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Hans Magnus Enzensberger, German poet.
A little something for when we start whining.

In defense of wolves against lambs
...What do you expect from wolves?
Should they get rid of their teeth?
Why do you complain about politicians and officers,
why do you gape stupidly from your warm beds
at the TV screen that does nothing but lie...

....Look in the mirror, coward wankers,
you who loathe the toilsome truth,
who are too lazy to study and leave
all thinking to wolves!...

...You are lying even when you're whining.
You want to be torn to pieces. You cannot
be expected to change the world.
 
I just need to share this. (Appologies [!--emo&:blush:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blush.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blush.gif\' /][!--endemo--] to the author for the translation and the cuts)


Lighter Than Air
by H. M. Enzensberger

Poems
don't weigh much...

...Just like helium
or the sudden inkling, as it itches
our brain,
Saint Elmo's fire
and natural numbers...

...Lighter than air,
similar to forgotten worries
and the sky-blue smoke
of the really last cigarette,
is the natural me...

...Still many things get stuck
in the air.
The lightest ones are those that will remain after us
when we're burried in the ground.
 
And the last one, promise [!--emo&:rolleyes:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/rolleyes.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'rolleyes.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

War, like
by H. M. Enzensberger

It twinkles like a broken beer bottle in the sun
at the bus stop by old people's home

It rustles like the manuscript of the man who writes
speeches for peace conferences

It flickers like the blue reflection of the TV screen
on faces of somnambulists

It stinks like the steel of fitness-studio equipment
like the breath of the security guy at the airport

It yells like a chairman's talk
It inflates like fatwa in the mouth of ayatollah

It chirps like a schoolboy's gameboy
it sparkles like a chip in the bank data centre

It spreads like the pool behind the slaughterhouse

It breathes
rustles
inflates
stinks
like
 
Albert Camus - The Plague.

It's an excellent book, and a great study of the human life, especially in the way it stands against deadly viruses. Indeed, it's very interesting.

Cheers
 
Yersinia pestis, agent of the plague, is a bacterium. Not a virus.


/smartarse microbiologist mode. [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Right. I haven't written anything here for a long time. Here are some of the books I really like.

La Douce Empoisonneuse; Prisonniers du Paradis; Le Meunier hurlant, the three of them by Arto Paasilinna.
To my knowledge, none of them had been translated in english, but another one I read last year is: The Year Of The Hare.
The author is Finnish and write short novels with a cynic humour. He's usually depicting ordinary people trying to deal with life in an unorthodox way.
The first one (roughly tranlated: The Sweet Poisonner) is about an old woman, peacefully retired in her little home, who would live a quiet life, but for her nephew coming every month to take her pension. One month, the lady decides to suicide to avoid that trouble, but that attempt ends quite differently than she thought.
The second one (Prisonners of Paradise) is about a plane, where there are two teams of UN workers: about forty women (nurses) en route for India to work in a family center, and about nearly forty men, woodcutter and forest ingeneer. The plane crashes on a lost tropical island. How these people will react and live together, waiting for the rescue...
The third one (The Screeming Miller) is about a new miller coming into a village after WWII. The guy is quite nice and gets along well with the villagers. But sometimes, he has this surge for screeming and did as a wolf. And that begins to really annoy the others.
Every situation is depicted very plainly, with a lot of irony in the situations, and a lot of cynism concerning people behaviours. The three novels are quite differents from each other, but really jubilant in their ways.

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury
Well, a lot of you have read this one. I must admit I've been waiting a lot for it (as for the previous ones). I am actually, quite disapointed with this one. Good writing, some good ideas, but it lacks emotions. As usual, there are many questions still unanswered, which is beginning to be annoying. I felt it is more like a huge introduction for the next one than a part on its own.

