February Book Club selection picked...
As a lot of people seemed to want advance notice, and with the rolling back of discussing Spanbauer's book until January, it seemed like it would be a good idea to use this window to get on a new schedule. So, using that extra window, I decided to announce the February book club selection on December 15, and will keep them a month and a half in advance moving forward.
This seems to give everyone more time to acquire and read the book, unlike the old method where it just seemed like you would nearly have to drop everything in order to read it in time.
So, the February selection will be...
Hey Nostradamus!: A Novel, by Douglas Coupland
I haven't read this yet, but Dennis loves it, and he will be doing an interview with Coupland to time it with our discussion of the book starting February 1. I've loved a lot of Coupland's books in the past, and many people have told me this is his best. I can't wait to dig in and read it.
I've also sent the Spanbauer interview to Dennis, so that will be posted by him soon.
Yep, thanks Jeff! I got burnt out on Coupland but I'm ready to read him again. I've also heard great things about 'Hey Nostradamus!'
Also, for any fiction writers out there, there is a writing contest mentioned on his site. Check it out [url=http://www.pulp.net/about/1000/coupland-award.html]here![/url]
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by mirkah [/i]
[B]Yep, thanks Jeff! I got burnt out on Coupland but I'm ready to read him again. I've also heard great things about 'Hey Nostradamus!'...[/B][/QUOTE]
me TOO!! i think it's because after i read girlfriend in a coma, i tore through the rest of his stuff like it was my job, culminating in microserfs, by which i was less than impressed. but i'm excited about this new book; can't wait!
Alright. Got it. Hardback verison. Has one of those book mark ribbons built in.
I hate when books do this, because the ribbon drags and bugs the hell out of me.
Heh, yeah. I ordered christmas presents from amazon on Dec 9. Two were the 24hr kind and one said 2-3 days. I *might* get them today or tomorrow. That's like 15 days. The one that said 2-3 days isn't even coming then, it hasn't even shipped yet.
Can anyone be involved with this? I've never had anything to do with the Book Club, because it was usally a book I had already read a while ago and didnt feel like reading again, but I am planning on buying this book after christmas. So can anyone be included?
Palahniuk and Miike.
GODS!
.JPG "mugwump's picture")
thats my question too.
But, on a side note, I was planning on reading some Coupland anyways, so I might as well check this one out.
What?
Yeah, anyone can join in on the fun. Read one, Read all.
i don't know, i'm over him and really want to discover new to me writers.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Taylor [/i]
[B]Can anyone be involved with this? I've never had anything to do with the Book Club, because it was usally a book I had already read a while ago and didnt feel like reading again, but I am planning on buying this book after christmas. So can anyone be included? [/B][/QUOTE]
Anyone at all, my friend! Free to all and completely devoid of commitment and meaningful human interaction which is more than you can say of a lot in life. I mean, at a library for instance, despite actually having to speak to a real in-the-flesh, living and breathing person, they additionally trouble you so much as to, in the very least provide evidence of your residing at a particular address before they'll even think of giving you one of those shitty plastic cards. What a drag!
I was just thanking God for all the opportunities I've had since counting myself among the members of this Book Club to provoke and engage in intelligent discussions concerning works of superior literary worth and craftsmanship. American Psycho? I have manic episodes just thinking about it! Battle Royale? I felt that Nobel Prize recipient William Golding had to have been on to some cool as fuck shit with "Lord of the Flies" but boy, was I mistaken! Had I not known better (as I do now, thanks to how impressively my vocabulary has grown since beginning to post here), I would have thought when people were setting about to convince me of Spanbauer and Coupland's significance in the Canon of 20th Century literature and beyond, that they were speaking of Grade-A military ammunition but now I understand that what they meant to say was "Fuck the indispensible brilliance of those who would have likely shuddered when cited as influential, admired, or in any way related predecessors to the writers of today. Read this!" Bless me that I was saved the certain embarrassment of works that might actually elevate and affirm. Such drivel! People here have really got their priorities straight, so why don't we all just cut the shit and announce a Poppy Z. Brite book for March so I can fend off the wolves of good conscience before they come sniping at my heels again.
