Comments on: http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/ the internet literature magazine blog of the future Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:03:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: davidpeak http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-37682 davidpeak Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:42 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-37682 let's never fight again. let’s never fight again.

]]> By: davidpeak http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-125333 davidpeak Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-125333 let's never fight again. let’s never fight again.

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-37681 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:31:53 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-37681 you make very good points. i will think about them. however, i did not literally say blake's writing is faux-poetic. kind of funny you assumed that's what i was referring to. i've never even read his writing. the sentence you are referring to was designed to mock anyone who didn't like bolano. it was definitely calibrated to annoy. very childish, very high school. regrets. oh, and glad you might give savage detectives a shot. it's not for everybody, i guess, but it has made a lot of people happy. you make very good points. i will think about them. however, i did not literally say blake’s writing is faux-poetic. kind of funny you assumed that’s what i was referring to. i’ve never even read his writing. the sentence you are referring to was designed to mock anyone who didn’t like bolano. it was definitely calibrated to annoy. very childish, very high school. regrets. oh, and glad you might give savage detectives a shot. it’s not for everybody, i guess, but it has made a lot of people happy.

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-125332 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:31:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-125332 you make very good points. i will think about them. however, i did not literally say blake's writing is faux-poetic. kind of funny you assumed that's what i was referring to. i've never even read his writing. the sentence you are referring to was designed to mock anyone who didn't like bolano. it was definitely calibrated to annoy. very childish, very high school. regrets. oh, and glad you might give savage detectives a shot. it's not for everybody, i guess, but it has made a lot of people happy. you make very good points. i will think about them. however, i did not literally say blake’s writing is faux-poetic. kind of funny you assumed that’s what i was referring to. i’ve never even read his writing. the sentence you are referring to was designed to mock anyone who didn’t like bolano. it was definitely calibrated to annoy. very childish, very high school. regrets. oh, and glad you might give savage detectives a shot. it’s not for everybody, i guess, but it has made a lot of people happy.

]]> By: davidpeak http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-37658 davidpeak Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:06:20 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-37658 It's not that people shouldn't be allowed to use certain words (hipster, pretentious, beauty). It's that those words are often used as a crutch, and read as being glib. "Hipster," particularly, has lost all meaning. That word was dead five years ago. Now it's like something undead that shuffles around looking gross. How is that word possibly "useful?" Especially when it looks like you're using it as a personal twist on "snob." My point is that those words are meaningless--especially when we're talking about the "quality" of something. I honestly haven't heard the word "pretentious" bandied about so readily since I was in high school lit comp. It's an unoriginal take, and as soon as it's used (by anyone) I immediately stop listening. On a personal note, beauty to me has nothing to do with whether or not something is pleasing. In terms of music, the definition of beauty you cite wouldn't encompass anything I assign value to: atonality, lack of melody, discordance. I suppose you could subvert the meaning of the word "pleasing" and say that I find atonality pleasant, and therefore see it as beautiful--but that's not the point. And to bring everything back to where this whole thing started: I disagree that Blake's writing is faux-poetic. I disagree with your definition of the term "faux-poetic." But I do like and respect your willingness to clarify what you mean and might even give Savage Detectives a shot after your explanation of its merits. It’s not that people shouldn’t be allowed to use certain words (hipster, pretentious, beauty). It’s that those words are often used as a crutch, and read as being glib. “Hipster,” particularly, has lost all meaning. That word was dead five years ago. Now it’s like something undead that shuffles around looking gross. How is that word possibly “useful?” Especially when it looks like you’re using it as a personal twist on “snob.”

My point is that those words are meaningless–especially when we’re talking about the “quality” of something. I honestly haven’t heard the word “pretentious” bandied about so readily since I was in high school lit comp. It’s an unoriginal take, and as soon as it’s used (by anyone) I immediately stop listening.

On a personal note, beauty to me has nothing to do with whether or not something is pleasing. In terms of music, the definition of beauty you cite wouldn’t encompass anything I assign value to: atonality, lack of melody, discordance. I suppose you could subvert the meaning of the word “pleasing” and say that I find atonality pleasant, and therefore see it as beautiful–but that’s not the point.

And to bring everything back to where this whole thing started: I disagree that Blake’s writing is faux-poetic. I disagree with your definition of the term “faux-poetic.” But I do like and respect your willingness to clarify what you mean and might even give Savage Detectives a shot after your explanation of its merits.

