Col. Muska: "The fire of Heaven that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. The Ramanayah referred to it as 'Indra's Arrow.' The entire world will once again kneel before the power of Laputa!"
"While she was standing by the fence a vendor came by with a cart of iced beer and, hardly thinking, she said, 'Cerveza Corona, por favor,,' and held out a five-peso note. The man flipped off the bottle top and poured the drink into a paper cup with an Aztec Eagle logo. 'Muchisimas gracias,' she said."
— Q's Gambit (novel)
OK, since I've finished the novel during the first few hours of a 60-hour stretch of no electricity (astonishing prose, more mastery of diction and sentence structure than in either The Hustler or The Color of Money)....so, what's that big surprising thing you found in it, EH? I was familiar enough with the basic outline from the recent miniseries, but aside from me holding forth on why it's a very good novel, I'm not seeing the great shock in any character or plot development.
Spill it! Make with the balloon juice and talk! Name names!
The Queen's Gambit? I'll have to check the Straight Dope thread about the miniseries. I posted something over there. Too late tonight - tomorrow, I hope.
"Whatsoever one man does, it is as though all men did it. That is why it is not unfair that a single act of disobedience in a garden should contaminate all mankind."
— Borges, "The Shape of the Sword"
[uhh....Oh....it may have been imagined or elsewhere, someone said they had a surprising discovery about the book but refused to tell me until I'd finished the novel...I don't see evidence of you saying anything here like that, so, my mistake!]
Last edited by Jizzelbin; 17 Jan 2024 at 09:47 PM.
Well that was a pretty outstanding list of differences! (IMHO, mostly not of much consequence, but interesting detail). I should think a bear-trap mind like yours would have a field day comparing the novel *The Color of Money* with the film. Both versions of the latter are outstanding, but almost no relation to one another.
"He locked the door quickly and without noise, but his fingers were still on the key when there was a quick footfall in the hall outside."
"¿Cuál crees que es mejor, una llama o una alpaca?"
MAYBE means "What do you think is better, a llama or an alpaca?"
— possible amusing (in a stupid kind of way) question to this Peruvian woman when I see her at work next week (no, I don't speak Spanish...but I'm willing to learn dammit!...I bet she has a sister who can teach me!)
"Of all the schoolmasters, the one sympathetic one, who didn't bark out orders, was the religious instruction teacher, Mr. Edgington. He used to wear a powder blue suit with cum stains down the leg. Mr. Edgington, the wanker. Religious instruction, forty-five minutes, "Let's turn to Luke." And we were saying, either he's pissed himself or he's just been round the back shagging Mrs. Mountjoy, who was the art mistress."
— Keith Richards/James Fox, Life (a remarkably engaging memoir...of course, Keef didn't drag down an old Olympia or Olivetti typewriter and write the thing physically, but it seems very well sourced, with plenty of direct quotes from the inner circle, and I'm inclined to believe it's pretty much as told, with the added benefit of some very good polished prose moving with forward motion at all times).
"You probably know this very well, but your orgone energy goes out the top of your head and it dissipates out the top, but if you wear an energy dome it recycles that energy. It comes back down and showers back down on you and, among other things, you remain manly, shall we say, for maybe another 150 years of your life, probably."
Dola: "Oh, well, ya can't be a sensitive woman like me without learnin' a few things. Sheeta and I are exactly alike: all warm and mushy and sensitive!"
"Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were iconic figures to me and I was anxious to see a film with them in it. I don’t remember a single moment of this film, but it must have left an impression on me because soon after I saw it, I lost all interest in sports."
— TV's Frank, Twenty Five Mystery Science Theater 3000 Films That Changed My Life in No Way Whatsoever
"You can't use a boot on a winding staircase, so [a concert promoter] got the knee, one for every grand he owed us--sixteen of them. Even then he never apologized. Maybe I didn't kick him hard enough."
— Keith Richards ("with" James Fox [not the actor]), Life
"The producers wanted NBC to bring Fat Albert to Saturday mornings, but the network programming managers rejected this because the series was too educational."
— wikipedia article on the TV show *Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids*
"No nylon has been used to manufacture these gloves; that’s why these gloves are too rugged for the user. This is made from a high-quality material that is strong, porous, and long-lasting, great for sweaty hands, and can be considered as one of the best billiard gloves to buy right now!"
— you don't want to know. Probably not a chat LLM, but rather performed by hand.
Col. Muska: "I thought I would show you an example of Laputa's power. We are about to celebrate the rebirth of the Laputian kingdom. Prepare yourself for the thunder of Laputa!"
"These big chords, favored by men on horseback, a variety of strummers...are actually many of the ones many of us first learned to play. The more sophisticated and easier approach involves fragmenting, or breaking up, these larger chords into smaller shapes."
— Sid Jacobs, The Changes (for context, Sid's referring to "cowboy chords" on guitar, which are not always ideal for rhythm guitar playing, in whatever genre)
"When greedy consumption is the order of the day, dehumanization becomes acceptable. Then, treating people like objects is not only acceptable but is required behavior."
"I felt everything should be played with authority. And that was the word [organist and bandleader Jack McDuff] used, 'Play it like you mean to play it. 'Cause you can't make me believe it if you don't believe it.' And so I've been doing it that way ever since."
— George Benson, interviewing with Ben Sidran in Talking Jazz : An Oral History