You know what all this is really meant to convey?
My amazement in finding that you cretins have won again with your latest assault on all good reason and dignity, embodied primarily in this very Book Club and the excrement you pass off as gold, your asinine and incredibly uninformed opinion of what makes writing a decent and noble pursuit, and a generally obdurate stance against working to cultivate an appreciation for writing other than that which can surpass what you’ve last read only in terms of degradation and squalor. Keep it up as long as it keeps you the hell away from me. I was ready to pack it in when a torrent of unparalleled lobbyists posted the shit out of the thread concerning who they most wanted to have moderate this part of the board and I wish like hell that I could have been with the unlucky son of a bitch who won (and subsequently lost by my estimation) so I could have thrown his fucking computer out of the window before he got started. Just because I wish it, however, don't make it so.
So, good luck and God speed, you unwitting disciples. Everything you value will soon turn to shit, with Jeff Walsh, Dennis, and Chuck as the idling sentinels long asleep on the watch against the rising putridity. You haven’t done much to help the cause either, come to think of it. My contribution is minimal if anything, but I'm not here to build. Just destroy.
Please keep this last thought in mind. Censorship is unconstitutional, and although I may have unknowingly in this diatribe violated something sacred to this board which is not outside the Bill of Rights but which I will concede has the right to handle my posts and I as is seen fit by those who provide the board in the first place, nameless and faceless we will remain if our thoughts are subjectively eliminated at the whim of another. I’ve already been admonished once this morning, and dammit if it doesn’t feel that just as soon as you’ve swung for the bleachers, they bring the heater up and in.
All my ejaculate,
Testicle Festival
yaaaawwwn
good fucking post TF.
[url=http://smithandstephenson.net]Another LitBlog[/url]
TF, do you write book reviews for Salon?
Jeff
He quoted me, and I hate to think That rant had anything to do with me, but I'm pretty sure it's been boiling up in his... Testicles for a while.
Palahniuk and Miike.
GODS!
Testicle, do us all a favor and use that energy and intelligence to discuss the conversation at hand. Anything else is just mental masterbation to me.
I agree with Morey, "Yawn..."
Wanna have the pants scared off you in 90 seconds?
Watch 'Laundry Day', my new horror short:
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dennis [/i]
[B]us...use...discuss...masterbation [/B][/QUOTE]
Dennis,
I sincerely hope you've gotten that "U" key fixed after having it inexplicably die on you mid-post. Perhaps the misspelling was intentional though, and this was a clever rouse designed to draw me out. You know, a humorous little play-on-words from our (Web)master. I don't believe this to be the case at all, but it would be uncharacteristic of me to carelessly provide you with a means of plausible defense or rational explanation.
Say, "Hi", to Chuck for me. By telephone. At least until you get a decent Spell Check.
Balls,
Testicle Festival
Testicle Festival, you're just bitter because I PMed you a warning about your idiotic post to Mahayr.
You remember, that post that proved you were an imbecile.
Did I spell that right?
Wanna have the pants scared off you in 90 seconds?
Watch 'Laundry Day', my new horror short:
I just wish I had the re-straint that Dennis has. Look at how much class is in his post. You could learn something TF...
Why am I wasting my time?
Jackasses like you get off on this stuff. What do you have some kinda spell check fetish.
OH BABY HIS USED KINDA INSTEAD OF KIND OF!!!
Back on topic:
This was an amazing book. Hands down one of the best thing I've read this last couple months. Can't wait to discuss this one.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dennis [/i]
[B]Testicle Festival, you're just bitter because I PMed you a warning about your idiotic post to Mahayr.
You remember, that post that proved you were an imbecile.
Did I spell that right? [/B][/QUOTE]
And the malice implied in calling one an imbecile is what?
