My friend says I like books and movies that aren’t about anything, or so open to interpretation they might as well be about nothing.
I added a link to another blog I follow: blind dragonfly. The author is an Australian playwrite and general nut who’s got this running collection called The North Belconnen Knife Fighting Pits where he puts things like 20 different ideas for plays.
6.a play about assassin rock – a rock jutting out of the surf on awindy beach – if you petition it in the right way, one of yourenemies will die
Anyway, the title of his journal started me thinking about knives and fighting, and how I want a new butterfly knife. I carried one in high school, but I never stabbed or cut anyone (besides myself). The thing about butterfly knives is that just brandishing it is ten times as intimidating as a regular knife because of all the whish-click-clack-ching opening protocols. I suppose it’s like my Cthulu Font lust but even less likely to be fulfilled. You see, the knife I want is the Benchmade Model 42 Balisong, price $280 dollars. Even thinking about buying that knife is foolish. However, there is a good counter-argument.
Finally, Shibatabread has a new partner working with him on the subs, so the new “Hotel Man” Batsu game excerpts are coming faster than ever before. Here is part 3.
I don’t think your friend is right. Or he’s only half-right. It’s not that you like stories that aren’t about anything, it’s that you like picaresque. Which makes complete sense to anyone who knows you.
Picaresque is usually about some kind of outsider, traveling through the various strata of society and exposing their foibles and hypocrisy. Or else he’s wandering around getting into and out of trouble and absurd situations. Plus, another feature of the picarro (the picaresque hero) is that he uses violence or action to solve problems, since he’s unfettered by rules and customs.
Max Rocketanski, Yojimbo, Severian.
I’ve also read that the genre is basically about character. The character of the picarro, and how that particular character solves problems. And how every problem he runs into is less about the problem, and more about showing, yet again, the picarro’s character, which doesn’t really change much.
I don’t really know what to think about that, but it’s durn interesting. Oh yeah, the bit I was leading up to: D&D is picaresque. A bunch of scoundrels get into and out of trouble, with no real arc or climax, and some of ‘em die.
Come to find out, I’m that friend. What I really said was not that you like stories that aren’t about anything, but that you like stories where you can’t determine what they are about. Perhaps picaresque is closer to the truth, but that would assume that there is some intellectual thought behind your choices. Or maybe that your choices deserve some sort of literary label. I tend to dismiss your affinities using simple racism. “He’s just Chinese.”
Now onto the knives. Wow, that knife is sweet. And the counter-argument is pretty convincing. In high school, I carried a CIA letter opener (composite plastic dagger). I could even carry it on an airplane because it didn’t set off metal detectors (ah, the good old days). One night at a party, some shit-kicker jock got pissed because I was talking to his girlfriend and he reared back to smash a 40 oz bottle over my head, but the bottle was sweating and it slipped out of his hand. I whipped out my knife and went to stab him and he ran off.
This should make you cry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_CSo1gOd48&feature=related