Toothless Thursday

[dotinthesky]

There's nothing more sad than catching sight of someone reading Dan Brown on the Tube. Worse: she was reading Digital Fortress, a book whose title alone repels. Maybe the television and the radio are emitting hidden sound waves that unravel people's minds, strip them of good judgement and make them go buy his books. I'm so glad I read a borrowed version of The Da Vinci Code halfway through, in Portuguese; I know it's crap from first hand experience.

Kevin and I got free tickets to see Cyprus yesterday. The man that sat beside me drank water from a bottle inside a plastic bag and hadn't washed his body in 6 months. Two cellphones rang during the performance. The set was a countryside library; the audience seats were so close to the stage that we could see every line on the actors' faces, even count the rotten teeth in their mouths.

My work colleagues...

• belong in a version of The Stepford Wives
  
• are amused by leaves flying outside our windows
  
• like to invite each other for lunch in front of me as if I were a pot of begonias
  
• talk a lot about speed dating
  
• don't know the difference between "polite" and "friendly"
  

A man came over yesterday and fixed the boiler: air bubbles in the pipes and a flippant pump. He took away the Darth Vader that lived inside our walls.

6 more days until OllieNoWri(this)Mo comes to an end.

Comments

[canudiglett]

I have read The Da Vinci code too and I only did it because I had a niggling feeling that it might be really good and I might be missing out. I wasn't. It was really cringeworthy. The only thing I liked about it was the ending -- normally the endings of these things are really dull and predictable, but this tied everything up nicely. However, it didn't go anywhere near far enough to compensate for all those dodgy bits of school text book French and cheesy double entendres (see, I can do dodgy French too) and the supreme poncy I-take-myself-way-too-seriously of it all. I almost drowned in cliches.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I read it in Portuguese because I half-hoped it would gain something in the translation (and I could then brag about it or something) but it was just rotten. When Portuguese is badly written, it stinks like rotten eggs. And I couldn't get Tom Hanks out of my head as I read it because I knew by then he had been cast for the film version... and I hate Tom Hanks!

Everything out of Dan Brown is vile and I'm glad he's now being sued (for having ripped off some scholars, apparently.)

[canudiglett]

Were there bits of bad English in with the bad French? That would make it doubly textbooktastic. I don't know if anything else he has done is crap because I never intend to read anything else. One was quite enough.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

to be honest, I can't remember the textbooktastic bits. I just remember the cliches, the stupid plot twists and the cringe-worthy "research" bits which were thrown in to pump up the story with some content.

[dawnkitten.livejournal.com]

'like to invite each other for lunch in front of me as if I were a pot of begonias' Ha - there was someone at my ex-work who used to do this - strange girl - I didn't want to go to lunch with her anyway so it just used to make me smile to myself.

I loathe Dan Brown - I don't understand his popularity either. Bad writing and bullshit facts do not a good book make.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

See, I don't mind aswell if they go off to lunch, but the fact that they invite each other and leave me out is annoying.

[tete-glitter.livejournal.com]

Ainda bem que eu não cheguei a ler O Código Da Vinci. Várias pessoas que eu conheço leram, acharam uma porcaria e me advertiram sobre o livro. Ufa!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Realmente nao valhe a pena! Assista ao filme quando passar na Tela Quente (e se voce nao tiver nada melhor pra fazer.)

WTF Mate?

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

I loved the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons...wot's wrong with them? They were meant to be works of fiction, you didn't hold them to the standards of being historically or scientifically correct, did you? Or do you just not like his writing style?

Ollie, you don't sound content with your livelihood. What did/do truly you want to be when you grow up?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Re: WTF Mate?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've only read half of Da Vinci... so I shouldn't cast a stone quite yet on his other books. Still, I just found his writing so limp, so cliche, so formulaic, that I think the one selling point has to be the "great secret" he reveals in the book, and nothing else. I love reading genre fiction, specially crime-based, so I know there are many authors who have done what he's done much better. Perhaps he needed a better editor willing to curb him.

Livelihood is swinging up and down. Some days I feel very lonely in my office, other days I feel like I'm melting their hearts and getting somewhere. I like to work somewhere that I can feel comfortable being myself, but I haven't reached that point yet in this new office... but I'm an optimist and hopeful that things will get better.

[sor-eye-ah.livejournal.com]

I'm convinced that 'polite' and 'romantic' are two qualities which no longer exist in 90% of the worlds population.

[rebellemichelle.livejournal.com]

ha ha I totally agree. I also think decent human being has been replaced with hopeless asshole.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Politeness is definetly moribund, but I think 'romantic', in the old sense of the word, still exists in the hearts of countless cynics who will settle for nothing short of the absolutely perfect... and thus are constantly let down.

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Ah, eu gostei do Código da Vinci! Talvez não esteja tão bem escrito, mas a história é muito interessante!!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Pois foi oque toda minha familia me falou... mas eu achei muito fraco se comparado com outros livros do genero que ja li. Talvez a estoria fosse mais interessante se eu nao tivesse ouvido falar a respeito antes de ler o livro... mas sem a surpresa, ficou muito desinteressante.

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Realmente, quando eu li não fazia idéia do que se tratava, pensei que só se relacionava com os quadros do Leonardo da Vinci, que eu amo...foi uma surpresa encontrar essa nova "teoria" sobre o santo graal. É que eu amo esse tipo de informação...cultos, etc...

Se vc já sabe não tem graça nenhuma...hj em dia tem 200.000 documentários sobre o tema...

[blindscouse.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading the Da Vinci Code about a third of the way in. It's crap! You don't get a sense of the characters or anything. It's just "whoooo find the clues!" Like Enid Blyton for grown ups!