Oh. Yes. An example of what I was summarily discouraged from incorporating in my posts. Quickly I learn that if you make the rules, damn me for saying anything when you break them.
Thanks for the reminder.
Please, drop by my latest post in The Writers Workshop board as I, in the name of constructive criticism, bitterly reprimand one of our own gone astray.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by thegermanoven [/i]
[B] What do you have some kinda spell check fetish.[/B][/QUOTE]
If you'd care to rephrase this in the form of a question I might just answer!
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
[B]And the malice implied in calling one an imbecile is what?
[/B][/QUOTE]
Let's see... imbecile = trite.
Testicle Festival's post to Mahayr... well, let's take another look at it and see what all of you think. Hell, maybe I'm just being a hypocrite and my choice of words is just as bad as his:
[b]Testicle Festival wrote to Mahayr:[/b]
[i]You dumb motherfucker! What the hell kind of ball busting shit are you trying to pull? Get the fucking books yourself and underline, copy, tattoo, stencil onto your arm with a razor every fucking line, quote, catch "pHrase", copyright, punctuation, page number you fucking want and get the hell out of here while you're at it.
(Sorry Mom. Sorry God. Didn't mean to snap on this shit-for-brains, but you know, I think the motherfucker really had it coming, don't you?)[/i]
Hmmm, you're actually right, Tesicle Festival. I apologize for calling you on this. You have been wronged.
Wanna have the pants scared off you in 90 seconds?
Watch 'Laundry Day', my new horror short:
back on topic: anyone know if this is going to be in paperback soon? I'd rather not spend the money on a hardcover.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dennis [/i]
[B]Let's see... imbecile = trite.
Testicle Festival's post to Mahayr... well, let's take another look at it and see what all of you think. Hell, maybe I'm just being a hypocrite and my choice of words is just as bad as his:
[b]Testicle Festival wrote to Mahayr:[/b]
[i]You dumb motherfucker! What the hell kind of ball busting shit are you trying to pull? Get the fucking books yourself and underline, copy, tattoo, stencil onto your arm with a razor every fucking line, quote, catch "phrase", copyright, punctuation, page number you fucking want and get the hell out of here while you're at it.
(Sorry Mom. Sorry God. Didn't mean to snap on this shit-for-brains, but you know, I think the motherfucker really had it coming, don't you?)[/i]
Hmmm, you're actually right, Tesicle Festival. I apologize for calling you on this. You have been wronged. [/B][/QUOTE]
Dennis,
Mirkah sent a PM this morning to inform me that Cross Threading is a violation of forum guidelines, so unless you would like to resume this conversation in the "Author" section where it originated, for Mahayr's sake and your own, I'm going to pretend that I didn't revel in my vitriol at the time and certainly not at present.
As I recall, it was Mahayr's peace of mind you had previously and so painstakingly sought to protect by deleting the thread at her request. Yet, for reasons not entirely clear, you have reproduced here what I had written then, and verbatim to boot. While not unprovoked, I think you will come to agree that your particular manner of rebuttal is an outright violation of your resolve to pacify her misgivings, and an infringement upon what I can only assume was in the very least an unspoken agreement between the two of you, insuring that the contents of the post that are now available for general consumption would never be available for public viewing and thus providing her some measure of security.
Is this exemplifying the restraint for which you are lauded? That when confronted, you will go back on your word, make available to the general public a post that you were specifically implored to delete and did in fact delete days before?
As a result, you surely lose credibility with Mahayr, risk losing her patronage which was the threat you strived to avoid by deleting my post in the first place and have revealed significant character flaws in squaring off with me in this most deceitful and amateurish manner.
Do me a favor, man and just drop the condescending pseudo-intelligent act. Anyone who posts what you did to Mahayr and then tries to defend themselves in the manner you're now choosing to just comes across as schizo.
