Comments | signalslouch: something in a book

signalslouch

something in a book

Nov 04, 2005 02:07

I was sitting on the beach yesterday and translated a lot of Victor Pelevin's latest book..the Sacred Book of the Werewolf. Its about existance and nothing. I've read it a couple of times and still can't pinpoint exactly what..words are anchors. Since of the difficulty of context, I don't imagine it ever being translated into english, but here's ( Read more... )

Comments 8

archangelbebop November 4 2005, 10:08:31 UTC

I'm reading this and comenting in a minute, but first: Dre! You're alive! Sweet! Haven't seen you in awhile

signalslouch November 4 2005, 10:09:38 UTC

oi..and better than i've ever been

archangelbebop November 4 2005, 10:10:37 UTC

Good to hear. For future ref, my YIM is "doc_jonesin", if you ever care to chat.

To Drei's friend. brainsiege November 4 2005, 23:05:59 UTC

Dude, I don;t know who you are, but props on the alex grey icon.

Thread 5

A Query... brainsiege November 4 2005, 23:08:34 UTC

So, is the "Werewolf" Pelevin refers to (metaphorically) the inner beast which is released due to some cause, or rather the shell in which the true inner self resides, masked by some curse? The curse, in this context, being societal "norms"?

Re: A Query... signalslouch November 4 2005, 23:14:01 UTC

i think its all the above you've mentioned and then some as his first/early works were titled and circled around an almost identical theme...as for societal norms..he really doesn't acknowledge the full existance of such things..but rather takes it to a more spiritual yet agnostic perspective..i think...its hard to describe

Re: A Query... archangelbebop November 6 2005, 08:33:36 UTC

Side Note: You know, this is kind of wierd, but JK Rowling of all people used the archetype of the werewolf in her last Harry Potter book as an allegory. In her case it was more specifically repeat sex offenders (and their different ways of dealing with it), but could be expanded to include all instances of someone whose "inner beast" (reptile mind) makes repeat unscheduled appearances. This is actually fairly in line with the origins of the werewolf myth as far as I know (the original version of "Little Red Ridinghood" is pretty fucked up), but it was refreshing to find in a fucking Harry Potter book.

The idea of this itself being a shell appeals to me as an area of study. I've alays had trouble accpeting the idea that humans are *only* walking meat slabs controled by a back-and-forth combination of societal coding and primitive brain-stem activity. Frightening, but moe than that it's a little too incomplete and more than a little Freudian.