To my considerable delight, Last Exit to Brooklyn has been reissued as a cheapo Penguin classic. To my considerable surprise, it has been classified amongst the ‘Classic Crime’ series. To my considerable dismay, Anthony Burgess’ original introduction has been supplanted. The new one has been written by Irvine Welsh. Continue reading
Archive for the Reading Category
Last Exit to Brooklyn
Posted in Reading with tags Black Flag, Dubliners, Ecclesiastes, Elie Weisel, Hermann Hesse, Hubert Selby Junior, James Joyce, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Night, Sex Pistols on September 14, 2013 by Jarrod BoyleWuthering Heights
Posted in Observation, Reading, Real Men with tags Aaron the Moor, Catherine, Duncan, Edgar, Emily Bronte, Gnasher, Goneril, Hindley, Iago, King Lear, Liverpool, MacBeth, Mr Earnshaw, necrophilia, Nelly Dean, nosferatu, Othello, Thrushcross Grange, Titus Andronicus on June 3, 2013 by Jarrod BoyleI have a love/hate relationship with Shakespeare’s tragic heroes. Continue reading
The Day Borges Blew Up My Head
Posted in Reading, Real Men with tags Ahaseurus, Borges: A Life, Both Flesh and Not, David Foster Wallace, Edwin Williamson, Glenferrie Road, Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, mobius strip, New York Times, Princess Diana, The God's Script, The Immortal, Theseus on April 27, 2013 by Jarrod BoyleThis week, at the urging of David Foster Wallace, I read two stories by Jorge Luis Borges: ‘The God’s Script’ and ‘The Immortal’. In the same way I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when Princess Diana was killed, I will always remember sitting at that Glenferrie Road café, killing time in between clients on a grey mid-morning when I read those two stories. Continue reading
Venus in Furs
Posted in Reading with tags Goethe, homosexuality, Jane Austen, Justine, Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, Marquis de Sade, Pride and Prejudice, Story of O, Venus in Furs on April 21, 2013 by Jarrod Boyle“In life, one must be the hammer or the anvil.”
– Goethe, as quoted in Venus in Furs.
I am convinced that Pride and Prejudice should be on the reading list of every teen-aged boy. I loved the book when I read it; I thought to myself, ‘I should have read this twenty years ago! This explains exactly what’s wrong with them!’
I have recently read Venus in Furs and this book should also be added to the adolescent male list of required reading. Continue reading
Drag-Racing in the Desert of the Real
Posted in Film, Observation, Pretensions toward cultural theory, Reading with tags Baudrillard, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cambodia, concentration camp, Dawn of the Dead, Dexter, George A Romero, Germaine Greer, Irreversible, Killer Joe, Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Wolf, Raders of the Lost Ark, Salo, Sam Peckinpah, Sergei Eisenstein, Straw Dogs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The American Nightmare, The Exorcist, The Wild Bunch, Tobe Hooper, Tom Savini, Walking Dead, Wes Craven, Wliiam Freidkin on March 17, 2013 by Jarrod BoyleI had an argument with some friends of mine recently about Dexter. Personally, I think that is a show for which the script is a poorly-written pretext for the violence. Continue reading
Manifesto
Posted in Reading, Real Men, Statement of intention with tags Raymond Chandler on January 9, 2013 by Jarrod BoyleIn everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. Continue reading
The Master and Magarita
Posted in Reading with tags Master and Magarita, Mikhail Bulgakov on November 23, 2012 by Jarrod Boyle“Disgraceful,” the guest scolded and added, “And besides, why do you say things like ‘smash some guy in the puss’? After all, no one knows exactly what a man has, a face or a puss. Most likely, it’s still a face. So, when it comes to fists… No, you should stop doing that sort of thing once and for all.”
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Thought for the Day
Posted in Observation, Reading, Real Men with tags Proverbs of Hell, William Blake on October 28, 2012 by Jarrod BoyleMoby Dick to be Broadcast On-Line
Posted in Reading with tags 'Jazz', Free Jazz, Ken Burns, Moby Dick, Ornette Coleman, The Guardian UK, Ulysses on September 25, 2012 by Jarrod BoyleMoby Dick will be read in its entirety and broadcast over the internet. Continue reading










