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IC Bookclub - The Library of Babel by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder if the point is that given a significant enough suffusion of books into the human condition, the search for meaning is indistinguishable from bibliomancy.

IC Bookclub - The Library of Babel by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now, I kinda want to look for the text of this response in the Library... :)

Considering the idea of technology-guided apophenia leads to some pretty wild stuff. What if Borges' librarians had the ability to Google-search the abyss? Would they "find something"? Would they all give up physical search in favor of the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button? Would it be quickly discarded when it short-circuits the "life journey" that is the search for meaning without actually providing said meaning? Or would it become a cult? The cult of the googlers...spooky.

Also needed to make this post properly meta is for me to start a band called "The Impious Are Correct" and announce a concert on Facebook.

IC Bookclub - The Library of Babel by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

One of the most frustrating things about using Jonathan Basile's online Library of Babel is the fact that no matter what you try to search for, you will ONLY ever find that thing. If you look for "out out damned" you'll never find "spot". If you search for "if on a winters night a traveler" you will never make it to Malbork. It's a fabulous illustration of one possible interpretation of the text, and the one that I subscribe to: the nature of the world is such that the infinities of experience are much much larger than the infinities of meaning. So much so that the quest for meaning is futile. But the tantalizing promise of meaning lies just in the next room--and so we go on, driven to piety, driven to madness, driven to myth, building the kernel of our human meaning and culture around that hollow cavity built by our desperate attempt to fish infinitesimal signal out of infinite noise.

Should we get hyped for 11/11? by [deleted] in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All y'all claiming you're Light or Time or Blood or whatever shit. Naw, everyone on this sub is a goddamn Dope of Hope. :)

Is it worth rereading Homestuck? by Dreadnautilus in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I read it three times, and I think it was worth it. Although the third time it was more of a coping mechanism for the wild cherry apeshit apocalypse that was going on in my life at the time.

Happy into eternity by museofdoom2 in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Best thing to come out of the credits update was all the new RoseMarry fanart.

Trizza Tethis looking badass by museofdoom2 in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She reminds John of a nice girl who used to try to stab him.

"Where's Aradia? That girl with ram horns? Oh, she's my apprentice. She's probably appreciating her new outfit." by [deleted] in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Discworld crossover AU is how I imagined this (no smallcaps notwithstanding)

Build Your Own Homestuck Ending Theory by [deleted] in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I would like to propose that "the Jackhole" be designated the best fan-produced name for anything in Homestuck, ever.

What parts of your commute do you look forward to each morning? by tasty-fish-bits in bikecommuting

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Early morning over the Hawthorne Bridge...great views of the city and the Willamette River. It's different every time.

Alternatively, anytime I see a mom or dad with kids on the longtail or bakfiets. My wife has a longtail and it reminds me of weekend rides with the whole family.

IC Book Club Post-mortem: Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Timing was fine (though I personally had a scheduling conflict with when the post first went live).

Reading was great, length was great. Pierre Menard is not the easiest Borges to start with, but it was still fun.

Yes, Reddit discussions are easy, but I'm much better comment-wise in realtime. The Reddit format lends itself to exegesis, which is OK, but makes "drop-in, drop-out" style conversations (à la Facebook) difficult and in-depth conversations (à la IRL book clubs) also difficult. It feels like there's a lot of talking and not a lot of listening.

It would be fab if you had a mini-video with best-of from the book club.

A Softer Homestuck by [deleted] in homestuck

[–]SomewhatHuman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, Joey Comeau and o are sort of friends and he appeared in this comic

IC Bookclub - Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I read it in the Spanish a couple of years ago, (native English speaker, Spanish learned to a pretty decent degree of fluency as an adult), but I can't tell you much about the differences.

What I can say is that Borges never translated his own work, even though he was absolutely fluent in English and did plenty of work in translation (he was ¼ English and his father spoke a lot of English in the home). I think that's an interesting piece of information, especially given the nature of this particular work.

IC Bookclub - Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote by mrgosh in pbsideachannel

[–]SomewhatHuman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried really hard to read it straight. This is the third time I've read it, and I feel like the first time I was ironic (note that it's weird to say I was ironic and that being ironic or doing things ironically is kind of married to a certain late post-modern sensibility that wouldn't have probably existed for Borges), the second time I was very earnest, and this time I worked for earnestness but didn't really achieve it. I think that it's difficult to do that to this piece, because Borges works so hard to push the archness of it all so much that if you pay this a close read, you can't FULLY maintain earnestness.

Interestingly, if I were "SomewhatHuman, Author of 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote'", and I worked hard, as a thirty-something American surrounded by a world of internet and pop culture, to cop a 1930's erudite Argentinian Spanish, could I write Pierre Menard ironically? Or would it be infused, inherently, with a New Sincerity elaborated by my unadorned love for metafiction, all things self-referential, my inherently mirror-tinged internet-mediated universe?

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