Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by NXJ

Everything is cool

NXJ — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 06:55:09 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

Disclaimer: This is just a sharing of what topic creator likes or found interesting. The content presented does not represent the actual thought of topic creator toward this forum or any particular person. Viewer discretion is advised.

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/87393681 )

[vimeo]87393681[/vimeo]

QUOTE(Parts Unknown S01E04 @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain:_Parts_Unknown )

Anthony Bordain:

Nobody in Quebec seems to skim on the portion.

The Pride, by InMe

NXJ — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 20:15:14 +0800

In the search for technical perfection, musicians often stray from what makes a good song, a good song. But I doubt we can all agree on what that ingredient is, since we have our individual tastes and touch to things in our life. My definition of a good song is one that tells a story well and backed by relevant tune. For example, the nonchalant tone of a dying person bidding farewell in Season In The Sun. The lyrics are the backbone of the story, and the tune gives the context.

Here's a song from InMe, an English alternative metal band from Brentwood, Essex. Titled "All Terrain Vehicle/Nova Armada", it is the third track of their fourth studio album, Herald Moth.

QUOTE(Nova Armada @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W90IXVvsHBU )

[youtube]W90IXVvsHBU[/youtube]

Listening to this, the feeling I get, is the lack of feeling in it. In fact, I feel the same throughout the album. It's not bad, but it's also not great. Sure, there are fancy guitar or drum stuff. But it's not quite right as a story telling device.

As if answering my thoughts, InMe rectified that in their fifth studio album, The Pride. This is "Reverie Shores", first track in the album:

QUOTE(Reverie Shores @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJVyHNCCqOU )

[youtube]ZJVyHNCCqOU[/youtube]

Bam. Dat feeling. We used to feel invincible, but now we don't feel at all. Despite the general loudness of the band's music style, I feel still listening to this album. Decent story, great tunes.

If you are interested in the album,

here's the link to the tracks in YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVf8jdonWzg...236FD080FC827C2
here's the link to the lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/the_pride_album_lyrics_inme.html

7 Life Lessons From The Great Gatsby

NXJ — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 06:56:27 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/87185208 )

][vimeo]87185208[/vimeo]

QUOTE(7 Life Lessons From 'The Great Gatsby' @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/g..._n_3976598.html )

1. Optimism is a noble, if futile trait.

Throughout the book, Gatsby is characterized as being authentically hopeful, in spite of the adversity that he faces, and the lies he consistently tells. In the end, Nick almost idolizes him in spite of his dubious morality. Fitzgerald writes, "Gatsby turned out all right at the end," implying that, even though he died fighting for his passions, he went down nobly.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament" -- it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

2. Money can't buy you love (or friends).

Gatsby attempts to woo Daisy with his lavish parties and home, but ultimately, he fails, mostly because Tom informs her of the truth: He made his fortune in an illegal manner. What's more, none of Gatsby's party attendees show up to his funeral, aside from Nick.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

At first I was surprised and confused; then, as he lay in his house and didn't move or breathe or speak, hour upon hour, it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interested.

3. Unbridled passion isn't always a good thing.

Gatsby and Daisy's brief affair goes unnoticed for a time, until Tom catches Jay making eyes at his lover out in the open. Perhaps if Gatsby had contained himself, the pair could have followed through with their whimsical plans.

But Tom's passion, when let loose, has even more of a detrimental effect; his red-hot emotion is quick to take a violent turn, as he slaps and injures his mistress, Myrtle, when she playfully teases him.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai - "

Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.

4. It's not easy to leave your past behind you.

As the tragic conclusion and poetic closing lines to Fitzgerald's book tell us, the past can be a messy thing to escape. As hard as Gatsby tries to shirk off his reputation as a bootlegger, he's unable to do so.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

5. Don't critique others

The book kicks off with Nick professing his inability to critique anyone less fortunate than himself, which we learn eventually leads to his empathy for Gatsby. His open-mindedness gives him a deeper perspective on the people around him and protects him from falling subject to the glitzy, surface-level materialism of the '20s.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men.

