Monday, July 27, 2009

a little light reading with Mr Baum 1

I recently finished reading The Wizard of Oz (tWoO), but the text isn't finished with me yet. Like that turn of phrase? It only gets better or worse from here. Good to have all the bases covered, that way I can maintain an impenetrable fortress of you don't really know what I'm talking about, that's the fog of conversation. Unlike my intentionally obtuse style tWoO is perhaps the most straight forwardly written book in all of existence. I can't say either way for sure, but I certainly got that impression. It strangely reminded me of the mega super corporate icon (Lebrons and Tigers and Jordans, oh my) approach to public relations: They present such a vanilla image that you can read absolutely anything you want into their personalities (because it seems like they don't have any), thus broadening their appeal.

With that in mind, I found tWoO wonderfully profound in its simplicity (I probably projected my own prejudices onto the work, but hey everybody else is doing it right?). The Wizard of Oz -- the character not the book -- turned out to be a merchant of skulduggery, an air-balloonist, a native of Omaha and not a wizard at all. No surprise to anyone who's seen the movie, and who hasn't?

Sometimes I like to go all Rene Descartes on my beliefs, just to see how they hold up. Strip away, strip away, strip away and see what's left. Imagine your whole life you feel inherently flawed, there's a vital part of yourself missing, you're discontented, incomplete...TBC

work out
BP 90kgs*5,5,4,3
seated row 95/4*5

4 comments:

Scattercat said...

Interestingly, I just got done (well, last week) writing a story to be submitted to this forthcoming anthology of "dark" stories based in or on the Land of Oz.

http://jwschnarr.webs.com/submissions.htm if you care. Technically, it's still open until 7/31...

Loren said...

cool, I'll see if I can throw something together.

Pianika said...

Is it your birthday soon? Happy birthday if it is.

Loren said...

Cheers, yep I turn 30 tomorrow.