The Logic of Porcology

I am currently reading Dr. Zhivago and I have fallen in love with the novel. Having read Dostoevsky, Lermontov, and now Pasternak I have come to a new respect for the Russian Novel.

Now my goal is to write a novel comparable to these, while at the same time keeping true to the canadian middle-class perspective that I hold.

But my god, they are gifted. I can't believe how brilliantly they've captured life. I read it and I get strange feelings, ones that a person like me might never get. This novels have helped me understand society's current situation more than any contemporary literature that I've read. I have fallen in love and now I must flatter them by trying to reproduce it.

Every time David says that this blog sucks I post furiously. It really cuts to the heart of my insecurity. I think that when I do post it's quality, so really my readers should cut me some slack when it comes to the lack of quantity. Perhaps biting my sweaty nut-sack will help allay your impatience? Or not.

Does nudity equal sex? My western senisbilities tell me that nudity only occurs right before sex, during sex, and then for a short period after. But I think that's wrong.

I love the shape of a perfect female body. It is a beauty unsurpassed by any of man's enhancements. And I don't mean that I want to rut on it. I love to look. Now sex shouldn't just be about that beauty, albeit ocassionally the case. I plan to teach my kids to be nude all the time. Freeing oneself of the yoke of clothing would be a great way to teach one's kids about societal mores (and kicking the shit out of mores is fun). This way my kids won't equate sex and nudity like I have.

My favorite type of art is nudes (and I don't mean animals DR). And they should be readily available to everyone, not locked away Behind the counter at the Mac's corner store. Hugh Hefner's got the right idea. Nuf Said.

I have a new job. This will see me leave for Prince George for two weeks of training on Feb 1st. Then onto approximately three months of semi-interesting things in Quesnel while building an Extra Foods. I can still be reached via email and my cell works in the towns as well.

Of course, I won't be on messenger every day anymore, but that was just time-wasting anyway. So wish me luck and Call me First Aid Attendant Pines from now on.

Karma Sucks.

I have finished reading Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky, and I consider him a master of Russian literature. Granted I read a translation, but I referenced it with another translation that I had of the same book. So if the two translations are any indication (and I believe them to be) then I have read a masterpiece. But then, not only have I read the work of a master but it is easy for me to identify with the main character, Rodya. A former student at the University in Petersburg, he must drop out because of a lack of funds. Eventually his part-time earnings from tutoring also dry up and he is left with nothing, save his mind. Of course, an idle mind sets itself upon many inane and dangerous subjects and all the while drawing his mind inward. Clearly suffering, he commits a desperate act, a crime.

The Punishment comes in many forms, an illness, his conscience, his friends' judgement, his newfound lover's unhappiness, his family's dire circumstances, etc. In the end he confesses, but is no happier with his physical punishment.

A timeless novel, though set in the days before the Russian revolution, it only references the political climate in asides throughout. The book really dwells on the educated, lower-middle class and their struggle for life in such infertile surroundings. I definitely recommend it as a book of particular (and current) importance.

Life seems like such a spiral sometimes. A spiral oriented up/down, and though we say we learn from our mistakes I am not sure that is true. I consider myself an enlightened, though wholely unsuccesful, man and yet I seem to be experiencing the same situations for a second (sometimes third) time. I'm not even sure that I'm the cause of the relapse, and yet I am certainly the victim. So perhaps I am doomed to relive this pain because some idiot hasn't been on the other end of it before. Or maybe it's the same idiot as last time and he hasn't learned from his mistakes. Morons are so unpleasant. Not that I'm complaining, because this is much better than not living at all.

I've finished East of Eden by Steinbeck. As far as I am concerned it is a must read. Not nearly as difficult as The Grapes of Wrath, Eden is an epic tale of 3 generations in 2 different families. Though I disagree with many of Oprah's selections, this is one that should have won the pulitzer. Of Mice and Men? no thank you, I'd rather be East of Eden. The themes are very real, the book very well written in the traditional Steinbeck style of descriptive prose. John even makes an appearance in the book as part of the 4th generation Trasks.

The story reminds me of my own life in many ways, but the protagonist is way messed up. I'm not that messed up, I mean, I've never had my wife shoot me.... yet.