Poems I wish I had written, part nine

Blueberries

It’s their plumpness that gets me,
As though they wanted to be something else entirely –
A cherry, an aubergine embryo, a heart
Swollen with love or pride or pleasure –
As though they were bursting our of their skins
With desire and ambition
With ideas above their station

And the faint grey sheen of their darkness
A silvery fox fur that bruises easily
Or is licked off like sugar,
Like sweat off a lover.

They colour icecream and cordials,
They stud those muffins you love
With bursts of sweetness and stain
the buttery crumbling cake
An imperial purple

Your favorite fruit, you say.
They remind you of home.
Of summer in Canada
Of being young and greedy.

Or, older but no less greedy,
Of fields high in the Apennines
Where families were scooping the bushes
With steel combs nailed to wood boxes,
Singing and happy and sweating.
We smelt them before we saw them.

Blueberries have no smell,
But their taste is fragrant and summery.
They taste like flowers would taste
In an edible universe:
A jolt of colour,
Cool skin on the toungue,
Explosions of pleasure.

A. Alvarez

My friend Nietzche said...

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies

Egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

Fear is the mother of morality.

Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.


In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders?

Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.

So what am I trying to say? Possibly that I'm a cynic that finds religion the expression of mankind's credulity. Or that we are all selfish. Surely I'm not trying to paint a pretty picture of what we are. Noone's special, and this is just an illustration of that even when I sometimes seem stubborn and cold, not even in that am I so special. Everything I've ever said has always been said by someone else first. Every trouble of my heart and mind has troubled someone before me. So it pays off to be humble and not see yourself as the chosen one. Sometimes it pays to get right to the point. Me saying that Nietzche said it first just gives me more umpf. All those quotes that I excluded might have said more about his actual beliefs, but I'm selfish enough to skip all of those to make a point. That's how special I am.

Frida Hyvönen - Dirty Dancing

Stripy legs ♥ ♥

There's a reason why I say my cats are my babies...

Cats use special purr to manipulate humans

Cat owners who think their cats control them now have some scientific confirmation: Animal vocalization experts have just identified a special manipulative purr that felines have evolved, in part, to get what they want from people.

The newly identified vocalization, called "solicitation purring," has never been acknowledged or studied before, although cat fanciers, such as the study's lead author Karen McComb, are quite familiar with it.

"In the case of my cat, if he sees you stirring from sleep at all in the early morning he will immediately switch into giving this solicitation purring and position himself next to your head so you get the full impact," McComb, a reader in Behavioral Ecology at the University of Sussex, told Discovery News.

She added, "Asking around, I find I'm not the only one who, if I wake up early, often lie pretending to still be asleep so my cat doesn't start this!"

McComb, who has analyzed communication and cognition of elephants, lions and many other mammals, decided to investigate what could be behind her cat's early morning purring.

She and colleagues Anna Taylor, Christian Wilson and Benjamin Charlton examined the acoustic structure of recorded cat purrs. The team determined purrs are not all the same, since one contains an embedded, high-pitched cry. This resulting combination makes up solicitation purring.

McComb explained that what cats seem to be doing for the special purr "is producing the low fundamental frequency and its harmonics by muscular activation" -- what has been associated with typical purring -- "but also voicing a cry, probably with the inner edges of the vocal folds, which is then superimposed on the sound's frequency spectrum."

The researchers recorded 10 cats purring. Some of the sounds contained the cry, while others didn't or were processed to have the cry component taken out. Fifty human participants then listened to the sounds, described in the latest issue of Current Biology.

Virtually all listeners, whether or not they owned a cat themselves, identified the solicitation purring sounds as being more urgent than others. Sensitivity to this type of purring may even be innate in humans, drawing from a primal drive to respond to crying babies.

"Cats have about the right size of vocal folds to produce a cry that is similar to a baby's, so there is a coincidental element," explained McComb. "In fact, the meow can sound remarkably like a crying child, which will be particularly effective with humans."

Cats purr to each other, but the scientists found felines really exaggerate their solicitation purring when communicating with humans, making felines near impossible to ignore.

