Canadian Literature and It's Relationship To Me

I'm writing this at the public library in my hometown and you should expect more posts from here in recent days. I'm hanging out here to save money as whenever I'm at Revel I tend to buy stuff, usually food and I've already bought a book and an ice cream with the large amount of government money I came in with recently. I can also get more writing done here I imagine. I'll tell you how it goes.
Anyways, Today I'd like to talk about Canadian Literature. It's something that I'm really comfortable with, as I don't really see myself as being involved in Canadian Literature. I'm not familiar with Canadian Literature and have very little knowledge of it other then what I've heard. I read very little Canadian writers. Most of the people I read are either American or British, and among by favorite authors are a Russian and a Chilean. Also, I don't really know if I want to be considered involved in Canadian Literature because I don't feel that Canadian Literature is really taken seriously. Maybe it's because most great Canadian writers haven't been dead long enough, but I just never saw myself as a real Canadian. I just sort of live here. I don't even know if I'll spend most of my life in Canada. The idea of living in another country is seeming more and more appealing, since I feel dangerously close to America sometimes. I'm growing more and more distrustful of America and the capitalism I believe it represents. I'm becoming more and more worried about what I hear of economics, which I'm seeing more and more as a lie, a giant con, that the entire world is being brought into.
Anyways, back to Canadian Literature, I'm wondering right now if I am going to end up in that category because I'm a born Canadian. I don't even know that much about my native literature, except it has something to do about survival. I don't think much of my writing has anything to do with survival. I don't even know if that was just Margaret Atwood shooting off about Canadian Literature. Anyways, because of my ambiguous relationship with my national literature, I plan on doing readings of the following writers in the near future.

1. Robertson Davies (I really liked The Rebel Angels. I found What's Breed in the Bone pretty long-winded and boring though. I figure I have to finish the trilogy off at some point though. I'm hoping it will be better then the last one)
2. Timothy Findley (A friend suggested his book Pilgrim)
3. Mordecai Richler (No reason, he's just Canadian and I like his name or something)
4. Leonard Cohen (I figure I should add a poet and Leonard Cohen is someone I feel I should read more off)

And that's it. After that I feel I have read them I will think I will have a better handle on Canadian Literature. I may also read some Margaret Atwood, though my last English teacher said she came off as an angsty white girl in her novels. Other then that I don't know what else I should do about this. Probubly forget the whole thing.

The Brothers Carrotmazov

For some reason I was thinking of Veggie Tales. For those of you who aren't Christian, Veggie Tales is basically one of those cartoons made for Christians to help express the intricacies of the faith to the little kiddies in ways that are more interesting then reading the Bible, which can be something of a boring read, or even worse reading Aquinas or some. Instead, you get little funny cartoons about vegitables that very from Biblical Retellings, to retellings of the classics with a Christian message.

I was thinking about how they'd redo classics like this. The ones that came to mind are "The Grapes of Wrath,"(done with actual grapes), and "Madame Bovarry,"(renamed Madame Blueberry). These are both books I have yet to read, but I figure I am going to get around to them at somepoint. Still, stuff like Madame Blueberry is different from Madame Bovary. Instead of the Madame Bovary character having a series of affairs, she goes on a shopping spree. This is because the show is supposed to be for kids. It also occured to me, why aren't they doing works by Christian writers? I mean, Flaubert and Steinbeck are Christians, at least I'm pretty sure they are, but why aren't they doing classics by writers who were open about their faith, say Dostoyevsky.

Which brings me to the brunt of todays post, what if Veggie Tales did an episode based on a Dostoyevsky novel.

Now, this can get pretty dark, because the two novels by Dostoyevsky I have read are Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Crime and Punishment is about a guy who kills a pawn broker in cold blood, and the rest of the novel is basically him being sick, guilty and the reader and him trying to put all this in persepctive. And plot of the Brothers Karamazov is basically driven by sex, lies and murder. Despite this, both novels have what I see as fundamentally a Christian meaning, and both speak much of redemption. Would the folks down at Big Ideas, the guys who make Veggie Tales, be open to a retelling of a Dostoyevsky novel and if so, how would they do it.

The one I'm thinking is The Brothers Karamazov, if only because it is the hardest to actually put into terms of a children's show since the major event of the novel revolves around patricide (alleged patricide in some cases but still). As in Madame Blueberry, they would have to find something that won't shoke the kids and more importantly the parents. What this could possibly be. Which also reminds me that what lead up to the patricide was the fact that the father was trying to seduce a woman that one of the brothers was interested in and who he had left for his wife. This would also be hard to work in. Actually, Dostoyevsky is probubly not a good example for this because of all that is going on in the book. Fyodor's writing is just to complex to make into a Veggie Tales episode.

