F–K YOU, PEOPLE WHO ASK FOR UNSOLICITED RECOMMENDATIONS IN ENTERTAINMENT
We’re in the slowest stretch of the offseason now: the dreaded post-draft period. There’s no football on, and there won’t be football on for quite some time. You’re angry. You’re hateful. We understand. At KSK, we’re hateful too. Of all things, at all times. Hating is what we do best. So, in that spirit, I’d like to present you with our new off-topic offseason feature…
Every week or so, we’ll be taking our lack-of-football-related depression out on any number of deserving targets: people, things, abstract ideas, group dinners, etc. It’s just the kind of cathartic invective we excel at. This week, PEOPLE WHO WANT TIPS ON WHAT TO WATCH OR READ.
With most TV shows wrapping up their seasons and trips to the beach not far in the offing, before long you’re going to be inundated with people asking for recommendations for their “next show to get into” or “what books I should take to the beach.” Tell these people to get fucked with a fire poker.
I hate recommending entertainment media. Any of it. Books, movies, TV shows, video games, porn, what have you. Not so much that I don’t like imposing my tastes on others, but I hate people who are standing aimless at entertainment crossroads, beseeching you to be to shepherd them to their next obsession. I don’t like having to answer for my tastes, because I’m usually passionate about whatever it is I’m into. Also because almost certainly the asshole who is too lazy to find things to pursue on their own is going to come back to you and tell you how lousy/overrated whatever it was you told them to check out was. And then ensues a vociferous argument about the merits of said work, which will strike you as them calling you dumb or obtuse or susceptible to hype for liking said work. And then you want to chop them with a a blood-encrusted halberd.
CONTEXT: At the end of high school I worked for the worst named video store in world.
Every day, inevitably, some fuckwit would come up and ask me “what’s good,” which I suppose on its face is not an unreasonable thing for a customer at a video store to do. HOWEVAH it’s such a deceptively complex question so as to be pointless. What’s good to me, the pretentious young video store clerk, almost certainly isn’t good to you, person dense enough to ask complete strangers for suggestions.
Now, I assume the worst of people. Always. But I betrayed this instinct at first, initially making plugs for things that I actually liked. And for this transgression, I was met with bitching. “A’yo, son, that LE SAMOURAI shit was WACK!” There were even those who went as far as to demand free rentals from the manager because they didn’t like what I had suggested they watch. And thus did I align my sympathies with the misanthropes of the world.
But then it felt even worse when I went the other way, and suggested shit that I loathed and they would return with kind words, which only validated deep-seated hatred for all creatures.
LISTEN: I don’t know what you like. I don’t know what you’re in the mood to see. I DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT YOU AND JUST WANT MY SHIFT TO GET OVER SO I CAN GO HOME GET HIGH AND FINISH PLAYING SHENMUE BECAUSE I’M ALMOST DONE WITH IT!
I venture to say that it’s just as bad with friends, because it opens fissures of disagreement, exposes fundamental weaknesses in the tenuous bond you share. “How could I associate with anyone who thought up in the Old Hotel was pedestrian? I can’t.”
These grounds are too precarious to tread. It’s better you send them to Uncrate and wish them luck. AND IF THEY TELL YOU THAT SITE IS OVERRATED SHOOT THEM WHERE THEY STAND.
Tags: off-topic, rants, this week in f--k you, xmas ape
May 20th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
grow up in the DC area?
May 20th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Every day, inevitably, some fuckwit would come up and ask me “what’s good”
That job would be great if it weren’t for the fucking customers.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Uncreate or Uncrate? FIX YO LINK!
May 20th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I hate you.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Anyone have a good book recommendation?
May 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
How about the ones that take the recommendation then come back telling you how great it was and reciting lines like you are supposed to know them all. “In season 1 of The Shield, can you believe when Mackay says…..” Um asshole, I saw that fucking 8 years ago. I don’t need endless dialogue about it. I already knew I liked it, that’s why I recommended it.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hrmmm… if people ASK for a recommendation, it’s not so much UNSOLICITED as unqualified, is it?