I included the post you made to Mahayr here, not the deleted thread. When seen as a post, it loses the context it initially had as well as the reasoning behind why she wanted it removed in the first place. Should Mahayr PM me and ask me to not include your post in this little squabble we're having, I'll gladly remove it.
And as for Cross Posting, that's an entirely different thing which involves a member posting the same thread in multiple forums to gain exposure and/or solicit. An Admin using an example of your frequent bad-mouthing and condescending of other members, as shown in a post of a thread he deleted, simply dictates your character... or lack of.
Wanna have the pants scared off you in 90 seconds?
Watch 'Laundry Day', my new horror short:
testicle, can i just ask how you feel comfortable insulting and challenging the owner of this site so openly? as far as this site is concerned, dennis is god, so you best watch out before he smotes yo ass.
that was a beautiful comment trypd
(no sarcasm intended)
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dennis [/i]
[B]Do me a favor, man and just drop the condescending pseudo-intelligent act...An Admin using an example of your frequent bad-mouthing and condescending of other members, as shown in a post of a thread he deleted, simply dictates your character... or lack of. [/B][/QUOTE]
I can tell you right now that labeling me "pseudo" anything is fair and justified. As I've said before, just because we wish something don't make it so. But at least I'm trying, which is more than I can say of you.
As for the remark, "simply dictates your character", damn, Dennis, "indicates" would have been the right word. Using the word "dictates" as you did in reference to my character would mean that the way I act is mandated by another. That I am compelled to behave a certain way against my will and/or better judgment.
Doesn't it eat people that on a board dedicated principally to a fucking writer, people are still in the fucking dark on such basic shit as knowing what words to use in what circumstances and what they mean?!
I'm pretty sure he meant indicate but probably had a mind fart like when he wrote "master" in masturbate. He might have been thinking "what a dick" so he just wrote dictate instead of indicate. 
I honestly don't know what was in his mind but I will tell you one thing; people come here to chat casually with other people that have similar interests. They don't neccesarily edit their thoughts or their posts as they would if they were writing a paper or a story. Most people understand that and overlook the occasional mispelling or poor grammer.
Yes, this site is dedicated to a writer and guess what , he's also a really swell guy that would never attack someone for [b]how[/b] they communicate their thoughts.
Why not accept that no one is going to change how they communicate on this board just because it bugs you or however much you rant at them.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by trypdwyre [/i]
[B]testicle, can i just ask how you feel comfortable insulting and challenging the owner of this site so openly? as far as this site is concerned, dennis is god, so you best watch out before he smotes yo ass. [/B][/QUOTE]
If I should be expelled for simply writing on this board, it would come to be the ultimate irony. Aside from an admittedly hostile attack against Mahayr (which I have since personally apologized for), a minor neglect of policy concerning multiple thread posting (again, admittedly I was in the wrong, and have made amends on this point too), I cannot fathom what gives you reason to believe that I'm pushing my luck as opposed to the envelope.
If I'm expected to fall in line and jerk everyone off, suck and kiss until I drop, there's some very interesting explanation I feel entitled to receive.
I've been a voyeur for far too long, and having finally brought some volatility to a board which by all appearances is stagnant in a perpetual indolence, I don't feel that I've over-stepped my bounds in any direction. Once the Book Club reads "The Book of Virtues" I may have another tune to sing, but until then, irreverence, a questioning of authority and a general disregard for any consequences my sincerely expressed views might bring will serve as the cornerstones of my exposition.
It is here of all places that I thought a disruption of stability might be welcomed. As it hasn't been, yet, I wonder why the hell we don't worry about the people who fucking keep the peace as they're the ones whose necks should be on the chopping block.
If Chuck had never birthed what was intended as the ultimate slap in the face of the supposedly "decent" and "upright", what fucking good would this board be? What the fuck would you be doing? Probably bitching even louder than you are now which as I see it was much too loudly before you even said a fucking thing
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
I've been a voyeur for far too long, and having finally brought some volatility to a board which by all appearances is stagnant in a perpetual indolence,
[/QUOTE]
Stagnant? This place has opened a thriving peer writer's workshop, started a year long online workshop actually taught by Chuck, created several new forums at the request of members not to mention a number of behind the scenes technical improvements.