6. Physical beauty is fickle and fleeting.

From the moment we're introduced to Daisy, she seems more like a beautiful caricature of herself rather than an actual person. She flits and giggles and wins the heart of Gatsby, but ultimately leaves him in the dust in spite of his immense efforts.

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.

7. You know what they say about assuming.

Fitzgerald's tragic story quickly goes from sad to sadder, and many of the terrible events that unfold are based solely on false assumptions. When George discovers that his wife has died after being hit by a car, he assumes that Gatsby was the driver and proceeds to take revenge on him. In fact, Gatsby was covering for Daisy. Says Nick:

QUOTE(The Great Gatsby)

I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

Where we will we'll roam

NXJ — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:20:05 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/87340817 )

[vimeo]87340817[/vimeo]

QUOTE(Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_th...World's_End )

Hoist The Color:

The king and his men, stole the queen from her bed, and bound her in her bones. The seas be ours, and by the powers; where we will, we'll roam.

Yo, ho, all hands, hoist the colors high. Heave, ho, thieves and beggars; never shall we die.

Not suppose to feel like that

NXJ — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 10:12:53 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/87323115 )

[vimeo]87323115[/vimeo]

QUOTE(27 Dresses (2008) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Dresses )

Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl):

Nope, not even a blip.

Quentin Tarantino didn't like Prometheus

NXJ — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:30:00 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Kopitiam Edition)

> Prometheus was a dumb movie

QUOTE( http://www.uproxx.com/gammasquad/2013/01/q...theus-was-dumb/)

I liked Prometheus quite a bit, but a lot of people didn’t. Quentin Tarantino, it turns out, is one of the non-likers, which is saying something considering some of movies he’s on record as liking. Just saying, you can usually predict his favorite movies of the year by just checking out what’s playing at the 3-dollar cheap seats.

Quentin’s main criticism of Prometheus, expressed on a recent episode of Craig Ferguson, was the same one many people had — the characters were often really goddamn dumb…

QUOTE(Quentin Tarantino)

“There was a lot of dumb stuff in it. When it got to the point where they’re on another planet and then a space cobra literally shows up, opens up its hood and the guy who’s in charge of alien creatures goes, [adopts girlish dumb voice] ‘Hey, little fella! How ya doin?’ I was like, uhhhhh…. It’s a space cobra!”

Also, why didn’t the camera focus more on Noomi Rapace’s feet as she was running around the ship in her gauze bikini? Come on, if you want Quentin Tarantino’s approval, there’s certain prerequisites that need to be met.

Alternate reality

NXJ — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 22:57:59 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86822729 )

[vimeo]86822729[/vimeo]

QUOTE(Star Trek (2009) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(film) )

Spock (Zachary Quinto):

You're assuming that Nero knows how events are predicted to unfold. The contrary, Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party.

On Not Caring About The News

NXJ — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:33:56 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Kopitiam Edition)

> Too many news about things we can't do a thing about
> Focus too much on what was reported, not what wasn't
> Glance through everything, but be selective of what you want to know in-depth

QUOTE(On Not Caring About The News @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alain-de-bot..._b_4790441.html )

We should go a little easier on ourselves when it comes to indifference to the news, and recognize that we're one of the first generations to have to deal with the torrent of information about things very far removed from our own lives. For most of history, it was extremely difficult to come by information about what was happening anywhere else. And you probably didn't mind. What difference would it make, if you were a crofter in the Hebrides, to learn that a power struggle was brewing in the Ottoman Empire?

Much of what we now take for granted as news has its origins in the information needed by people taking major decisions or at the centre of national affairs. We still hear the echoes in the way news is reported; timing is assumed to be critical, as it really would be if we were active agents. If you don't have the latest update you might make a terrible blunder or miss a wonderful opportunity.

Ease of communication and a generous democratic impulse mean that information originally designed for decision makers, now gets routinely sent via the media to very large numbers of people. It is as if a dossier, with the latest news from Kiev, which might properly arrive on the desk of a minister has accidentally been delivered to the wrong address and ends up on the breakfast table of a librarian in Colchester or an electrician in Pitlochry. But the librarian or electrician might quite reasonably turn round and politely point out that they can't do anything with this knowledge and that, surely, the files have come to them by mistake. They don't, but only because habit has closed our eyes to the underlying strangeness of the phenomenon.

