tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post4074874477159885588..comments2024-03-29T10:31:55.523-05:00Comments on Althouse: "There was a dragonfly perched on the rail, a single bolt of electric color like a driven blue nail, and beneath it..."Ann Althousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-9434944041059675252018-08-20T12:36:33.250-05:002018-08-20T12:36:33.250-05:00I didn't realize this was an old post and prob...I didn't realize this was an old post and probably a dead thread. But it was cathartic for me, anyway.Lovernioshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15575619175879044958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-32856083647747929982018-08-20T11:58:45.675-05:002018-08-20T11:58:45.675-05:00I’m assuming all of you read these books while in ...I’m assuming all of you read these books while in college. I attended Salem State for less than one semester. Didn’t like it. Didn’t like the dorms, the cafeteria, the classrooms. Everything seemed strange. Mostly the people were strange. They were very different from me. I came from a white trash background - alcoholic parents, on welfare, eight kids, chaotic house. I looked like it, dressed like it, talked like it, and probably smelled like it. I was very uncomfortable and felt alien. I was unable to make any friends.<br /><br />There were no books at home, so I never developed the habit of reading. And at college reading was the key. You had to read. Besides, I couldn’t sit still long enough. I had to move, do something even if it was just running nowhere. Probably ADHD, but that didn’t exist back then.<br /><br />So, I dropped out and joined the Army. That’s where the action was. But Viet Nam was winding down and I ended up in Germany. First day there, guys on the bunk across from me were shooting up heroin. I didn’t go down that path, but I did trip a few times. At any time during the early seventies, probably half the soldiers in Germany were drunk, high, stoned or tripping at any given time.<br /><br />I do remember one trip, though. It was New Year’s Eve and a group of us were out and about Hanau and I saw this black guy with a fur trimmed jacket. At the tip of every strand of fur was a small glowing light. I went up to him and said, “Wow! That is so beautiful, man!”, and reached out to touch his collar. He looked at me like I was crazy. My friends pulled me away before I got into a tussle. Can you fight while tripping?<br /><br />Then when we were back at the barracks, I was sitting in a big chair facing the open windows. And the fireworks began. On New Year’s the Germans light off fireworks in celebration. As the shells exploded the sparks seemed to come straight at me and then sweep past me. I was pressed into the chair and couldn’t move. Wave upon wave of light beams making it seem I was accelerating into the universe. My heart was pounding. It was exhilarating and frightening. I think that was my last trip.<br />Lovernioshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15575619175879044958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-476054801117096592018-08-20T11:41:48.868-05:002018-08-20T11:41:48.868-05:00"Did you ever try to read while on LSD?"..."Did you ever try to read while on LSD?"<br /><br />Yes, when I was about 14. This was in 1971. I spent the night at a friends house. He was into drugs. I wasn't, but he talked me into taking two hits of strawberry barrel acid. First high ever. Whoa!<br /><br />Anyway, at one point I was reading a Tarzan comic book. For some reason I thought the plot line had something to do with is mom, a big-ass gorilla. Someone was trying to hurt her and it really upset me. After I came down I realized that the story was about Tarzan fighting a gorilla. Freaky!<br /><br />About a year later, I felt a flashback coming on. I didn't want to get high again (didn't like it), so I started reading Treasure Island out of a desire for normalcy. Read the whole book. Don't remember a thing about it.Skippy Tisdalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16045429067276168585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-16699059741935665012018-08-20T11:39:38.384-05:002018-08-20T11:39:38.384-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Skippy Tisdalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16045429067276168585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-45559055103778841182018-08-19T15:18:51.166-05:002018-08-19T15:18:51.166-05:00I'm reading bulgakov's master and margarit...I'm reading bulgakov's master and margarita, in a world that didn't believe in god, tip of the hat to nietsche, they find it hard to deal when the devil comes calling,narcisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07128976398798678295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-39433742459939059472018-08-19T08:47:24.534-05:002018-08-19T08:47:24.534-05:00Read Cat's Cradle and Steppenwolf as a teenage...Read <i>Cat's Cradle</i> and <i>Steppenwolf</i> as a teenager and thought they were groovy, man. Read <i>Ficciones</i> in translation much later, and have read it several times since. None on LSD. I don't think reading anything on LSD would work.<br /><br />Borges is head and shoulders above the other writers on that list.Paco Wovéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00053886112561036768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-23009269215860824302018-08-19T07:38:35.678-05:002018-08-19T07:38:35.678-05:00Oddly enough, I have a copy of Trout Fishing in Am...Oddly enough, I have a copy of Trout Fishing in America, in a small stack of books in my living room, having acquired it in the early seventies. Loved the picture on the cover; two fashionable homely people as I imagined living in sixties San Francisco. Never read on LSD, however I remember a delightful new year's eve with two student nurses, standing in my living room,howling at the ceiling, a more productive use of acid. JMW Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09701389717024210449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-25418140756467106522018-08-19T07:29:52.102-05:002018-08-19T07:29:52.102-05:00I cannot remember which came first, Brautigan or L...I cannot remember which came first, Brautigan or LSD. I suspect the LSD did. Trout Fishing changed my approach to writing and probably ended my writing career right then and there in school (I remember my writing prof telling me to lay off the Brautigan-esque style.) But years later, I still enjoy picking through bits of Revenge of the Lawn. <br /><br />Read the others except Ficciones. While Steppenwolf was good, it was Siddhartha that caught me back then. Probably the two books that had the most impact on me in those days were Trout Fishing and Siddhartha. Wonder how they'd read today?Temujinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16151260392919555708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-48847982766633237312018-08-19T06:26:59.353-05:002018-08-19T06:26:59.353-05:00Althouse: "The story takes place in 1970, and...Althouse: "The story takes place in 1970, and the "she" in that paragraph is, as you might guess, on LSD."