Facebook is adding links to 'like'.. that's good?
Of course that's good for companies trying to sell your 'friends' something.
But where does that leave those of us who actively DO NOT LIKE something? Guess we will never see a 'dislike' button...
Because, you see, then companies would have to acknowledge that someone does NOT LIKE what they do or sell or try to brainwash you with. Yes, brainwash! The death of non-conformist thinking?
Where goest excentricity (some may call it LOCO) in the pure old British sense?
Anyone that keeps pushing us to do something, may it be "FOR OUR OWN GOOD" or not, that to me smells of brainwashing in an Orwellian sense.
Why this leads me into the following is not quite clear in my mind, but it did! Take it with a grain of salt!
It seems to me a fact that depiction of sex in novels seems to have "lost'' its 'bite'- perhaps due to the ease with which anything can be accessed with the click of a button. Writings about heterosexual love, desire, lust and sex have faded, except in works by gay and lesbian novelists – perhaps because these writers have found new grounds to break, new gaps to bridge in their descriptions of what once was "in the closet".
The feeling in reading what once could stun and cause novels to be banned, and not only by the church, vide "Lady Chatterleys Lover"-which, BTW, seems very, very tame, even lame by today's often rather awkward writings and pictorials on sex, not letting the reader use his/her imagination to delve into hidden delights! What is hidden often is so much more exciting that the blatant display! And this abundance of 'written sex' could easily result in a wink-wink ;-), a lol-speak to express 'forbidden fruit' thoughts and hidden meanings!
DH Lawrence is said to have offered this to aspiring writers:
"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you have got to say and say it hot."
But "hot" has not really a "cool" feel to it any more, does it? And here is a "LOL" to that!You do know of the "BAD SEX AWARDS? The award is a PLASTER FOOT-as in 'putting one's foot in?'
For 18 years, this award related to literary fiction only, tries "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it"
- Paul Theroux for A Dead Hand-a bit surprising that, I do like Theroux's other writings.
- Nick Cave, singer, for The Death of Bunny Munro; can he 'sing' me a song about a sex craved door-to-door salesman? Is The Weeping Song an indication?
- Philip Roth for The Humbling-too humbling, perhaps, dealing with getting worn out, burnt out? At least it is shorter than his previous novels.
- Jonathan Littell for The Kindly Ones-not read
- Amos Oz for Rhyming Life and Death-perhaps not the best of this prolific generational at times satiric writer from Israel.
- John Banville for The Infinities-not read
- Anthony Quinn for The Rescue Man-shows a great 'down and dirty' actor is not necessarily a good writer, especially in a histoirical context?
- Simon Van Booy for Love Begins in -not read
- Sanjida O'Connell for The Naked Name of Love-a rather artificially conceived tale about a priest seduced by female tribal priestess in - of all places - Mongolia!
- Richard Milward for Ten Storey Love Song - Comprising just one LOOOONG paragraph and replete with graphic sex scenes. Not to everyone's taste, that way of writing.
The winner will be announced on 30 November at London's In & Out club.
He/she will proudly (?) carry home THE PLASTER FOOT!
2 comments:
For those readers who are inclined toward literature which qualifies for "The Plaster Foot Award", I would suggest some alternative "light" reading such as Edward Gibbon's Classic "The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire", where the reader is left to wonder how "history eventually repeats itself". This 7-volume set may even be available, now, on Amazon's Kindle, further lightening the load on the erstwhile reader.
With regard to the onslaught of "Orwellian Brainwashing" (all politics aside), a case can be made that we are doing this to ourselves, everyday, by unwittingly providing ONLINE personal, medical and financial information to third parties (an every-growing colony of "big brothers"), as we migrate across the Internet from one website to another. This information is immediately processed (in real time), exchanged on hidden online auction sites, and directed back to us, as we surf the NET, in the form of targeted advertising, highlighting many areas of our lives which we would prefer that others not know. In short, each of us potentially competes for another kind of "Plaster Foot Award" every day by failing to take responsibility for our online activities and communications. As Scott McNealy (Sun Microsystems CEO) stated over 10 years ago, "There is no privacy.....get used to it".
Yes..."get used to it"!
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