Einherjar86
Active Member
Well, Dracula isn't a crappy horror book. In fact, I've studied it in graduate seminars for its relation to early modernism and the emergence of a posthuman epistemology.
The Books/Reading Thread
- Thread starter Matt
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clschniffer
New Metal Member
Einherjar86
Active Member
clschniffer
New Metal Member
Trust me when I tell you that this is way more interesting than reading about a white fangs fag
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ants-Bernard-Werber/dp/0553573527"]http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ants-Bernard-Werber/dp/0553573527[/ame]
Jonathan Wells and his young family have come to the Paris flat at 3, rue des Sybarites through the bequest of his eccentric late uncle Edmond. Inheriting the dusty apartment, the Wells family are left with only one warning: Never go down into the cellar.
But when the family dog disappears down the basement steps, Jonathan follows--and soon his wife, his son, and various would-be rescuers vanish into its mysterious depths.
Meanwhile, in a pine stump in a nearby park, a vast civilization is in turmoil. Here a young female from the russet ant nation of Bel-o-kan learns that a strange new weapon has been killing off her comrades. To find out why, she enlists the help of a warrior ant, and the two set off on separate journeys into a harsh and violent world. It is a world where death takes many forms--savage birds and voracious lizards, warlike dwarf ants and rapacious termites, poisonous beetles and, most bizarre of all, the swift, murderous, giant guardians of the edge of the world: cars.
Yet the end of the female's desperate quest will be the eerie secret in the cellar at 3, rue des Sybarites--a mystery she must solve in order to fulfill her special destiny as the new queen of her own great empire. But to do so she must first make unthinkable communion with the most barbaric creatures of all.
Empire of the Ants is a brilliant evocation of a hidden civilization as complex as our own and far more ancient. It is a fascinating realm where boats are built of leaves and greenflies are domesticated and milked like cows, where citizens lock antennae in "absolute communication" and fight wars with precisely coordinated armies using sprays of glue and acids that can dissolve a snail. Not since Watership Down has a novel so vividly captured the lives and struggles of a fellow species and the valuable lessons they have to teach us.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ants-Bernard-Werber/dp/0553573527"]http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ants-Bernard-Werber/dp/0553573527[/ame]
Jonathan Wells and his young family have come to the Paris flat at 3, rue des Sybarites through the bequest of his eccentric late uncle Edmond. Inheriting the dusty apartment, the Wells family are left with only one warning: Never go down into the cellar.
But when the family dog disappears down the basement steps, Jonathan follows--and soon his wife, his son, and various would-be rescuers vanish into its mysterious depths.
Meanwhile, in a pine stump in a nearby park, a vast civilization is in turmoil. Here a young female from the russet ant nation of Bel-o-kan learns that a strange new weapon has been killing off her comrades. To find out why, she enlists the help of a warrior ant, and the two set off on separate journeys into a harsh and violent world. It is a world where death takes many forms--savage birds and voracious lizards, warlike dwarf ants and rapacious termites, poisonous beetles and, most bizarre of all, the swift, murderous, giant guardians of the edge of the world: cars.
Yet the end of the female's desperate quest will be the eerie secret in the cellar at 3, rue des Sybarites--a mystery she must solve in order to fulfill her special destiny as the new queen of her own great empire. But to do so she must first make unthinkable communion with the most barbaric creatures of all.
Empire of the Ants is a brilliant evocation of a hidden civilization as complex as our own and far more ancient. It is a fascinating realm where boats are built of leaves and greenflies are domesticated and milked like cows, where citizens lock antennae in "absolute communication" and fight wars with precisely coordinated armies using sprays of glue and acids that can dissolve a snail. Not since Watership Down has a novel so vividly captured the lives and struggles of a fellow species and the valuable lessons they have to teach us.
Einherjar86
Active Member
It's meaningful that you call him a fag. Plenty of feminist and gender critics read the vampire as a figure of sexual subversion.
~Neurotica
perfectly insane
- Mar 27, 2006
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I've read Sphinx. I'll check out the rest though. Actually I've always taken Dracula as "meh" since the whole vampires crap is not really my thing, but if you say that this one is different - I'll check it out too. Thank you!
And clschniffer, thanks for the Weber's tip. I've heard about it but never gave it a chance. It sounds really interesting.
And clschniffer, thanks for the Weber's tip. I've heard about it but never gave it a chance. It sounds really interesting.
clschniffer
New Metal Member
Einherjar86
Active Member
You're welcome Alina. Not everyone finds the novel aesthetically pleasing, of course; but if you're interested in animal/insect imagery, then it's very relevant.
EDIT:
According to this logic, "Thanks to Black Sabbath we get Wolfmother, it's as simple as that."
Clearly, Black Sabbath must be a bunch of fucking fags.
EDIT:
According to this logic, "Thanks to Black Sabbath we get Wolfmother, it's as simple as that."
Clearly, Black Sabbath must be a bunch of fucking fags.
~Neurotica
perfectly insane
- Mar 27, 2006
- 7,913
- 236
- 63
I am indeed. But I also think that vampires are gay. Look at Blade...
Hey, I just noticed your sig with a Roadside Picnic thing. Nice nice. Now I understand your passion about Strugatsky dudes!
Hey, I just noticed your sig with a Roadside Picnic thing. Nice nice. Now I understand your passion about Strugatsky dudes!
clschniffer
New Metal Member
I Like Wolfmother though.
You see the thing is you're insisting about Dracula while it has almost nothing to do with insects at all in the first place, so yeah he changes into a bat a couple of times but that's far from being the point of the book.
