and tobacco (I doubt it, but I might be wrong). That's not really the point. It's the person that chooses to share this shit with me that I despise. The kind that think doctors are out to get you and that everything bad in your life is due to some kind of generic "bad energy". Mitchell and Webb are more eloquent and to the point than me: Homeopathy A&E .

So smoke up, shut up, and leave me in my warm, fuzzy peace.

I

Balance: (from "Enciclopædia Mendacis") "[...]The son of Tully, known as Litully, described the property of balance thus: 'like the lull between the sober and the drunkard, between work and sleep, it is the moment in which the earth moves under our feet and takes us to our desires.' Though largely known for his pederasty and collection of Thracian pottery, Litully has been highly regarded by the inebriated of all ages for this and other maxims."

The other day I decided it would be fun to stack stones on top of each other. And it was. Apparently some regard this as art. Well, it's pretty and mind-emptying at any rate, no brainwork involved. All that is needed are hands to feel the point of balance. Mine aren't even very steady, and my sense of my own balance is terrible, so I'm guessing most people will be able to reproduce their own stone stacks.

 There once was some guy on a beach
With a few bits of stone in his reach,
He stacked them together
and  found they were better
Than just sitting there, thinking of all the work he had to do for next term, wondering if he would finish Finnegans Wake, and generally being bored on the beach.

Currently downloading the audiobook of FW, because cheats will be cheats.