Georgia Mason, a professor and Canada Research Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, told Discovery News she was pleased to see that "this careful work shows there are at least two types of purring: the shrill ones cats wake you up with, and the relaxing one they do at other times."

"It makes me wonder whether dogs and cats learn to make sounds we find particularly hard to ignore, or whether we have selected for animals whose signals we find naturally recognizable and comprehensible," Mason added.

Both she and McComb hope future studies will continue to unravel the mysteries of cat vocalizations, since they believe purring alone may be much more complex than previously thought, with various types of purrs, such as those emitted when cats are in pain, conveying different information.

From here

Why do cat's purr?

A Meow Massages the Heart" - Stuart McMillan

A meow may massage the heart, but a purr absolutely sooths the soul. The cat is the only animal that makes a musical humming sound when it is happy. All cat lovers have enjoyed the blissful moment of a purring lap bound feline. The entire animal vibrates with joy. Purring is usually a sign of cat contentment, but you may be surprised to learn that there are other very different occasions when a cat might purr.

An "origin of purr" investigation yields quite a bit of information, some of it inconclusive. Let's begin with a few expert opinions. According to Leslie Lyons, an assistant professor at the University of California-Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, purring is probably the result of an evolutionary advantage for cats. A recent study from the University of Sussex in England theorizes that the cat's purr may have developed as a way for domesticated cats to obtain food from humans. That makes sense, since most rational human beings can't resist a purring cat. All domestic cats purr, particularly when they are nursing their kittens or as a result of social contact (petting, hugging) from their human companions.

It is interesting to note that other species in the cat family also purr, including the Bobcat, Cheetah, Lynx and Puma. There is some dispute over whether the largest cats such as the tiger, lion and leopard also purr. Most agree that big cats can only purr when exhaling and it is not technically related to a domestic cat purr. Some scientists believe that big cats who vocalize through roaring do not have the ability to purr.

Fast Facts About Cat Purring:
•The purr is distinct from other cat vocalizations because it is produced when the cat is both inhaling and exhaling.
•The measurable Hertz wave of a cats purr ranges from 25 to 150. At the lower end, a cat's purr has the same vibratory velocity as an idling diesel engine.
•There have been many studies about the healing power of the purr. It has been proven to lower blood pressure and alleviate depression. As a result, some friendly and placid cats are very effective "therapy animals" in hospitals or retirement homes.
•The frequency of a cat's purr may also promote the healing of bones. Cats suffer less than other animals from osteoarthritis and other bone diseases.
Although we normally assume a cat purrs because they are joyful, there have been many documented incidents where cats purr after being gravely injured or even when they are close to death. Some speculate that this behavior might be related to the healing power of the purr. The purr may release endorphins, which help sooth or calm the cat during her illness. Mom cats will purr as they are giving birth and continue to purr for their kittens as they nurse. Kittens learn to purr days after they are born and may use the sound to bond with their mother. Purring by sick or near death cats may be a last resort stress reducer. It has been suggested that the purr may be like a "mantra" that helps the cat relax. As much as the purr comforts humans, it also calms the kitty who is nervous or in pain.

How Does The Cat Make That Wonderful Noise?
The physiological origin of the purr is also open to debate. It is not being generated exclusively by the vocal chords like a meow or a howl. It is possible that the sound is generated by the hyoid bone, which is a small flexible bone in the cat's neck. When air is pushed through your cat's voice box, it causes the bone to vibrate, releasing that unmistakable sound. Another theory is that the purr is caused by rapid twitching of the muscles in the larynx. A buzzing hum results from the harmonic air vibrations. The only real fact about how a cat's purr is produced is that there really is no iron clad consensus yet. We can put a man on the moon, but the cat's purr is a perfect mystery to science.

How the cat purrs, or why the cat purrs is a fascinating topic. But for cat owners everywhere, the most important point is THAT the cat purrs. Purring is a wonder and a delight, and has undoubtedly contributed towards making the cat the most popular house pet in the world. As humorist and writer Robert Byrne says, "To err is human, to purr is feline."

