THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Van Cruncheon on September 07, 2007, 02:24:14 PM
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a coworker saw me looking mightily bored at a recent corporate event, and out of pity she handed me one of the books in her bag: philip roth's "everyman". i'm not sure if there was some embedded commentary in the selection of that novel -- i would like to think that i am no willy lomax-esque cog to die an emblem of unaccomplished cultural loathing -- but at 190 or so pages, it was easily read and digested in the span of four hours.
first, i like philip roth. like saul bellow, he has made jewry into a literary gimmick, and as a result, i know more about the various flavors of jewish cultural history in america between, oh, 1860 and present. this has presented a bit of a bias in my mind, since i now assume willco harbors a secret lust for his mother, lives with the spectre of the holocaust, wants to fuck models in the ass, and veers derangedly between intellectual atheism and a complete embrace of talmudic ritual. are all jews like this? i don't know! thanks, modern american literary greats!
the title "everyman" presents my only major beef with the book: the wholly unnamed protagonist is hardly an ordinary man, such as one might consider a thing. he is an upper middle class playboy of sort who has led a thoroughly unexamined life until various health crises force him to consider his mortality, although he remains dubiously unempathetic until the end. one of the neat tricks this book does with its eulogic, out-of-order narrative (it starts with his funeral and ends with him dying) is that re-reading the funeral prologue is a completely new experience after you get to know the main character, since roth has done a wonderful job, well, eulogizing the man. his prose is, as ever, simple yet evocative in language, although he veers into faulkner territory when he approaches the more liminal scenes within the novel. also, roth can't write dialogue. fuck you who disagree: everyone is clever and incisive in his books, and the women coin elaborate metaphors on character failings at the drop of the hat. oh, roth says later, these people are clever, but i think it subtracts from the essential humanity on display when they all talk like greek tragediennes with tourettes. still, there are many poignant scenes in the book, and he nails the failings of modern men to the door with sympathetic taps.
the metaphor of the watch is clumsy, and seems rather inelegant and forced -- yes, yes, the main character was obsessed with watches and the notion that time was mechanical, not biological; a thing to be observed, not experienced, as through a jeweler's loupe rather than one's own (failing) senses. the better message is the thread that deals with the currently american inability to rationalize mortality, and the stupid things we do to avoid the big question of death. i recently read a new republic (lol me) article on studies that show how americans' political opinions skew seriously conservative when they are thinking about their mortality (see: 9/11 in particular), and this book illustrates the same issue prosaically: when confronted with death, we retreat from life. the book is a larger eulogy for humanity; a selfish appreciation for the little deaths we die when we give into the fear of our mortal failings.
overall, it's a good read, and blessedly short. i give it 3 out of 5 jewish sons imagining their mom while fucking a shikse whore in the ass.
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This review is amazing, I'm going to buy this book right now. It was either between this or Light. Wonder where I can read a review on Light...
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Check out Billy Rygar's review (http://justkidding) for more on Light.
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>:(
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While I don't lust after my mother - everything else is true!
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that's a good point, billy. like the plot against america, everyman is stultifyingly unwitty. it's a very somber exercise in character surgery, right down to the funereal forms and didactic descriptions of burial that bookend it.
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it's okay, I make my own public promises that get several weeks delayed
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Who doesnt?
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Does this book offer more insight into the Jewish psyche than the Bible?
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it's not about anything particularly jewy. it's really about a handsome ad exec and his failure to live -- to never appreciate what he was given and to let his insecurity and neediness kill the things he tries to grow. oh, and how he likes to buttfuck. jesus, roth!
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Sounds decent. I'll read it.
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if I read the book will it explain to me why people like buttfuckin so much
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Sodomy is nothing out of the ordinary in this day and age. Widen your horizons, people.
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But why would you want to put your ding dong up a girl's pooper in the first place? ??? ???
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But why would you want to put your ding dong up a girl's pooper in the first place? ??? ???
So you can widen her horizons, ahahahahahaha I'm so sorry.
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Sodomy is nothing out of the ordinary in this day and age. Widen your horizons, people.
Anal sodomy, specifically. I just don't get why you would put it where a girl poops unless she specifically requests it for reasons that don't appear to be tied to some psychological shortcoming. I have never felt an urge to stick my schtupper in Das Poopentube, although I have no problem with doggy-style. Why moving one's cock up an inch or so into the poopy hole is such a big deal to some dudes is beyond me.
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Sodomy is nothing out of the ordinary in this day and age. Widen your horizons, people.
Anal sodomy, specifically. I just don't get why you would put it where a girl poops unless she specifically requests it for reasons that don't appear to be tied to some psychological shortcoming. I have never felt an urge to stick my schtupper in Das Poopentube, although I have no problem with doggy-style. Why moving one's cock up an inch or so into the poopy hole is such a big deal to some dudes is beyond me.
I agree, especially when Hole #1 is warm, inviting, delicious, and wonderful and Hole #2 is literally MADE OF SHIT
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yeah, how did we go from a Philip Roth book review to talking about doing girls up the pooper
I apologize for my role in these proceedings
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it was probably because you hate jews.
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I won't derail this thread any further. Let's just say that my notions of what constitues normal sex might have been corrupted by the viewing of too much pr0n.
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lol, imagine telling that to your med school teacher.
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My uncle showed me a sixteen page spread from the British Journal of Urology showing the various ways someone can pierce their genital region and the ways it effects the urologic system. I doubt his med school teachers would be shocked by much.
well they can still be shocked by the stupidity in such things as cluelessness that a gang bang would cause anal bleeding.
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Have we established nintenho's native language?
Does he even have a native language?
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nintenho is Persian from as far as I can gather from his posts.
where did you find out? most people say I look mexican (I really do!) until they see me randomly kick people in the balls when playing soccer.
I'm just trying to get across the weirdness of talking to a med school teacher about anything that combines feces, porn, and dick.
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A lot of Persian chicks are really hot once they fix their noses.
Thread further derailed. :lol
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yeah but I don't do anything persian.
patel however, I remember him being arab because persians told me arabs have big dicks and big balls and that's it. could explain his anal sex opinion.
noses aren't that bad SG. it's when they bend over and their shirt goes up a little and you see the gorilla hair on their back. If you think I'm exxagerating on that. I. AM. NOT.
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Ironically, I've buttfucked both a model and an ad exec.
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hellz hgyeqh lol
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Is this the thread for talking about having anal sex with persian women who have just had nose-jobs?
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i like them with orignal noses
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women shouldnt get work done on their face, its fucked up.
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(http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u173/train28/100.jpg)
What's wrong with having a little work done if you're uncomfortable with what you have? The friend above has asked me before if she should get a nose job and I told her that she should if it would make her feel better. I think she's really pretty but her nose is also noticeably bigger than average (compared to a white woman). She keeps herself in great shape too so obviously appearance matters a lot to her. If you're not happy with what you have, no amount of assurance from others can make you feel better.
noses aren't that bad SG. it's when they bend over and their shirt goes up a little and you see the gorilla hair on their back. If you think I'm exxagerating on that. I. AM. NOT.
Are you sure you weren't messing around with a cheeseburger? I've never seen a Persian chick with that kind of problem. Except for the nose, Persian women are pretty hot. They have the facial features of white women, great bodies, and enough pigment so that they don't age as quickly as whites.
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I'm not joking with you. Many have facial hair too.