But the point is, I have this image of the cast of Veggie Tales as characters in a darker and edgier episode based on Dostoyevsky. It's not exactly a bad thing either, since it is still in the same basic format but we're doing the kind of things that I'm experiencing now as a Christian. The nature of faith, the seeming cruelty of the universe. Why is it that they only make Christian cartoons for kids and when they do it can be so optomistic? Maybe I should develop something like Veggie Tales for people my age who are more open to the idea of questioning the nature of there faith. I'll have to make a follow up to this at somepoint.

Friday Youtube Videos (Eastern European Special)

Since the reason I got this new format was to make watching the new wide screen Youtube videos I thought I'd do a special on Youtube videos.

First is the newest sensation, a Ukrainian polka band covering Katy Perry's "Hot'n'Cold." It's like listening to Katy Perry but without feeling embarrassed for listening to Katy Perry. Because it's polka.

Yeah, polka.

Alright, and after that I want to show you a band I discovred called Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird. They're Jewish folk band and they are awesome. I don't know if it's just me, but Yiddish is a beautiful sounding language.

So How Is Your Summer Going, Dylan?

I really hate summer.

There are many reasons for me hating summer. The one that most easily comes to mind is that it is hot and I do not do well with heat. At all. And the problem with this can largely be tied to my feet. They are very sensitive and generally need socks. I tried wearing one of those new rubber clog shoes that my mom picked up and my feet were achy and sweaty. Also, because I hate footie socks with every fiber of my being, I can only wear normal socks and because of the all-powerful laws of fashion I cannot wear shorts and longs socks. It's annoying.

Another thing I hate about summer is that I have nothing to do. This is especially important this summer because I have nothing to keep me occupied except my erratic reading and writing patterns. However, I do feel I have written more then I have written more and some good stuff too. I'm back at Naos and Helen, since I'm now working at them through the medium of the short story. This gives me the chance to explore them in short bursts which my attention span and patience allow. I'm working on two Naos and Helen stories more or less simultaneously now, but one of them is pretty psychological and is getting hard for me to write, since I want the characters to act naturally as compared to the world they live in which is bat shit insane.

On the subject on my ability to write things I am having doubts about my capability in the means of poetry. This I blame on Stephen Fry. I've been trying to read his book The Ode Less Travelled, to get an understanding of how metre works and I don't think I'm that good at metre. I try to write stuff in metre and I'm thrown off. Then I try to write free verse, but I can't get that either and then I feel guilty because I don't read a lot of poetry and when I do I can barely understand it, though recently I did read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock a couple times and I think I got that, although I picked up at some point it was about prostitutes and impotence so that may have helped me. Still, I appreciate T.S. Eliot's poetry and I like his style.

In other news, I sent my short story "Godot is Dead," out to The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. I'm not sure if they'll take it. I think the story is pretty out there, but I don't know if it is the kind of out there that Bizarro fiction demands. Also, it's a Jack Monsairty story, so it has a "wizard," though I think of Jack more as an occultist, and that might turn them off. I have only sent it out recently and I have yet to here back. I don't know exactly how long I should be waiting, the next issue will be published in October so I imagine before or around I get to University.

Looking into Various Fields of Interest

We went to Toronto yesterday, my family and I. The Dead Sea Scrolls are being shown at the Royal Ontario Museum, and since I'm into the places where Christianity and Judaism meet I figured it would be a fun trip. After that the family split up into two groups, the girls going to see taxidermey animals and my dad and I looking at the antiquities of the Far East. I liked the Buddhas and the big pictures they had of various Chinese religious figures. Oh, and the rubbings of signs on Synagoges, Mosques and Christian Churches found in China. Yeah, they have Jews and Muslims and Christians there, and I'm talking before the Jesuits.

Then we went to Ikea and I began to feel sad because I don't have my own place. I know I'm 19, and very few 19 year-olds have there own place, but damn it I want to have my own apartement. It didn't help that we found a very nice walk in room that Mom said she could see me living in. So I began to feel nervous about my independence, which I'm also feeling a bit off about because I have had some recent confusion with my bi-monthly twenty dollars. Thankfully I got some of the coffee drop-off which can last me through the rest of the day. This lead to all kinds of frustration about how I'm not as independent as I'd like to be.