From here

A cascade of violins

You'd think that life is just like the movies, that the really dramatic moments are marked by intense sounds, music and a zooming in so that you can really focus on what's happening. Unfortunatly (or luckily...) life is nothing like the movies. Those moments sneak up on you and after a while you're standing there with a bit of "what the fuck just happened" look on your face. You can't go out and read the reviews afterwards either to try to make sense of it either, to try to see if it was good or bad. Not to mention the fact that you can't rewind to watch it exactly how it was either. All memories are tainted by emotions so they're never exactly as they were.

It'd make things easier if you could call up a friend and ask if they ever saw a movie called Molly's fall from grace, and follow it up with a question of "you know that kind of strange scene, what happened there?". If one's lucky the friend will have a better idea. If not lucky, I suppose you can always shrug it off and hope that the sequel has flashbacks and explainations.

In that the real difference lies between movies and life, while movies are well directed, plotted and only snapshots of events, life goes on even if you don't fully understand the plot, and you can't demand your money back if it disapoints you from time to time. And oh yes, those really intense moments that will bear significance for longer than you expected are only marked by the amount of times you silently wonder what really happened.

Time for a nerdy Friday break

Låt mig tala till punkt.

Det uppenbara kring problematiken är att vi har två öron och en mun av en anledning; en konversation bör bestå av två delar lyssna och en del tala, trots detta befinner jag mig allt som oftast på en mental plats där jag inte lyssnar alls. Tack för det, för om jag lyssnade så mycket som jag borde skulle jag särkerligen bli så fylld av nonsens att det viktiga inte fick plats. Det räcker så. Ja, resten får vara osagt.

Re: Gah!

Maybe it's this aspect of baby blogging and status updates that bothers me?

Gah!

If I come across another blog about a parent blogging about their child's miracles, or see another status update about what somebody's child is doing I'm going to vomit. Don't get me wrong, I can understand you're proud of your offspring, but seriously, people have been having babies as long as there world has had human beings.

I like to find interesting blogs that aren't too selfabsorbed and selfanalytical, but rather culture observing and questioning. That calls on people with agile minds to relieve my boredom and slentriant way of being, sort of like a recepie where someone sticks a frozen hotdog in a meatloaf. Anecdotes about kids doesn't do it as the full background of thoughts. Misunderstand me correctly, if the child does something fun, by all means share, but does the world really need to know what colour poop it had this morning? And then, taking on the bigger perspective, isn't this taking away from the children themselves? What if the child grows up to never want to share a personal detail online, ever? That choice has already been taken away. So, please, show your children some respect and assume that it will have some integrity later in life.

As a whole it seems that blogs and websites are becoming more streamlined, perhpas it's just that my intrests vary and I'm too lazy to find new watering holes. So, could someone please make something in any shape or form that takes a little from a lot and skips all the stuff I'm not really that interested in?

Indivuals aren't that interesting unless you actually know them and what's going on in their lives, stranger's kids aren't that interesting either, unless you love them and care for them, books are interesting, observations and conclusions are interesting, so are movies to an extent, history, sure. Turtles wearing backpacks and skipping on lilly pads - sure win.

EDIT: I'd also like to add that I have a tendency to end up on way too many political blogs, so if you share intrests with me, it seems you're either a mother who reads while your child sleeps or a political activist. I hope that doesn't say too much about me.

How to write an essay about beauty

I swear I'll come out of this as a wiser person, but right now I don't know how to turn it sideways to see the back so I can start from the top. So this is the actionplan.

1.) Visit my friend Google, type in "beauty" and spend 2 and a half hours going through the image results.

2.) Ponder why naked women seem to be the main result of said search.

3.) Try to actually find an image that's representative, one that makes a Molly go "whoa".

4.) Repeat step 3.

5.) Repeat step 3.

6.) Begin to seriously doubt the superiority of Google's abilities.

7.) Go make a cup of tea

8.) Pick another picture, after regoogling and use it on the blog.

9.) Decide to work on the essay at another time.

