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Directory of Lost Causes

Posts tagged with "chomu"

Half of all species on this planet are in decline due to human encroachments; please get ready to die, everyone

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Good things are afoot at Chomu:

Here.

And here.

And especially here.

Not to mention here

Why Chomu is great and actually better than you even ever can realise

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First of all, sorry if I've left some comments here on my blog unaddressed. I'm having difficulty catching up with things lately. My room - and life - is a mess, et cetera.

Secondly, I think that Chomu's greatness can be demonstrated in terms of the outre value of the search items by which strangers have happened upon it. These search items - as entered into Google and other search engines - are, of course, accessible to us at Chomu through the kind of Internet spying that is now universal. Here are some examples:

panama hats in japanese literature

pray as a dance team

sarah palin wet pussy

lovecraft butterfly

2 girls introducing a metallic fork in a pénis

funk not only moves it can also remove

i want a malay girlfriend

samuel johnson and masturbation

Because of this, we have decided to institute a policy of occasionally using such mantras as the magazine's tagline. If you find that your own search-engine mantra has been used, that means it's your chance to claim your special Chomu prize - an evening out with your favourite Chomu writer.

Having now demonstrated the greatness of Chomu, it only remains for me to say, to all those who want a Malay girlfriend to introduce a metallic fork into their Lovecraftian butterfly pénis and use the funk to move and remove it while Samuel Johnson looks on masturbatingly and Sarah Palin prays for a wet pussy dance team to devise a new interpretative dance piece based on panama hats and their use in Japanese literature - you've come to the right place! We accept you! One of us!

Why it's definitively better never to be born

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Some time back I wrote a few bits and pieces online about Thomas Ligotti's extended essay, The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. There was, for instance, a thread I started on Thomas Ligotti Online, and one or two blog posts. The essay is, ostensibly, one dealing with the origins and development of the horror genre. It also carries in it, quite explicitly, an argument, or plea for, the voluntary extinction of the human race, not for the sake of the planet, or anything like that, but simply in order to reduce human suffering. I suppose it could be called something like the case for genocidal euthanasia, but that would be misleading, since the main solution to the problem of human suffering that is put forward is simply not to perpetuate that suffering by procreation.

At the time I was ambivalent towards such a conclusion and the arguments upon which it was built, and I suppose I still am. However, I feel like making a certain qualification now to the remarks I made then.

In as far as anything ever is right or wrong, I think that Ligotti is probably right here. Or to put it another way, unless there is such a thing as mass-enlightenment, there will always be a sense of intolerable suffering to human existence, and the only way to end this will be through extinction. Some means of extinction will be gentler than and preferable to others.

To state that even more simply: Yes, I agree; it's always better not to be born.

That wasn't the qualification I wished to make, actually. But before I make my qualification, I should perhaps qualify my qualification by saying, I think I am far less consistent in my views than Ligotti, and likely to vacillate wildly.

At one point in the thread - I believe at more than one point - a poster calling himself 'The Yellow Jester', who is, in fact, Thomas Ligotti, if, in fact, such an entity exists, makes a distinction between emotional pessimism and cerebral pessimism, claiming as his own the latter:

In my own case, I can say that my pessimistic outlook is a matter of cerebral introspection and not "emotional thinking." No matter how I felt on an emotional level, I would still say, "It would be better not to be born." That is a constant which could only change should I become the victim of a brain tumor or something of the sort that would derange my thought processes.


At the time I noted, but did not quite appreciate this point. I'm not sure that any thinking can ever be free of emotion, or at least, of something like 'personality'. My own pessimism (not that I especially want to own it) I have always thought of as emotional, of consisting in a sensation that no one else would ever understand, because I could never put it into words. It was an almost physical entity, as reasonless as any object on Earth, like a ball of fear and loneliness inside me.

Now, however, I appreciate this point much better.

At the time that the essay came out, my strong reaction to it was probably due to the fact that it was 'too close to home'. Now my reaction to it is less powerful. It seems little different to any other accumulation of letters that I may read or ignore at will. For the past few months I have not had the intense depression that I suffered for many years before. I feel relatively detached now, and it seems to me that, no, you do not need to be depressed to think that it's better not to be born. You might even be enjoying an ice cream - as I believe Ligotti himself remarked - and still think that to be born is a curse that should not be visited upon anyone. I agree.

What, after all, is everybody looking forward to? What have they been looking foward to throughout history? Why has it taken so long without finding that thing - which cannot even be conceived - and people still go on and on reproducing? I do not understand.

