Job-Trotting

JOB-TROTTING
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Like herds set loose out to graze
You ramble away on wayward ways
Forever seeking pastures greener.
But tell me, do you really know
Just how green should green be?
And just how much grass can you eat?

- Thomas Jay Cubb

Beauty With Brains

Searching for beauty with brains.
A divine beauty witty
Or at least, an erudite Aphrodite.
Or so I fantasized.

But my poet's dream capsized
When I realized
That erudite
Doesn't rhyme quite
with Aphrodite!

- Thomas Jay Cubb

JUST-IN-CASE LEXICON

1. Aphrodite (pronounce afro-die-tee) - Goddess of love and beauty and daughter of Zeus in ancient mythology; identified with Roman Venus
2. Erudite - Having or showing profound knowledge

False Adage

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FALSE ADAGE
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Does the fact that brevity
Is the soul of levity
Make this ditty
In any way witty?

- Thomas Jay Cubb

Alternate title: The Soul Of Wit

Word Splurge

A peek into the creator's mind...when he feels he just has to write a poem only because he has learnt a couple of new (and similar) words, and wants to use them!
:-)

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WORD SPLURGE
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Er..Er...
I hesitate
Words to concatenate,
amalgamate and ostentate

Er..However
I have this urge
a creative urge
And it begins to surge.

I wonder whether
My inhibitions to expunge.
Make that lunge
and take the plunge.

No longer
a procrastinating Demivierge
I will emerge
my own demiurge.

- Thomas Jay Cubb


LEXICON
----------------
Demivierge - a young woman who takes part in sexual activity without ending her virginity
Demiurge - A subordinate deity, in some philosophies the creator of the universe

JUST-IN-CASE LEXICON
------------------------------
concatenate - Add by linking or joining so as to form a chain or series
amalgamate - To bring or combine together or with something else
ostentate - Display proudly; act ostentatiously or pretentiously
expunge - Remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line
lunge - The act of moving forward suddenly
procrastinate - Postpone or delay needlessly

Fahrenheit 451 - Review

Here's a review of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 that I posted on epinions.com Diamond Is Carbon. Apr 26 '04 Pros *Powerful ideas *Compelling dialogue *Imaginative storyline Cons *Weak prose at times *A bit raw, lacks polish *Strong, but one-dimensional characters The Bottom Line A good read. Find some wisdom here. But it fades in comparison to other dystopia-novels like 1984 or Brave New World.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a gem of a book; but it has a few flawed edges that mar the brilliance. On more than one occasion, I was reminded of the Saddest Words of Man- What could have been and If only... On to the story. F451's is a dystopic world in which books have been banned. There is even a Fire-Force whose duty is to burn books. Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a satisfied member of the Force, who enjoys his work. Meet Beatty, his know-it-all boss and the Mechanical Hound, the ruthless instrument of horror, that hunts down wrong-doers. It's a bad, bad world in which people betray their closest friends to the Force just to watch their house burning bright at night! The seeds of unrest and doubt are planted in Montag when he gets influenced by Clarisse, a sweet young girl who still lives life the old-fashioned and happy way. Montag also meets Faber, an old professor, in a park. The professor quite literally becomes the Voice in Montag's head (He gets a radio-receiver implanted), and our hero becomes just the person he must not be. A lover of books!. Montag is torn between what now seems to him to be the truth and what he has stood for all his life. Montag's crisis deepens with his ultra-materialistic wife Mildred dragging him down with her constant demands, his Mentor egging him on and his Boss tugging at him to return to the normal, routine life, all of which lead to interesting situations. The main characters are strong-as-rum and are also powerfully developed by the author. The confrontations between Montag and Beatty form the highlights of the book. The conversations Montag has with the Professor, though good, are not as impressive. Even though Bradbury is known primarily as a scienc-fiction writer , Fahrenheit 451 is more than just another sci-fi novel. It has substance: nourishing brain-food, in the form of original thoughts and delicious, albeit well-known quotes. A little learning is a dangerous thing/Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. F451 will help you findyour thinking cap - the philosophical interludes are written powerfully and of course, proverb-fully. Bradbury even has a sure-fire way to get through life all guns blazing! If you don't like them, burn them! These nuggets of wisdom are thought-provoking and entertaining. Things go from the sublime to the ridiculous at times in Fahrenheit 451. But it is definitely worth its paper, even if only for those sublime parts, and there are many of those. Sci-fi writers have true, original and even brilliant ideas at times, but are often brutally so! They are perfectly capable of calling cute babies human-larvae! Or of calling diamonds glorified clarified carbon-blocks! Metaphors mixed, readers vexed! Take, for example, the opening sequence of the novel. It describes the protagonist Montag's daily routine of burning books. The author describes the fireman's hose as "...the great python spitting its venomous kerosene..." The python-hose comparison is okay, even good. But... pythons spitting venom??? From wheat to corn! (Just in case you didn't know, pythons are not poisonous. Sorry, but that's just not how pythons kill!) Such segments abound. The prophet in Bradbury shines through occasionally. His words about books becoming less popular and people getting addicted to TV ring alarmingly true. Fahrenheit 451 is most often termed a wannabe-1984. Where Orwell's 1984 was a masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451, though pretty good cannot be placed in the same league because it has more than a few flaws. It has as much substance but lacks the style. But all said, Fahrenheit 451 is a book that you would want to re-read. Some of the concepts are left abstract (purposefully?) and are worth chewing over. Or maybe ponder over some of those similes? There! Again I am reminded of those sad words...if only Ending with some mandatory bits of trivia. As Bradbury reminds us in an Afterword, Faber is a maker of pencils and Montag is a paper-manufacturer! And Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. Feel the mercury rising! All the way to 233 degrees Celsius...