Globalia, J.-C. Rufin.
The author is more known for his book: Brazil Red (Goncourt price in France).
Globalia tells in a near future the ways of a perfect democracy, where everyone tries to enjoy life as long as he/she can (and with the science evolution, it's longer and longer). The only trouble is that this perfect democracy implies, by its own free speech and rules, that a lot are controlled to ensure that it stays a democratic state. Also, in this perfect world, life can be quite boring for those who don't get themselves into denial. One try to escape into the non-zone, try to understand his world.
An interesting novel which shows that democracy at its purest could be the highest totalitarism state.

Enjoy if you want!
 
A few old spy novels, just for relaxation:

The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle by John Buchan (aka Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada 1935-40)

Both deal with the story of some random British guy who saves his country from the horrid spies of the Kaiser in WWI
 
Im reading the kite runner... just began it...

have someone read it yet? if so, what did you thought about it?

Ill post again when I finnish it..
 
Frankenstein is a GO(O)D book.. much better than the movie....

PS... has nobody read kite runer?!
 
Can't say that I have.

I just finished rereading The Skystone by Jack Whyte. Amazing book about how Arthur could have come to pass. Everyone should read it. All of you. Especially you. Except the Duke, since he's read it.
 
Now reading George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I decided it was about time I started reading some decent books; most of what I read for pleasure is trash like Robert Harris or Bernard Cornwell (good books I know, but nothing to stretch me or make me think).
 
[!--QuoteBegin-MaidenColombia+Sep 14 2005, 08:09 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(MaidenColombia @ Sep 14 2005, 08:09 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Im reading the kite runner... just began it...

have someone read it yet? if so, what did you thought about it?

Ill post again when I finnish it..
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[!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] Nobody? Really?! I thought at least two persons had read it....

Well, anyway, I recommend it very much... It's a page-turner like the Davincci Code or Harry Potter, but unlike them, it has good, profound, and feeling-transmiting literature.

Its my favorite book...
 
Poetry again, this time Anne Sexton, American, who wrote in a way that is honest and true, somehow. She was abused as a child, became a fashion model and suffered from mental illness. She killed herself in 1974. Here's one of her love poems.

Bayonet

What can I do with this bayonet?
Make a rose bush of it?
Poke it into the moon?
Shave my legs with its silver?
Spear a goldfish?
No. No.

It was made
in my dream
for you.
My eyes were closed.
I was curled fetally
and yet I held a bayonet
that was for the earth of your stomach.
The belly button singing its puzzle.
The intestines winding like alpine roads.
It was made to enter you
as you have entered me
and to cut the daylight into you
and let out your buried heartland,
to let out the spoon you have fed me with,
to let out the bird that said fuck you,
to carve him onto a sculpture until he is white
and I could put him on a shelf,
an object unthinking as a stone,
but with all the vibrations
of a crucifix.
 
It's brilliant stuff, but... is this your idea of a love poem? [!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
I'm reading Agatha Christie's 'Death On The Nile',

Damn, Hercule Poirot is such a smartarse. [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Maverick+Oct 20 2005, 10:01 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Maverick @ Oct 20 2005, 10:01 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]It's brilliant stuff, but...  is this your idea of a love poem?  [!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
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[/quote]Absolutely. But I like the lyrics to "Just The Way Your Are" by Billy Joel, too [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Just The Way You Are - Billy Joel

Don't go changing to try and please me,
You never let me down before.
And don't imagine you're too familiar,
And I don't see you anymore.

I would not leave you in times of trouble,
We never could have come this far.
I took the good times, I'll take the bad times,
I take you just the way you are.

Don't go tryin', some new fashion,
Don't change the color of your hair, mmmmm
You always have my unspoken passion,
Although I might not seem to care,

I don't want clever conversation,
Never want to work that hard,
I just want someone that I can talk to,
I want you just the way you are

I need to know that you will always be,
The same old someone that I knew.
Ah, what will it take till you believe in me,
The way that I believe in you?

I said I love you and that's forever,
And this I promise from the heart.
I could not love you any better,
I love you just the way you are.

Break

I don't want clever conversation,
I never want to work that hard.
I just want someone that I can talk to,
I want you just the way you are.




Hmm... just a collection of soppy old clichés! [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
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