For Cathy on the topic of true love

Just like the image suggests, a face over the surface is what keeps the body under alive, the streams washing you away, along, someplace else. The idea of soulmates is old, like Symposium by Plato, where people originally had four legs and four arms and two heads. They were then seperated, and we're doomed to search for the other half to complete us. Almqvist speaks of the same in the dialogue between the doctors in The Queens Tiara, even though the point of that was more to illustrate the question of what human is. For what is human, and by illuminating the humanism, you eventually end up by the other question of what does a human need? A sense of purpose, a sense of belonging.

It's, to me at least, debatable if we really need a purpose at all, because the only purpose we have is to stay alive and wait, keeping our faces over the surface to see just how long we last. That kind of waiting can make you lonely, so of course there's a need to theorize what we should spend our time doing, what becomes valuable when there's really no need, nor purpose for staying afloat, whether or not you find that in a person that doesn't care if you put on pyjama pants the second you get home and let your hair get really dirty because "it's so good for your scalp". The need for such person is the same as wanting to be acceptable even in your lowest moments. To think that there could only be one such a person throughout that long walk of life makes the idea of soulmates and true love seem so small to me.

As long as you're willing to accept that human life has no higher purpose that be alive all the days you're living, just like a cat finding the only ray of sun on the floor in the entire house and twirling in it, you can also accept the idea of soulmates and unconditional love. There is no unconditional love in the way it's portayed in art. The sorrows of young Werther comes to mind, he suffered endlessly because he was fixated on a particular kind of love. Just becuase someone's willing to die for it doesn't make it right. Being able to bring life to one another during the time you share, short or long, and accepting yourself, with or without someone kissing you even when your bikiniline is out of control is way bigger than putting your eskoliven in someone else's breakfast bowl.

Pictures I wish I had taken, part one

Quarries

Please allow me to break into pieces
I’ve done that horrible thing again
let me complain about pain
and scream until I’m done
until my thoracic is unfilled
Let me crack
I’ve earned it this time
Let me be stupid for a bit
It’ll be your turn shortly

What isn’t made of stone.

I’ll keep it short,
it’s all regrets, I regret everything bad
I’m done yelling
my chest is empty, at least
Did you see me crack,
please put my arms back
You seem mute
assuming I was that stupid
for a while

I wasn't made of stone

The world's richest

The other day I read something I've wondered for a while, if gold has always been the wanted metal we know it as. And yes, because it's softer and easy to work with it's been coveted. Good to know.

In the backwaters of the list of the richest people in the world. Good for them. Hopefully they earned it, deserve it. Hopefully all of us deserve what we have. I'd really like to read more from riches to rags stories, without any idealistic background, or political ones for that matter. Why is it that money is the only receipt for success? Why is it that beauty is the sure tell sign of happiness? At times it feels like I'm fighting an endless battle with every new person I meet, where I find myself in a situation where I have to defend harder to measure indicators.

Lists are practical ways to measure successful people, and people are easy to measure ourselves against, but does the comparison really say anything at all? Of course they don't.

Poems I wish I had written, part eight

It's no good but that's ok

There's this tendency I have, to look at things from a different perspective which in extension makes me rather pretentious, not use the term stuck up. But I'm not. I just lack the attentionspan and intrest in pitiful issues. I concern myself with the compliexity rather than a straight forward answer, often, once you look at a problem from different angles it turns out you had the answer all the time, you just didn't look at it the right way.

The practical concequences of this is that when you talk to me I might seem aloof and uninterested, and with that comes intimidating. That always suprises me a bit, I try to listen, and then tell you what it is that I hear from an idealistic perspective. You're babbling uncontrolably, I see that you lack structure, and if you seem uncomfortable with that I try to help you find a structure, if you seem happy with it, I try to encourage you to hold on to the float. I can't do that if you're snowed in on the detail of that your bookcase is too far to the left. It's a sifting function, I'm a tool for you to pour unfiltered words through and hopefully I can help you come up with a plan or an explaination in the other end.