You see the thing is you're insisting about Dracula while it has almost nothing to do with insects at all in the first place, so yeah he changes into a bat a couple of times but that's far from being the point of the book.
Einherjar86
Active Member
Okay, if you're going to be serious now, then I have two points:
1) A bat is not an insect. It's a mammal.
2) It does have to do with insects in that Renfield specifically collects insects to consume, as he is directed to by Dracula. They contribute in part to a larger hierarchy of animal/human relations in the novel.
Dracula is described at various points in the novel as: a) reptilian, b) bat-like, and c) insect-like. And, of course, his primary form is human. Not only is he a conflation of animal forms, but he's a conflation of genders as well. The Vampire is the image of lesbianism and homosexuality par excellence in 19th-century French and English literature.
1) A bat is not an insect. It's a mammal.
2) It does have to do with insects in that Renfield specifically collects insects to consume, as he is directed to by Dracula. They contribute in part to a larger hierarchy of animal/human relations in the novel.
Dracula is described at various points in the novel as: a) reptilian, b) bat-like, and c) insect-like. And, of course, his primary form is human. Not only is he a conflation of animal forms, but he's a conflation of genders as well. The Vampire is the image of lesbianism and homosexuality par excellence in 19th-century French and English literature.
clschniffer
New Metal Member
Yeah the bat is a mammal, that's what I'm saying = It has nothing to do with insects LOL.
So he collects insects, big deal.
So he collects insects, big deal.
Einherjar86
Active Member
Maybe the suggestion will be helpful, and maybe it won't. I'm coming from a specific background of literary analysis, and this background has taught me that it is important. Furthermore, I agree that it's important, and so I've suggested it.
You're the one who seemed to get offended by the suggestion, and so I've been reacting to your immature and (in my opinion) uninformed initial post. Any hostility on my part was inspired by derision on yours.
You're the one who seemed to get offended by the suggestion, and so I've been reacting to your immature and (in my opinion) uninformed initial post. Any hostility on my part was inspired by derision on yours.
clschniffer
New Metal Member
Einherjar86
Active Member
clschniffer
New Metal Member
Einherjar86
Active Member
I'm re-posting this for the sake of ease and for those genuinely interested in the discussion:
As a further note, there's a pretty clear reference in Dracula to "The Sphinx," by Poe, which revolves around the image of the Death's-head Hawkmoth. The hawkmoth appears in Dracula too, and Van Helsing specifically refers to it as the death's-head of the Sphinx (or something along those lines). It's a pretty clear (in my opinion) reference to Poe that connects the two authors and their texts.
Furthermore, the moth as an image of regeneration and/or alteration is poignant in Dracula, since the whole narrative concerns the morphological problem of people being turned into vampires. The metamorphosis of the moth plays a central symbolic role in this sense.
As a further note, there's a pretty clear reference in Dracula to "The Sphinx," by Poe, which revolves around the image of the Death's-head Hawkmoth. The hawkmoth appears in Dracula too, and Van Helsing specifically refers to it as the death's-head of the Sphinx (or something along those lines). It's a pretty clear (in my opinion) reference to Poe that connects the two authors and their texts.
Furthermore, the moth as an image of regeneration and/or alteration is poignant in Dracula, since the whole narrative concerns the morphological problem of people being turned into vampires. The metamorphosis of the moth plays a central symbolic role in this sense.
KafkaX
Mr. Self Destruct
Ive only really fully enjoyed The Metamorphosis. That, and his Diaries. Everything else has been kinda luke warm for my taste.
But if you havnt yet, check out his Diaries. Those are often over looked or not even known about. Here you really get to know Kafka a bit more intimately, for the dark, philosophical, depressed, angst filled motherfucker that he was. Thats where the gold is at, imo.
clschniffer
New Metal Member
And I'm reposting this for people who might still have a brain but don't need to be all over your face about it:
Trust me when I tell you that this is way more interesting than reading about a white fangs fag
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ants-Bernard-Werber/dp/0553573527
Jonathan Wells and his young family have come to the Paris flat at 3, rue des Sybarites through the bequest of his eccentric late uncle Edmond. Inheriting the dusty apartment, the Wells family are left with only one warning: Never go down into the cellar.
But when the family dog disappears down the basement steps, Jonathan follows--and soon his wife, his son, and various would-be rescuers vanish into its mysterious depths.
Meanwhile, in a pine stump in a nearby park, a vast civilization is in turmoil. Here a young female from the russet ant nation of Bel-o-kan learns that a strange new weapon has been killing off her comrades. To find out why, she enlists the help of a warrior ant, and the two set off on separate journeys into a harsh and violent world. It is a world where death takes many forms--savage birds and voracious lizards, warlike dwarf ants and rapacious termites, poisonous beetles and, most bizarre of all, the swift, murderous, giant guardians of the edge of the world: cars.
Yet the end of the female's desperate quest will be the eerie secret in the cellar at 3, rue des Sybarites--a mystery she must solve in order to fulfill her special destiny as the new queen of her own great empire. But to do so she must first make unthinkable communion with the most barbaric creatures of all.
Empire of the Ants is a brilliant evocation of a hidden civilization as complex as our own and far more ancient. It is a fascinating realm where boats are built of leaves and greenflies are domesticated and milked like cows, where citizens lock antennae in "absolute communication" and fight wars with precisely coordinated armies using sprays of glue and acids that can dissolve a snail. Not since Watership Down has a novel so vividly captured the lives and struggles of a fellow species and the valuable lessons they have to teach us.