Every day the news gives us stuff that is both interesting for some people and irrelevant to you. So one reads a very insightful article on the prospects for political reform in Pakistan, meaning that if you were wondering whether Pakistan was a good place to locate a new factory you'd be able to make a better informed decision. Or there are revelations that tensions in the cabinet are more serious than previously supposed. So if you were wondering whether this might be a good time to launch your leadership bid, this would be a good piece to read. But otherwise...?

The modern idea of news is pleasantly flattering. Yet it's really quite strange. We keep getting information that isn't really for us to know what to do with. No wonder we're sometimes a bit bored. It's not our fault.

The news is also rather jealous. It wants to distract you from a private sense of purpose. It would be dangerous if hardly anyone paid attention to what the government was doing, or what was happening to the environment or events in Kiev. But it is not right to go from this to the demand that everyone should be interested in every item at the very moment when the news machine requests their attention.

Indeed, we badly need people whose attention is not caught up in the trends of the moment and who are not looking in the same direction as everyone else. We need people scanning the less familiar parts of the horizon. There was a time when a particular country in crisis hadn't reached the headlines, when the approved legislation hadn't even been formulated, when few people were interested in coral reefs... These things had to get going, and to do so, they needed a pool of independent thinkers of a kind who turn today's unpromising themes into tomorrow's mainstream, 'obvious' topics of interest.

Indifference to big banner events can be churlish. But it can also be the mark of deep and important originality. Let's treat the phenomenon of not being interested in some stories with cautious respect.

The only people guaranteed a place in hell

NXJ — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 22:52:29 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/87086731 )

[vimeo]87086731[/vimeo]

QUOTE(Seven Psychopaths (2012) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Psychopaths )

Martin "Marty" Faranan (Colin Farrell):

The daughter of a Quaker went missing. When she was discovered, the slit at her throat turned out to be the least of the damage on her. Her killer, whose name shall not be noted, could not bear the guilt. He walked into the police station and have himself up. And though he asked for execution, the judge gave him life. And the killer was sent off to serve out his sentence.

17 long years went by. The killer found religion, and was sincere about it. He had change, and if he have ever been a psychopath, he was not one anymore. This story isn't about him.

Many more years went by. The authorities finally realize it wasn't a scam, that he did truly mean it, and he had truly repented. And they decided to set him free. He found himself a place to stay, and he determined to live a simple, joyous life now left to him.

A simple, joyous life, was not what was left to him. This went on for 11 fvcking years, until finally the killer went mad. In one winter night, while recalling a Catholic tract he read, which stated that the only people guaranteed a place in hell, were not murderes, were not rapists, but were those who die by their own hand. The killer accepted such an idea as beautiful. For he knew that at least in hell, the Quaker will not be there.

So he cut his own throat open. And the last thing the killer ever saw, was the old man taking out a cutthroat razor of his own, put it to his throat, and sliced.

A better class of criminal

NXJ — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 06:30:30 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86892913 )

[vimeo]86892913[/vimeo]

QUOTE(The Dark Knight (2008) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(film) )

Joker (Heath Ledger):

All you care about is money. This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm gonna give it to 'em.

There's not a thing we can do about it

NXJ — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:16:09 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86981818 )

[vimeo]86981818[/vimeo]

QUOTE(The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_C...n_Button_(film) )

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt):

Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it.

If only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is — a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control — that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.

Whistling, Nurse, Poison

NXJ — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 06:20:21 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E84OWq6z3IQ )

[youtube]E84OWq6z3IQ[/youtube]

Dat Moschino.

QUOTE( http://daretodoityourself.blogspot.nl/2012...n-rain.html?m=1 )

So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple

NXJ — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 21:57:33 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86823680 )

[vimeo]86823680[/vimeo]

QUOTE(Kill Bill Vol 2 @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Bill_Volume_2 )

Bill the Snake Charmer (David Carradine):

Once upon a time in China, some believe around the year one double-ought three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road – contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's nearly infinite powers would contemplate– when a Shaolin monk appeared on the road, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned.