Also, finally I am beginning to read more on Aspergers Syndrome. I'm currently reading "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome," by Tony Atwood. Now I have to go because I'm talking to a friend.

Returning to the Mage Game

As many of you know I tried to run a game of Mage the Awakening awhile back with disatrerous results. More recently however, I am working on a new, more organized coherent idea for a game of Mage the Awakening. As my first run into the world of running World of Darkness games, I am getting very ambitious as I am going to be setting it preferabbly over a period of 22 years and it is going to start in the year 1923. This is going to give me my own chance to interpret the world of Mage the Awakening, mostly by writing about the early history of the Free Council after it joined up with the Atlantean Orders. (Before the counterculture-technology and magic are compatable Mages joined up with the Mages who trace there origin back to Atlantis). It also gives me a chance to have adventures with all sorts of fun stuff like Modernism, Alistair Crowley and Occult Nazis, the last two of which are unavoidable when writing a Mage game in this relative time period in my opinion. I'm also changing from usual World of Darkness format in that the game will not take wholley in a single city. I am in fact planning on setting it across most of Europe, especially in Paris and Weimar Berlin, with various possible detours in America, Spain and the Soviet Union. I've got a pretty good idea for the general direction, and I'm working in various little sub-plots and things that will happen, since I'm working with the idea that the characters are going to Forrest Gump their way thorugh history, getting into drunken boxing matches with Hemingway, inspiring Einstein's theory of relativity, having Crowley look over your shoulder every once in awhile for the Pentacle, stuff like that.
However, I am thinking about setting the story in a single city to start with and at the moment I'm torn between Paris and Weimar Berlin. Paris is, well Paris, but I think in the long run Weimar Berlin will be a better choice. Paris in the 1920s appeals to me mostly because I'm a writer and Paris in the 1920s to me is all about James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway and stuff like that. Weimar Berlin however, along with being artistic, has the advantage of being a veritable powder-keg politically. In between the Cabarets and sex you have facsists and communists fighting each other in the streets, and what's more it would . I think it would appeal more to the players since I feel I can do more in Berlin then just the Lost Generation. The characters could easily play that angle, but they could also do, say the science angle since Albert Einstein was also alive at this time. They could also play the political angle, and join up with the various political aspects. They could also go into the occult thing since I'm boning up on the occult roots of Nazism, but I doubt that any of the players will do that. I'm the guy most likely to play an occultist. I do hope that most of the characters were in World War One though, because I'd like most of the characters to be similar in some respect.

Again, I'm going to play a lot with the Mage order of the Free Council, which in game is still a recent development. So far I'm thinking that they are currently the most powerful order in Berlin, mostly because they fit well with Weimar Berlin. I believe that Paris is going to be a Silver Ladder city, but the Free Council is also very popular there. I've also decided that Alistair Crowley is going to be (at least nominally) a member of the Free Council as I have decided that in game terms he is an actual Mage, in fact a fairly powerful Mage but I don't think he's going to be that involved in Mage politics as he is more concerned with Thelema. I still don't know exactly what to do with the Free Council, except that I want to explore it as an order.

Sorry for dropping so much lingo for you.

Concerning Michael Court

Sending my short fiction to my friend Michael is one of my favorite things, largelly because he always gives great reviews. I think I could easily count him among one of my few fans outside my family. I just sent him "Godot is Dead," and he went on about how much he loved it. It may just be because he always sends emails in huge font, but he did ask me "Are you SURE you're not copying these stories from someone else and making an absolute fool of me? It's not just that they are so intelligent, it's that they are so grown-up and witty." I can also back this up because whenever he talks about my stories he's practically as enthusiastic as me, probubly more because he's more openly emotional then I am.

Michael, as I call him, is an old guy I meet at the local coffee shop readings we used to have. He was writing poetry at the time, like most people who went and we would usually talk about things after at a bar. Once Seymour and I even managed to talk him into coming over to my place and we talked about writing and stuff. It was alot of fun, since I see Michael as a very important person in my life, an older wiser writer who has more experience in such things as poetry and the great writers and things that would involve wisdom. He's really a drastically different personality from mine, which is probubly a good thing because he is more upbeat then me and I can be a pretty dark and depressing person sometimes. Look at the last post to see what I mean, I found that funny and that was about an assassination attempt. A really lame ass assassination attempt, but still.

I can't really describe Michael's work that well. I've read a bit of a short story he wrote about a boy who was lost in the Amazon and alot of his poetry, which reminds me of Rumi, short and sparse and with a beauty of it's own that I don't appreciate as much as I should. We do have something of a minor compotition to see who will be the first one to publish a full length novel, so we'll probubly look over it at somepoint. I'd like to read over his novel since it sounds pretty interesting.

