[QUOTE=irishslappop;13625190]its a bitch ain't it?[/QUOTE]

Hell yes.
If you're into philosophy, you might appreciate this. I just bought a book entitled "Voltaire's Bastards" So far, it appears to be a Neo-Romanticist book. Heard of it?

[QUOTE=irishslappop;13625165]kills bandwidth. thats why they closed the casual compendium.[/QUOTE]

Why does that UK thread get to have like a bajillion posts?

Hellllllllo Casual.

[QUOTE=BenJammin;13625168]Oh, yeah, I love mine to death. And, yeah, it has a bunch of different inputs. I haven't used them at all, since I'm only running a bass through it, though. It's loaded to the brim with features. I still haven't seriously sat down with it and figured out all the little things.[/QUOTE]

Cool, cool. If I get it my keyboard, guitars, and bass are all gonna be hooked up so I can be all like... psyyyyeeeeoughweeeeourghgwrrrrrrrgrrwwwwwgweeeeeerrrrioooooo!

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625183]Spiff I could lend my guitar services to you, if you are making weird music.

lowsound[/QUOTE]

No offence, but I've never heard you play guitar, so I'd have to pass on it unless I can hear what you can do.

On the other hand, my friend has a few years experience and is really good.

[url]http://www.myspace.com/catharticband[/url]

Yeah, him. That guitarist.

Lawl @ promotion.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625210]Hell yes.
If you're into philosophy, you might appreciate this. I just bought a book entitled "Voltaire's Bastards" So far, it appears to be a Neo-Romanticist book. Heard of it?[/QUOTE]

Good luck finishing that. I want to read it but it is freaking huge and apparently really hard to read.

lowsound

[QUOTE=PaulSimonon;13625226]Cool, cool. If I get it my keyboard, guitars, and bass are all gonna be hooked up so I can be all like... psyyyyeeeeoughweeeeourghgwrrrrrrrgrrwwwwwgweeeeeerrrrioooooo![/QUOTE]

That'd be pretty cool.

[QUOTE=Spaceman Spiff;13625227]No offence, but I've never heard you play guitar, so I'd have to pass on it unless I can hear what you can do.

On the other hand, my friend has a few years experience and is really good.

[url]http://www.myspace.com/catharticband[/url]

Yeah, him. That guitarist.

Lawl @ promotion.[/QUOTE]

Thats cool. You should make the trip to london so we can jam sometime.

lowsound

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625233]Good luck finishing that. I want to read it but it is freaking huge and apparently really hard to read.

lowsound[/QUOTE]
..you found that hard to read? It's just english, and not very complicated. As for huge, its about 600 pages.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625246]..you found that hard to read? It's just english, and not very complicated. As for huge, its about 600 pages.[/QUOTE]

Maybe you got the condensed version or something, because the one that I was looking at was like 1200 pages. Who is the one that you have written by?

lowsound

[QUOTE=Spaceman Spiff;13625227]No offence, but I've never heard you play guitar, so I'd have to pass on it unless I can hear what you can do.

On the other hand, my friend has a few years experience and is really good.

[url]http://www.myspace.com/catharticband[/url]

Yeah, him. That guitarist.

Lawl @ promotion.[/QUOTE]

added.

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625256]Maybe you got the condensed version or something, because the one that I was looking at was like 1200 pages. Who is the one that you have written by?

lowsound[/QUOTE]

John Ralston-Saul. It's the original version, but it has tiny print, but still, I've read much larger books.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625259]added.[/QUOTE]

Those guys are all my friends. I almost joined the band at one point, but I moved to the suburbs a bit north of Toronto, which was just far enough to make it too inconvenient and make us unable to practice often enough.

Oh well.

They're pretty decent, I'd say.

[QUOTE=Spaceman Spiff;13625276]Those guys are all my friends. I almost joined the band at one point, but I moved to the suburbs a bit north of Toronto, which was just far enough to make it too inconvenient and make us unable to practice often enough.

Oh well.

They're pretty decent, I'd say.[/QUOTE]

I had this odd feeling that they had already added me, but I guess that didn't happen.

Grim. I have the sheet music for Hungarian Rhapsody so I can stop messing around by ear. Now I just need to learn to read sheet music.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625269]John Ralston-Saul. It's the original version, but it has tiny print, but still, I've read much larger books.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, my history teacher told me to read it last year and gave me a copy to look over. It was a lot longer than 600 pages and I would say that is was written at a master level if not PhD level. I still want to read it sometime because it looks really interesting.

Did you know that John Ralston-Saul is Adrean Clarkson's husband? Jus a fun little fact that not many people know.

lowsound

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625300]Hmm, my history teacher told me to read it last year and gave me a copy to look over. It was a lot longer than 600 pages and I would say that is was written at a master level if not PhD level. I still want to read it sometime because it looks really interesting.

lowsound[/QUOTE]

I would say it was well-written, and yes, in fairly advanced english, but it doesn't compare to post-modern deconstruction or stream of consciousness. Those are the only forms of writing I actually have to concentrate to read.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625312]I would say it was well-written, and yes, in fairly advanced english, but it doesn't compare to post-modern deconstruction or stream of consciousness. Those are the only forms of writing I actually have to concentrate to read.[/QUOTE]

Did I ever make you read the short essay I wrote on Barth's "Life-Story"?

