Living or Not Living

In his very strange novel, A Void, which is a lipogram of the letter “E”, Georges Perec writes:
Living, or not living: that is what I ask:
If 'tis a stamp of honour to submit
To slings and arrows waft'd us by ill winds,
Or brandish arms against a flood of afflictions,
Which by our opposition is subdu'd? Dying, drowsing;
Waking not? – William Shakspar

Yesterday morning I was totally peed off! ... Which is better than being peed on I guess. There were no buses again (not that there are buses today mind you), which meant I had to hustle lifts from everyone like a mad person because paying for taxis is burning a serious hole in my pocket – and I can’t afford a pair of those really cool fireproof pants they sell at Cape Union Mart. I spent my money buying a monthly bus ticket, only to have it sit uselessly in my bag because Metrobus is full of crap.

This is one of those times when it’s very irritating to be living in a society where it feels like the letter “E” has been letternabbed by some villainous organisation of hooded figures with girly fingernails and everything is topsy-turvy. I'm an indefatigable optimist though and slings and arrows waft'd at me by ill winds simply bounce of my imaginary Achilles' armour, which just goes to show how dangerous my imagination is.

My answer to Shakspar's question is that I choose to brandish arms against a flood of afflictions and to continue the imaginary revolution. For Frodo! (And my grandmother!)

The Horror

I've been downloading old-time radio horror shows for the past few months and listening to them on my mp3 player on my way to varsity, and recently someone pointed out to me that this is strange. Apparently I'm the only person who listened to tales of terror on the radio as a kid - I have no clue where everyone else grew up. To all the masses out there, who are clearly out of the loop, I must tell you that listening to a radio horror story is a very frightening experience, especially if the actors lending their voices to the drama are good. I don't recommend it to people with heart conditions! I've had many sleepless nights after listening to stories like Dr Grimshaw's Sanitarium. The horror stories that aired in the '50s are the scariest in my opinion - they have a weird vibe about them that just freaks you out as a listener.

Get a dose of some old school horror here.