At the same time it demands something too. You have to have the mental ability to hear what I'm saying when I reply, and you have to have the ability to move on. I've seen plenty of good people being too stuck in the past. Moving on creates an identity crisis, not in all a very vast one, but unless you understand that moving on changes you, you're not a fixed being, and accepting what you become can be difficult. It's not even sure that you even like the person you're transforming into.

We all identify ourselves with different pin pointed areas in ourselves. Things that don't require much power of thought. When meeting new people, what do they usually ask? Those questions are indicators of what we judge people by, your age, your marital status, your housing arrangement. When you're a child it's fairly easy, "what's your favorite colour, your favorite toy, your favorite game?" the older we get and the more life didn't turn out as simple as we had hoped every answer to the question of "how old are you, what do you do, are you married, do you have children?" also reflect a choice we made, or a choice we weren't allowed to make and the answers can become full of guilt and drowned dreams. Even though we're asked the same thing! Compare, how do you react to a 17 year old that's 8 months pregnant to a 37 year old that's 8 months along. Are they similar people, are they able to share the same experiance?

Conditions change, and our idea of ourselves should change accordingly. With everything external being transient it's even more important to know who you are in your core, who you are when you can't answer the polite questions asked. You should be able to identify yourself without measurable indicators. Who's the director without the job? Who's the housewife without the family? Who's the 90 year old without an age?

So, basically, if you define your identity less by these external easy to tell factors, and see who you are without them, the transition from one group to another won't be so difficult. Not even the argumen of "when I look in the mirror I don't recognize myself" holds up as you age, you always look slightly different, you experianced it when you went through puberty as well, didn't you? The expectation can't be to be stagnant, but always evolving and changing. And that the only thing constant is change is hardly a new concept.

What I'm trying to get at is that when it feels like the whole world is collapsing around you and you can't use the same indicators to shape an identity, please remember that those things never added to who you were in the first place.

International women's day

First a couple of sentences about Victoria Benedictsson. I was given the task to make my own literary canon. An impossible one as I found myself getting tied up in perspectives, but I lovingly remembered the first time I read Ur Mörkret, a sad yet perfectly composed story about a girl being brought up by her father and how she eventually came to detest her own gender simply because she couldn't live up to a male ideal. It's hard to be forgiven for being born a woman.

Then, today is also International women's day. Not the day for international women, but a day to remember that the fight for equality is very much still fought, every day still. So I mentioned it to an American friend, that appearantly never heard of it. That's a disgrace. In the sexual revolution the US was on top, women's rights were a big deal, women's camps and conferences, last time I heard about this part in modern history is when I listened to the P3 documentary about the history of female orgasm (if you know Swedish you can download it here) All I can think to ask is, what happened?! International women's day was always a big thing in school, as was UN day, and I grew up in the least gender equal part of Sweden, it still is by the way, it was in the news today, even.

Maybe it doesn't even matter what happened, it just reminds me that the world is hardly ready for the post feminism era. Either way I wish all women would get the chance to do with their lives as they please and don't feel forced to bleed on their wedding night. The idea of hymen is just another myth to control women's bodies, and deprive them of the human right to be their own masters. A woman's body is never quite her own, is it? There's always someone having an opinion on how it should look and what she should do with it. Again, that's why we need this day to begin with.

Maybe it's a black cat kind of thing

Why does this look so familiar? My Knit is usually pretty well behaved, unless he's not getting what he wants, then everything lives dangerously in his presence.

A contemperary angle of historical substance

You know exactly how they go, those employment ads. First it's a bunch of things that you're supposed to be that you're not, then things they offer than you don't really want, but they're masked for appeal and you think "Hm, that sounds fun", and then after you apply and wait, and try to imagine a life having that job, getting used to the idea you get a letter of refusal and you get a bit upset, but keep in mind what they're really asking for. Either way, I read the most darling article in the latest edition of Världens Historia. addressing the Middle Ages from this angle. I will let you non Swedish speakers enjoy part of it.

Want to experiance the world? Lego soldier

We offer: A varied job with lots of travels and excitement every day. Your pay is based on your results with a possibility of great bonuses during intense periods.

