[Keeker]

;Well, If old stuff is being trotted out - Jack Vance: Emphyrio, The Demon Princes, Araminta Station, etc. All good. Lyonesse is popular but I couldn't get into that one at all. Not everyone likes his style but I found his use of language really adding to the 'alien' feel. You might want to keep a dictionary handy too.

I wrote a paper on the book "And The Ass Saw The Angel" by the immortal Nick Cave. The paper follows. If it does not make you want to read the book, then one of us has failed.
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This book is ugly. From beginning to end it is relentlessly, meticulously and almost angrily ugly. The setting is ugly. The characters are ugly. The plot is ugly. Everything about the book was ugly except the reader, who must have been some kind of Greek god of cheekbones. In spite of the book having been intentionally marinaded in the fermented sap of the same ugly tree from which all ugly people are said to have fallen, it was actually a rare and lasting pleasure to read. Before I turn on the judgment-hose, let us understand the author and his sensibilities, then careen gently into his book and its copious portion of ugly.

Nick Cave is an Australian singer/songwriter whose body of work is prolific and varied. Because Nick is so clearly a genius, I snatched up his book the moment I learned of its existence. Before I even read page one, I had deduced it must be a novel about indigent North American sugar cane farmers swilling moonshine and fundamentalist religion in the early 1940's. Sure enough, the blurb on the back cover was right.

The story takes place in Ukelore valley, in which sits a myopic little sugar cane farming town of cult members, akin to Mormons, who call themselves the Ukelites. In a shack just outside of the town lives the main character, Euchrid Eucrow, an ostracized outcast from birth to death. Euchrid is a social exile, as universally despised as Quasimodo, Gollum, or Andy Dick.

The story begins with Euchrid's only brother dying beside him only moments after their vividly remembered dual birth. His perpetually inebriated mother screams and torments his simmering, hate-filled father. The father, “Pa,” spends most of his time constructing crude, nasty traps to ensnare all of god's creatures, then taking the animals that are not yet dead and making them fight until they are. When Pa is not volunteering for PETA, he sits at the table and builds massive, impossibly proportioned houses of cards. One day, when Ma's drunken rantings topple a particularly impressive card construction, Pa finally snaps and jams her beloved bottle all the way into her throat, cracking open her jaws and splitting her cheeks in a harlequin grin. He then bashes two bricks into the resultant neck-bulge and shatters the bottle inside her esophagus to finish the job. This scene, in terms of brutality, most directly competes with the scene in which the entire town, in a fit of religious revival, beats, mutilates and cripples the town prostitute. Her most vicious attackers are, predictably, her former repeat-clients.

Indeed it would all be quite nearly shocking had about a dozen other tragedies not befallen nearly every other hapless peon trapped in the story and had I, the reader, not been made so disquietingly aloof by the florid verbosity with which those tragedies were relayed. The book has the effect of making the reader feel like a deadbeat god, leering down with contempt on this town full of wretched mortals, probably left over from some coked-up creation-binge he no longer remembers, and finding catharsis only in their despair.

Euchrid narrates the story only half the time, abruptly alternating with a detached, omniscient narrator to report anything not rightly known by the protagonist. The parts narrated by Euchrid are absolutely soaked with exposition, which is an irony-flavored treat because he was born mute and never has any spoken dialog in the story. Words like “bibulous” and “viscid” are planted in the middle of a sentence as if they were perfectly common terms while words like “xylocephalic” simulate being smacked in the face with a dictionary. It is left to the reader to decide whether Euchrid is thinking all of this to himself or trying to speak to an imaginary friend. Regardless of to whom Euchrid is supposed to be 'talking', we are intermittently reminded that he is recalling this story of his life from the tightening grip of a pit of quick sand. I'm proud to say I predicted at least a little of how the book would end.

Nick Cave is either a huge fan of Faulkner or was eerily channeling the man. They both write in dialect and nearly blacken the odd page with print. Also like Faulkner, many of those pages are but two fattened paragraphs. I enjoy Nick's work more than Faulkner, however, because it more aggressively stomps the reader's head into a wreath of thorny cynicism and never lets the reader feel comfortable with anything for even a moment. This makes it easier to sympathize with the main character. “And The Ass Saw The Angel” is so heavy with darkened pages of darker prose that it seems that, in any other tale by any other author, Euchrid would have been a villain. Here, in Cave's rainy, rainy world, the lesser of a thousand evils is believably, not only the hero, but the right hand of god.

It is the aforementioned assault on the town prostitute that initially invites Euchrid's ire. When the daughter of that same prostitute is unwittingly adopted by the super-religious townspeople simply for having appeared in the town square the same day that the rain stopped (a sign, of course), Euchrid makes it his life's mission to “do god's work” and punish them all. Without revealing too much more of the plot, I can say that it is the best kind of story: a loner with a messianic complex wreaks a terrible revenge upon one of humanity's sickest simian herds.

The nerve and intellect displayed in the story's conception and the expressiveness of the language make this book compel you to finish it. Even as the subjects under Cave's verbal microscope become more and more repugnant, the sentences themselves become more and more beautiful, daring you to continue reading until you find yourself engrossed in a speech about something otherwise revolting. That is why everyone should read this book: for the paradox of its appeal. Though the barbarism is omnipresent and the sadness is overwhelming, no font of moral relativism is required to discern the humanity of it all.
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I hope that was an enjoyable read.

[Keeker]

Thank you. I'll avoid that one like the plague.