May 20th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I teach courses on film and history. I’ve presented papers on old films (you know, black and white, no sound) literally all over the world. And inevitably, friends ask me about movies become a “film buff.” And when I try to explain the simplest symbolism in movies (like the scene when the planes take off for the first time in _Flying Tigers_ and, since they are filmed from below, the planes look like crosses, ergo, the Flying Tigers are Christ figures saving the Chinese), they stare at me blankly and say, “The director didn’t mean that. That’s just how the movie was made. You read too much into movies.” Yep, I’m just a film buff, what do I know?
May 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
“…because I’m a `film buff.’”
/can’t type for shit
May 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I did not care for The Godfather. It insists upon itself.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
What would you get for a six-year-old boy who chronically wets his bed?
May 20th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I agree with miph-hater. I had a few friends like this and they all of sudden became subject matter experts in my recommendation. Music was the worst. I have very diverse likes and I don’t get too far into any one style. Inevitably they ended up questioning my devotion/knowledge of said subject and then in this stupid cycle of annoying debates I lost interest in something that used to be enjoyable to me. I don’t give real recommendations anymore, unless I know the person really well.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Did the “Purple Potamus” have a “special” back room like the one where I grew up? Think of the questions THOSE clerks got.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
OOOOOOOH! NAVY SEALS!
May 20th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I’ve never watched “Lost” or “The Wire” or “24″ – and I feel better for it.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Someone told me last week that they were a big fan of Requiem for a Dream, which I recommended to them and they asked if I could recommend any movies that were similar to it. I was very reluctant to do so since “similar to it” could mean a lot. Either way, I recommended Trainspotting, explaining that i wouldn’t say they’re similar, but just both drug related. Chick comes back saying she hated it and how bad it was and how it wasnt anything like requiem for a dream which i told her it wouldnt be. i fucking hate people.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Any movie is good while high.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
My move, whenever someone asks me for a book or movie recommendation, is to recommend something in German, taking care to pronounce the name in excruciatingly proper fashion. When they look blank, I smile condescendingly, and explain (totally unnecessarily), “Oh, it’s from the Austrian post-war school… sorry, it’s in German” or something like that. SUCKS FOR YOU, YOU UNEDUCATED RIFFRAFF. Bwahahahahahaha!
May 20th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Shenmue was an awesome game for the Dreamcast…except for the fact that it had the worst ending in game history. I had to stop myself from throwing my system out the window after that.
Aside from that, everyone should watch Arrested Development. BUT YOU HAVE TO WATCH FROM THE BEGINNING.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Drew, which Purple Potamus? You may have rented porn to me.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Do you have that one with that guy who was in that movie that was out last year?
May 20th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Repo Man…….”Ordinary fucking people, ……I hate ‘em”
/got it on a friend’s recommendation
//looking to get into a tense situation
May 20th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
1. You’re supposed to recommend Big Trouble in Little China
2. Does this apply to Drew’s proliferation of his musical tastes?
May 20th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Fuck me. Let me try that again.
Ape, which Purple Potamus? You may have rented porn to me.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Books are worse. I made the mistake of recommending “Blood Meridian” after a friend saw me reading it with the caveat that “it probably shouldn’t be your first Cormac McCarthy book.” He thought having seen No Country for Old Men was sufficient.
The list of complaints was comical: “I couldn’t make it through more than 60 pages” type shit, “this is so boring”, etc. Thanks for your feedback; don’t ask again. Reading the first 20% of the book doesn’t make you qualified to comment, but thanks anyway you troglodyte.
Here’s a 1L stein of antifreeze for your troubles.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
@JH: Blood Meridian shouldn’t be recommended to anyone whose psyche is fragile.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I recommend ‘Christmas on the Planet of the Apes’.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Just started the Y: The Last Man Comic series so far its awesome. I also finished “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and “Gang Leader For A Day” I reccomend both.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
The worst is when you recommend something, most often music, and then the dip shit returns and keeps telling you about how awesome it is like they found it themselves, and then every time a new song or album or concert comes by, they think they’re the impetus between you and all your friends for getting people interested in the group.
Call me a hack, but I wanted to slit my wrist many years ago when people started asking me if I’d ever heard of Atmosphere locally. Yes, fuckwad, I have, 10 years ago. And they still suck.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
@ JH: Agreed, I’m reading Blood Meridian right now and it’s kicking my ass. Gotta start him off slow with The Road or something like that, but even that flies over most people’s heads. “Sooo like, der waz a nuke or somethin?”