]]> By: davidpeak http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-125331 davidpeak Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:06:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-125331 It's not that people shouldn't be allowed to use certain words (hipster, pretentious, beauty). It's that those words are often used as a crutch, and read as being glib. "Hipster," particularly, has lost all meaning. That word was dead five years ago. Now it's like something undead that shuffles around looking gross. How is that word possibly "useful?" Especially when it looks like you're using it as a personal twist on "snob." My point is that those words are meaningless--especially when we're talking about the "quality" of something. I honestly haven't heard the word "pretentious" bandied about so readily since I was in high school lit comp. It's an unoriginal take, and as soon as it's used (by anyone) I immediately stop listening. On a personal note, beauty to me has nothing to do with whether or not something is pleasing. In terms of music, the definition of beauty you cite wouldn't encompass anything I assign value to: atonality, lack of melody, discordance. I suppose you could subvert the meaning of the word "pleasing" and say that I find atonality pleasant, and therefore see it as beautiful--but that's not the point. And to bring everything back to where this whole thing started: I disagree that Blake's writing is faux-poetic. I disagree with your definition of the term "faux-poetic." But I do like and respect your willingness to clarify what you mean and might even give Savage Detectives a shot after your explanation of its merits. It’s not that people shouldn’t be allowed to use certain words (hipster, pretentious, beauty). It’s that those words are often used as a crutch, and read as being glib. “Hipster,” particularly, has lost all meaning. That word was dead five years ago. Now it’s like something undead that shuffles around looking gross. How is that word possibly “useful?” Especially when it looks like you’re using it as a personal twist on “snob.”

My point is that those words are meaningless–especially when we’re talking about the “quality” of something. I honestly haven’t heard the word “pretentious” bandied about so readily since I was in high school lit comp. It’s an unoriginal take, and as soon as it’s used (by anyone) I immediately stop listening.

On a personal note, beauty to me has nothing to do with whether or not something is pleasing. In terms of music, the definition of beauty you cite wouldn’t encompass anything I assign value to: atonality, lack of melody, discordance. I suppose you could subvert the meaning of the word “pleasing” and say that I find atonality pleasant, and therefore see it as beautiful–but that’s not the point.

And to bring everything back to where this whole thing started: I disagree that Blake’s writing is faux-poetic. I disagree with your definition of the term “faux-poetic.” But I do like and respect your willingness to clarify what you mean and might even give Savage Detectives a shot after your explanation of its merits.

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-37640 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:22:44 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-37640 it's not a defense, but it was intended as an explanation of why i liked the book. bolano's prose style isn't for everyone; in the case of savage detectives, the book consists of diary entries and many different voices that read as if they are talking about their interactions with the two central characters, who are, crucially and interestingly enough, never front and center as narrators themselves. therefore, the prose need only be true to their voices while somehow conveying what the author is trying to convey. the diary entries are the excitement and banality and eagerness and casualness of a youthful, would-be literrateur, embodied. the chorus of voices that follow constitute an oral history of the adventures of the two central figures, who are based on bolano and his friend. this narrative choice allows the distortion and point-of-view and myth-making that are always common to fiction and to life to be stretched and expanded to include the assorted voices of all the strange and wonderful souls one encounters in life, however fleetingly. it was intended as a love letter to an idealistic, wayward generation that hit the road in search of a glory and truth that were ultimately nowhere to be found. it succeeds as that. it also succeeds in being both true to life (everyone is preoccupied with eating and drinking and fucking and pettiness) and well-shaped as literature (consider the end of the diary section and the end of the novel; i don't want to ruin it, but both utilize a window, which is a point of view, which is what the bulk of the novel consists of, points of view, which is a crucial aspect of fiction and life, and is the way we try to shape meaning or express ourselves, which is what the characters try and fail to do, and what bolano tries and fails and succeeds in doing) hopefully that's specific enough for here it’s not a defense, but it was intended as an explanation of why i liked the book. bolano’s prose style isn’t for everyone; in the case of savage detectives, the book consists of diary entries and many different voices that read as if they are talking about their interactions with the two central characters, who are, crucially and interestingly enough, never front and center as narrators themselves. therefore, the prose need only be true to their voices while somehow conveying what the author is trying to convey. the diary entries are the excitement and banality and eagerness and casualness of a youthful, would-be literrateur, embodied. the chorus of voices that follow constitute an oral history of the adventures of the two central figures, who are based on bolano and his friend. this narrative choice allows the distortion and point-of-view and myth-making that are always common to fiction and to life to be stretched and expanded to include the assorted voices of all the strange and wonderful souls one encounters in life, however fleetingly. it was intended as a love letter to an idealistic, wayward generation that hit the road in search of a glory and truth that were ultimately nowhere to be found. it succeeds as that. it also succeeds in being both true to life (everyone is preoccupied with eating and drinking and fucking and pettiness) and well-shaped as literature (consider the end of the diary section and the end of the novel; i don’t want to ruin it, but both utilize a window, which is a point of view, which is what the bulk of the novel consists of, points of view, which is a crucial aspect of fiction and life, and is the way we try to shape meaning or express ourselves, which is what the characters try and fail to do, and what bolano tries and fails and succeeds in doing) hopefully that’s specific enough for here

