I Write Stuff: Joke’s Mercy
I just posted my Master’s Thesis here for you to download, read and enjoy. It is called Joke’s Mercy Why? Well, I felt like it. What is it about? A man. A woman. A marriage. The risk of being wrong. Do I have to explain everything? Here is a simple for your reading pleasure.
When Nathaniel gets to the office, there is Mr. Steven Rosch, behind Nathaniel’s desk, reading a book with the title, Your Life Began Already: Making the Best of Your Destroyed Social Strata. Rosch is wearing a sweat suit, with tennis shoes and a baseball cap. And there are more sports clothes on top of Nathaniel’s desk, with four pairs of expensive running shoes, bottles of water. A young woman in a business suit is beside Rosch, standing, typing on a PDA, simultaneously talking on a cellphone.
“That’s my seat,” Nathaniel says. Rosch looks up at him.
“You look, what’s the word?” He taps his assistant on the leg, says something in a language Nathaniel can’t pinpoint and the assistant says shit.
“Yes,” Rosch says. “You look like that. You look like shit. Did you read the memos I sent? What did happen last night?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Nathaniel says.
“You know what I miss about the military life?” Rosch asks, tossing the book in the nearby trashcan, standing, stretching. “I miss that you could absolutely dictate people’s lives. The military gives you the idea, this set goal that, yes, if you work hard enough and take enough of the beatings and the other horrible things that, yes, you too can dish out the beatings and the pain and the other horrible things to other people. And the other people? They can do nothing but take the abuse.”
“What country did you say you were from?”
“I did not say. What country do you think I am from?”
“I would say Germany.”
“The Germans are evil people,” Rosch says. His assistant looks hurt for a second, with her mouth gapped and her eyes wide. Rosch shouts at her quickly and violently in a foreign tongue and the girl sits on top of Nathaniel’s desk, tosses her equipment to the floor and cries. Rosch begins to run in place.
“Put these clothes on,” he says to Nathaniel.
“What for?” (more…)
“What have you been reading, Jarvis?”
Since I teach English and I write stuff, people always ask me what I read. I find that question amazingly invasive. It is like asking me what I watch or what I listen to. I spend so much time doing these things that I sometimes want to keep them personal, keep them to myself. However, I completely understand why you are curious about me. I know, I know. I am awesome. Here are the last three books I’ve read.
Blindness by Jose Saramago. Erin recommended this book to me, and the next one on the list. She hoped that by reading these books, it would help me finish my latest manuscript. She was correct. Both books helped me understand the problems of my book, and I edited my book to avoid some of the nonsense that Blindness tossed on me. But I also used some energy from Blindness to help me write a scene in my book that I didn’t want to have in it. Blindness is about people going, yes, blind, and the insanity that came from it. There are a few images later in the book, a few scenes that I just could not get through, so this one is on my “Didn’t finish” list. It is amazing, however. Jose Saramago can describe the world unlike anyone else. I’m thinking of picking up another novel by him, one that won’t sicken me as much.
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien. I was reading this at my favorite coffee joint and the waitress there said, “That’s one of my favorite books.” I have no idea why. Stop. Stop. The book is brilliant, and as I was reading it, I was thinking that it was going to become a favorite. But, with only twenty pages left, I completely lost interest. I’m not sure if the story just dragged, or if I just stopped caring, or if the narrative suddenly created a villain where none needed to be. I can’t call it. Whatever it was, I completely lost interest in the book. But I’ll recommended to you, because I am slowly finding out that I am “pickier” about everything while most people just eat the bean dip and go about their day.
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster. Yep. My favorite book. No novel that I’ve ever read worked with the narrative structure, played with what a novel is supposed to do, and then completely trick you. You think it is about an old man, a parallel universe, and the infliction of loss. It turns out to be a novel just about loss, about regret, about fear, about love, about acceptance, about the good and bad of the world and how they mingle. This book is sheer brilliance. I was reading it thinking, yes, yes, this is why I became a writer, this is why I read, this is what I want to do. Paul Auster plays with you. He makes fun of you. And he gives you that emotional connection, that need to love, that reason to love. Finishing this book was the best thing I’ve done in months and I would happily, happily let you borrow it. Better. Ask me and I’ll buy it for you. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
And, Thus, Failure.
Yes they do.
I failed.