May 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Here’s my recommendation. If you don’t like being called a cunt, you should stop acting like a cunt.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I spent a couple years bartending and every night there was at least one fuckwit who would lazily ask that dreaded “what’s good?” question. The bar had a dynamite Scotch selection and an excellent group of beers on tap, but these fuckwads only wanted drinks whose color could be represented on the ROY G BIV spectrum.
I would have been thrilled to recommend Balvenie or Laphraoig or a stout or IPA to a knowledgeable customer, but I rarely met one. Most of the idiots I came across liked Appletinis and Midori Sours.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
@fmra – Ha, I used the German thing once, and the guy was a complete German military and history nut. My elementary level German skills were totally exposed!
May 20th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I miss NFLE…
May 20th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
and even the AFL…
May 20th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@JH & Concrete: I’m conveniently 175 pages into Blood Meridian as well … while it’s incredible so far and incredibly well-written, it is a fucking slog and a half. I just read 35 pages in about 90 minutes and need a nap.
Along these recommendation lines, I’m vehemently against receiving books as gifts — I love reading, but what I want read, not some faux Catcher In The Rye ripoff that somehow changed your life (and will only leave me pissed-off). I need some merciless violence and indian scalping in my novels, dammit.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I spend the offseason going over fantasy numbers for the LFL.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
while it’s incredible so far and incredibly well-written,
Man, I’m an idiot that needs to proofread.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I don’t know what it says about a book when reading it makes you question your own intelligence, but that’s what it’s doing. I feel like a complete moron on just about every page, and I consider myself a better reader than just about anyone else I know.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
@ JH
I once suggested “Suttree” to a friend who had never read Cormac McCarthy before, and he came back two days later moaning about how confusing it was. He then went on to tell me that Dan Brown is a better writer. I picked up a tire-iron and brained him right there on the PATH train. True story.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
RE “Also because almost certainly the asshole who is too lazy to find things to pursue on their own is going to come back to you and tell you how lousy/overrated whatever it was you told them to check out was.”
Jesus fucking Christ, THIS. I hate the assholes who solicit your opinion on something, then criticize your opinion. Not in the “everyone’s entitled to their own opinion” way, but the “How dare you like something that I ended up hating and recommend it to me, even though I asked you specifically to recommend something” way. Find your own shit, fucktards. And feel free to NOT tell me how much you liked/hated it, because I don’t care – not now, not ever.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
@Doc: I’m sure the smattering of brains and bodily fluids only improved the smell. Continually riding a crowded PATH in the middle of August is possibly my idea of hell.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I can’t stand people who solicit unasked-for recommendations in entertainment.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I like The Money Pit.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
This is absolutely no bullshit, I stopped “cuddling” with a girl after a taking her home from a party to watch “Bottle Rocket.” She told me she didn’t think it was funny at all, and I asked her to leave.
Moreover, my buddy claims I stole that from a Ben Stiller interview, can anyone confirm such an interview exists?
May 20th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I’m fascinated as to how this turned into a Blood Meridian-off, but I’ll play. If you guys/girls are interested, Ben Nichols (frontman for Lucero) just put out a 7 song concept album based on McCarthy’s Magnum Opus called “The Last Pale Light in the West.” Enjoy.
Also, recommending your favorite book to known philistines is a little like recommending your favorite restaurant to someone who eats fast food all day, or your favorite skiing area to complete gapers. You reap what you sow. For this reason, when someone says, “hey, you’re into _______, do you have any recommendations?” You just gotta try and freak them out, or start them off on the basics. So for McCarthy, you gotta tell them to read Faulkner first.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
By sincerely recommending the 3.5 hour epic “seven samurai” and/or the 1100-page “infinite jest” to anyone who ever asks for a recommendation, I have effectively saved myself from ever being asked for recommendations again. but honestly, everyone should watch “seven samurai” and/or read “infinite jest”. it and/or they rule.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Hi everyone! Can anyone recommend a good football blog with funny article and masturabation aids?