We demand that you

- can work independently and in groups

- that you're in good physical shape and that you're not afraid of chipping in

- that you bring your own shoes, spear and shield.

Then there's a little text informing you of what life was supposedly like for these soildiers. See, anything can be sold with the right PR agency.

Are you outdoorsy? Farmer (not fully true, but I don't want to use the politically incorrect term)

We offer a routine imprinted 96 hours working week with a lot of fresh air, flogging and abuse.

We demand that you

- bring your family

- are honest and duteous

- are ambitious and sustainable

Again, a text about the lives of those who were far down on the social latter. I'm probably a horrible person but the "we offer" part really made me laugh. Not even for that part could they find good selling points, but then again we all have our preferences of how we should be treated.

Tired of working 9-5? Nightman (honestly, I don't know what the correct English term is.)

We offer an exciting job from midnight to early morning. You'll get your own horse and carrige with barrel and plenty of exercise. You will also be living with your colleagues.

We demand that you

- bring your own shovel and bucket

- that you're not afraid to get dirty

- that you have good nightvision

So what did they do? They emptied the latrines. Both public and private during the night by candle light. They made twice as much money as a journeyman, but they stunk so badly they couldn't live among others. Talk about a crap job. But like my late father used to say "People will do just about anything for money, some even work".

Naturally there were other jobs as well, but knowing my luck I'd end up as one of those three. Luckily for me times have changed a bit. Here at least.

Unfortunatly, I choke on my own giggles at the nightman employment ad when I remember the caste system, and how by default this profession still exists, while the Portugese were the ones that introduced a caste system, it still lives on. I hope it isn't news to you that toilets aren't a common man possession in India and they still have human beings collecting human feces. As European countries withdrew, moved on and hopefully moved on some of the bad ideas live on.

Feudalism was from a humanitarian point of view a disaster from beginning to end. Too bad we haven't fully reached the end of it. The idea that one person can be worth more than another based on their heritage physically disgusts me. We're all worthy of the same respect no matter who or what you are. Even if you're stupid I'll respect you based on being human, but that doesn't mean I don't get a laugh or two out of the things you say. No offense.

I noticed

Moto Boy released a new album. Still nerdishly lovely. Time to change your name, boy? Nothing wrong with your real one. Listen here. Yes, the word "here" is a link. (But I'm not that behind, it was released March 3rd)

On a sidenote, it's so sunny today the roads are dry and my mouth tastes like the salt laid down to keep us from crashing. I don't care for the taste of salt.

Helix

I always look the same. The world always looks the same. Nothing ever changes. Helix helix helix. Hedera helix. Wake the nights. The sun sets so slowly. It doesn't pay off to know the word helix. It doesn't pay to know. Punchlines known before the joke begins seperates you. Better to stay in the shadows helix. You and me hedera helix, remember the good times?

It should be like this

The most appropiate way to cure heartbreak

The constant and the change, the literary canon

With inspiration from this debate, I will do a twist, and whine a bit. I don't care for Jack Kerouac even though I own three editions of On the road. I'll sum up the plot for you if you haven't read it, they travelled, they fucked, they worked they got high, they travelled, they fucked, they travelled they got high and they worked, they fucked and they travelled. Suprisingly similar to The Lord of the Rings triolgy where the plot kind of goes they walked and they walked and they walked and they walked, they fought, they hid, they walked they walked and they walked. That pretty much sums up my idea of American literature. The grand travels. You can also see Frodos change as a matter of intoxication and the similarity to On the road is even more evident.

Who am I to judge these, oh lord, I don't want to use the word, but I know I'll be criticized if I don't, masterpieces? I'd say I'm noone better than to pass this judgement as they, in different ways represent what my parent generation valued. Please don't confuse what I call the parent generation with my own parents. I'm not narcissistic enough to bring my own parents into this, and leading that into that I'm only one voice among many. That is what the canon is. Voices. Then you can divide it into two things, what they're saying and how they're saying it. Historically the way they're saying it has a longer staying power than what they're saying. This is why I think that in 150 years On the road will only be a parentheses in the history of literature. Compare it to Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostovesky (ugh, that is the ugliest spelling of his name) and how Crime and punishment in this offers a different perspective. Yes the plot is very introspective but it offers lessons to learn, something On the road only does to those who can directly relate to it. That generation will fade and the importace of the book will with that fade as well. Surely both books are best enjoyed before your mid 20s of the idealistic idea is lost. They can both be used as tools for the adolescent to find a place in the world, a sort of companionship in the state of being an outsider. Stylstically neither of these works compare to the sonnetts of William Shakespeare or Homerus. When context is lost the how remains.

