*Dodges shower of rotten tomatoes*
All right, all right, I really do have a good excuse. WORK, okay? I let it all pile up for Friday. My bad.
No, no, not eggs..! *sputter*
This is a one-time thing, I swear! I'm putting in a standard code with every single post that invites questions! Really! Look at the bottom of this post!
Okay?
I did get some questions on the comments and by email, so here's the answers. I'm going to go hide behind this tree while you read, just in case.
I remember sometime back in your blog you had a long list of books with the books you read in bold, etc. I was just surprised to see in the list of books that had Yuck next to it, God of Small things and The Godfather. Well! I know you are an atheist. Does that also include books with the word 'God' in it? I would like to hear why you didn't like those books?
- Ram
I'm hurt... hurt, i tell you. Is this what y'all think of me?
Wendelin wanders into the bookstore, armed with automatic scanner-and-zapper gun. Runs scanner over shelves. Scanner beeps every time it passes over a book with 'God' in the title. Bleep ... bleep ... bleep ... Zap! Zap! Zap! What's that? A book-buyer with a WWJD button? ZAP! Wendelin pauses at the end of the aisle, eyeing the smoking holes in the shelves with a gleam of satisfaction. Blows a cool breath on the barrel of the scan-and-zap gun, and moves on. A zapper's work is never done.
Okay.
The Godfather was just... a badly written book. There's no excuse, there just isn't. We were hopping around from one character's head to another, often in the space of the same paragraph. What, did I pick up a Harlequin romance?! Shoddy pacing (the middle d...r...a...a...a...g...s), superfluous characters, subplots so disconnected they seemed to be from a whole other book (Tony Fontaine)... I don't know. It had substance, but the story was butchered. Fortunately for us all, Francis Ford Coppola came along and told it like it was supposed to be told. The Godfather is at the very top of my (very short) list of movies that are better than the books they are based on.
And in my defence, here's an excerpt from The God of Small Things (random page):
Some days he walked along the banks of the river that smelled of shit and pesticides and World Bank loans. Most of the fish had died. The ones that had survived suffered from fin-rot and had broken out in boils.Not bad, yes? I agree. But what if the whole page was like this? The whole chapter? The whole frickin' book? EXACTLY like this. Each word written, reconsidered and rewritten thrice, each word carrying five times its weight in meaning, symbolism, metaphor, epithet and onomatopoeia, and each word matched with its neighbour to poetic perfection?
Other days he walked down the road. Past the new, freshly baked, iced, Gulf-money houses built by nurses, masons, wire-benders and bank clerks, who had worked hard and unhappily in faraway places. Past the resentful older houses tinged green with envy, cowering in their private driveways among their private rubber trees. Each a tottering fiefdom with an epic of its own.
AAAARRRGGGHHH.
I don't have the patience for 300-page 90,000-word poems, okay? Especially not one which, in a desperate bid for respectability, masquerades as a book. :P
Why don't you start your own website than relying on Blogger? You can have more options of exhbiting your content. Not really a question..
- Kr!sh
That costs money. I'm not gonna spend money I ain't earning. Once the writing starts to bring a steady income in... then we'll see. :)
Are you a better writer or a better debater? Favorite lines you've written / favorite sentences in debate. ( it's AMAday :-D )
- Kr!sh
I'm a better debater. I live for the argument. I love it when somebody manages to change my mind with the force of logic. If I could do it for money, I would (and did, for a while... ah, the days). In other words, my writing career was doomed before it started (my chosen profession is jealous; it does not tolerate other loves). I think I'll go kill myself now.
If you want to give an advice to every reader/commenter of your blog what would those be? :-) ( can list the names and advice(s) ).. controversy:D !!
- Kr!sh
Ever heard of "everybody needs to use sunscreen"?
Don't.
At least, not if you're Indian. We don't need it, and the chemicals in the sunscreen will give us cancer. There. That's my generic advice to all. I have a few special messages for a few people, however...
To 4WD: Be a man! Even if you gotta fake it!
To Juice: You should WRITE! I got two words for you: chick lit.
To Saurabh: BLOG, you idiot. It's been ages.
To Pinky: Post pictures of Jalebi when you make it - I wanna see!
To Kr!sh: Come out of your shell, shout the name of your LJ from the rooftops! What do you have to lose, man?
Questions? Observations? Leave your smart, biting queries in the comments, and I'll get 'em on Ask Me Anything Day!
Let me be the first to comment. :)
ReplyDeleteGod of Small Things, zigackly right. Come to my arms... :D you read Asterix, I suppose?
Roy's writing seems to appeal to a very niche market. I have often asked the people, who liked it, for reasons why they liked it. The standard reply was, "I can relate to the book".
Yeah... I've only ever known Mallus to like it. :P
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I *heart* *love* *heart* Asterix. Why?
Sunscreen song is deep re! Nice twist on tht:-)
ReplyDeleteOh, I so agree with the Godfather stuff.. it was finally told the way it was meant to be. I've watched it a bajillion times, and still watch it every single time it's on TV! "Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday".. :) Gotta love that movie!
ReplyDeleteAnd I realllly like 'The God of Small Things'.. You are right in that every word carries much more than what it normally should, but I think that's the charm. The language is spectacular.. it's like a character in the book!
:D Wendelinium.. Am gonna make u regret the AMA proposal.. Wait n Watch..
ReplyDeleteHere you go.. for the next AMAday.. Straight outta someone's blog!
ReplyDelete1.Were you named after anyone?
2. Do you wish on stars?
3. When did you last cry?
4. Do you like your handwriting?
5. What is your favourite meat?
6.What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
8.Are you a daredevil?
9. How do you release anger?
10. Where is your second home?
11. Do you trust others easily?
12. What was your favourite toy as a child?
13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?
14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
16. What do you look for in a guy?
17. Would you bungee jump?
18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
19. What's your favourite ice cream?
20. What are your favourite colours?
21. What are your least favourite things?
22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
23. Who do you miss most right now?
24. What are you listening to right now?
25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
26. What is the weather like right now?
27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?
29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
30. How are you today?
31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?
32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
33. Natural hair colour?
34. Eye colour?
35. Wear contacts?
36. Siblings?
37. Favourite month?
38. Favourite food?
39. Favourite day of the year?
40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
41. Scary movies or happy endings?
42. Summer or winter?
43. Holi or Diwali?
44. Do you like your name?
45. What book/magazine are you reading?
46. What's on your mouse pad?
47. What did you watch on TV last night?
48. Favourite Smell?
49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?
Woman, GoST is a good book - you just need a tad of morbidity to enjoy it
ReplyDeletePS: Still havent got to re-writing that HP email - will do so soon :P
Ashwin - You are probably right about the niche market, though. If you've lived in Kerala you'll probably be able to relate to the socialist-capitalist society she writes about :P