mainsqueeze's Diaryland
Diary
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I Love Kilgore Trout
Hello, *****.
I apologize for the delay in my response; I had convinced myself that I replied to the last email you sent and I was wondering why you hadn't written back, and then I looked at my sent messages. Oops. I mentally responded, for what it's worth.
Yeah, Timequake. Ah, sweet Timequake. One of my favorite parts is actually the foreword-- Vonnegut was so candid, and funny and self-deprecating. Plus, the book that I have has a picture he drew of Kilgore Trout releasing his parakeet-- Wild Bill? Buffalo Bill?-- in the front. I think the best thing about Vonnegut is how he can illustrate the value of being a good person without dangling the carrot of eternal paradise in front of you. That's one of the things that has always perplexed me most about religion-- that people will "be good" not for the satisfaction of being a decent human but because they want to get into this fictional wonderland for it. I guess I'm pretty lucky because mostly all I have to do to feel grateful to be alive is look around me. Anyhow, yeah. Vonnegut. You and I, *****, will have to sit down someday and rant and rave about Vonnegut.
And yes, of course you can borrow Still Life with Woodpecker. Tom Robbins is another favorite of mine, and Still Life with Woodpecker is his best, although Jitterbug Perfume is a very close second. I like Robbins because he can take the most mundane things and make them seem entirely magical. I love that idea, that the answers to the Big Questions are right in front of us. I've been thinking about why I like Buffy so much and I think it's the same thing-- Magic and mystery in unexpected places. Buffy is awesome because it's all about this girl who was given a mystical duty that she didn't want, and how she deals with the fact that the fate of humankind rests on her shoulders. She goes to school and does homework and has a job, but she also has to fight demons and evil gods and save the world a few times a year. The dialogue is absolutely fucking incredible and the metaphors are so dead-on it's scary, particularly in the high school episodes. I think you'd like it, based on what you said about Vonnegut-- a lot of the episodes deal with how the characters manage to find the good things about life even when they're surrounded by monsters, and they don't really mention god, although they do occasionally refer to "The Powers," but they never actually determine whether or not they're positive or negative. I could talk about this all day, but I'll stop now.
Yeah, the Flaming Lips are great, definitely. I've been listening to a weird mix of stuff lately. My current music crush is Songs: Ohia, but they're just barely edging out Peaches (for when I want to pretend that I can breakdance) and the Ditty Bops. So, what instruments do you play? I'm horribly envious of anybody with an ounce of musical talent, as I have tried my hand at many different instruments and failed miserably each time. I suppose that I'm pretty decent with a bass but then again, I haven't touched mine in about a year, so I could be very mistaken. If you play anytime soon and I have the day off, count me in. I'll even bring Still Life for you.
Anyhow, I really should go now because I babbled on way more that I intended to and I have a laundry list of stuff I have to do around the house. Hope to hear from you soon, and take care.
--Angela
8:40 p.m. - 2005-05-17
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