May 20th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Don’t get me started on people that all started reading BECAUSE OF OPRAH and her book club, so are addicted to books Oprah chose to get in touch with “real” people again. Hello, I work, live, drive, shop, and talk to real people all the time. I don’t need books that depress the hell out of me to get in touch with reality.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Ape, which Purple Potamus? You may have rented porn to me.
Silver Spring
May 20th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Randal from Clerks, is that you?
May 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
First of all……….
All you of you bastards should stop talking about your fucking book club subjects and recomend “Necessary Roughness” to anyone that ask about anything.
Its got it all: Scott Bacula, Kathy Ireland, a fat mexican that they call a hawaiin……..it is fucking great.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
@ FearTheBuzzsaw
I’m with you on 24 and Lost, but The Wire was great. Though I’ll agree the praise from the media was over-the-top sometimes.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I’ve never watched “Lost” or “The Wire” or “24″ – and I feel better for it.
That’s like saying you’ve never eaten Maine lobster or a porterhouse steak or a dog’s turd.
One of those things does not belong.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
What is this reading thing you speak of?
//Married
//Has a kid with another coming
//Is about to start grad school
May 20th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I picked up a tire-iron and brained him right there on the PATH train. True story.
Damn, the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen on the PATH train was a frumpy fat guy, late on New Year’s Eve, who threw up aaaaaaallllllll over the front of his shirt and then passed out in the corner of the 23rd St. station.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Sounds like a whole lot of folks here really like the Dave Mathews band, and think that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks should star in every movie as a functionally retarded couple…
can I go simmons?
/the nfl offseason – where long and pointless references to jeanine garofalo happen
//in other news FC Shakhtar Donetsk won the second best club competition in europe
May 20th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Sounds like a whole lot of folks here really like the Dave Mathews band, and think that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks should star in every movie as a functionally retarded couple…
The single funniest thing Janeane Garafalo ever said. That’s not saying much, but still….
May 20th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I worked at a Blockbuster and once had to help the chick who played Kimmy Gibbler on Full House find some terrible direct to video movie she was in that we didn’t carry. Not a Full House viewer, I didn’t recognize her and proceeded to not-so-subtly mock her selection. True story.
/friend of mine had a crush on her
//he has horrific taste in women to this day
///yes you gabe
May 20th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Janeane Garafalo? Well, she’s no Margaret Cho…
May 20th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
And in Ape’s next post, he recommends his new book for the beach.
Nicely played, sir.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Jesus Bitch Tits Christ.
Did I just wander on to some Kevin Smith fan fiction site?
May 20th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I always recommend suicide.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:16 am
For years, I tried to get my then fiancé to read The Iceman Cometh (sorry, it was a life-changing read). After she finally read it, I danced around her doing the “happy dance” (which looks an awful lot like the pee-pee dance) and asked her what she thought. Her response: “They’re all a bunch of drunks.” Me: “Yes, but what did you think about the idea that without a pipe dream you die.” Her: “They’re all a bunch of drunks.” Me: “Yes, but …” Her: They’re all a bunch of drunks.” Twenty-five years of marriage, and I haven’t recommended another book to her.
May 21st, 2009 at 1:25 am
Am I the only one that finds it amusing and ironic that a website that regularly rips on Peter King (rightfully so) for his constant bitching about trivial things in his columns now has a regular feature devoted solely to bitching about similarly trivial things?
May 21st, 2009 at 1:36 am
Peter King complains about expensive restaurants and comped hotels in a national syndicated magazine column in the hopes that he can effect change in his luxurious, highly paid lifestyle through his bitching. We’re ranting about random everyday phenomena solely because they piss us off, not because we feel like reality will bend to our will through shrill crying. But, yeah, you totally nailed us on that one.
Apparently my rant borrows heavily from a Kevin Smith movie because there’s a video store involved. You know Tarantino was an obnoxious video store clerk too, once. Can’t I be ripping him off also?
May 21st, 2009 at 8:02 am
Ape -in his next film Tarantino has a Redskins fan and a Steelers fan chase each other up and down the 1-95 corridor using all sorts of quirky regional dialogue while an off-center soundtrack plays music incongrous with the hyperviolent scenes of roadrage. This will culminate with everyone meeting in Balwmer for some reason and not much happening.
RayRay and Beeker make brief cameos in uncredited roles.