Lizard

Another poem on the lizard. Do I really like lizardsso much?

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THE LIZARD
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I play the waiting game
Patience’s my middle name
Eyes unblinking
Hope unsinking
I know the prey will come my way.

Not heeding the Medusa stare
Comes the fly with haughty air.
Turn to stone
Its flesh and bone
Soon I’ll have had my way.

- Thomas Jay Cubb


Notes
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1. According to Greek mythology, Medusa was a Gorgon who could turn you into stone with a look. The hero Perseus conquered her and cut off her head by looking at her reflection.
2. For my tongue has gone its way?

God Knows - Review

Here's a review of Joseph Heller's God Knows that I posted on epinions.com

King David Catches 22!
May 31 '03

Pros
* Very humorous * Rich language * Fresh perspective

Cons
* Repetitive * Requires knowledge of the Bible * Not an easy read

The Bottom Line
I would recommend this book to anybody who appreciates innovative writing.

Review
Let me start off with a confession. I finished this book only on my 4th attempt. Initially, I had been put off by the theme as well as the plethora of Biblical names - Absalom, Jehoshaphath, for example. But deep inside of me, I had this feeling that there really was 'something' in the book. I had the book re-issued from the library many times over and finally, when I was through reading it, boy, was I glad I did!

Heller is at his inventive best in this book. Heller proves that he is not just a master storyteller but a master story-'re'teller as well. He takes the story of King David (yes, of the Bible!) and paraphrases it, as seen through David's eyes, with lots of spice thrown in for effect. Call it dollops of Biblical ice-cream with chocolate-sauce sex. As King David says in the book, I have the best story in the Bible. Heller just about manages to prove that.

God Knows looks at the Bible from a fresh, if contrary, perspective. In the book, Solomon is portrayed as a moronic mamma's-boy while David is a head-strong womanizer, at loggerheads with God. Bathsheba is the Adam-feminist bloomer-pioneer and Saul is a whimsical maniac.

The David of God Knows is a braggart and makes tall claims. David claims that he is the first everything - poet, musician and what not. He accuses Shakespeare of plagiarism and also stakes claim to Handel's Messiah. Every time he sneaks in an usage or idiom, Heller puts it as if David invented it. Preposterous claims, but one wonders : possibly true? David says that the Proverbs were actually all his and that Solomon really meant it when he ordered the baby to be cut in half to determine the actual mother!

It is always no-holds-barred from David to us. Whether it be about his relationship with his spouses or be it about the conflicts in his mind about what to do with his sinning offspring. David denies accusations of queerness with respect to his relationship with Jonathan, son of Saul whose love for him surpassed the love of a woman and also tries to justify his caprices as logical actions. All this endears him to the reader.

Treat yourself to nuggets of common wisdom. Like, "..there is wisdom in madness and strong probability of truth in all accusations for people are complete and everybody is capable of everything...". Or, "who gives up a life of opulence voluntarily?". And so many more. This is a book you would want to read and re-read.

As in all his other novels, I could catch autobiographical glimpses in Heller's protagonist, King David. The helplessness in old age, the infatuation with the nurse Abishag the Shunnamite and his obsession with his first major feat of killing Goliath all have parallels in Heller's life.

Heller shows his mastery over the language time and again. My strategy worked but my stratagem backfired. When it's adjectives, you have two..inevitably. The metaphors and similes are interesting Jewel of gold in a swine's snout? About Nathan the prophet: ... as vinegar to my teeth, as smoke to my eyes. Compared to him, Polonius was as silent as the Sphinx.

The humour is a key ingredient of the book. About Saul : He forgives and forgets. Then he forgets he's forgiven. Also advice to Solomon about the ephemeral nature about buildings: Man's erections are only temporary. Solomon's cryptic The apple never falls far from the tree is repeated to great effect. Bathsheba's persistence (Let's name him King.) and Joab's irreverence is also amusingly presented. David's dialogues with God are tragically comic. Comparisons between other Biblical characters and David are also highlights.

The storyline is well-known and can be had from the Bible. But it is the way in which the story is told that is most impressive. Heller is more at home explaining the character's thoughts than when explaining the plot though.

If you are a Heller fan, then this is a must-read. If you are not, then this will showcase Heller's versatility for you - prove that there's more to him than Catch-22. But be warned that this is not a novel in the conventional sense. It is a very novel novel.

This is a book that you would want to possess. Once you've read it, you'll want to go back to it. Hey, dust that Bible!