- Dead Birds and Fish make the news: Is this Biblical end-times? A terrorist attack? Is it safe to go outside?
- Erasing the N-Word from a classic work of literature: Essentially rewriting history because as a society, we have become obsessed with being "politically correct". This is beginning to sound more and more like the future that M.Clifford predicted in his fictitious novel The Book. Keep your god-damned hands off of our literature!
- #lessambitiousbooks and #lessambitiousfilms: Twitter time-suckers. Addictive as hell and non-stop "pee your pants" fun! I've gotten nothing accomplished since this shit took off. Less ambitious book titles I've created: Around the Block in 80 Minutes; Oryx and Cake; The Not So Ha-Ha; Sigh, Babylon; The Chartreuse Mile; Catcher in the Tall Grass; A Weed Grows in Brooklyn. See what I mean, I can keep going... I was at this for hours!!!!
And that concludes my first installment of What The Fuck.... Theatre!
Ha ha, I love this new post. I spent FAR too much time sucked into Twitter today reading #lessambitiousbooks titles -- some of them were just too funny.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm not a happy camper about the censorship of Mark Twain either. I can't even believe it's come to this. I thought it was bad enough that there are actually people who want to ban books of important literary merit (and even those that aren't, I'm an equal opportunity censorship hater) -- but to re-write Twain?!? Disgusting.
Jessica, Isn't it scary that they were even ALLOWED to touch that novel? How can we stand by and just let someone re-write a novel like that. That is a part of history. Mark Twain's fiction was a reflection of the times - it marks a time in history that should not be tampered with.
ReplyDeleteThe part that is even worse is the word they chose to replace it with!! They don't equate to the same thing, WTF!
I meant what I said up there, about a future that was eerily predicted in author M. Clifford's novel THE BOOK. In it, he writes about a future where paper books are illegal and destroyed. Citizens are issued a government-run eBook that automatically uploads every novel on file (but not the way they were originally written)... one character discovers that the government has removed and sometimes actually re-written most of the literature they are reading....
Scary times, Jessica. Scarrrrrry times.
My question is, how are future generations going to learn about what happened and what we did wrong if we cover it all up and act as if our history was spotless? Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, no? Not to mention nobody should be allowed to change someone else's words no matter what (and essentially put words into their mouths that they never said)... I have serious problems that.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more about the Mark Twain novel! I saw it on the news today, the article yesterday, and I have been bitching about it to whoever would listen!
ReplyDeleteI hate it.
Wallace, The more I think about it, and hear about it, the more it worries me. This is just the beginning... Now that they've started, who is going to stop them?
ReplyDeleteAnd great point about future generations. We already lose so much of our history through school filters and the time teachers have in which to teach it all.....
This does not bode well at all. Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred anymore.
S.L. - Keep bitching about it. Tell everyone you see, talk to everyone you know... The moment we shut up and forget it is the moment we start to accept it...
ReplyDeleteScary indeed. Seriously -- 1984, just a few years late. It makes me sad that in this day and age, people focus so much energy on book banning, censorship, and the dumbing down of books and very little energy on actually getting kids to read the books in the first place. I just don't get it. Maybe if people actually read the books they wanted to ban, they would get the point better than just yelling and creating a fuss.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm definitely going to have to read The Book, your review made it sound really interesting.
Okay, this was a few days ago but...PANDA COW? WHY?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason that gave me the creeps even more than the dead fish and the birds falling dead out of the sky. Apparently there was a neon river in BC as well.
I like the less ambitious book titles. "Oryx and Cake" made me smile :)
I had the same exact thought about Huck Finn & M. Clifford's, The Book. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteErika.. Panda COW? Wha? How did I miss this?
ReplyDeleteLori, yeah...Panda COW. I looked this up for more specifics and they are apparently not part panda. But they are bred specifically to look like pandas and be PETS! Okay I'm not quite as creeped out as before but I still find it WEIRD. Especially since they really do look like they are part panda.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010304992.html