Friday, February 18, 2005
"America" - Allen Ginsberg - Poem
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| America I've given you all and now I'm nothing. I'm addressing you. Asia is rising against me. America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood? |
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
FACTOTUM - Charles Bukowski - Book
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This novel was written by Bukowski in 1975, it was his second and the first I have read of his works. Factotum is an excerpt from the life of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's autobiographical character, through the days and long nights he spends drinking cheap whiskey (one of my personal favorites) and port wine...moving from town to town, job to job, woman to woman, drunkenly saturated with dark humor and existential observation of the events of a life lived by a man with no need for a purpose or a denomination. The simplicity of this account is sincere and gives a character to the indolent nature of it's affairs, while not boring the reader with any redundant details one all to often finds in less unique imitations of such novels.
Given the book's autobiographical nature and insomniaic (I may or may not have just made up that word) temperament, it is essentailly pieced together with no central plot enveloping its events, as in real life, so there isn't much more I can convey to you except that it should be read. It serves more as an example, as different perspective on the way the hours pass and how people and investments come and go and should be part of the collection or repertoire of anyone who appriceates contemporary american literature.
...If my comments on this book have prompted your desire to read it (which they should have), all I ask is that you DON'T purchase it at some franchised/corporate bookstore. Show some love to the locals, it's fantastic karma if you're into that sort of thing. Thanks.
Nói (Nói albínói) - Movie
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This film is what I would define as a more sophisticated, realistic version of a romantic drama/comedy. It is one of those movies that, I think, would be far more effective as a book. I must say though, I did like it.
The story follows Nói, a jaded seventeen year-old living in the remote small town of Bolungarvík in western Iceland, through the trials and tribulations of a life being lived in the middle of nowhere. Although he is established as an individual of exceptional intelligence, his ambition is handicapped by boredom and routine. If he is not alone in the tiny cellar under his grandmothers house smoking cigarettes and listening to music, he is skipping class and spending his time buying malts (bought with the money made from a rigged slot machine) at the local coffee shop/gas station.
Then, the monotonous course of a passing day takes a turn for the better with the introduction of a beautiful city-girl named Iris, the newest employee at the station and Nói's newest romantic conquest. Despite being threatened by the owner of the local bookestore (Iris's father) to leave her alone, Nói can't help himself nor find a genuine reason not to persue her. This girl has seemed to awaken something in Nói, enkindling his until-then latent desire for more than his dreary hometown has to offer. This subsequently leads to aspirations of leaving it altogether, and of course taking his new jewel with him, causing a series of ups and downs, romantic and comedic situations which are as witty as they are remarkable.
Personally, I appriceated not only the insight of this film, regarding what life may have been like if one were born into such a situation, but also its aesthetically pleasing quality. The beauty of the rural icelandic landscapes depicted were of the calibur of the vistas one might see in such a film as Baraka, which a mere postacard could hardly do justice to.
With the relatively un-alluded-to closure of the film, the story as a whole served (to me) as an example of how trifiling things in life truely are, whether you choose to concern yourself with them or not. The frustrating reality of the conclusion may even manifest itself as a lesson to the hesitant or to those who allow thier attachments to arrest what they intuitively desire. I would recommend Nói to anyone who is looking for something that will play on thier appriceation of cleverly comic situations, which at times is honestly romantic yet not over-saturated with such circumstances, and that also stimulates an array of funamentally different emotions and sentiment.
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On a scale of 1-10*...7.
For a more info on Nói, check this out.
*The rating system is purely based on The Alyssa Standard.