It is here of all places that I thought a disruption of stability might be welcomed. As it hasn't been, yet, I wonder why the hell we don't worry about the people who fucking keep the peace as they're the ones whose necks should be on the chopping block.
Disruption just for the sake of disruption? Whats the point? This is busy, thriving board that is improving all the time. The "peacemakers" keep it running smoothly and help keep it a place where anyone that picks up a Chuck book and wants to meet other fans is more or less welcomed or at the very least allowed to speak their piece.
Just my opinion here:
This isn't Fight Club. This isn't Project Mayhem. Just because Project Mayhem was ran for the sole purpose of disruption and all of that doesn't me it transers over here to our very real world.
Even Project Mayhem had order.
I think this forum is one of the best run I have encountered and gives the users a lot more freedom than other boards do. At the same time it isn't overrun with members posting utter bullshit. Go visit a lot of popular forums and see how it differs from the cult.
You are very lucky to have found this place. There are good intelligent like-minded people on here who can see through your pseudo-theraus based intelligence.
I mean, dude, whats the point of your well developed vocabulary if all you can do is be a jackass about petty shit? Like my question mark.
You're like a child running around with a dictionary cut with eye holes running into things.
Blah. Just because we like Chuck as a writer doesn't make us all perfect grammar-kiddies. Not very many people know the notes on a guitar, but they post at their favorite muscian's fan page.
Yeah, we make mistakes. But we are busy running and maintaining a site.
Do us all a favor...Write a fucking story and submit it to a workshop. Hell, how about reviewing since you have an eye for small errors. It would really help us all out, and you could keep your microscope eyes off minor errors in our posts.
Thanks.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
[b]My contribution is minimal if anything, but I'm not here to build. Just destroy.[/b]Well, you've failed even at that; the easiest thing in the world. Nice.
Now, please kindly fuck the hell off and frequent a forum regarding an author whom you actually read. I hear [url]www.jkrowling.com[/url] is quite friendly to n00bs, dumbasses and juvies.
(No offense meant to Ms. Rowling and her fine readers, of course.)
Umm... This was a good book and I'm looking forward to discussing it?
It was with ever increasing pleasure and inebriation that I antagonized you, and it is by means of even stronger intoxication that I leave you. The last couple motherfuckers who tried to slag me let me know that it was time to give up the ghost.
I hope you spend more time away from your computers and less responding to the outlandish aggressions of the doped, junked and depraved. It would have been terrific to actually address you all with respect and to have believed you all were worth my time, but even in the depths of an ether binge, or maybe because that's where I was for the past week, I like fucking more than fucking around any fucking day of the week anyway so have fun you Zen Nihilist's. I hope hell hasn't lost hope in you too.
Can we please get back to the topic? Testi, you can make a thread all about this and have this discussion there.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
[B]It was with ever increasing pleasure and inebriation that I antagonized you, and it is by means of even stronger intoxication that I leave you. The last couple motherfuckers who tried to slag me let me know that it was time to give up the ghost.
I hope you spend more time away from your computers and less responding to the outlandish aggressions of the doped, junked and depraved. It would have been terrific to actually address you all with respect and to have believed you all were worth my time, [b]but even in the depths of an ether binge[/b], or maybe because that's where I was for the past week, I like fucking more than fucking around any fucking day of the week anyway so have fun you Zen Nihilist's. I hope hell hasn't lost hope in you too. [/B][/QUOTE] Must you quote Thompson in consecutive posts? Really, it shows a lack of imagination. Also, if you spent half the time high, fucking, or fucking high as you pretend online, we'd never have even noticed you. You, sir, are a pretender, a poseur, a liar, a fake...
