WHAT MADE THE HAMSTER THRILL TODAY IN A WINGED-BACK CHAIR WITH GOOD COFFEES AND HIS NON-CYBORGIAN SPOUSE NEARBY

so i'm in this science-fiction bookclub. i've never read the science-fiction before. it's all new to me, as if i'm listening to klingon war ballads set to ukuleles. in the sci-fi, my eyeballs feel as lost on the page as my feet on the intergalactic dancefloor. but i'm learning. and the rhythm is climbing up my thighs, just about to hit my swinging hips. watch out, all ye worlds.

my friend tim recently got the sci-fi ball rolling with a small klatch of us bryan, texas literarians. thus far we have read FRANKENSTEIN by mary shelley, THE TIME MACHINE and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by h. g. wells, and huxley's A BRAVE NEW WORLD. we're having a smashing good time working chronologically through six packs of pale ale and the major eras of science-fiction literature. at the moment, we are reading a smathering of short stories, compiled by our fearless leader tim, all penned and published during the golden age of science-fiction. 

today in a coffeeshop with my lovely bride, who is human and not made of robotics or cyborgian synthetic skin, we grabbed the only two winged-back chairs in the whole place and sat down to our readings. we have found that words and caffeine go so well together, a little tip i give to all of you. and while my wife enriched herself with gabriel garcia marquez, i plowed through the first of fearless leader tim's stories. and then i plowed through that damn thing a second time. and i freaking loved it both times. 

i am writing here to say that i have written my likings of the story over there, quite yonder in another webiverse where i sometimes fly my hamsterian planetary flags. please, i invite you to go there, to roam about and see this thing that made me thrill in that coffeeshop, in one of the only two winged back chairs remaining. life, really, it is too short not to thrill over words in winged back chairs, with good coffees and beautiful spouses nearby. so, yes, i invite you, even if you do not read the sci-fi, as i recently did not read the sci-fi, life is too short not to share in the bettering thrills of one another. 

thanks to clarks for reminding me to place my musings over here. i would have carried all this around in my pockets for weeks, my pant's legs getting heavy, thereby losing the ukulele war ballad groove that's almost to my hips by now. 

The (not-so) Great Gatsby?

Since this is open game on here I was going to write a mock book review on "Twilight" and suggest that everyone read it in light of the fact that it's a major block buster thriller movie right now, but as much as I really did enjoy it, I couldn't do it with a straight face. :)

So on a slightly deeper literary note:

I wonder if anyone was ever insulted by the word 'scally-wag'. "You scally-wag". Really?

Today I just finished the book The Great Gatsby after completing it 10 years ago as a mandatory High School reading assignment. I read it in two days which may have been a little too quick because I still don't get it. Please don't slap me my literary genius friends! It's called The Great American Masterpiece. Why? Don't get me wrong, I like it and all, it was enjoyable and great with a lower-case "g", but as far as Great goes, na-uh. I wish I was smart. I'm not trying to be self-deprecating or anything, just when it comes to literature comprehension I suck. That is probably why I never got into poetry, too speculative. I would always guess 'sex' when my teacher asked what the poem was about and usually that was the right answer. I could just get online and look up the cliff-notes version on this and appear more intelligent and then snobbily say "ohhh now The Great Gatsby is a classic piece of American literature that well captures the pre-depression area of the roaring twenties and the post Great War attitudes of the people escaping from the Victorian-era moral confines." I totally just made that up. That is how I got good grades in High School. I bs'd.

But back to The Great Gatsby, what is it about it that draws people in? Gatsby isn't a really likable character, he's a liar and a self-absorbed jerk. Daisy isn't likable either for even more reasons. Please don't say something like, "it's their flaws that make them so beautiful" because that's crap. They are so careless of what their actions do to harm everyone around them. I enjoyed reading about the culture that they were living in, the fabulously wealthy people who were probably similar to F. Scott Fitzgerald's own friends and contemporaries. The writing was great, he is amazing, and my argument isn't against him or the book itself, it's against this book being called the Great American Masterpiece. I mean really. Tell me why you think it's so great, pretty pretty please.

Aw, man.

I know it; I totally stink. Rottenness.

I'm only on chapter 13 of this, so far, amazing book, and one day, be it forty months from now, I will write about it, and anyone is welcome to write about it now, and By George!, you can write about any ole book you please.

Come on! Don't wait on me. Write about what you're reading. We want to know. Rules are out the window, people, can't you tell?