Now, was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known were the consequences.

The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was … inconsolable.

So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.

STAWS S2 E2

NXJ — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:52:47 +0800

QUOTE(The Code)

“So, what’s your story?” The man in impeccable white suit said.

The men looked at each other, wondering who should go first. After what felt like an eternity, Shoeless Man decided he's the alpha of the pack.

“Who the hell are you? What happened to Simon and Schuster?” He completed his challenge with a spit on the floor.

White Suit smiled. “I am the latest authority. I imagine I too will soon be replaced, but as of now, I am your boss. You can call me Wiley. Now, I believe we were on the subject of your employment history?”

Shoeless Man didn’t protest. “One in Brazil, two in Netherlands, three in Sweden.”

“Hong Kong, three. Switzerland, three. Japan, seven.” Skinny Baldie followed.

The flow was disrupted by a burst of laughter. “What a joke! I did more than two hundred in the states alone!” White Suit deduced by the smell, Black Shirt was smoking weed.

“Bullshit! Don’t steal my creds, you shithead!”

Really Bad B.O.’s cussing was cut short by White Suit’s hoarse cough.

“I’ve heard enough. I believe you interesting bunch will make me good money. I went through the list of very unreasonable and specific demands. Caleb will be your handler. He will be in charge of your... cosmetics and sleek kits. They don’t come cheap, so please, try your very best to not ask for replacement.”

“F*ck you!” Really Bad B.O. replied promptly.

White Suit left the zen temple without further comments. He thought his hands looked yellowish. The pain at his abdomen reminded him of why he moved his hand in the first place.

They gave me bloody cancer!

QUOTE(Rules and stuff)

As usual, a name of a book, for a book. Contest ends a week from this posting date.

[@empyreal] [@funnyTONE] [@rlky] [@Zenax] [@yugimudo]

PhiLOLZophy: Critical Thinking in Digestible Doses

NXJ — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 06:23:51 +0800

QUOTE(Download Links)

Click here to get it free from Audible.com

Click here to download MP3 version from my Google Drive

QUOTE(Audible Editor Reviews @ http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/PhiLO...ook/B00E7T9NVC/ )

Most people shy away from philosophy, thinking of it as a discipline that can only be understood by the intelligentsia. Authors Stockton and Heuer elegantly dispute this prejudice. They argue that we all inevitably engage in critical thinking on a routine basis. They also explain classic philosophical methods and theories through the lens of daily, relatable human experience. These authors manage something miraculous: They render highly abstract ideas accessible in present life without diluting the original meaning. Narrator Theresa McCarthy’s grown-up tone matches the text. McCarthy sounds calm, dispassionate, wise, and wry. Her voice does what the authors hope: She encourages ordinary people to think of themselves as critical thinkers. This book confirms that critical thinking can aid those stumped by tricky circumstances.

QUOTE(Publisher's Summary @ http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/PhiLO...ook/B00E7T9NVC/ )

A popular question in philosophy is "How do I know I exist?" That seems really boring, though. How about, "How can I use logic to get over my ex?" If you really love wisdom, you love it in all situations - you don't need to be spoon fed unsolved problems in philosophy, because you're already analyzing the US Weekly you’re reading or your kinda significant other. Sarah Heuer and Chrissy Stockton are writers living in Minneapolis who are determined to do something more interesting with their philosophy degrees than talk about dead white guys. PhiLOLZophy: Critical Thinking in Digestible Doses helps its listeners think critically about vodka, religion, and sex - proving that brains do have more fun.

One line verdict: Not a hippie-preach about open-mindedness, this is a truly fun read (or listen) about what philosophy really is and how can it be fun.

Jane Eyre got lost.

NXJ — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 06:08:41 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Definitely @ Maybe (2008), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitely,_Maybe )

Isla Fisher (April Hoffman):

I read it every year or two. Each time it's different. It tells me different things. Anyhow, when I went away to college, my mom sold our house and somewhere along the way, Jane Eyre got lost. Now, every time I pass a second-hand bookstore, I look for the copy that my dad bought me for my birthday. I know I'll never find it. It's stupid, but it's become this, like, weird superstitious little...