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-125330 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:22:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-125330 it's not a defense, but it was intended as an explanation of why i liked the book. bolano's prose style isn't for everyone; in the case of savage detectives, the book consists of diary entries and many different voices that read as if they are talking about their interactions with the two central characters, who are, crucially and interestingly enough, never front and center as narrators themselves. therefore, the prose need only be true to their voices while somehow conveying what the author is trying to convey. the diary entries are the excitement and banality and eagerness and casualness of a youthful, would-be literrateur, embodied. the chorus of voices that follow constitute an oral history of the adventures of the two central figures, who are based on bolano and his friend. this narrative choice allows the distortion and point-of-view and myth-making that are always common to fiction and to life to be stretched and expanded to include the assorted voices of all the strange and wonderful souls one encounters in life, however fleetingly. it was intended as a love letter to an idealistic, wayward generation that hit the road in search of a glory and truth that were ultimately nowhere to be found. it succeeds as that. it also succeeds in being both true to life (everyone is preoccupied with eating and drinking and fucking and pettiness) and well-shaped as literature (consider the end of the diary section and the end of the novel; i don't want to ruin it, but both utilize a window, which is a point of view, which is what the bulk of the novel consists of, points of view, which is a crucial aspect of fiction and life, and is the way we try to shape meaning or express ourselves, which is what the characters try and fail to do, and what bolano tries and fails and succeeds in doing) hopefully that's specific enough for here it’s not a defense, but it was intended as an explanation of why i liked the book. bolano’s prose style isn’t for everyone; in the case of savage detectives, the book consists of diary entries and many different voices that read as if they are talking about their interactions with the two central characters, who are, crucially and interestingly enough, never front and center as narrators themselves. therefore, the prose need only be true to their voices while somehow conveying what the author is trying to convey. the diary entries are the excitement and banality and eagerness and casualness of a youthful, would-be literrateur, embodied. the chorus of voices that follow constitute an oral history of the adventures of the two central figures, who are based on bolano and his friend. this narrative choice allows the distortion and point-of-view and myth-making that are always common to fiction and to life to be stretched and expanded to include the assorted voices of all the strange and wonderful souls one encounters in life, however fleetingly. it was intended as a love letter to an idealistic, wayward generation that hit the road in search of a glory and truth that were ultimately nowhere to be found. it succeeds as that. it also succeeds in being both true to life (everyone is preoccupied with eating and drinking and fucking and pettiness) and well-shaped as literature (consider the end of the diary section and the end of the novel; i don’t want to ruin it, but both utilize a window, which is a point of view, which is what the bulk of the novel consists of, points of view, which is a crucial aspect of fiction and life, and is the way we try to shape meaning or express ourselves, which is what the characters try and fail to do, and what bolano tries and fails and succeeds in doing) hopefully that’s specific enough for here

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-37637 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:37:18 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-37637 you know, i'm being a big arrogant blowhard. i do believe what i'm writing, but i don't like how i'm presenting it, so i'll dial it down. sorry html'ers! mean week is over anyway, right you know, i’m being a big arrogant blowhard. i do believe what i’m writing, but i don’t like how i’m presenting it, so i’ll dial it down. sorry html’ers! mean week is over anyway, right

]]> By: stephen http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/18448/comment-page-1/#comment-125329 stephen Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:37:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18448#comment-125329 you know, i'm being a big arrogant blowhard. i do believe what i'm writing, but i don't like how i'm presenting it, so i'll dial it down. sorry html'ers! mean week is over anyway, right you know, i’m being a big arrogant blowhard. i do believe what i’m writing, but i don’t like how i’m presenting it, so i’ll dial it down. sorry html’ers! mean week is over anyway, right

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