<br /><br /><i><b>And then she was</b> down out of the tree, barefoot in the biting leaves, scattering an armload of books like glossy seeds... With a sweep of her instep, she interred the books beneath the clawlike leaves</i><br /><br /><br />Love this acoustic version: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiF2krOvcBA" rel="nofollow">And She Was</a></b><br /><br /><i>"And She Was" is a song written by David Byrne for the 1985 Talking Heads album Little Creatures. "I used to know a blissed-out hippie-chick in Baltimore," recalled Byrne in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "She once told me that she used to do acid (the drug, not music) and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real! A new kind of religion being born out of heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints. And this girl was flying above it all, but in it too."</i>Wincehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15002449963597087316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-90997230685051861152018-08-19T05:35:26.963-05:002018-08-19T05:35:26.963-05:00Only Trout Fishing for me. But I do have almost ev...Only Trout Fishing for me. But I do have almost every Brautigan book and bought them all when I was living in San Francisco not too long after and so they are always stuck in that time and place for me.. a memory of a fantastic time in my life in a place I loved.<br /><br />Thank you for reviving thet memory here at 5:25am, so strong I can feel and taste it.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11136257757561409957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-80027729502086859252018-08-19T05:06:38.369-05:002018-08-19T05:06:38.369-05:00LSD, mescaline and mushrooms were fun. We did ever...LSD, mescaline and mushrooms were fun. We did everything on them. Or tried to. Sometimes we jut had to pull the car over and sit for a few hours. But that was 50 years ago when we were immortal. And in a cometely different world and context. T'was fun though.Heartless Aztechttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10239870131881488916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-92136861358234044672018-08-19T03:19:36.517-05:002018-08-19T03:19:36.517-05:00Family.Family.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-77442812286436363712018-08-19T03:10:51.218-05:002018-08-19T03:10:51.218-05:00I could go on, but this is a family blog.I could go on, but this is a family blog.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-52663210915364910052018-08-19T03:00:23.163-05:002018-08-19T03:00:23.163-05:00Myself, I love women.Myself, I <i>love</i> women.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-29242294838249901232018-08-19T02:58:31.546-05:002018-08-19T02:58:31.546-05:00Women.
Say no more.
Women.<br />Say no more.<br />Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-82849896279272052552018-08-19T02:43:31.885-05:002018-08-19T02:43:31.885-05:00Seriously.Seriously.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-85833905833524129492018-08-19T02:43:09.190-05:002018-08-19T02:43:09.190-05:00So, honeys, whut drugs u b on?
gimmie dat fedex nu...So, honeys, whut drugs u b on?<br />gimmie dat fedex numba!Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-43421839468772213692018-08-19T02:38:38.370-05:002018-08-19T02:38:38.370-05:00u b tortured.
spill.u b tortured.<br />spill.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-43927230329347024022018-08-19T02:37:39.749-05:002018-08-19T02:37:39.749-05:00Books like that can be read on or off drugs. They...Books like that can be read on or off drugs. They're mostly idiotic dreamsickles of preening persecution or preening "insight."<br /><br />While Drop City is great. T. C. Boyle is an actual novelist. We have too few. He sympathizes without indulging. The disease of the age is that people are used to imagining they have done all the work and are more enlightened than anyone in history. When they find themselves in a Boyle book as self-aware as Madame Bovary, it's jarring. But he isn't unkind. He likes people. Novelists have to like people.Tina Trenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18042740028141957317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-38441685072093048342018-08-19T01:44:11.995-05:002018-08-19T01:44:11.995-05:00If books fit so well in a specific culture and tim...If books fit so well in a specific culture and time, I could see where planting them as an offering could work to give birth to a new phase of writing. Also this makes me remember I grabbed a Brautigan book and Whole Earth Catalogue to read for the few days I spent in jail when I was busted for hash. Knew Cleaver a bit, he reformed. He had a benefactress paying his rent in Berkeley but then he got evicted because he had so much junk in his front yard.cathyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16443235891957402834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-39001140906383745672018-08-18T23:53:23.502-05:002018-08-18T23:53:23.502-05:00Hi Carol!Hi Carol!Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-60356699582650708912018-08-18T23:52:39.707-05:002018-08-18T23:52:39.707-05:00My other girlfriend introduced me to Thurber and E...My <i>other</i> girlfriend introduced me to Thurber and E. B. White.Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-20525888878008281792018-08-18T23:23:49.456-05:002018-08-18T23:23:49.456-05:00"Did you ever try to read while on LSD?"..."Did you ever try to read while on LSD?"<br /><br />Oh yeah. I only took it as a mental disciplining tool anyway. I wouldn't know how to do it for fun. The Crack Emceehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08366101526773588864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-38794172058253146072018-08-18T22:38:10.351-05:002018-08-18T22:38:10.351-05:00Cat’s Cradle in the 70s, Steppenwolf in the 00s, F...Cat’s Cradle in the 70s, Steppenwolf in the 00s, Ficciones in the 80s and again last year. Borges is the best by far. Vonnegut only had one story that he told over and over. I liked Siddhartha better than Steppenwolf, but Hesse is way down on the list.FWBuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15659814282551363901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329595.post-73088580731549126502018-08-18T22:37:19.138-05:002018-08-18T22:37:19.138-05:00Hi, Dorothy!Hi, Dorothy!Jon Ericsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05548597217632737704noreply@blogger.com