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86821045 )

[vimeo]86821045[/vimeo]

Everyone knows it's fake but they watch it

NXJ — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 20:43:00 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Don Jon (2013) @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Jon )

Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt):

"I don't watch too many movies. The pretty woman, the pretty man, the first kiss, the break up, the make up, they drive off into the sunset. Everyone knows it's fake but they watch it like it's real life."

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86819271 )

[vimeo]86819271[/vimeo]

Why should I care about classical literature?

NXJ — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 17:03:49 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Kopitiam Edition)

> Dime novel = mass market paperbacks, comic books, and even television shows and movies based on the dime novel genres.

> Classic literature cares about your well being (mentally) while dime novels just want to please you and help kill time

> Dime novel = acquaintance, classic literature = good friend

QUOTE( http://classic-literature.yoexpert.com/cla...eratu-2953.html )

The reason one should care about classical literature is too much to delve into in one sitting. Yet I must try, as many students graduate from high school with a bad taste in their mouth concerning literature. They suffered through The Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby, convinced that words on a page were designed to kill brain cells in a slow and agonizing fashion. I will try to ease this misconception with a sampling of sweeter flavors that might help dissolve those bitter pills. Reading classical literature should be an enjoyable and profitable exercise.

The primary and obvious reason rests in the pure genius of the authors. They clearly wrote their books extremely well. These renowned authors composed entire novels more naturally than you or I can write our own name. For the time being, let us narrow it down to one aspect of their writing. Pieces of classical literature are usually set apart for their exemplary use of genre. For example, Mary Shelley set the bar for monster horror with Frankenstein. Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and then Frank Herbert and Issac Asimov carried science fiction into permanent fruition. But how does this make them special? After all, every book falls within a genre. Yet, what distinguishes classical books is the sense of purpose about them which surpasses the intention of their contemporaries.

Perhaps purpose is not exactly the proper word. The best way I can describe it is depth. Those writers deemed as classical authors were not content to paddle upon shallow shores. They went as far as they could into the open seas – sometimes to reach a distant shore, sometimes just to see how far they could swim. When you read a book, are you able to see through the author’s eyes? Can you feel the historical textures strewn about within the pages? A good book will give you a snapshot into history and culture – into that author’s day and age.

A helpful comparison to classical literature is the dime novel. They, too, revolved around genre, and even helped to distinguish many of the common genres we know of today, such as romance, mystery, and westerns to name a few. Dime novels were designed to appeal to the populace. With the rise of consumerism and literacy in America, the demand for quick, affordable and easy reading also grew. They were quickly written and quickly sold. Their purpose was to appease the status quo of the masses. There was no interest or appeal in expanding the reader’s knowledge or challenging the reader a particular way.

Now, this may sound pretty good to most people. When you read, if wanting to read at all, you want to enjoy a simple story, not contemplate the meaning of life or look up big words in the dictionary. However, remember that these books are not looking out for you. They are not giving you their best. Dime novels are people pleasers, yes men, and brown noses. That is the subtle, underestimated reason to care about classical literature - because classical literature cares about you. Well, in a sense. It’s the difference between an acquaintance and a good friend. If you are about to do something ill-advised, such as, say, walking into a busy street, the acquaintance will simply say as such. He will say, ‘Um, that’s probably not a good idea,’ but will then proceed to watch you walk into the street and get hit by a car, and possibly take pictures with his I-phone to show buddies at work. A good friend however, will do more than say something, he will tackle you to the sidewalk if he has to in order to prevent your untimely demise.

The authors of classical literature are not trying to be popular – they are trying to be bold. They are trying to create artistic masterpieces that will change the way people think about things. They are trying to give readers their very best. For this reason, reading classical literature is to your benefit.

The following are examples of the questions a reader can ask when trying to distinguish classical literature: Is the genre used effectively? Is there a consistent theme through the story? Are there any creative expansions to the genre or to the way people think about things? Do the characters in the story grow in moral fiber or display clearly how not to act? Does the reading challenge the reader in his or her own moral fiber? If so, you might have stumbled upon a classical book. The benefit of reading classical literature is the benefit of quality over quantity. You get what you pay for, you get what you read for.

