"I had to have a smeck [laugh], though, thinking of what I'd viddied [seen] once in one of these like articles on Modern Youth, about how Modern Youth would be better off if A Lively Appreciation of the Arts could be like encouraged. Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles."
Alex might be an ultra-violent English droog, but as the Humble Narrator of A Clockwork Orange (by Anthony Burgess, as I need to keep reminding myself) he takes the cake even off Holden Caulfield. Especially in applying Nadsat lingo to social commentary, that is.
I'm not bringing Alex up for the usual reasons (namely that we're studying A Clockwork Orange in my 20th Century Lit class and I really dig guys that get creative with mascara), but more because That Boy and I saw Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man at the Playhouse last Saturday. After independent verification by the middle sibling, I'm still somewhat stunned that the defenders of Great Culture remain elderly, WASPish individuals who have the nerve to give That Boy nasty looks. Good thing the less-good-looking-half was hiding in the W.C. down the stairs.
The play itself was perfectly peachy, of course; I'd be hard-pressed to say anything bad about an "Irish dramatist, literary critic, socialist spokesman and leading figure in 20th century theatre," even if all the women in the play were self-absorbed and money-grubbing, the men eager to indulge this unfortunate tendency, and the show almost stolen by the three windmills put on display during set changes. I could see the Swiss guy on Fraiser and I think I'd marry him if he existed in real life, especially if I got to keep the 12 carriages and puffy pillows too.
I got up an hour earlier today and had an enormously productive day. Following this logic, getting up a further half hour earlier will improve productivity by a further 50%, and only be offset by a slightly more-miffed-than-usual Chinese Ph.D. roommate. I've also discovered that standardized tests are a fantastic way of making conversation with random guys in French class, and doing presentations on the fly invariably works out better than anything meticulously planned out.
Well, what do you know -- I actually managed to keep that resolution to make today a good day.
Alex might be an ultra-violent English droog, but as the Humble Narrator of A Clockwork Orange (by Anthony Burgess, as I need to keep reminding myself) he takes the cake even off Holden Caulfield. Especially in applying Nadsat lingo to social commentary, that is.
I'm not bringing Alex up for the usual reasons (namely that we're studying A Clockwork Orange in my 20th Century Lit class and I really dig guys that get creative with mascara), but more because That Boy and I saw Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man at the Playhouse last Saturday. After independent verification by the middle sibling, I'm still somewhat stunned that the defenders of Great Culture remain elderly, WASPish individuals who have the nerve to give That Boy nasty looks. Good thing the less-good-looking-half was hiding in the W.C. down the stairs.
The play itself was perfectly peachy, of course; I'd be hard-pressed to say anything bad about an "Irish dramatist, literary critic, socialist spokesman and leading figure in 20th century theatre," even if all the women in the play were self-absorbed and money-grubbing, the men eager to indulge this unfortunate tendency, and the show almost stolen by the three windmills put on display during set changes. I could see the Swiss guy on Fraiser and I think I'd marry him if he existed in real life, especially if I got to keep the 12 carriages and puffy pillows too.
I got up an hour earlier today and had an enormously productive day. Following this logic, getting up a further half hour earlier will improve productivity by a further 50%, and only be offset by a slightly more-miffed-than-usual Chinese Ph.D. roommate. I've also discovered that standardized tests are a fantastic way of making conversation with random guys in French class, and doing presentations on the fly invariably works out better than anything meticulously planned out.
Well, what do you know -- I actually managed to keep that resolution to make today a good day.