(And if you want to cop so freely from the [i]little book[/i], I suggest you watch your own grammar and punctuation as well as you do ours.)
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
[B]The last couple motherfuckers who tried to slag me let me know that it was time to give up the ghost. [/B][/QUOTE] Weak cop-out.
actually i really hope this month goes by pretty quickly, i just got the book on friday, and have finished it already, pretty good, but am anxious to discuss it.
I can't wait to discuss this book, seriously. I have a theory on the ending. Not discussing it here yet though, don't want to spoil.
and for the fun of it:
I have to agree with Tuffy on this. This guy is a total repeater. He can't forge his own thoughts. He is just the sum of what he has learned and discovered.
Also. Zen-Nihilist? I hope that's not a direct reference to me. Because I take my Zen-Nihilism very very seriously. It's a major part of how I think and is more or less the structure of my thoughts. Fuck you...for taking something I have created and using it to slander us on the board. Think of your own fucking thoughts, don't spit out half baked repeater logic at me.
I should have stopped before this started.
Hmm, last post he called out me, dennis, and chuck, and now he references leaving everyone to the "doped, junked, and depraved."
I wonder which one I am?
Jeff
well dennis is the depraved, chuck is the doped, you must be the junked. that seems like a raw deal to me
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by glamhoth [/i]
[B]well dennis is the depraved, chuck is the doped, you must be the junked. that seems like a raw deal to me [/B][/QUOTE]
You dummies. I was at least one, often two and sometimes all three at some point throughout my incessant rumblings. Yes, I quoted the doctor to wit, ONCE, mind you.
I wasn't talking about anyone but myself. Honestly, I took to experimenting after gorging myself on Timothy Leary, Burroughs, H.S.T., and specifically Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception" over the past month or so.
For the last 3 days I've been trying to piece together what transpired over the last week and 1/2, and all I know is that CP.net was the only site I visited visited for almost a week, I'm going to have to explain the disarray of the medicine cabinet to my boyfriend who's been away, (Didn't presume that I was a woman, did you?) and at the same time I'm damn glad to have focused so much of my time on the up to this board and not to being a dirty little whore like I normally am when that shithead is away.
If it makes you feel better, you were all right in giving me the "pseudo-intelligence" label. Out of my stupor, I don't have much to say back.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by thegermanoven [/i]
[B] This guy is a total repeater... It's a major part of how I think and is more or less the structure of my thoughts. [/B][/QUOTE]
Ah, ahhhh, ahhhhhhhh....FUCKING DOUCHE!!!
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by thegermanoven [/i]
[B] This guy...[/B][/QUOTE]
Also, read above. Your fucking enlightenement shall become apparent upon discovering I'm a cunt and not a dick.
enlightenement: an apartment building with spiritual insight?
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by testicle festival [/i]
[B]throughout my incessant rumblings.[/B][/QUOTE]
"ramblings" Get it right.
Twice. In two consecutive posts, you referred to "the depths of an ether binge" - intellectual laziness. If you're going to borrow someone's words as your own, do try to choose less prominant ones. Or at least cite the true source.
Didn't care.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Prensa Taladradora [/i]
[B]enlightenement: an apartment building with spiritual insight? [/B][/QUOTE]
I am so using that as my signature.
.....can't we all, just, get along??!!
has anyone started discussing the february bookclub book yet? i finished it yesterday and i wondered if anyone had any thoughts on it yet (the coupland novel 'hey, nostradamus') if i leave it too long the details may start to leak from my spongelike brain....drip, drip....oh my god, it's already started!!!
p.s. hi prensa, how's it going? i haven't been online for a few days, hope the job's going a bit better for you.
not feb yet so no no one has BE PATIENT OR DIE TRYING
Well, I thought this would get more replies by now.
I'm excited. I keep hearing good things about this from good people and each time I see the cover I keep thinking to myself:
"I really like that cover. I should by this book...now."
Thanks for being on top of things Jeff, it's good to have advance warning on these things. Thanks man.