I made a friend.

NXJ — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 11:17:22 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011))

Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara): I miss our meetings. I'm sure you don't, why would you? I was always such a headache for you. Never showing up with good news, only problems. I have good news now, I made a friend. I mean, one that you'd approve of. I'm happy.

QUOTE( https://vimeo.com/86803740 )

[vimeo]86803740[/vimeo]

Why Narnia Still Matters

NXJ — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 14:30:29 +0800

QUOTE(NXJ Topic Mandatory Disclaimer)

QUOTE(Kopitiam Edition)

>The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) was written for children so it wasn't well praised
> But it's still teaching authors today how to write good story

QUOTE(Lev Grossman @ http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/22/w...-still-matters/ )

I have a funny sort of personal connection to C.S. Lewis, who died 50 years ago today. It’s through my mother: she was born in London and is just old enough to remember the Blitz, and like the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, she was sent to the countryside to escape the bombing. Unlike them, she was so naughty that her host family sent her back to London—apparently whatever she did was bad enough that being bombed by Hitler was considered a suitable punishment.

Later, when she was a student at Oxford, my mother was on her way to her senior exams, and she stopped off at a pub, the Eagle and Child, as one does, to marshal her resources. The Eagle and Child — better known as the Bird and Baby — was of course Lewis’s pub, and there he was at the bar. When she told him where she was headed, he suggested she have a brandy.

She claims she doesn’t remember much after that, but she graduated with high marks, so maybe his suggestion was a good one.

I first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — the first installment in Lewis’ seven-part Chronicles of Narnia — when I was eight, and its effect on me was profound. That was the book that taught me what novels were: how they worked and what they were for, namely to whirl you out of this world in a storm of words and take you somewhere gloriously vivid and interesting, where, through some mysterious Deeper Magic, you learned something important about the world you’d just left. It is, apart from everything else, an allegory of reading itself: the wardrobe’s doors open like the cover of a book, allowing Lucy to disappear inside, like a reader into a novel, or at least a good one, which The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe surely is.

Because he wrote fantasy, and (worse yet) children’s fantasy, Lewis isn’t much praised as a craftsman of prose. But reread those opening pages: they hold up as many children’s fantasies don’t, and their stylistic influence is as broad and deep as anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien. Look, just from a technical standpoint, at how he brings Lucy through the wardrobe, from our world into Narnia:

QUOTE(C.S.Lewis @ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in – then two or three steps — always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.

“This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!” thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. “I wonder is that more moth balls?” she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hands. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. “This is very queer,” she said, and went on a step or two further.

Notice the economy of it, the crispness, the precision, the specificity: there’s no light show, no Vaseline on the lens, no swelling orchestra, no purple prose, just a simple series of concrete details that, via some miraculous sleight of hand, takes us from one world into another. This is how every serious fantasist has done it since Lewis, from Ursula Le Guin to Neil Gaiman to Philip Pullman to George R.R. Martin to Susanna Clarke; no one had done it before him.
Every reader of Lewis has had to come to a reckoning with him, a renegotiation of terms, as he or she has grown up. (There is an entire marvelous book about this process – The Magician’s Book, by Laura Miller – which is indispensable to any passionate Narnian.) I’m not among those who are bothered by Lewis’s Christian apologetics: I was raised in a household virtually without religion, so I don’t really have any nerves to touch on that score. I was more troubled by Aslan’s role in the Narnian cosmos. Why does he allow so much evil to befall his people? Why, for example, in Prince Caspian, does he spend so much time playing peekaboo with Lucy while Narnians are suffering and dying?

That tension — the fact that Narnia is a world with a living, present god in it, and a world with evil and suffering in it — didn’t cause me to give up on Lewis. It made me want to talk back to him, through my own novels, as Pullman does, and any number of other writers besides. It’s a sign of Lewis’ greatness that, although he’s been dead for a half a century, people still need to talk to him: to ask him questions, to air their grievances, to share his sense of wonder, and to tell him stories the way he told us stories. If there’s any Deeper Magic in this fallen, Aslan-less world, that is it.