In the meantime, Thomas Ligotti has joined H.P. Lovecraft, Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis in their riotous and strangely touching adventures with Korean sex symbols Jeon Ji-Hyun and Kim Hee Sun, iiiiin, Thomas Ligotti and the Strange Case of the Orange-Flavored Lifesavers.

Jesus Krishna Says, "Fuck Off, Dad!"

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I've just been sent the above lecture on various esoteric things, some of which are already familiar to me. It reminded me that I've recently put up a new piece at Chomu. I was considering taking it down for a while. I was a bit ******** when I wrote it, and it's possibly embarrassing for that reason. Also, I'm very much against sex scenes in writing, and I'm afraid it contains sex scenes (kind of). Damn. Anyway, there's some vague connection betweeeeeeeeen the above video and the piece, which is called, 'After 2012 and the Mouse'. Actually, it's not. Also, there's a new piece from Justin Isis up, called, "Fuck Off, Dad" Also there will be more stuff soon, I imagine. Please keep checking.

Your pulse.

I'm So Miserable

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Who Would Have Thought that a Girl Like Me Would Double as a Superstar?

I'm putting that link right at the top of the page this time, because I suspect that in the last post containing the same link, the photograph of Derek Griffiths, halfway down, before the link, so mesmerised readers that they got no further in the post.



Who Would Have Thought that a Girl Like Me Would Double as a Superstar?, is a major new work from Justin Isis and myself, currently debuting in serial form on Chomu, which provides reasonable supporting evidence towards the case that 'the best things in life are free'.

A defining moment from the Hannah Montana series:



Well, I shall depart Wales tomorrow, in order the better to "attend to certain matters". In the meantime, I still have to pack. I'm not sure I can make it. Only a day in which to pack.

Hopefully this will be my last post here before I leave.

And here is my new favourite website, Poulpe Pulps, on which are collected together lots of pulp fiction covers all featuring octopi.

It's like a dream. A beautiful, beautiful dream.

The Best of Both Worlds

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There's been quite a lot of activity over at Thee 00's DANCE TEAM CHOMU (pray without pause(Betet ohne Unterlass)) recently, including the continuing saga of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin as they chase Korean skirt in 'Cockblocked by H.P. Lovecraft', and Scramble City, a novella simulcast on Chomu and Patchwork Earth.



And I am now very proud to unveil something that, in working on, with the excitement that must have been known to Barnes Wallis as he developed the 'bouncing bomb', Justin and I have been referring to as "the Hannah Montana project". Here, at this link, you may read the very first installment of Who Would Have Thought That a Girl Like Me Would Double as a Superstar?. Rest assured, there will be more to follow.

The Dadaoist Rap - Fornicating Dogs and Jesus Diamante

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There are a number of new pieces up at Thee 00's Dance Team Chomu.



Kingsley Amis is Tired of Life

Philip Larkin Debuts Princess StyleTM



The Dream Cycle

A Cloud in a Teapot

Oneironaut



It's possible that some of you may have read 'A Cloud in a Teapot' already, but I'm afraid when I first typed it in, I didn't realise that I had not typed the whole thing. I have now typed in the rest of the piece.

Happy Birthday to Chomu

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What is Chomu?

Is it a town in the Indian state of Jaipur with a literacy rate slightly higher than the national average? Is it "a person who lives for the singular purpose of trying to ruin the best parts of life for others by subintellectual activities"? Or is it a literary blogzine of dadaoist writing founded by Justin Isis and myself as a forum for the kind of writing we really want to see out there in the world, but which everyone else is too determinedly boring to publish? It is all of these things, and more.



In its incarnation as a blogzine, however, Chomu is now one year and four days old. Not only that, Justin has just posted there a new story, which I shall read after writing this, called, 'I Attain to the Level of Fucking Your Basic Hairdresser'.



Let us celebrate the wonder of Chomu... by reading it.

For the beginner, here is the zine's manifesto, which may guide you in the understanding of the works.

And for beginners and veterans alike, I now nominate some of my favourite pieces from Chomu:

The Lambs in the Trenches are Lambent and Trenchant

Wild Dogs and Alley Cats

The Ends II: of Phoenix Flower itself, metamorphical

The Tenth Night



Looking through to choose these pieces just now, from different contributors, I realised afresh just how much great stuff there is waiting to be discovered and rediscovered there in Chomu. I'm not going to link to each piece individually - that would be silly.

Anyway, perhaps there will be other forms of celebration on this occasion, and perhaps you will be invited, or perhaps not. We shall see.