/you don’t rip off Tarantino; he rips off YOU
May 21st, 2009 at 8:47 am
As an supposed literary critic and scholar, I used to get asked all the time, ‘what should I read?’ If I was feeling only marginally grumpy, I’d say ‘I always say start withUlysses before you dive into Finnegans Wake.’ If I felt like being an asshole, i.e., most of the time, I said, ‘À la recherche du temps perdu‘ and then get into a debate with myself over the relative qualities of the Moncrieff vs. Enright translations.
/more or less pedantic than recommending post-War Austrian films? I’m leaning towards more.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:04 am
Add video store clerk to the list of jobs I’m glad I never did. Retail fucking sucks
May 21st, 2009 at 9:07 am
Thanks for the Uncrate link. I found my next car (after I win the lottery), the AC Cobra MkVI GTS. 647hp in a car that barely weighs a ton and does 0 – 60 in only 3.3 seconds!! It’s the only time I ever beat off to a picture of a car.
OK, there was that other time in college, but I needed the money.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Last night, I found some old tapes I hadn’t listened to yet. They were tapes from some video store in Silver Springs monitoring their clerks for training purposes. Here’s what I found on one of them.
38 year old MILF: OK, Beethoven, that’ll do it for the kids. What do you recommend for my husband and me for later?
18 Year old future journalism major: Um, do you like action movies?
Milf: Yes, I like action.
Clerk: Well we just got the new Arnold movie in.
Milf: Not that kinda action.
Clerk: Something a little less violent?
Milf: A little more adult.
Clerk: Oh, oh, I get it. Yeah, let’s see. (Sweat breaks out on brow)
Milf: Got any DP action.
Clerk: (Voice quavering) DP? What’s DP? ( Face turns red) Oh, oh, um, yeaah, well you can check out our back room. It’s over there.
Milf: Will you help me?
Clerk: (Wets pants) Jeez, look at the time. I have to go on break. I have a Choco Taco in the fridge! Good Luck.
Milf: This store sucks!
May 21st, 2009 at 9:56 am
check out SIMON SEZ starring Dennis Rodman and Dane Cook. classic comedy/thriller/jerk-off-whilst-choking-self-then-die material.
LET ME KNOW HOW YOU LIKE IT! i’m here every Thursday and Saturday. Popcorn?
May 21st, 2009 at 9:58 am
“A’yo, son, that LE SAMOURAI shit was WACK!”
I was going to ask you if you worked in Brooklyn, NY, but that sounds about right for Silver Spring too. And with Howard U not too far away, it could have been a transplanted Brooklynite that told you that.
“Yo son, that pale cat ovah dere, yo son, that cat don’t know shit about no flicks, nahmean son. Word.”
May 21st, 2009 at 10:11 am
“…Add video store clerk to the list of jobs I’m glad I never did. Retail fucking sucks…”
in fact, the Clerks line ‘this job would be great if it weren’t fo the fucking customers’ is applicable to ALL JOBS
May 21st, 2009 at 11:15 am
“or start them off on the basics. So for McCarthy, you gotta tell them to read Faulkner first.”
Agh. I am now trying for the second time to get through “The Sound and the Fury.” Hey, I can tell it’s great, but I refuse to get a study guide to tell me how to read a book.
/at least I’m TRYING
May 21st, 2009 at 11:17 am
Ape. SHENMUE was fucking awesome.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
@ Mo charlo
That Ben Nichols EP is the boobies. He manages to give even more depth to the characters than McCarthy does.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I, on the other hand, don’t mind soliciting other people’s opinions. The last 10 or so books I’ve read have come from the KSK’s Mock Book Draft from last year.
/World War Z and Motherless Brooklyn fucking rock
May 21st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
C’mon Ape… do some Berzerker for me…
May 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@ LenDawsonApologist:
Try reading Faulkner as Ben Roethlisberger. Worked for As I Lay Dying…
“Jewel came back. He was walking. Jewel hasn’t got a horse anymore. Jewel is my brother. Cash is my brother. Cash has a broken leg. We fixed Cash’s leg so it doesn’t hurt. Cash is my brother. Jewel is my brother too, but he hasn’t got a broken leg. Jewel has a Choco Taco.”
