I know we’re not a book club here...

justin23000

Active member
but I still think it’s great that gear brought me here, but I also find users with names like ‘Benny Profane’, references to YOYODYNE research, talk about the ‘Incandenza’ bypass design, and some other references that I find so awesome. No real surprise, I guess, that we are entertained by some similar things…

For my part, I’ve named pedals ‘Passage through the Hollow Earth’ ‘Riemann’s Grave’ and I’m planning on creating something to call ‘Iceland Spar'

Seems like the balance of brainy and inane runs strong in the DIY pedal game?
 
but I still think it’s great that gear brought me here, but I also find users with names like ‘Benny Profane’, references to YOYODYNE research, talk about the ‘Incandenza’ bypass design, and some other references that I find so awesome. No real surprise, I guess, that we are entertained by some similar things…

For my part, I’ve named pedals ‘Passage through the Hollow Earth’ ‘Riemann’s Grave’ and I’m planning on creating something to call ‘Iceland Spar'

Seems like the balance of brainy and inane runs strong in the DIY pedal game?
Some of these guys are insanely intelligent. Some of us are bass players.
 
I think you might be the first person to acknowledge the reference. I sometimes worry folks think it’s a lame MySpace name.

I’ve made a few Pynchon themed pedals. A Gravity’s Rainbow Tonebender MKII (V2) might be my favorite.
I think I mentioned this to you before but I got about 1/4 of the way through Gravity's Rainbow and couldn't do it. Same thing with Infinite Jest and White Noise. I get like 50 pages in and had this severe, irrational hatred for the authors and just can't do it 😂
 
I think I mentioned this to you before but I got about 1/4 of the way through Gravity's Rainbow and couldn't do it. Same thing with Infinite Jest and White Noise. I get like 50 pages in and had this severe, irrational hatred for the authors and just can't do it 😂
I get that. Maximalism is certainly not for everyone. I really dig it—and think Pynchon is hilarious—but I get why one wouldn't. I mean, even though I can recognize the talent in and importance of much of Victorian English lit, it just doesn't do anything for me and is a chore to read. No sense in reading something you don't enjoy. I am a bit surprised to see White Noise on that list though since it's quite different than the other two.

I bet you'd hate The Recognitions by William Gaddis the most.
 
The way writers like Dickens and Hardy wrote doesn't bother me in the slightest - in fact I quite enjoy it. But writers like James Joyce do my head in with their impenetrable prose. I think some writers forget that the point of writing is to communicate, not obfuscate. I think Joyce (for example) is for those who enjoy words more than clarity.

But what do I know? I barely read literature any more.
 
I get that. Maximalism is certainly not for everyone. I really dig it—and think Pynchon is hilarious—but I get why one wouldn't. I mean, even though I can recognize the talent in and importance of much of Victorian English lit, it just doesn't do anything for me and is a chore to read. No sense in reading something you don't enjoy. I am a bit surprised to see White Noise on that list though since it's quite different than the other two.

I bet you'd hate The Recognitions by William Gaddis the most.

White Noise doesn't really fit with the other two I mentioned but I think I put it in the same category because I read them all around the same time. White Noise I actually finished - I had to because it was assigned reading for one of my graduate courses, but I despised the instructor and think that really colored how I saw that book, especially because he was gushing about it and I was an arrogant and snotty grad student.

The perfect book in my eyes is The Count of Monte Cristo. Scaramouche is another great example of a book I could read all day long. The Brothers K is another book I've re-read and will likely read again. I never really studied literature (my MA is in American Studies) so I'm not really sure how to categorize what that style might be, but I love long, complex, and entangled storytelling. It can get intellectual/whatever as long as it doesn't make me want to stab myself in the eyes with tediousness.
 
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I think I mentioned this to you before but I got about 1/4 of the way through Gravity's Rainbow and couldn't do it. Same thing with Infinite Jest and White Noise. I get like 50 pages in and had this severe, irrational hatred for the authors and just can't do it 😂

20 years ago I was gifted a copy of Still Life with Woodpecker before I left for a tour. By Chapter 3 the urge to throw a book in the trash at the Stuttgart Airport was just overwhelming. I don't remember why but I was just angry at that book. I had previously enjoyed Another Roadside Attraction but I was suddenly through with Tom Robbins.
 
20 years ago I was gifted a copy of Still Life with Woodpecker before I left for a tour. By Chapter 3 the urge to throw a book in the trash at the Stuttgart Airport was just overwhelming. I don't remember why but I was just angry at that book. I had previously enjoyed Another Roadside Attraction but I was suddenly through with Tom Robbins.
These guys are obviously not bass players.
 
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