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625300]
Did you know that John Ralston-Saul is Adrean Clarkson's husband? Jus a fun little fact that not many people know.

lowsound[/QUOTE]


...no, I didn't.
This guy is kind of crazy, to be honest. But, he has already made some compelling points, even in the first few pages.

[QUOTE=BenJammin;13625317]Did I ever make you read the short essay I wrote on Barth's "Life-Story"?[/QUOTE]

Nope.
Gimme!

I'm reading Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" at the moment.

I just started on it.

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625312]I would say it was well-written, and yes, in fairly advanced english, but it doesn't compare to post-modern deconstruction or stream of consciousness. Those are the only forms of writing I actually have to concentrate to read.[/QUOTE]

I have never really read any of that stuff as it doesn't really interest me, but from what I know about it, it would be fairly hard to read.

lowsound

[QUOTE=Thonk;13625331]I'm reading Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" at the moment.

I just started on it.[/QUOTE]

That is on my "to read" list. Still haven't found the time to read that.

lowsound

[QUOTE=Thonk;13625331]I'm reading Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" at the moment.

I just started on it.[/QUOTE]

Good, some chapters are hard to read. He wrote each one in a different style.

I haven't read anything in a while. Recomendations?

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625330]Nope.
Gimme![/QUOTE]

Benjamin Lesser, 975460
ENGL 1006
March 14, 2006
Dr. Desroches

The Complexities of Self-Reflexive Narrative

____To write a story about writing a story is to dissect many human complexities, including the ideas of existence being fictional, as well as whether self-reflexive writing leads to a departure from reality. This can be seen in John Barth’s “Life-Story,” in which the story begins in the third person and gradually shifts into the first person; and all the while, the narrative continues to talk about itself.
There are complexities associated with this kind of self-reflexive story-telling. It is easy to get wrapped up within the narrative as Barth clearly demonstrates, writing:

In our author’s case it was the “vehicle” that had vouchsafed itself, first as a germinal proposition in his commonplace book–D comes to suspect that the world is a novel, himself a fictional personage–subsequently as an articulated conceit explored over several pages of the workbook in which he elaborated more systematically his casual inspirations: since D is writing a fictional account of this conviction he has indisputably a fictional existence in his account, replicating what he suspects to be his own situation. (Barth, 3)

In this, Barth examines the idea that everything is a work of fiction–that the world and its inhabitants are products of fiction. He continues on, noting that when one writes a fictional account of something, one possesses a certain fictional existence within that account, which would reflect upon the scenario already illustrated.
____Barth proceeds to discuss the notion of departure from reality: “One manifestation of schizophrenia as everyone knows is the movement from reality to fantasy” (5). He says that it is a process which “not infrequently takes the form of distorted and fragmented representation, abstract formalism, an increasing preoccupation . . . with pattern and design for their own sakes . . .” (5). This refers to the very self-reflexive style which the story is examining. In the first
quotation, the question is raised that if one is writing a story about writing a story, at what point does the initial story cease to be fiction? That is to say, that the first story is true since it is writing about a second story, and this begs the question of whether or not it is still fiction, or if it transcends that boundary. Furthermore, the second quote adds elaboration to this, since the “distorted and fragmented representation” could very easily be the story within the story. As well,
the “increasing preoccupation . . . with pattern and design for their own sakes” explains the way the story spirals further into self-reflexion, with each new letter speaking about the letter before it. It is at this point that it becomes hard to discern whether or not the story is telling a story any more, or whether it has become an act of pure self-indulgence for the sake of developing a self-reflexive narrative.
____“Life-Story” demonstrates the weaving created by a self-reflexive narrative and the complexities which are associated with it. There is first the notion of possessing a kind of existence inside of a fiction account of something, and this then leads into the idea that this kind
of self-reflexiveness leads to whether the original narrative recounting another story is fiction or if it is truth. From this, it further raises the question of whether this style of narrative is meant for the purpose of story-telling, or for self-indulgence.

Barth, John. “Life-Story.” Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction. Ed. Phillip Stevick. New York: The Free Press, 1971. 3-15.

[QUOTE=User Name;13625344]I haven't read anything in a while. Reccomendations?[/QUOTE]

Ask Ben, all of his recommendation's have been amazing for me.
Speaking of which, Ben, do you have a copy of Thomas Pynchon's book?

[QUOTE=User Name;13625344]I haven't read anything in a while. Recomendations?[/QUOTE]

1984 George Orwell.

lowsound

[QUOTE=thelowsoundofbass;13625357]1984 George Orwell.

lowsound[/QUOTE]

i read that in 6th grade, i think i was a bit young, scary scary book

[QUOTE=progmegood;13625351]Ask Ben, all of his recommendation's have been amazing for me.
Speaking of which, Ben, do you have a copy of Thomas Pynchon's book?[/QUOTE]

The Crying of Lot 49?

Not anymore. I sold it back to the university bookstore because I needed the money for this years books.