July 2011
44 posts
Sea Creatures
My brother and I swam in the Black Sea this afternoon and were immediately welcomed by a horde of oblivious (thank god) jellyfish. My brother asked me, “do you know how to say ‘jellyfish sting’ in Turkish?”
I said, “we better swim fast.”
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λῃστικώτερον
superfluidity:
comp. adv., in a more pirate-like way.
In honor of that adverb, I would like to propose a new coinage here, an English adjective that means, “the quality or experience of kicking ass like a pirate.” That word would be:
“laesticoterrific”
You could flip it right back to the adverbial “laesticoterrifically” when needed.
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Scientists breed goats that produce spider silk →
msodradek:
buffleheadcabin:
It’s all good until they start to weave webs & sting.
For tumblr’s goat-in-residence.
Ms. Odradek, thank you. I’ve been waiting for this moment. I have always dreamed of a future where goats form a super-race saving human civilization from its goatish tendencies. This, I see, is the first step.
Spider-goat!
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Bradley Cooper Going Down Under - Way Down Under -... →
Yes, that’s right. Cooper will play Satan in a Hollywood production of “Milton’s” Paradise Lost.
Hangover Part III: Hell Has Them Now
25 Impressions While Reciting a Speech from... →
This is the Michael Jordan of impressions. Just…wow.
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itgivesitthew:
proustitute:
Paul...
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The First Lines of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 →
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“Are you fucking kidding me? You think I’m going to spend 10 years sitting on a...”
– Connie Britton, before accepting the role of Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights
From a really interesting and sentimental oral history of FNL here. Do check it out if you’re a fan of the show at all, or thinking about watching it (because the first few seasons are on Netflix and you should and...
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David Simon's un-shot scene from The Wire, written... →
“We a drunkass pair of meta motherfuckers right now.”
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“You’ll hardly make a man happy by complimenting him on the efforts...”
– Albert Camus. La Chute. Éditions Gallimard, 1956. p. 87, my transl.
You could just as easily replace “generosity” with “intelligence” or “looks” or “athleticism”.
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“Do you know Dante? Really? You ol’ Devil. So you know that Dante accepts...”
– Albert Camus, La chute, Gallimard, 1956, p. 89, my transl.
For Mills and Byronic.
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“First of all, let her be bored. Let her have long afternoons with absolutely...”
– Thus begins M. Molly Backes answer to the question, “What should you do to help your child pursue her dreams of becoming a writer?”
You can read the rest of her answer here.
(Thanks to Ta-Nahisi Coates for posting this on his excellent blog today.)
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“English is a language suited to poetry like no other. The crunch and snap of...”
– Stephen Fry on the English language in The Ode Less Traveled, as quoted by Elizabeth Minkel in The New Yorker.
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“Many people ask why a writer commits suicide. But I think that people who ask...”
– Kobo Abe (via kateoplis)
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“The past should be interesting for its own sake, on its own merits. It should...”
– Ta-Nehisi Coates on the potential uses and potential disabuses of the past.
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“You know, I recently visited Tolstoy in Gaspra. He was bedridden due to illness....”
– Anton Chekhov (via une)
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Repetiphanies
Epiphanies I keep having due to my bad memory and my lazy mind.
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“I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilisation in Ireland...”
– James Joyce to publisher Grant Richards on 23 June 1906. (via superfluidity)
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Ms. Odradek: Auden on Reading Kafka →
… Kafka may be one of those writers who are doomed to be read by the wrong public. Those on whom their effect would be most beneficial are repelled and on whose whom they most fascinate their effect may be dangerous, even harmful.
I am inclined to believe that one should only read Kafka when…
I now have my beach reading for August.
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“But it’s also true that after throwing all this out there for my therapist, as a...”
– Yago Colás plays a ton of pickup basketball, but he can’t quite figure out why he never talks trash — The Good Men Project (via goyago)
Another great piece on basketball from Yago Colás.
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“Look, American television has been a juvenile medium for most of its existence....”
– David Simon, interviewed by Salon. (via thebronzemedal)
Thanks for that, The Bronze Medal. As some of you might know, I have a certain interest in The Wire and tragedy. And I’ll a bit to say on the subject in a few weeks.
But for now, I declare that Mrs. Tragos and I have been watching...
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Eye of the Bespoken
You’ve read Mills post in which he questions our moral complacency in vaunting beauty.
Funny thing. Today, I was reading Sartre’s play No Exit, and in my edition’s footnotes, came across this snippet culled from his other play, the Condemned of Altona.
Johanna, a former film star, has just been praised for her beauty by her father-in-law.
Johanna. — I’m not...
“Why had Texas so embraced Borges? And why had Borges continued to return there...”
– Guernica / Forgotten but Not Gone
For anyone like myself who does not know the answers to these questions, I heartily recommend you read on.
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Ms. Odradek: Against Romantic Readings of Don... →
… Don Qichotte se proclamait disciple d’Amadis et les écrivains de son temps se proclamaient disciples des Anciens. Le vaniteux romantique ne se veut plus le disciple de personne. Il se persuade qu’il est infiniment original. Partout, au XIXe siècle, la spontanéité se fait dogme, détrônant…
For all fans of Don Quijote, I would heartily recommend you read these quotations in full (and...
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“Don’t wait to be hunted to hide.”
– Samuel Beckett (via kateoplis)
Molloy. 