My failure to stay off Facebook for more than a damn week shows you how weak I am, how the damn site is rooted into my system, how my nerves are tied to it, how I can’t stay off the thing long enough to come to any real epithet. What is the matter with me? What is the matter with us? Have we all forgotten the days where we could be free of such a connection? Do we need the connection? Is that how big our consciousness is? Have we reached this point?
Of course I’m avoiding Facebook because of a girl. Why else would I avoid it? I’m not going to get into details. Nice try. But saying that I’m avoiding a social networking site because I’m avoiding the social networking aspects shouldn’t surprise you. You sometimes need to take a few minutes away from all that, especially if you don’t particularly want to know the particulars of what a particular person is doing. This isn’t unique to me. We have all done it. We all do it. That is how the Internet has become, this unmoving extension of our lives. We cut it off and we miss things. We completely integrate with it and we torture ourselves. That is the future of technology. We must become apart of it, deal with it, grin and smile, and move past it. Or you can just drink a lot. That’s not a bad idea, either.
The Strength of Kings: Four days and Counting without Facebook
"Getting Strong now..Won't be long now...," Huh? Those aren't the words? I mean, no one really knows the words anyway...
Facebook is a distraction, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a distraction. I have several. However, what happens when you have to find a distraction for a distraction? How does your mind re-wire that? It is an issue that I’ve been plagued with. I haven’t messed with Facebook in four days. It has been a trying time.
Ok, well, I’ll be honest. I have checked it. I’ve looked at it a few times and I’ve checked my Facebook email. Yes, I have done that. But I’ve un-tied my Twitter account from it. I’ve stopped commenting on people’s pages, I’ve stopped writing on people’s walls, the whole nine yards. I can’t even post my updates of this blog to my Facebook page! That is how far I am going. By the end of this week, my goal is to have gone days, entire swaths of time, without clicking on the Facebook tab in my Google Chrome Browser. If you look at Facebook like a party, and man oh man it is a very fun party, then I’m sitting in the back of the room, taking a break. I’ve still got my drink, and I’m still in the room. But I’m just, you know, people watching. I’m letting the ambient noise wash over me. I’m appreciating the world, but I have no interest in taking part in the world right now.
Why? Eh. You know. Whatever. Sometimes you just don’t feel like all that. And the experiment was whisked from the mind of one of my students. I had them read an essay called “Learning to Smoke” by Tim Chiarella. The essay is about a guy who decides to start smoking at the age of forty-six. During our discussion, we talked about the writer’s motivation, the reasons why anyone would want to start smoking. One of my kids said, with that wonderful, playful tone that only a child can have, “Why suffer if you don’t want to?” That got me thinking. What can I disconnect from? What do I use that I don’t need, or maybe that I can scale back the usage? The answer was obvious. How long can I go without updating my status? Changing my profile picture? Checking in on my buddies and making stupid comments about one of the pictures they posted? How long can I hold out? I don’t have the answers, and this isn’t about being a masochist for the sake of attention. Well, maybe it is. What are my motivations? Why am I doing this? I mean, the party is so much fun, and the music is so lively. Why can’t I be apart of all that? Sometimes you need to, I think. You need to step back from all that, just for a little while. And when you go back, the friends are still there, and you understand why you came to the party in the first place.
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The Hughes Brothers might, just might, make an Akira movie. Maybe.
My blog has been a bit heavy handed as of late. I completely understand that and I make no apologies. The only apology you are getting is that I have touched upon the vain of what is making me wake and scream, “UGH” at night. Lots of things make me wake up and say “Ugh”. I never really actually say the word “Ugh”, sense “Ugh” isn’t a real word. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve never uttered “Ugh” anywhere but the Internet. Which means I probably spend way too much time on this thing. But we already knew that. Ugh.
Anyway, I liked the Book of Eli way more than I liked Avatar. I liked the Book of Eli more than I liked Avatar because the Book of Eli had an actual plot, where Avatar had blue people sticking their pony tails onto animals. Seriously. A pony tail onto animals. From Terminator 2 to Blue people having Amazon sex. How far you have fallen, James Cameron. Huh? My point? I need one? Ok, well, the guys who did The Book of Eli, the Hughes Brothers, are, cross your fingers, making the live action Akira re-make. So there. There is your point. Happy? From iO9:
Rumors are circulating that the Hughes Brothers’ next project could be a live-action remake of Akira. But they don’t just want one film — the Warner Brothers picture is planned as a two-parter. New York Magazine says Warners is in negotiations with the Albert and Allen Hughes to direct a live-action remake of Otomo’s cult classic manga Akira. The script is from Iron Manand Children of Menwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. Which, last we heard, was being tweaked by the team last September, after Ruairi Robinson left the picture.