Before I go, I'd just like to say that, although there are very few things in life of which I am proud, my involvement with Chomu is one. Can I explain? Should I explain? I think it is enough for me to say that I am proud, and the causes of that pride are such that explanation might not be in keeping with their spirit. I can perhaps say this much, however: Chomu is free, in all six senses of the word. Like the Dao itself, it is simply there whether or not you notice, whether or not you care.

Head of Bleddyn

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Well, I have insomnia again, and I thought, what better way to deal with it than to post a new photo album on my blog, but it seems to be taking about fifty kasquillion aeons to upload each image, so I might just go back to bed.

If I actually succeed in putting an album together, I should explain that the image(s) below are from Wales. I've taken hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photographs in Wales since I moved here last year. These are from the latest batch. They're not the best. I think they're a bit blurry. I've got a new camera, and that's my excuse.



Some people, I believe, rave about summer dells carpeted with bluebells, and I wouldn't say 'no' myself. But I much prefer a wooded hillside blanketed with flowering wild garlic.

There were also photos, in this batch, of the piglets down the road, and of my favourite ever tree, but I do like to keep some things to myself.

This computer, or the Internet, is being so slow that I want to kill myself.

By the way, please read Chomu. There have been recent additions, and there should be more exciting stuff coming up soon. And I might even write briefly about Chomu on my blog. I actually put in two seperate sets of HTML for italics for those two words there.



I used to read more books. I really am blaming the Internet for that. Not Chomu, mind you, but the Internet, generally. Chomu is good, and it counts as proper reading.

I can't stand any more uploading. I'm going back to bed.

The Sanctimoniousness of Oprah Winfrey

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Don't read James fucking Frey, read Chomu!

I'm being lazy and constructing a blog entry out of bits and pieces I have lying around. Someone sent me this link, about the 'writer' James Frey. It deals with the fact that James Frey is now treated with suspicion because his book, A Million Little Pieces, supposedly a memoir of his recovery from drug addiction, was found to be (at least in parts) a fabrication; apparently he hadn't had some of the experiences that he claimed to. Frey has now written a new book, and there is speculation as to whether people and publishers will be interested in it or not, in light of the fact that he lied about his first book. Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham says:

The point is he's written a great novel, and by summer of 2008 people will be able to approach James Frey with a clearer mind. Time will have passed.

An unnamed editor from a 'commercial house', responds to this, thus:

I don't like the tone of that. It suggests that it is the 'people' who have the problem, i.e. they need a 'clearer mind' in order to see the true value of James Frey's writing. The man is a liar and a fake. He may be a good writer—it's not like you have a be a good person to be a good writer. Actually, most writers are horrible people. At the same time, I would have felt icky about paying someone that shady 7 figures. Does morality have any place in a bottom-line business? I'm not sure anymore.

I felt sufficiently provoked by the whole thing to write a comment, which may or may not actually be posted on the site in question. Anyway, I shall paste it here. This is what I wrote:

I think people are really missing the point about this whole James Frey thing. It only goes to show what a minuscule number of human beings actually understand what writing is. There's no such thing as a 'true story'. A story is A STORY. It's an interpretation of reality, and the point is not whether or not something 'really happened' (that only matters in law courts), the point is what it means to you as you read it.

So, the real question is, is James Frey a good writer? I really doubt it. I've read some excerpts of his 'prose', which was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. There was no precision there at all, it was all "you will be impressed by this!!!" And that's why he got the readers he deserved - readers who take everything literally - and why he has ended up with egg on his face.

As for the 'one editor at a commercial house', I'd like to put to him the question that is posed at the end of the film The Mission, "Is this just the way the world is, or is this the way we have made it?"

He asks, "Does morality have any place in a bottom-line business?"

I very much suspect the answer is, "No, thanks to people like you."

Well, I wrote that comment quite hastily, so I didn't really have time to go into why James Frey is a bad writer. Apparently his book became a best-seller after he was recommended by Oprah Winfrey. She obviously has no idea what good writing is. It didn't take me long to discover that I hate Frey's writing. I even hate the title of his book. A Million Little Pieces. What is he trying to convey? "It was a really bad experience. It was so bad that, er, that it broke me in pieces. Yeah, that's right. It was really, really, really bad. So bad that I screamed and vomited and stuff like that, and I was literally broken into a million pieces. Well, not literally, but metaphorically, but you know what I mean. And drugs are bad, by the way, so don't do drugs. I've done them, because I'm tough and bad, but I've stopped doing them now, but it was really bad, and so am I, because I did them, but now I've stopped doing them, so I'm good, and bad, and tough."