If All Obama's potential assassins are this stupid, then he's going to be okay

A friend of mine once showed me this sight called Fundees Say The Darnedest Things, which basically makes fun of all the crazy stuff Fundamentalists Say, such as the world is really 6000 years old and atheists worship Satan. Well, I'm looking through there sister sight Conspiracy Theorists Say the Darnedest Things, when I came across this attempt at Barack Obama's life. If you like dark humour then this is for you, but I must warn you there are some racist comments that I don't share. I found the overall presentation hilariously incompetent.

ok we have 6 days until my Presidential Assasination.

Yes, I have decided I will assasinate Barack Obama. It's really nothing personal about the man. He speaks well, has a loving although controlling wife and two cute daughters. But I know it's for the country's own good that I do this. And I'm not racist either, my family is a little, but isn't all Italian and european families? I mean how many times have you heard the word nigger in the comforts of your home? I have a lot, and it really bothered me and I would confront them about it. No, it's not because I'm racist that I will kill Barack, it's because I can no longer allow the Jewish parasites to bully their way into making the American people submit to their evil ways. How many of you Obama supporters are now disappointed after some of his arm-twisted Jewish appointee decisions??? Make's you think he's not really in charge(which he isn't). No it's the same old, same old filthy muther-fucking kikes who are
poisoning America, who have murdered thousands of innocent lives on 9-11-01, and
are thinking that they are going to get away with it again.

Barack, I view more as a sacrificial lamb, but the sacrifice MUST take place. He had good intentions, but like the Steve Taylor song goes, "a politician next door, swore, he'd set the Washington arena on fire, thinks he'll gladiate them, but they're gonna make him a liar."

So, I'm stuck here in Mississippi, and I'll need bus fare or some way of getting to Washington. I don't own a gun, so maybe someone can give me one. And I'll need a leak in the secret service to get a close up shot, somewhere close to the podium, since I've never fired a gun, so I need to get an easy shot off. Wattdysay fellas? Any help?

You all know we can't live with the jewscum anylonger, dont cha? You got a better solution? I'm all ears.

Stevie

(Note: This man was reported by an admin and arrested by the
secret service)

Alright, for those of you who missed this I am now going to go over what he did wrong.

1. Said he was going to kill the President of the United States on the Internet
2. SAID HE WAS GOING TO KILL THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE INTERNET!
3. Said he wasn't racist then began to berate the Jews
4. Asked the nice racists hillbillies on the Internet for support. He asked for a gun, an opening in to shoot Obama from (which I presume he would get from the people who are trying to make sure this doesn't happen) and BUS FAIR! I mean, the gun and the opening was ballsy, but freakin' bus fair!
5. Used his name and gave a basic address (Stevie, Mississippi)
6. Gave a time frame of this (6 days)
7. Presumed the Fed were stupid.

I thought I'd just post this for my readers because the FBI shouldn't be the only people laughing at this guy.

Games and Stories

Last night I finished watching Season 1 of the Wire. I didn't bring that up, that I was watching the Wire. It's a police/crime drama from HBO that is pretty good. After watching it I want to set a Hunter: The Vigil game in Baltimore, but at the moment I am working on two different World of Darkness Games, one is a Mage: The Awakening Game that is to be set between the first two world wars and a Chanegling: The Lost game to be played here in my hometown. A friend of mine wants to see how these roleplaying games work, and I thought I'd do WoD. Changeling just came from the fact I'm setting it in my hometown, which I see as either having Changelings or Werewolves, and I'm going with Changeling. It's also appropriate because Changeling usually has that crazy aspect, and most of my friends are a bit crazy.

I'm also working on a short story called "Leviathan." I'm not going to get to much into it, but I wrote the first bit last night. I ended up getting a sort of spiritual high from writing it, and I hope to try doing more of it later tonight when everyone else is asleep. It may also be a good idea to do it while I'm on that high. When I'm done I think I'm going to send it to The New Quarterly. I doubt that my last story "The Summet of the Minotaurs," will be published since it is actually a part of my first novel.

Also, I'm thinking more and more about getting involved in somekind of Spoken Word thing. I've been liseaning to quite alot of Spoken Word poetry and I'm getting the point where I'm thinking, I can do that. Also, the few times that I've gotten involved in poetry. The problem is I'm not really that into the idea of getting up on stage and performing. It may be a passing fad or something.

Crack Squirrels! (a poem by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz)