Thursday, September 3, 2009

Chong Li eensanend

Just ran 4.1 miles while watching the climax scenes of Bloodsport, from the friend getting injured by Chong Li, to Frank Dux's fight with Chong Li where he is blinded and must fight using his senses and training, something about that film came over me with great power and I could not stop smiling, I almost clapped standing paused on the treadmill in the gym alone when he forced Chong Li to verbally concede though I have seen that film at least 11 times.

I feel bananas.

Caused and enjoyed this discussion on difficult texts today at HTMLGiant, felt weird, expected maybe 10 comments.

I am going to humor people and trying reading 2666 but from the sections of Bolano I have read I feel certain he is merely well marketed average writing and were he not a young death he would not be receiving this treatment. Sorry. Maybe I will eat my words on that on further reading but I remain skeptical to the nth, and not for not having approached with an open mind.

If someone wants to lend me their copy ok.

I really want that new Nicholson Baker novel, dang. If somebody has a galley of that I will trade you for it.

2 new badass titles from Ellipsis Press, just bought both, mmm deliciouses.

Hopefully going to see Thirst this weekend, excited for it. Previews look stellar.

Time to eat american gelato, which is not italian gelato, but is gelato.

I feel bananas, and this is bananas gelato.

14 comments:

Ken Baumann said...

You gotta see JCVD. Rent it.

Oooh, Thirst looks good. Haven't seen Oldboy yet.

Tried to convince my friend to drive me, after all you can eat sushi dinner, to gelato. He wouldn't do it on principle.

lorian long said...

thirst isn't terrible.
2666. doooo it.

sasha fletcher said...

old boy was good.
ken needs better friends.
i have nothing to say about bolano other than that i don't think i like his poetry very much other than that one which was in the believer. the believer with the amy hempel interview. other than that poem i am pretty sure i do not care for one bit any other poem in the book the romantic dogs that new directions put out. i have a theory that sometimes translators are maybe not very good writers and that this hurts things. but it's a theory. and i don't know anything about translation. or the people that translated these books. all of them. every one. but so whatever.

audri sousa said...

just saying to say that scorch atlas just arrived in the catacombs of my mailbox and it looks like a delicious hellscape of fucked beauty. ridiculously excited to delve in. end of say.

never had american gelato. does it taste of sacrilege?

BLAKE BUTLER said...

ken, watched half of jcvd while i was sick, and couldnt go, but not cause of it, will finish soon

hi lorian and sasha

audri american gelato is basically like lettuce compartively

Matt Jasper said...

2666 is dead on the page. It's so removed from any real life bubbling up from the characters themselves that I'd describe it as about an aboutness. The characters were so wooden and externally motivated that I fell asleep many times and then gave up half way through. That stain on the page there is my drool, not any sort of literary excitement (such as that time I got carried away with THE STORY OF MARY MACLANE, BY HERSELF). One of the characters is horribly named "Fate." That should be all you need to know. I hate this book. Spend your time with Raymond Chandler or David Markson or Mary Maclane instead.

Matt Jasper said...

P.S. I just followed the link & ordered SCORCH ATLAS. There has never been a better cover design or book description. Well, maybe the old paperback front cover of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY where a guy is getting his face smashed by a bed spring. . . .

As for 2666: Don't do it. Spend the time writing more stories or if your hunger for media is so insatiable that you need to fill the void that not reading 2666 would create, send me your address and I'll mail you Funky Forest (truly odd Japanese movie) & Happiness of the Katakuris (if you haven't seen them yet).

BLAKE BUTLER said...

matt,
i am sure you are right. i dont understand how people have been duped by this thing. i'm going to explore it enough that i can speak my mind about it, and minimize the time waste. :)

thanks for ordering scorch, and for the kind words. i hope you enjoy it...

Matt DeBenedictis said...

Blake, Is thirst playing here??

BLAKE BUTLER said...

yeah man, it opened today at midtown art

Matt DeBenedictis said...

YES! Gonna get my awesome on!

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bananas you say?
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