That is my impersonation of James Frey. I'll excerpt from the actual book here, and see if you can spot the difference:

I wake to the drone of an airplane engine and the feeling of something warm dripping down my chin. I lift my hand to feel my face. My front four teeth are gone, I have a hole in my cheek, my nose is broken and my eyes are swollen nearly shut. I open them and I look around and I'm in the back of a plane and there's no one near me. I look at my clothes and my clothes are covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood. I reach for the call button and I find it and I push it and I wait and thirty seconds later an

Attendant arrives.
How can I help you?
Where am I going?
You don't know?
No.
You're going to Chicago, Sir.
How did I get here?
A Doctor and two men brought you on.
They say anything?
They talked to the Captain, Sir. We were told to let you sleep.
How long till we land?
About twenty minutes.
Thank you.
Although I never look up, I know she smiles and feels sorry for me. She shouldn't.

Some people (I can only deduce this from the fact that Oprah Winfrey championed this guy and he became a bestseller) actually read this shit and thought, "Wow, this is some writer." I suppose they think that a book should be a 'roller-coaster ride', or something like that. If you want a roller-coaster ride, visit a fairground. Now, I'm not saying that books can't be exciting. What I'm saying is, I wish people who were after buying and selling simple sensationalist thrills would not ruin the whole publishing scene by promoting the idea that that is what a book should be. A book is not a roller-coaster, and anyone who thinks it is is clearly showing their ignorance on the subject of writing. James Frey was writing books for people who know nothing about books, and was promoted by someone (Oprah) who clearly knows nothing about books, and so, when the readers discovered that the book wasn't 'real', he got what was coming to him. Any decent writer knows that books aren't real. Frey thought he could make money by duping people who know nothing about books into thinking it was real - believing it was real was the only way they could get the vulgar little roller-coaster ride they wanted. They were angry when they discovered the movement of the roller-coaster was simulated.

Afterwards, it seems, Oprah Winfrey wanted to crucify Frey on her show for lying (lying is what writers are paid for, for God's sake!). I don't feel sorry for Frey. If you play by the rules of an idiot game, this is what happens. And, because he played by those rules, he is also a bad writer. If only he had thrown the rules of the game back in the faces of those who had read his book and told them how stupid they were to believe it in the first place, perhaps the world would have been a slightly better place for us writers, but apparently he remains servile, undoubtedly for financial reasons.

Anyway, there is an alternative to Frey and Oprah.

Don't read Frey, read Chomu.

Don't waste your time watching The Bourne Ultimatum, read Chomu.

Chomu

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This post isn't really about my eyes, but I'm afraid I am going to have to repeat myself and say that my eyes are realy pretty bad at the moment. So the fact that I am using the Internet at all is testament to how unavoidable it has become in modern life. However, I'm so uncomfortable sitting here that I can't look at the screen, and, well, I don't want to spend much time doing this. If I don't respond much over the Internet these days, please don't be surprised. I am going to the doctor again this week, and hope to get referred to a specialist. I hope there's some solution. It's hard for me being a writer and having to avoid using the computer.

Anyway...

What I really wanted to talk about was the new blog/magazine that I am inolved with. It is called Chomu, and you may find it here. A little while back, Justin Isis, writer and contributor to the blog of the Great Swifty, got in touch with me because he'd come across me on the Internet somehow. It appeared that we had influences and interests in common. There followed an interview with me, and now there is Chomu.

The idea of Chomu is... Well, have a look. It is described as a 'da-dao-ist' magazine. I personally don't want to define the angle too closely, but I think there's a definite ethos at work there. We are, in fact, looking for contributors. Actually, I should discuss with Justin where it's best for potential contributors to write to. For now, send me a private message via Opera, if you like. [Addendum: We've decided that for the moment we're only taking contributions from people we already know. Sorry. There are many excellent reasons for this, which I won't go into here. Anyway, it'll certainly save my eyes from having to deal with thousands of contributions sent in from those who are lining up to be a part of Chomu.] I'm afraid that my eyes - yes, there's a reason I mentioned them - may really slow down any work or communication with a computer at the moment, though.

Maybe you're wondering what the word Chomu actually means. Well, watch this space, as they say. Or rather, watch this space, as I am currently working on a small piece entitled 'Chomu - The Entomology of the Word', which should explain everything. Or something, anyway.

Now, I really need to give my eyes a rest. Thank you.

Oh yeah, by the way, if you're a computer techy person and would like to get involved in Chomu based on what you see, to make it look like a real webzine, do get in touch. that would be great.