A script from the guys who wrote Iron-man, directed by the guys who did President’s Day. Yes. I will wait. I will sit and I will wait forever for you, Live Action Akira movie. Isn’t that what true love is all about?
This Black History Month: Why Gay Rights Can’t Wait
We can disagree in an agreeable way.
“The shape of the world will not permit us the luxury of gradualism and procrastination.” Those are the words of Martin Luther King Jr., from his book Why We Can’t Wait. He wrote those words decades ago. I wonder where he got the idea for that? Where did he get that statement? The exigency was obviously the Black Civil Rights Movement and the suffering of the black people, my people. Why We Can’t Wait. It is a thick, collection of words, full of complexities and the promise that, before that statement, there was a lack of clarity, a lump of ignorance and validated inaction that the phrase obligated. There was a reason why the Black Civil Right movement couldn’t wait and take things slow. They couldn’t wait because nothing is promised to us. The future is as tangible as dirty smoke, as just as irritable. Black people couldn’t wait then and neither can Gay people now. That same sense of urgency, that same unmoving desire to achieve equal rights now, right now, needs to spread through the Gay community like wild fire and it needs to consume, take them and cook them and hardened them and force them to fight, tooth and nail, for the rights and privileges that every single American has the born-promise of having. This isn’t debatable. And I find it amazingly interesting that this call for action is coming from me, a straight Black man born in the most racist and uncompromising regions of this country. But that is how important the Gay rights movement is. It is moving past the realm of being desirable, a dream that may come true, someday. America’s inaction is coming close to being damn-near a crime against humanity.
The Problem with Sequels
The only problem with this is that I can't have its children.
The issue is whether or not we even need a damn Bioshock 2. And, no, no we don’t. Ok, so I realize that there are some of you that don’t play video games, and the only post that came up this week was about the sequel to a brilliant video game. So, you are probably saying, Jarvis, stop lying to yourself. You are going to get Bioshock 2. I mean, you loved the first one, Jarvis. So you’ll obviously buy the second one. Well, no. No, I won’t. I have absolutely, positively no interest in Bioshock 2. The reason we don’t need another Bioshock is the same reason why we didn’t need another Matrix movie, why we really didn’t need another Pirates of the Caribbean. Sequels are not always needed. When they are, they work. But they only work by design, not by desire. You don’t get me? Let me explain.
Let’s take two movies that were the first movies a trilogy. We’ve got the aforementioned the Matrix and we’ve got Star Wars: A New Hope (We are pretending that the horror which were the prequels never happened. Ok?) Now, I don’t care who you are. The first Star Wars wasn’t that great and if you say it was, I’ll punch you in the nose. The greatness which was the first Star Wars is only evident with its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. Without Strikes Back, New Hope would have been an all right film. The excellence of the second movie validated the need for the first. Sort of like Einstein being born and then we say, hey, Einstein’s mom. Thanks for pushing Einstein out your vagina. If we look at the first Matrix, we got a reversal. Since Matrix Reloaded sucked, then we can understand the greatness of the first one. We can say, the Matrix was so good it didn’t need validation. Its validation was its original greatness. Any attempts to try and add to the greatness, or to make other great things off the greatness of the original is futile and pointless. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was a great, fun flick. The series got lucky because Johnny Depp is an acting God. The other two films were completely unneeded, but the second two films were still great films because of Depp, and without the first movie, the other two would never have happened. Does that make sense? Yes? No? Let’s continue. (more…)
Mass Effect 2: Impressions
Saying that Mass Effect 2 is the best video game ever isn’t something I’m going to say. I just don’t see the point of making that statement, because a few years from now, I’ll have to explain to someone why it isn’t the best game any longer, or I have to explain why Mass Effect 2 is better than Mass Effect 1, my previous favorite video game ever. Well, I guess I can do that. So, let’s post the question: Is Mass Effect 2 better than Mass Effect 1? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Is Mass Effect 2 better than any game I’ve played in the last twenty years? Yes. Yes. Yes. Is it the best game I’ve ever played? I’m not saying that. You’re not tricking me. Nice try. I am going to talk about Mass Effect 2, however. And I am going to spoiler it. So, remember, if you don’t want to get it spoiled, don’t read after the break. Seriously. I mean seriously.
Jarvis Slacks
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