A thought on books

I believe that the key to great literature is a premonition of the extraordinary. There is a line that can’t be crossed because the opposite side is the realm of the weird, the fantastical, the shoddy sensationalistic genre of science fiction. But the border is where greatness lies, where men like Gatsby, and Dick Diver are conceived, too fantastic, idealistic, or good looking for every day life, but vividly real caricatures of our own idealism, our own lust and desires.

commodity fetishism

I spent the last 24 hours watching and bidding on one ebay item: a pair of Axiom M22ti cherry wood speakers.

This singular event precipitated passion, joy, disbelief and despair.

Passion for the wonders of music that I shall enjoy!
Joy that I outbid the stupid motherfucker by $5!
Disbelief that after a short break from the computer, I had lost by exactly the amount I had cunningly won by.
Despair that I had wasted all day with an obsession that bore no fruit.

Anyway, whatever evil that swept over me in the last day is over.

Dentyne’s new advertising campaign

If you’ve ridden the redline on the MBTA in the past month, you’ll have seen Dentyne’s new advertising campaign. The new campaign,  with the slogan “make face time” is splattered in every frame of advertising space. Look eye level at all and you’ll see picture after picture of happy couples(possibly aryan), friends(multiracial friends!), “making face time”.

It’s the scariest thing I’ve seen all year.

All the ads focus use the rhetoric of technology to describe age old social interactions. Super-imposed on a picture of two couples is the phrase “The first instant message”. Above two interracial friends hugging, is the familiar facebook message — “Friend Request Accepted”. The idea, as Dentyne states above two kissing lovers(heterosexual) is to reconnect with the world: “power down. log off. unplug. have mercy on your thumbs. browse the world wide something else. send some not so instant messages. undo. hit cancel. be together. make face time”

The campaign imagines a culture, and presumes a society, where people are permanently networked to mediums destructive of meaningful social interactions (hugs, kisses, love). The campaign proposes as a solution, to suddenly “unplug” and buy lots of gum. Instead of alienation via substitutive human interactions(such as ims, voicemails), Dentyne proposes commodity fetishism. “Buy gum! For it will make you loved”

How can people be bamboozled by this shit?

(Dentyne tastes bad too!)

I wrote this for the Harvard Crimson

On Tuesday Nights, those damn Problem Set Nights
Meghan T. Purdy in Lowell, Megan T. Purdy within my sights
And Lo! My melancholy world is brighter
Meghan T. Purdy, you are like a fire fighter
Too bad you weren’t there by ABP
That fire would’ve whimpered to see –
You in your glorious attire
Ready to conquer any fire (or photograph)
With one hand you curve color balance right
A green face, a blurry leg, things that might give small children fright
With the other you stand tall
Overcoming natural disaster with nary any effort at all
Meghan T. Purdy: ubermensch
Megan T. Purdy: photo bench

Forgive me!

High School Musical 2

Well, I didn’t see it. But it was on the New York Times. Is it really that good?

Because the first one was god damn awful. For at least the following few reasons:

1. The love story is atrocious. Gabriella is hot. Troy has no need to avoid hitting on her. She’s hot. No one in high school would actually care that she’s a nerd and pressure him about that. wtf? As far as “forbidden love” goes, on the scale of social taboos, theirs is non existent. I mean, isn’t this show promoting a false view to small children about what their futures will be like?

2. Totally stereotypical stupid blond people.

3. Retarded dancing. The dance that comes to mind is the one on the basketball courts. It’s not hot. Walk it out is hot. Usher is hot. People too short to play basketball dribbling in rhythm is not hot.

4. Just because you’re a child doesn’t mean you have to listen to bad music. At least Britney Spears is catchy.

5. No moral ambiguity. I don’t tihnk children are too dumb to understand moral ambiguity. Any kid whose thrown shit at other children on the playground knows that some actions lack a distinct moral value.(I threw dirt at people and I did not feel that I was saving the world nor that they were bad. I just liked the reaction of them running away)

I am actually just angry that my sister watches too much disney channel and the rampant consumerism they seem to promote in her. Especially the show “That’s so Raven”.