Propagating the Meme

Propagating the meme... Is it anything like admonishing the bishop?

From a suggestion from Mr. BaliHai, he with the fantastic and bloodshot Eye of the Goof.

Okay, I'll play...

1) You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to be?

Because I'm a supremely lazy man, and because it's short and its simple and conversational style probably would make it an easy book to memorize, I would have to answer: Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Sure, Ham and Rye is a better book, but I really love Post Office. Such a caustic little thing. And it's extraordinarily funny, so I'll be a big hit at Book People parties and get-to-togethers. So, do I get to hang out with Julie Christie.

2) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Julie Christie (the short haired one) from Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451.

3) What are you currently reading?

Halfway through Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. I like it, but it's slow going. It's dense as all fuck. Also: almost finished with Eduardo Galeano's Century of the Wind, a history of Latin America during the 20th Century in vignettes. Poetic and disturbing. It's the third volume of Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy.

4) The last book you bought was:

The aforementioned Quicksilver. Also, on the same trip, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light

5) The last book you read was:

The aforementioned Hitchcock biography. Big revelations: Hitch was probably impotent. Consequently, Alma had a brief affair. Also, Hitchcock wasn't a big a freak as Spoto made him out to be. Consequently, it's not as interesting as Spoto's book. More McGilligan revelations: Hitch dug the new cinema coming out of Europe in the '60s: Godard, Truffaut (of course), Fellini, and especially Antonioni. Wanted to make artier films, but Universal wouldn't let him (also combined with Hitchcock's own timidity, fear of confrontation, and, striking him for the first time in his career -probably because of the younger filmmakers coming out of Europe, his own artistic insecurity). One of his favorite movies at the end of his life was Benji (he was a great dog lover).

6) Five books you would take to a desert island:

Probably Ulysses, maybe Faulkner's Novels 1930-1935 from Library of America (cheating somewhat, I know; then, Absalom, Absalom, otherwise), a volume of the complete works of Shakespeare, an athoritative guide to survival on a deserted isle, and, for entertainment's sake, a complete guide to psychotropic plants.

7) Who are you going to pass this stick to, and why?

It seems mightily presumptuous to foist this on anyone, and I'm reluctant to do so. On the other hand, with an internationalist bent in mind, I wouldn't mind reading Carmen's, Patricio's, or Thomas' responses to these queries.

Soon, a cinematic toss from M. Valdemar...