How to Save the World

Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays.

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March 1, 2003

FRIDAY FIVE ON LITERATURE

fred b My answers to this week's literary Friday Five . Most Sloggers could easily write volumes in response to each of these questions, but in case my response provokes others to reply (these questions are kinda interesting and I'd really like to hear what other Sloggers' answers are), I'll keep my reponse short:

1. What is your favourite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
I read everything, and can easily spend a whole Saturday in a good bookstore. Favourites are short stories and what taxonomists now call 'cultural studies' (which a friend calls 'philosophy by non-dead guys').

2. What is your favourite novel?
Most enjoyable: Natural Selection by Frederick Barthelme (his photo above). Most powerful: Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Most worldview-changing: Story of B by Daniel Quinn. Can't pick between them.

3. Do you have a favourite poem? (Share it!)
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot.

4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
Wanted to read: People's minds. Wish I had more time to read: Humour writing, to learn what makes it funny, and women's fiction, because in every other creative field they're leaving men in their dust.

5. What are you currently reading?
Nine books in the active stack and five more on order, half fiction and half not. Most promising: Shadow Play by Charles Baxter (it has a picture of a Raven on the cover!)

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WEEKEND FUN FOR THE INTELLIGENTSIA

!kbwc It's Saturday - time to unwind and relax and have some fun. Presented herewith for your approval are two games for people of staggering intelligence and creativity i.e. the regular readers of this blog:

From the UK comes 1KBWC or One Thousand Blank White Cards . The inspiration for the game came from an accidental misreading of stationery. It requires a great deal of artistic or at least right-brain talent. The cards are partly borrowed from previous games played by the players and by others around the world who have played, and partly made up on the fly. They are dealt out and 'played' on the remaining players. Serendipitous scoring is involved. If you understand the rules to Hermann Hesse's Der Glasperlenspiel (the Glass Bead Game), you'll be able to take it from there. Thanks to Caterina.net .

From California comes The Go Game , a kind of wireless variant of a car rallye and scavenger hunt. Each game involves teams of 4-6 players attempting to complete a series of interesting and/or silly 'missions'. Wireless clues and instructions are transmitted to the teams at key points in the game. One player from each team videos the completion of each of that team's missions. Teams then meet all together at a predesignated bar or other treffpunkt, caption and edit their videos via a laptop editor, and then each team in turn displays their video on a large screen. The winner is the team voted by all to have the best video.

Oh, and before I forget, Vive la révolution anti-WordBurst de Oulipo!

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