That whole figuring out what you are going to do with your life thing....

[Usoki]

The Penal Colony- Prisoners get their crime carved into their skin by a torture machine for hours before they die. Got called sick by the teaching assistant for expressing that I liked the story.

Kafka? I actually enjoyed most of his short stories, as long as I didn't have to read them back to back. Or ever again. But, still- he was very good at what he set out to do; his writing has the best tone and mood craftsmanship of any author I've read.

Somebody has to enjoy reading the story, or it would never appear on the curriculum. What a douchebag TA.

[End Master]

Somebody has to enjoy reading the story, or it would never appear on the curriculum. What a douchebag TA.

That was the thing, she was asking all of us at the end of the semester what stories we liked reading so that she could get an idea of what to put on the reading list for next semester's students, so I answered honestly and she basically said something like "Yeah, but you're weird anyway."

I also mentioned how much I didn't like Beloved, but she said that story was going to be on the reading list regardless of how many people in the class didn't like it. (I know I wasn't the only one)

She was really into socialism and Marxist ideology since about half of the stuff we read was something to do with struggle of the classes, exploitation of the workers and all that stuff. (We watched Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" in class) I remember we got to skip the first day of class because the professors were on strike at the time, and she was going out to try to unionize the teaching assistants.

Oh well, I got an A in the class anyway.

[xnull]

Kafka's the shit and Michael Moore is shit. Nuff said.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Kafka.

Kafka, Kafka.

That sounds a little bit like another significant name, eh Usoki? Eh, eh?

I was gonna wait until I'd beaten it, and then post a mini review in the movies thread, but anyways I finally got around to playing FF3. I'm currently in the process of re-collecting my friends after Kefka destroys the world, and it's been great so far; I still think I'll end up prefering FF7, though.

For Literature... I only had it in high school, and I can't remember the names of all the stories, but I liked:

-"Julius Ceasar" (I got to read all of Brutus's lines, and my best friend had to read Ceasar's lines, so it was kinda like I stabbed my best friend in the back. Kinda.)

-"The Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"

-"The Most Dangerous Game"

-This one about a claw that grants wishes

-Anything by Poe (I especially liked the one with the Pendulum.)

-This one where a dude gets stuck outside the window of an apartment building and has to keep from falling

I think "The Devil and Tom Walker" and "Rip Van Winkle" might have been okay, too.

[Usoki]

Funny you should mention that- I had to stop and remember which one was the villain, and which one was the author. That part of the game is pretty much the end- once you find Setzer, nothing stops you from beating the game. Technically. It'd be a terrible idea, but nothing actually stops you. Heck, once you get Setzer, you can complete everything in whatever order you want, which is kinda cool. I can understand liking FF7 better, and I wouldn't blame you. Yuffie's my favorite FF char. I just enjoy how fluid the party is in 3/6. It's pretty unique, and I appreciate it. And, of course, some people swear by it.

Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge was... interesting, but it doesn't really have much repeat value to me. I hated The Most Dangerous Game; it's so... I dunno, but I hated it. And if you're thinking of "The Monkey's Paw", I hated that one too. "The Gift of the Magi" was fairly ridiculous as well. "The Devil and Dan'l Webster" was pretty sweet, and I appreciated Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains". But for the most part, the short stories were pretty 'meh'.

[Ryan_DuBois]

That's double-odd! I saw "Kafka", and I was all like:

"Whoa -- I was just gonna make a post about him!"

But then I realized that Kafka was actually an author and not a Final Fantasy villian. Anyway. I still didn't beat it because of a canoe trip/family reunion/drinking binge thing that's been going on for some days now, but I'll still post the review once I finish.

"The Monkey's Paw" is the one. I admit most of the stories I listed aren't great, but compared to some of the other stuff I read, they felt like masterpieces. Plus I think I kinda have a thing for darker stuff anyway. Stories that deal with death, survival, war, and the worst that humanity is capable of are generally right up my alley. I have a hunch that this isn't the case so much with you?

= )

Anyway, FF3 review. It's coming.


P.S.

We read that one poem where the dude eats the plums, too. That one was awesome.

[Usoki]

You are correct- I'm okay with depression and death, depending on how it's handled, but once you start throwing in things like "survival" and "endurance", chances are high that I will utterly hate it. I'm not a big fan of zombie/apocalypse/last man alive scenarios.

We read that one poem where the dude eats the plums, too. That one was awesome.

I fucking hate William Carlos Williams, and now I must hate you by association of liking him. I hope you're beaten to death with a red wheelbarrow. In the rain. Next to some white chickens.

[End Master]

Stories that deal with death, survival, war, and the worst that humanity is capable of are generally right up my alley.

That reminds me for the science fiction we read in high school, I didn't mind reading Farenheit 451 and 1984. Though we didn't read Brave New World to round out that nice little dystopian trio.

Sound of Thunder was okay too. Though I always thought it was a bit silly to open up a time travelling business if even the slightest thing could disrupt the time line so drastically, let alone going on a dino safari where the "kills" were already predetermined (Wouldn't that sort of take the "fun" out of hunting?) as well as having to watch every little thing you did.