May 21st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Yeah, video store clerk is the best worst job ever. It’s very easy and you get free movies, but my GOD the fucking people. I had a teenage couple come in and ask me to recommend something. I told them the best thing that’s come out recently was V for Vendetta. A few minutes later, they came up to the counter with 2 movies: Final Destination 3 and Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector. I then told them to never ask for my advice again, and to get the hell out of my store.
Ok fine, I didn’t actually say that. But I WANTED to.
May 21st, 2009 at 1:59 pm
@ alex
Righteous, brother.
/now wondering if Forrest Gump and Ben R. ARE THE SAME DUDE!
May 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I worked at an independent bookstore for a few years and, at first, I used to dread that question. I had poor communication skills and felt that interests were completely and utterly subjective.
However, once I learned to communicate with different segments of the public, I actually had a good recommendation track record and I met a lot of cool people. I actually persuaded people I otherwise would have intellectually written off to expand their horizons and I expanded mine. A few times, yes, some people simply sucked and were culturally impenetrable. Without exception, they had no business in an independent bookstore in the first place. (No, James Patterson isn’t my favorite writer).
However, it is YOUR job as a so-called expert of a certain segment of culture to persuade others that a certain direction is worth pursuing. You have a gayass name tag, or wasted liberal arts education, so people ASSUME you know something about movies, books, etc. and will actually have a conversation with them. Otherwise why are you fucking there? It not the person’s fault they face your immediate prejudice and disgust because they don’t like something you do. And if they don’t like something you recommend, so fucking what? Are people’s self-esteem that fucking low you can’t debate even simple points on a movie or book? What’s the fucking point of learning anything if you can’t effectively share it with others?
Just because you spent a lot of time in an echo chamber learning obscure information or cultivating an esoteric knowledge base doesn’t necessarily automatically mean that it is valuable to most other people (or even valuable at all).
/Purple Potamus is a fucking retarded name
//loved Clerks when I was younger but, alas, I have since grown the fuck up
May 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
@Len Dawson,
A primer for Benjy’s and Quentin’s sections actually really helps; you can also read Jason’s section first and get the basic storyline of the family history before you dive into the craziness of autism and suicide. The Benjy section also got messed up during proofs–there should be a few more changes between reg type and italics but the typesetter thought he saw a pattern where there wasn’t one.
Faulkner wanted to use different colored inks for the section to code the different times in Benjy’s life but it was cost prohibitive. There’s supposed to be an edition somewhere in a private collection where he took his daughters coloring pencils or crayons and did it, but I haven’t heard if it’s real or not.
/Faulkner nerd
May 21st, 2009 at 2:18 pm
However, it is YOUR job as a so-called expert of a certain segment of culture to persuade others that a certain direction is worth pursuing. You have a gayass name tag, or wasted liberal arts education, so people ASSUME you know something about movies, books, etc. and will actually have a conversation with them. Otherwise why are you fucking there?
All valid points, though it doesn’t mean I can’t hate it.
I don’t hate recommending stuff to people, just when it’s a completely open-ended request for something “good”. A request that nebulous opens a can of worms that always results in tedium on the end of the person making the recommendation.
May 21st, 2009 at 6:21 pm
RE: “1. You’re supposed to recommend Big Trouble in Little China”
Big Trouble In Little China is the litmus test of all litmus tests. It should not only be recommended as a film but also a book. If the person responds with a troubling attempt to point out that it is a movie and not a book, you must simply tell them to watch the movie with foreign subtitles.
If they come back at all, they are possibly worth knowing.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I read a book once that had Jane & Dick & Sally & Spot & Ball. It was killer. You should read it too.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
@Mike – The seven samurai! Love that movie.
My favorite thing to do was when Pan’s Labyrinth came out was recommend it to people, who I knew were clueless. They’d pick up the case, look at it, and ask if it was good, they’d heard something good about it but couldn’t remember.
The delight when they came back and bitched about it being in spanish and I should have told them was hysterical every time.
As a side note, seriously, is it so hard to read subtitles? I can’t stand to watch foreign films dubbed, that goes for Pan’s Labyrinth, Das Boot, or just about anything. It makes it flat out awkward seeing the lips move differently at least to me.