Featured at 23ae

[Cramulus]

This thread was inspired by 000:

tip: start a new thread in this subforum where you post links+extracts to new 23AE entries, kind of like Kai's science thread.

Featured Right now:

The Parable of the Gong, by yours truly

exerpt:

“My wise friend Nopants, I have come to ask you a question,” said Golden Rod, “What is Bureaucracy?”

“In India,” said Nopants, “they tie elephants to trees using thin cords. An elephant could easily snap the cord, yet they remain tethered in place. Why do you think this is?”

Golden Rod itched himself and shrugged.

“When the elephant is young,” intoned Nopants, “she is too weak to break the cord. She tries, but eventually she gives up. When the elephant grows up, she does not try to escape her puny bonds because she believes she will fail.”

“So the cord isn’t the thing keeping the elephant in place,” said Golden Rod. He squinted at Nopants, “That’s very interesting, but what does that have to do with Bureaucracy?”

“Bureaucracy,” said Nopants, “is waiting for a red traffic light in the middle of the night when no one is coming.”

Across space and time, a gong sounded.

(Edit - Sticky removed - Dok)

[Cramulus]

On Thursdays, we've been publishing excerpts from the Black Iron Prison. Today's:

Being Free

http://23ae.com/2010/02/bip-being-free/

And that’s exactly how We want it! Tired little sheep kept running by the faithful hounds all day long until they are too tired and submit, they break. Who are We? Nowadays, practically everyone…your boss, your leaders, the media at large, the people responsible for American Idol/X-Factor/fill-in-pointless waste of music reality-TV program here….a huge faceless confederacy constantly trying to sway you this way and that, turn you into a follower of anything.

[Cramulus]

A literary deconstruction of the Principia Discordia

http://23ae.com/2010/02/a-literary-deconstruction-of-the-principia-discordia/

The apparent eccentricities of the text, such as Wilson’s claims about the time-travelling anthropologist, are often dismissed as harmless as whimsical diversions on the part of a critic who required some form of ‘creative’ escape from the exigencies of high-powered theory. This attitude, typical of Anglo-American criticism, draws a  firm line between the discipline of thinking about chaos and the activity of writing which that discipline is supposed to renounce or ignore in its own performance. Criticism as ‘answerable style’ (in Geoffrey Hartman’s phrase) is an idea that cuts right across the deep-grained assumptions of academic discourse. It is, as I shall argue, one of the most unsettling and radical departures of Discordian thought. A properly attentive reading of Wilson brings out the extent to which critical concepts are ceaselessly transformed or undone by the activity of self-conscious writing.  His subversive tactics come down to an inordinate fondness for paradox disguising a commitment to order and method.

[Cramulus]

INTERMITTENS 8: SELF RELIANCE!

http://23ae.com/2010/02/intermittens-8-self-reliance/



101 Ways to make everybody's day weirder
http://23ae.com/2010/02/101-ways-to-make-everybodys-day-weirder/


Bonejangles
http://23ae.com/2010/02/bear-with-me/

[Telarus]

Great to see the content flow pick up over there. Nice work, Cram.

[Cramulus]

ass suggested by Roger:

http://23ae.com/2010/02/celines-laws/

[nuclearcabbage]

hagbard was such a badass in illuminatus!

thats a cool site by the way

[Cramulus]

thanks! It's been around for over ten years, but it was recently relaunched and had new life breathed into it. There's new content once or twice a week. Let me know if you have anything you want to submit.

[nuclearcabbage]

hm..

ive considered writing..

but ive never gotten to it.

we shall see.

thanks for the offer though, greatly appreciated.

[Cramulus]

Here's a piece by The Other Anonymous addressed to the authors and editors of the Black Iron Prison. He thinks we're doing it wrong.

http://23ae.com/2010/02/boredom/

[Triple Zero]

That's actually a pretty good rant

[Cramulus]

IMO, TOA is ironically participating in the exact same boring masturbatory negativity he sets out to decry

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

He seems to think the BIP doesn't reach people, yet we've seen people come here because of it. I've given it to several friends who found it useful, enlightening, interesting, so it clearly does reach people. It's an old project... what is it, five years old now? People like TOA are STILL complaining about it.

What I wonder is why TOA thinks complaining about a project that actually got completed is useful. What does it accomplish? Why does he not simply undertake a project done the way he thinks it should be done?

Speaking of which, what is the status of the Discordia Etc? That seemed like a good project, and I'd love to see it someday. It's been a couple of years.

[Cramulus]

Speaking of which, what is the status of the Discordia Etc? That seemed like a good project, and I'd love to see it someday. It's been a couple of years.

I'd say it's 96% done. Every so often, Net and I go "Okay, Let's finish it for real!" and then for some reason we don't. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I reread his rant, and it occurs to me that what TOA is bitter about is not that other people don't "get" the BIP, but that he doesn't "get" it himself, and makes him feel stupid. Like he's on the outside of an inside joke.

To that, I say; not our problem.