The Library of Babelicious

May 13, 2005 13:42


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jackbabalon23 May 13 2005, 11:12:07 UTC
"The Enochian Poetry of William Butler Yeats"
Written during Yeats years in the Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn, and given to a one Frater Perdurabo as a birthday gift. These poems were written replicating the scrying techniques of Dr.John Dee & Edward Kelly only the scrying ball was said to be the bottom of a recently emptied glass of absinthe. The poems range from the romantic Her wings of love across the eastern watchtower to the frightening and apocalyptic Jerusalem in flames as the fallen learn to fly again.... It is reported that only five copies of this book remains, one of which can be found here... middle shelf, second from the left.

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raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 11:55:20 UTC
This was awesome.

I've always been entranced by Yeats's occult dabblings. A friend of mine did a one-man (woman) show about it back in college and for months afterward she was seriously whacked out, throwing tarot cards at me and forecasting doom and gloom. Like Chicken Little saying the sky was falling, except picture Chicken Little wearing raver fat pants and listening to Sisters of Mercy.

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"Yeats & Keats are on your side but you lose... " jackbabalon23 May 13 2005, 12:38:25 UTC
Thanks.

I've always found Mr."Turning & turning in the widening gyre" fascinating for some reason. The Mystic. The Irish revolutionary. Getting busy with Maud Gonne. Wow. What rough beast indeed.
I like your idea for this post btw. Have you ever seen Peter Greenaway's (I think thats right) Prospero's Books. It's my favorite version of the Tempest yet. Throughout they have all these cool books from Prospero's library. "An Atlas of Hell" written by Orpheus comes to mind.

Looking forward to some of the entries you should get.

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Re: "Yeats & Keats are on your side but you lose... " raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 13:09:42 UTC
Meet me at the cemetary gates, y'all.

I have a confession: I fell asleep twice trying to watch Prospero's Books. In general, I really love Greenaway's vision as a director. Some of his scenes are forever burned into my memory. But this one didn't grab me.

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inverted_man May 13 2005, 11:57:38 UTC
2nd column from the right. 2nd shelf from the bottom. 7th book from the right.

It's the 116 publication from Brian the Strenuously Logical's How to Survive in the Primordial Soup series. This particular volume is part of the special edition collection, and was printed independently of the series' traditional order.

The denizens of the Soup have a 57 letter alphabet but no "alphabetical order" since they find no real value in forming some ordinality of letters (after all, they've never met anyone from Greece) their order depends almost entirely on the editor's whims.

This one, 2nd column from the right, 2nd shelf from the bottom, 7th book from the right, is called

A Hallucinatory Encyclopedia
Being a Compendium of Preternatural Fauna, Flora, and Astralia

In it are articles which inform the reader on the habits and habitats of such creatures as Hyla demoralis (The Peep Frog), French Kissing coffee mugs (this is a rough translation for they've never met a French person either), CEO-ephalopods (an unfortunate gastropod-like ( ... )

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Pour some sugar on me raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 12:21:36 UTC
Dear lord. Did you write all of this just now, or is this part of a wider catalogue from which you can draw at opportune moments?

Either way, I am strictly in awe. But I'd be less inclined to grow depressed at my inability to come up with a suitable rejoinder if I knew this composition wasn't strictly off the cuff.

W/r/t Absinthoptera: much in the way that salt will dry out an attacking snail, pour sugar on them and they grow cloudy and lose their way.

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Re: Pour some sugar on me inverted_man May 13 2005, 13:38:38 UTC
The creatures and the name of the compendium are things I'd thought about before. The other tripe was off the cuff, and really NOTHING beats "The Complete Works of John Cage".

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transient_poet May 13 2005, 12:46:03 UTC
Oh My God! The complete works of John Cage!!!!!

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I feel so blank inside raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 12:52:10 UTC
Bwahahahaha.

Classic.

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Re: I feel so blank inside transient_poet May 13 2005, 12:57:30 UTC
Do you think when you buy them at Tower, you get a CD case with just the liner notes?

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Re: I feel so blank inside raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 13:45:12 UTC
Yes. And just for irony's sake you also get a free copy of Bjork's yelly single "It's Oh So Quiet."

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last row of shelves, 2nd shelf down, 4th book quickly_9 May 13 2005, 13:00:16 UTC
"The Dusty Skirt". Being an account of a traveling troupe of transvestite gypsies, circus performers and dancers, making the rounds in a depressed 1930's midwest. It includes excerpts from various diaries of the "girls" as well as some erotic/romantic poetry. Heavy on the metaphors involving farm implements.

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Re: last row of shelves, 2nd shelf down, 4th book raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 13:29:07 UTC
I know it's not politically correct to say so, but thought the rake scene was hot.

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Second column (L to R), middle shelf, the leaning lonely book citizenkafka May 13 2005, 13:31:50 UTC
That's obviously "Manifestations of Asymmetry" by Col. William H. Shermerhorn ( ... )

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Re: Second column (L to R), middle shelf, the leaning lonely book raygunn_revival May 13 2005, 13:43:20 UTC
Being a Naval scientist, might we refer to Shermerhorn's book as a seamanal work?

Did you know that there was a William H. Schermerhorn (with a "c") who had a military career? New York 7th regiment.

(Fabulous, by the way. Thank you.)

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Re: Second column (L to R), middle shelf, the leaning lonely book citizenkafka May 13 2005, 18:26:31 UTC
I have no idea where I picked up that name. Until last year, I thought it was the actual name of the original owner of my friend's 1965 Chrysler New Yorker. He insists that it's not, but the car is gone now and we cannot determine either way. So... yes, it's possible I absorbed that name from somewhere. I've used it as a pseudonym on many occasions.

Good pun, btw.

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Re: Second column (L to R), middle shelf, the leaning lonely book quickly_9 May 13 2005, 13:50:40 UTC
is it wrong that i read all your comments in a moonenite voice?

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