Kayden Kross Official Blog: Another book made me happy and tingly all over @ Kayden Kross's Official Site

Friday, September 4, 2009

Another book made me happy and tingly all over

This is why I read.

“I can believe in things that are true and I can believe in things that are not true and I can believe in things where nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen—I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and the bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, and that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to go hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of casual chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to life, and that while all human life is sacred there is nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game and that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and you might as well sit back and enjoy it.”

--Neil Gaiman, American Gods

posted by Kayden Kross on 5:46 PM :: 12 comments

12 Comments:

The Sacramento 6 Drive In Theater
has 6 screens which show 12 movies a night. Oh what a night! Fun for all. Nice to see cars bouncing up and down. Who cares about the movie!

By Glenn, at September 5, 2009 3:14 AM

Gaiman is great. The movie Stardust (2007) was from one of his books. You should also check out Terry Pratchett, his occasional co-author, and of course the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. (In Hitchhiker a friend tells Arthur Dent that entering hyperspace is "Unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" Arthur asks. "Ask a glass of water!" his friend replies.)

By Rob, at September 5, 2009 7:08 PM

I just started a social network on Ning revolving around recommendations for books. It's called "Why Haven't You Read This Yet? You are enthusiastically invited to join.
I haven't entirely figured out how it functions, but I don't think that members can contact each other directly. There's a blog for leaving comments (book recommendations, as I said) and a Forum for discussion questions.
If you need to use a pseudonym, I understand. Or if you simply joined as Kayden, I am absolutely certain that all of the people I have invited so far would not recognize you, even with a photo.
If you think some of your other bloggers are book fans and might be interested, please add this to comments. If you think you might want to join but don't necessarily want your fans following you there, then don't post this.

By Rob, at September 7, 2009 2:02 AM

I believe in miracles

By Carl, at September 7, 2009 7:20 AM

"I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis,..."

I believe the greatest poet of this century is Dos Equis... "Stay thirsty my friends."

By -Papa, at September 8, 2009 2:50 PM

Gaimen is amazing and that is a great book - i am reading his newest one " The Graveyard Book" as we speak!

By the artful dodger, at September 9, 2009 8:37 AM

What an interesting quote. Me thinks I should pick up a copy of Gaiman next time at the library.

For your next pleasure read, I would suggest Bouvard and Pecuchet by Gustave Flaubert. It is about two friends who, following an unexpected inheritence, decide to quit their jobs to explore the world of ideas. It is quite Chaplinesque, in terms of the characters, but the knowledge they seek is remarkably enlightening. It is also uniquely interesting when one compares what we know today with what they knew back then. It's also a quick read; I bet you could finish it in a weekend. I promise you, you won't regret it -- 19th century French literature is wonderful to read.

P.S., to -Papa: Stay thirsty my friends is great! I love the "most interesting man in the world." I will explicitly sit through tediously annoying commercials just to see the Dos Equis spot.

By John-Mikael, at September 9, 2009 4:29 PM

There's not much poetic about the guy in the Dos Equis ads...but he is the most interesting man in the world...besides myself :-).

I need a Dos Equis right now...

By Hays, at September 10, 2009 7:15 PM

This post has been removed by the author.

By Brook Silva-Braga, at September 10, 2009 10:59 PM

Perhaps, you should read The Paramenides by Plato if you love contradictions so much (as apparently you do).

By Paul S., at September 10, 2009 11:17 PM

Congratulation (belated), Kayden!

By Le Taureau Blanc, at September 15, 2009 9:19 PM

Neil Gaiman is one of the most creative/inspiring I've ever come across. I'm glad to see I'm not the only person out there who found America God's to be an amazing book.

By Nathan, at October 4, 2009 1:59 PM