I've known plenty of christians who do this with the bible. Using Carver is a twist, I guess.
I'm not saying you ain't pretty, I'm just saying I'm not ready.
If you like it so much, why don't you make a proper link?
For some reason my browser or this site or my mum and dad won't allow me to make a proper href, at least not in the way I've been making them lo these many years.
Isn't it though?
I'm going to try again.
Well now the sadness is all cleared, thanks Mitch!
Using Carver is a twist, I guess.
I know somebody who would read Invisible Cities in that way, though I don't know how long they kept it up for.
Wait a minute, that subtext looks just like John Emerson.
17: But what are you really trying to say?
I know somebody who would read Invisible Cities in that way, though I don't know how long they kept it up for.
For a while I read one city every night before bed, though not in a random order, because that just seems like more trouble than it's worth. Ditto for Borges's Book of Imaginary Beings.
I took a class in college with a dude who is now a fancy-pants winemaker* in which we read Invisible Cities in tandem with Herodotos' Histories.
*He was a professor then!
The Aeneid has traditionally been used in the manner suggested by the OP.
For years, I'd read random parts of The Fran Lebowitz Reader while I pooped. I didn't really follow it with a period of reflection.
I read Invisible Cities in a class with William Gass, and he gave us a chart he'd made of the spiral structure of the stories' order. I didn't get the point of that at all. His lectures on some of the individual cities were amazing, though.
I always read when I poop, and I always follow it with reflection. Some people think that's a gross waste of time.
I've never to my knowledge used the Aeneid in any way at all. I am in favor of reading all things out of order though.
I'm trying to be polite, but I don't actually think that anyone can do this sort of exercise with any book aside from Raymond Carver's Will You Please Be Quiet Please. And it's probably got to be the one I have. If you think you can do it with something else, I'm not just going to take your say-so, you've got to prove it right here.
There's a character in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone who performs this sort of bibliomancy with . During my most precious phase, I was doing it with...damn, now I can't remember. Baudelaire maybe? It was something terribly pretentious.
Arg, screwed up the tag: it was Robinson Crusoe for the Wilkie Collins character.
21: I just yesterday received an invite for a tasting with him.
That sounds like fun. Doesn't he teach anymore?
Databased everything provides so many opportunities for sortilege. Paragraphs, volumes, MP3s, RSS entries, /dev/null. (The last slightly nihilistic.)
Did you really just write "sortilege"? I suppose everything provides many opportunities for quite a lot!
If you were doing it with Baudelaire, you'd remember that one, right JM? Probably a little more active than the other corpses.
I like to make posts! So what's up with those yahoos this year?
Gets lonely at night anymore, huh?
no, not really. I just have to edit this really awful manuscript.
did you ride your stolen bicycles today?
Why would you think I have stolen bicycles?
because you were telling us all about them in that other thread. and because you seem like the type, frankly.
you didn't answer my question though, which is whether your rode the bicycles you stole.
I was telling you about stolen bicycles? I'm not sure what that refers to. I was talking about the economics of stealing bicycles to gswift, because it frustrates me that it's so easy to steal bicycles and there's so little potential downside. But I have nothing in particular to say about stolen bicycles.
The one time that I owned a bicycle that I (belatedly) realized was stolen I did ride pretty much every day, yes. Then it got stolen from me.
Why, do you?
That's exactly what I meant when I wrote that you sound like a petty thief.
I'm incapable of stealing anything. I used to steal chicken nuggets from the lunch line in the 8th grade, and maybe 7th grade, by eating them on the way to the register. Those statements appear to contradict. I am incapable of stealing non-delicious birds.
That you would write something like 45 in response to being called out on stealing bicycles.
or write "you don't have my email" and then disappear.
I used to steal chicken nuggets from the lunch line in the 8th grade, and maybe 7th grade, by eating them on the way to the register.
That's a lot more than I've ever stolen. Do you think it's a character thing with you?
50: so you're saying that were I not a thief I would react to being called a thief in some way other than being sort of confused and looking for clarification?
53: sorry again, I don't really know what "both questions" means. You think your stealing isn't a character thing with you and... what?
I'm saying that I think you're a thief, Sifu. Does that make you sad?
Are you really this stupid or do you have nothing to say in response to what I write other than that you're confused?
Are you really this stupid or is that all you've been able to parse from the questions I've been asking you?
Nah, that's unfair. I know you're not stupid. You're lonely and sad and trying to start fights, but you aren't stupid.
Which I understand. I've been so mean to random people online just because I was in a really lonely place. I like to think I did a better job of it than you have thus far, but that might just be ego.
All you had to do was tell me you didn't ride your stolen bikes today and we'd have been finished with that inquiry.
Then I'd move on to asking whether you planned to ride them tomorrow.
Yeah, still lost, sorry. What stolen bikes?
Oh, I see. Well, I don't possess any stolen bikes, so it would have been difficult for me to ride any, unless I borrowed somebody else's.
Is that what you were asking? If I borrowed somebody else's stolen bike?
I didn't borrow anybody's bike today, so no, but even if I had I'm not sure how I would have known if it was stolen or not.
Do you think this isn't fun for me? The ones a petty thief would steal and then brag about on the internet, like you did.
The ones in your possession.
Present king of France.
Do you think this isn't fun for me?
I hope not, but if I'm being honest I think so, yeah. I should probably stop.
The ones a petty thief would steal and then brag about on the internet, like you did.
Lost me there, since I didn't do that. I do own bikes. Is that what's confusing you?
Oh wait do you mean that since I talked about bike theft that I probably own stolen bikes? That's an interesting way to look at it. You talked about stolen bikes, too, in the context of my conversation. You have stolen bikes? Did you ride them today? If not, why not? Too sad?
I can see being guilty because they're stolen but you should ride your bikes; it might cheer you up. Definitely riding bikes always cheers me up.
I still want to know what everyone has stolen. Why won't people just say what they have stolen and why? This is a crime blog after all.
I once stole an english muffin, but it was an accident. I walked out of the store with it without realizing it. Nothing compared to text's larceny.
sifu, I was mostly kidding before, but now I'm pretty sure that you're a thief.
Likewise, text. I mean I'm close to 100%, since you admitted it.
this is a blog for tough love, JP. That's why you're here, right?
Now I'm pretty sure Sifu has embezzled money too. Do you have rich clients?
If you were doing it with Baudelaire, you'd remember that one, right JM?
No, that was the year when a whole bunch of classes assigned various Baudelaire texts. I was very excited about Baudelaire and read basically everything he wrote.
Some friends and I also got interested in Surrealist games at that time and did a bunch of exercises in random meaning-making, bibliomancy among them.
Our favorite game in that vein was always "Why-Because," which I actually managed to persuade people to play this week. (Person 1 writes down five "why" questions; person 2 independently writes down five "because" answers. Read out in order. With additional participants, add clauses like "however" or "therefore.") Good bar game.
You're probably only capable of stealing low-cost items.
That was for Sifu. I think Jackmormon could probably be a cat burglar if she wanted to be.
"Why-Because" sounds fun. You could also try "If Only-But Alas"
Hmm... the return acts of commenters with single-syllable pseuds starting with "t" seem to share certain characteristics.
I've been so mean to random people online just because I was in a really lonely place.
Wait, does this help?
It only works if you're mean to loved ones.
How can you tell if they're loved? I guess this means libertarians and econ blog commenters are ruled out.
86 had me tripped up confused for a while.
I like awkward people. Not because of the great conversation but because of the history of the word. The great Awk, though generous, was not known for instilling confidence in his wards.