At the moment I'm reading a book on Vedic knowledge and one on Jungian spirituality and psychology.
But that Forever War book be next methinks.


Um, about the Nick Cave.... eh... ugly, book.
Without meaning to get on your case man, when you recommend something to someone, do you really gotta implicate failure on our part if we don't like it? Or on your part? Hm...
I mean, I went through the whole Watchmen phase with the Rammstein, and the Nick Cave, and the fuck you and all that shit, but it aint all bad. Listen to some Terria or something and chill. If you don't like it. Then who cares. See?
No one failed. Unless the CD fucks up your stereo or something. That'd suck.

Read some Goosebumps books

Started Neuromancer yesterday. Thanks, Josiah.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville is a good book if you enjoyed Gibson.

Anything by Neil Gaiman.

QFT.

Especially Gaiman's "American Gods" and "Stardust." Yes, the latter is a "fairytale for modern audiences." It's very poetically written, can be read in about a day or two if you're dedicated, and pretty much reminds you why you enjoyed fairytales as a little kid... while still appealing to people who're over the age of 12. Read it.

Other recommendations:
A Song of Ice and Fire (series) by George R. R. Martin. So far, four of the seven books are out. Start at the beginning with "A Game of Thrones." Best fantasy series I've ever had the pleasture to read, and much, much less over the top than most. Although they are not happy books. Be warned. The third book has been known to reduce readers to tears. (Nearly including myself.)
Brave New World by Alduous Huxley. Currently reading it. Very, very good.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Oppressive, horrifying... and awesome.
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. Yes, it's a graphic novel. It's still one of the best stories I've ever read.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. A comedy about the (eleven-year-old) Anti-Christ and the Biblical Apocalypse. The funniest book I have ever read, bar none.
Dune by Frank Herbert. If you want good sci-fi, read this book.

I wrote a paper on the book "And The Ass Saw The Angel" by the immortal Nick Cave. The paper follows. If it does not make you want to read the book, then one of us has failed.
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*snip for space*
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I hope that was an enjoyable read.

I need to read that book.

Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks
Into the Silent Land - Paul Broks
Dermaphoria & The Contortionist's Handbook - both by Craig Clevenger ( I remember reading these in middle school lol they may not be as cool as I remember them)
The Cosmic Serpent (DNA and the origin of Knowledge) - Jeremy Narby (...uhhhh speculative hippie shit?)
The Phineas Poe series(WTF!!!!)
Man and His Symbols - Carl Jung
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin

Otherwise I really only read textbooks and nonfiction. I hate hate hate biographies.
and i know others have already said this, but Neal Stephenson is the shit!

Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin

Hell yeah dude! The science of music is amazing!! Both books were really enlightening.

Last winter, I read DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Some of it was a little ... out there, but the test sessions and the information based on science was really interesting. DMT...

did I just give myself away as a Tool nerd?

Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin

Hell yeah dude! The science of music is amazing!! Both books were really enlightening.

Last winter, I read DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Some of it was a little ... out there, but the test sessions and the information based on science was really interesting. DMT...

did I just give myself away as a Tool nerd?

heh, yeah you did, same here lol, OGT! I gotta say this tho...10,000 days should have been an EP. 10,000 days, wings for marie, Intension,Vinginty Tres and thats it. But thats off topic.....

But yeah the Jeremy Narby book I mentioned also deals with ayahuasca/DMT. And like I said: speculative hippie shit...So if you liked Spirit Molecule Im sure youd like The Cosmic Serpent.

Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin

Hell yeah dude! The science of music is amazing!! Both books were really enlightening.

Last winter, I read DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Some of it was a little ... out there, but the test sessions and the information based on science was really interesting. DMT...

did I just give myself away as a Tool nerd?

heh, yeah you did, same here lol, OGT! I gotta say this tho...10,000 days should have been an EP. 10,000 days, wings for marie, Intension,Vinginty Tres and thats it. But thats off topic.....

But yeah the Jeremy Narby book I mentioned also deals with ayahuasca/DMT. And like I said: speculative hippie shit...So if you liked Spirit Molecule Im sure youd like The Cosmic Serpent.

Shit. I always give off a Tool-nerd vibe *OGT secret handshake, fist bump, booty bump* *facepalm*
So you mean you wished for an EP with just 10k, Wings, Intension, and VT and none of the other songs? Those are great songs, but ROSETTA STONED and Jambi are my JAMS for real!

Sorry sorry sorry - topic:
Hey that's a good suggestion, I'll keep that in mind. I can take some of the hippie shit as long as there are some facts in it, or is at least interesting Funny thing is, I've never so much as smoked weed, but the hallucinogens are pretty interesting.

Yeah he gets pretty technical with DNA and some other biology topics. The end made me mad tho.

Heh, and one last word on 10,000 days. Im not partial to Jambi, but Rosetta Stoned fucking kills, but not much evolution took place between the albums. Thats why I suggest it should have been an EP. Maybe my expectations were to high?

Faaip de Oiad, lost keys, then RS. lol it completes the trilogy of the birkenstock clad-doughnut eating-urine soaked-alien spooning-L Ron Hubbard lipped-pen losing-acid dropping-dirtyassbitchasshippie from RS.

Can anyone recommend any books as good as Stephen Kings IT for that nostalgic vibe. I''ve read a boys life and Summer of Nights but it's just not the same.

Can anyone recommend any books as good as Stephen Kings IT for that nostalgic vibe. I''ve read a boys life and Summer of Nights but it's just not the same.