Ben Elton can be the master of the emotional roller coaster, but his prolific works lack originality after a while.
I was reading 'Inconceivable' in bed one Sunday morning when struck by his knack for the ridiculous. My then teenage daughter came into my room to see what all the fuss was about to find me rolling around on the bed, shrieking with laughter and unable to explain my state beyond waggling the book at her
After looking at me in the John Cleese genre of exacerbating amusement by watching stupidity, she retreated and left me to it. A few minutes later when calm was apparently restored, she returned to find me sobbing uncontrollably. Unfortunately, the look on her face set me off laughing again...
So, it'll be sold for as long as it's an integral part of a functioning economy, or economically viable?
It's great that you aid and abet piggy murder, but I'm not sure that's the same as bacon being sold 'forever', or even for as long as some people are willing to buy it.
The theme running thrugh the comments appears to be a balance between affordablity and quality, but food production as it stands is inefficient and ultimately unsustainable even if it's profitable for a few. We are, to a certain extent, forced to seek the cheapest means of feeding ourselves and in doing so feed the unsustainable system of mass, distance production.
We may at some point be forced to change what we eat and the way we obtain food. That might alter the profitability of some food production, especially the least efficient.
I have had to guess at a lot of stuff from snippets that have slipped out, reading, documentaries, recorded survivors accounts and talking to more talkative people.
It was very much a herd of elephants in the room and one did one's best not to cause a stapede, but simply observe with caution.
I've not heard of Nina Stibbe, but a little research to check that I hadn't read her by accident (I get random books from charity shops, but forget titles and authors too easily) revealed that two breeds of pig were named 'Reasons' and 'Cheerful'.
You've just reminded me of another book, recommended to me by a friend after I described my mother's war time pantry hoarding during the general strikes in the 70's.
Whether you'd find A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka as funny as I did, I don't know. It's set in England.
I like books that are set at the interface of more than culture. Laurie Graham clashes American and British culture to comedic affect.
My mum, being German, obviously experienced Germany at it's worst, but being German didn't view all German people according to that standard.
The actions of a nation aren't the actions of all it's people, but it's understandable that nationality can be a trigger when people have experienced trauma.
For my mum, it was uniforms, guns, authority, shouting, etc. Going through customs when travelling was a bit tricky.
My friend would go on and on about my family ancestral name, sure that it originated from an old Lithuanian line, prior to a Russian one.
I used to tease him that he couldn't stand the thought of me having Russian ancestry, but I've since found out he was right.
The negative impression, as you put it, was there all the same, unsurprisingly so. He was too young to be directly involved in Lithuania's Bloody Sunday, but the carnage was exposed in the media and clearly had a profound impact upon the man he became.
On January 13th 1991 after Russia invaded Lithuania, unarmed civilians surrounded the TV broadcast tower and sole television station in the early hours of the morning to prevent Soviet Troops from taking control.
14 people were killed and over 700 hundred injured as they protected their independence with their bodies.
A work colleague described his childhod experience of that time to me. I was reminded of John Steinbeck's novella The Moon Is Down and how well it's written.
I got the reading bug (late in age as I'm a bit dyslexic) because my school class had registration in the library. I just happened to sit next to shelf full of Nevile Shute books that I became obsessed with.
That would be extraordinarily uncool if it weren't for the fact that Billy Connelly taught himself to read at the same age because he had a bookstore delivery job - inbetween errands he'd hunker down out of the way which just happened to be next to a shelf full of Nevile Shute books.
I read Walter Mitty in an English accent, completely unaware that I was translating, if I remember correctly. I even had Walter waiting for his wife outside of small mid-20th century English shops. It's only now you mention it, that I realise I got my bias all wrong in liking it.
I think 'Tobermory' was one of the short stories I studied for my O'Level English Lit.
At least it was in a collection of 21 Great Stories (edited by Abraham H. Lass and Norma L. Tasman), some of which were study pieces and of course, it was impossible not to read the whole collection.
War by Luigi Pirandello was probably my favourite, but that's pretty unfunny, as is There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.
The Two Bottles of Relish by Lord Dunsany might be your sort of thing. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber might be another.
Maybe the answer to life, the universe and everything is not 42 after all. Maybe it's hedgehogs.
It would be awfully difficult for people to go waging war if they were constantly exposed to hedgehogs.
Hedgehogs might even solve world poverty if people were like, come and sit down and share my dinner; there's a hedgehog documentary starting on BBC1 in a minute...
As I said, I think asking others is a bit meanngless. If the question is asked, and the answer interpreted from our own value framework then we might as well ask ourselves.
I've never gained anything from asking other people what love is.
I mean, there's no gaurantee that one person's non-material concept of the non-material is identical to the next. Certainly, from reading people's comments there are differences from person to person.
In which case, if I don't understand the question, how can I understand the answer?
I have noticed one thing, mind: some people appear to be calmer, more confident and kinder than others. I suspect there is some kind of awareness that goes along with that, but whether 'spiritual awareness' is always the right word, or wrong word to express that, I don't know.
Perhaps it doesn't matter what the right word is, but the outcome for the self and others.
Perhaps doing it the 'right way' according to others isn't the right way for everyone.
If we don't like the way we are experiencing some things, or think we can experience some things differently, we're probably big enough and ugly enough to create our own differences.
It may well, but yes, I have reason to believe consciousness extends beyond the physical self.
Errm, not exactly.
I'm not sure that information from the senses is held within the brain like water in a jug. It causes changes within the brain which is not the same as being held by the brain.
Also, 'information we gather from our senses' isn't as simple as it sounds. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by the neurolgist Oliver Sacks challenges that oversimplification from clinical case studies. There's a youtube audio reading by the authoor in case you're interested.
We can become aware that someone is looking at us even if they are behind us. I think there's a Native American saying about not looking at someone, or something you're hiding from as the eyes draw attention to the self. If someone hiding in the bushes is aiming a blunderbuss at the back of your head, I imagine consciousness is ideally located beyond the brain.
What is the imagination?
A form of consciousness, perhaps?
I see my tinnitus. All that physical stuff is not as simple and linear as the simplest models.
Synethesia has been supported with MRI based research, but even if my imagination, or consciousness has some control over my brain function, I'm the only person I know with a cacophany of noise louder than a factory floor, but doesn't find it disturbing. Perhaps there is a function to thinking outside the (brain) box.
Energy cannot be created, nor destroyed, but it can change form.
I'm talkng about a personal near death and a recent observed death experience.
Both have changed the way I think about consciousness.
Being awake and in so much pain that you give up the ghost, or losing a loved one have their bleak moments, but they're also fascinating in terms of consciousness and the power of the mind.
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
RE: Saki
Ben Elton can be the master of the emotional roller coaster, but his prolific works lack originality after a while.I was reading 'Inconceivable' in bed one Sunday morning when struck by his knack for the ridiculous. My then teenage daughter came into my room to see what all the fuss was about to find me rolling around on the bed, shrieking with laughter and unable to explain my state beyond waggling the book at her
After looking at me in the John Cleese genre of exacerbating amusement by watching stupidity, she retreated and left me to it. A few minutes later when calm was apparently restored, she returned to find me sobbing uncontrollably. Unfortunately, the look on her face set me off laughing again...