drockdriot000

This blog has become less of a blog than it is a to-buy and have-bought list of books; a petty, discarded, underused calender book of reminders I don't need getting reminded of.

But alas, my itchy fingers demand that I scratch the niggle.

JUST BOUGHT-
1) Dune - Frank Herbert (FINALLY. This long-awaited addition to my library has long been seen by myself as merely a fulfilling complement to my flourishing, pubescent collection, but now it feels more like the anxious welcoming of an online friend into the material sphere of physical connection. Clutching it possessively when I found it in the bookstore, I didn't bother to suppress my giggles. 
2) Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons (Hyperion was that good that I bothered to buy the sequel--with my own money, something I NEVER do. I have to say though, I expected another form of alternative narrating, a la Canterbury Tales or Decameron but the dream-retellings of Joseph Severn/John Keats makes a simple and intriguing alternative to the narrative style present in Hyperion. I should expect, if Simmons were to reuse the same style, that I might soon find myself wandering about, caught up in the dangerous shoals of getting too attached to the characters. 

However, no geek is easily satisfied, nor are they known for settling easy and giving up on lavish dreams. I still expect
1) Foundation - Isaac Asimov
2) 1984 - George Orwell
3) Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
4) Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
5) 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke 
6) A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller
7) At the Mountains of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft
8) Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
9) Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
10) A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
11) I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
12) The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
13) The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
14) Dying Earth - Jack Vance
15) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein

To think I own nothing of the Big Three's works. 

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

very very please with the arrival of the bright new entries to my library-
the book of the new sun: shadow of the torturer and claw of the conciliator, gene wolfe
hitchhiker's guide to the universe, douglas adams
hyperion, dan simmons
the time machine, h. g. wells
and i am right about now swamped with a marvelous albeit overwhelming bunch of to-reads, including some other new books that i haven't whipped myself into going forth and perusing. 
no more borrowing from friends, then!
all i need now are the pretty additions 1984 by george orwell and dune by frank herbert and i might be happy. for a while.
till then, i roam ever on in the abyss of crusty yellow scented paper.  
tata.

There was an old lady who made it her business
To gather lost possessions for her home decorations
Se knit and she sew but little she knew
Alone in a house too big for a mouse
With only one window spewing light into the attic
Where gathered The albums and all the lost possessions
And every afternoon she'd flip trough the photos
With a tear in her eye as she'd cry oh why

A woman there was, she smiled very bright
But every now and then she'd look at herself in spite
And through the years between three husbands
All trying to teach her what to do, they said:
"cook with less salt,and boil a little longer
More red meat for my cannibal teeth
I don't owe you cents, I am your protector
Discard your dreams and career
You're a woman now, a mother
Now bear me my children, or live forever in fear."

Oh you who proclaim yourselves gods
Do you care the pain you've caused?
There'sa different word for this kind of loss
That dictates no sense of identity
That dictates no sense of liberty
No sense if direction, no sense of education
And alo the road of poverty we'll stroll

Sometime ago,e lived this one maid
Whose name nobody remembered
Her story is old, often untold
Until today when a prophet for a people speaks
"in the arena where the chattel was lined up
Rows of human cow
The bidders gathered and hollered their cheapness
Hoping to get the healtiest cow
And old man smithers made a public confession
I desire the youngest of them all
16 guineas I'm willing to part with
For this fair treasure trove of work and love
She cried I'm not worth so little!
I'm worth a little more
So she challenged the old man
And thought it was victory

So she cared for herself and sold herself
To old man smothers for 17 guineas and a meal
She was a dime a dozen, did all her work without question
And she made it her life to maintain the kitchen
And on a quiet plantation, was her work as a slave
Never ate the food she made
Never enjoyed the fruits of her labor
Only cleaned up after her enslaver
Whose mess was filth in the eyes of the righteous
But gold in the eyes if the self righteous
And so she cried all day
Until the skies were all grey
And old man Smithers crept up to greet her
He said:"you may cry all you may,but you'll never get away."

And no philosopher could ever contend with the twisted mind of a monster
And no evil doer could ever be counted as anything but a man
Oh man, oh human
We're all the same people
Why don't you embrace us as the same kind of people?

Young girl, sitting in her bed
Flipping through the latest headlines in glamor
Breakthrough in surgery, champion of slimming
And they tell her like they told the others:
"oh sweet child, you'll never be good enough
If you don't dictate your body its ways
It has to be told how it has to be
Otherwise it could be just anything
So scrub it down and wear new skin
Take it off and wear a screen
Fake beauty, how precious you are to me
Now the boys; won't they can't stop looking at me?
And the pages wink back,
"that's why you bought me. I know all the secrets to a man's heart
He will love you forever, because how can't he?"

And oh you who proclaim yourselves prophet
Unto the condition of our being
Should we not speak for ourselves
should we not speak at all
I still say beauty is those who think for themselves

And the old woman is shivering
In her big old mansion
On a quiet plantation overpopulated with slaves
Another facade of doillies and lace
Where she once was a maid
Who did all the cleaning
Until she borne a child of the master man
Whom she never saw again, never held again,
And nine more bastards followed
A husband she acquired
Who provided her ways
And told her how to cook
Told her what to say
Long gone now, part of house
As it haunts and creaks and whooshes and shouts
She sits in the attic with her albums of memories
As she looks at a photo of a young girl sitting
On a bed with a sheet of magazines
She smiles and the wrinkles force out a tear
And a twinkle in her eyes say,
"I was once that young girl
I was once that young girl
Woman, alone
And never my own man."

Singing songs of protest
Whom do you protest?
Not my wife, he says
Not my husband, she says
They point their fingers at society
And I say that's fine with me

And when they asked her
Oh are you a believer?
Of the son, the father, and the holy ghost?
God almighty, do you believe in him?
And she said is god the same man who shames me of my past
Enslaved my present and dictates my future?
Then the preacher smiles a smile like a fox
"my dear girl, I am your master."

Thus is the tale of the passing of
The woman who had no name

Singing lalala...

New wish-list!!

Hitchhiker's guide to the universe-Douglas Adams
Dune-frank Herbert
1984-George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451-ray Bradbury
Foundation-Isaac Asimov
Brave new world-aldous Huxley
I, robot-Isaac Asimov
Slaughterhouse five-Kurt Vonnegut
A canticle for leibowitz-Walter m. Miller
Flowers for algernon-Daniel Keyes
War of the world-h.g. Wells
Hyperion-dan simmons
The Martian chronicles-ray Bradbury
A scanner darkly-philip k. Dick
Starship troopers-Robert a. Heinlein
I am legend-Richard matheson
The man in the high castle-Philip k. Dick
The name of the wind-Patrick rothfuss

It was a good one life you lived.