Good quality literature embrace both of these elements, which is why Shakespeares comedies aren't as funny today as they were when they were written. Without understanding the life in the elizabethan era we can't understand the humor. Just like the French classicism dramas by Molière weren't about the ancient Greeks, he simply used a known and admired concept to tell the stories that'd suit the French upper classes in the 1600s. They tell us more about the lives and issues of them than they do of their heritage. I'm fully aware of the fact that the ideas I'm presenting aren't new, yet there's an essence of reinventing the wheel in any literary discussion. Everything has already been written, every style has been tried.

This is what the modernists had issues with. When everything's already been said but I still have things left to say, how do I go about that? And how, in a post like this can I fail to mention The Wasteland by T.S Eliot, which to me is the perfect example how you can use all the stories already told to tell something new. The Wasteland has what On the road lacks the most, depth. The fact that everything has already been written isn't a hindrance in producing excellent literature, but just like you don't start designing a car by pondering inventing the wheel you can't start from fresh without looking back. As simple as doing footnotes in your dissertation to show you're aware of where the information came from you weave the past into your text and do in fact create something new. That new will not have the same staying power as the original.

Compare that to scientific studies, which ones cause the most outbreak? The first study to show that smoking is bad or the one million following confirming the same thing? This brings me to the debate itself, the one about the literature of the Swedish working class where in the 1930's the writers hit a core in Swedish society with their bare realism and suffocating descriptions of the every day lives of the poor, but only in embracing the culture of the higher classes, the novel, did they get a chance to do so.

After the initial intent of the genre, to publicly show, to gain a greater audience for the issues at hand, what has the working class literature had to deal with, what can it offer now? It goes back to the discussion of how and what. Were these novels so sovereignly written that they deserve a place in the canon? Or do the stories of how actually fall under the category of social history and ethnology? Where is the line drawn between literature and other cultural expressions worthy of preserving?

A random song

Me, me, me

Some things I've learned today taking quizzes on Facebook; In a previous life I owned a bordello, stupidity pisses me off, my inner crazy bitch is Sylvia Plath and my soulmate is Johnny Depp. It's all very self indulgent. The person that matters the most to ourselves is in fact oneself. I remember taking quizzes in the teen magazines as well, the difference is that places like Facebook allow us to broadcast our result and with that making us seem rather witty and important. Do I honestly think my Facebook friends care about who I was in a previous life? No, not really. Do I think the people who actually care about me would get a laugh out of it? Possibly.

I can't even call it selfishness, when it's more self fascination. It's almost as if we should be suprised about the results of them, some stranger composing them, like an all mighty god telling us who we are, identifying our cores based on what colours we like, which music we listen to, what TV shows we watch and so on and so forth. As if everyone cares so much about us that they know us better than we could ever know ourselves. A camera sweeping over my face as my eyes sparkle in the special on TV about my wonderful life, all the grand things I've done and how I changed the world. Or when I accept my award, my gorgeous dress the flashes going off to capture a bit of me, the audicene applauding until the palms of their hands turn red. All good daydreams, and the Internet makes it possible.

Thing is, and this is something I've brought up before, when everyone's special, noone's special. Also, and again subject of an older blog post, with all the possibilities of the Internet, in all the ways we could become wiser we focus on the topic we love the most - ourselves. From time to time I do a Google image search with "self portrait" and giggle at the results. This, my friends, is how we want the world to remember us, as quirky different people, an ocean of individuals all trying to peak and be better, prettier, sexier, witter and more googleable. What you need to remember is that when everyone's selfish, noone cares about you either.