What brings me to write this crude post with a crude title? I’ve been reading a bit of Tolstoy and he inspires me to tell the truth and be truthful. In the past two months I have read three classic writers that I’d always managed to avoid: D.H. Lawrence (The Rainbow), Charles Dickens ( Christmas Carol, Great expectations) and Leo Tolstoy (Death of Ivan Ilych and now reading ”Confession”) I avoided reading them because I grow to hate everything that has too much hoopla about it. If everyone yells it is VERRRY GOOD, then it must be bad; that’s my philosophy. Of course this rule does not always turn out to be true, but mostly it is. But well, I did read these three writers and I was quite impressed by D.H. Lawrence’s beautiful language and immensely candid thoughts about sex, lust, death, religion, spirituality etc. Many of his thoughts about Christianity were the ones I myself have secretly pondered over. But seems like the bastard clearly beat me to it. 
Well, good on him. I might be a teetotaler but I will still toast a black coffee to his blessed soul. May he rest in peace.
Charles Dickens is gooey and wordy. But his genius does shine in his humor, characterizations and of course story telling. I’m not sure if I would be reading more of his work though I must go through David Copperfield sometime in future.
Tolstoy, I find admirably truthful. As I previously thought he was no vegetarian saint but a totally flawed man who confesses in his memoirs that he has been ”adulterous in many ways”, lied, cheated, been violent, murdered people indiscriminately in battles as a soldier and so goes his list of sins. But to his credit he confesses to have no special authority on the meaning of life thing. I do not like him much as a writer and Anna Karenina slumbers on by book shelf not far from War and Peace, both unread. I find Tolstoy dull and sulky despite his genius and honesty. I cannot find any vibrancy or humor in his writings. Besides, translations always make the original writing more dull. So, Anna Karenina will be picked up if Ember gets reeeelly desperate, wink wink 
And now to the second topic. I have been wondering what uses intelligent and responsible people have for internet. Is it normal for normal people to spend so much time on the internet? I mean turn the clocks about 10 or 20 years back there was no such thing as internet as we know it now. I for one got the Net bug from age 19 and I have never left it. It has blessed me in many ways. I can remember my first email (in late 1999) that got a reply was from some 30 year old girl in Sault Sainte Marie in Ontario Canada (very close to the border of Michigan, U.S.A.) who also taught me to pronounce it right (Sue saint Marie) How else indeed could I have learned so much about the world beyond my reach? As a nerdy 19 year old I spent hours reading foreign coverage of New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Washington Post. I can clearly remember some of the articles I read in 1999 and 2000 that I could never access all my life before.
Along with these good learning pursuits also came the junk. Porn that was never to be sought but was always there, thrown at me through innocent misguided searches, in emails and all over really. Also, useless time sucking internet chats, love affairs etc. etc. were to infest a teeny young man that I was. Fortunately I got rid of most of the obsessive chats and online romances by the age of 24. But still much of the internet clutter keeps boring into my mind to this day. Sometimes I am trying to research something and all I do is to be stuck in never never land for hours and learn nothing but end up signing up here and there or downloading new softwares and programs!
My favorite author Gore Vidal does not use internet or computer for that matter. Maybe that’s why he managed to retain a sparkling intellect, delightful humor and eloquent speech well up to his 80th year? Noam Chomsky who is considered by many to be greatest living genius of our times who has developed groundbreaking theories in the field of Linguistics and who has written most well researched and provocative articles on U.S. foreign policy, world politics considers internet ”a great waste” and does not bother to go online even as much of his works are available on the internet. Hmmmmmmmm…..
On the surface, this leads me to believe that no serious writer or scientist or intellectual would bother with the internet but it is not quite so. Even most of the aging legends have internet presence and are joyously hooked on the internet.
So my verdict in the end is that I will stick to it! My blog posts are mostly read by people who search things like , ”Sex”, ”big penis”, ”how to get white women” But once in a while people drop by and compliment me on my writing, get provoked by my views on religion and politics, leave some incisive comments. So, in the end my blog gets its due rewards. When I say my blog I mean my WordPress Blog because that’s where I mostly write the most dull, boring and political stuff that I do not wish to inflict on my social networking folks all the time. lol.
At last I would mention something interesting… one example how internet provides a nerd like me to do weird things. I often listen to radio stations (news, talk, politics, BBC, NPR) on the internet. The other day I managed to tune into BBC London which is FM station run by BBC in London. There is a talk show that runs from 2am to 6am British time. I managed to listen to it live one evening (it is exactly evening in New Zealand when it is morning in UK). It being me, I could not help sending an email on a flaming political topic. 10 minutes later it was read by the talk host as I listened to it live on the internet through my headphones. My name and email was broadcast all over wintry foggy London in early morning Hmmmmm….. It may not mean anything to you but I call it Nerd Bliss.
What you think of any of the issues raised in this post: literature, internet etc. If you have any opinions or feelings about it, feel free to write. TTFN as in ta ta for now.
