The Emporer has no clothes!!

(this is me, not Verity!)

I'm mad about Terry Pratchett's Discworld as well, Jim - there's something about the relish Pratchett writes with that is really infectious!

As far as the original point goes, I agree up to a point - most of the "classics" I have read have proved to be a struggle - it's like the author didn't have the sense of actually enjoying writing this muck...

...but on the other hand, you get out what you put in - so if you stick with a book like "Ulysses", you then have the credibility point of being able to say that you've read it. You could always lie, but then people could catch you out by asking questions. "Ulysses" seems very pretentious to me - but maybe that's because I didn't study Joyce - or indeed any English literature at a particularly high level. I recognise and admire the creativity in the stream-of-consciousness style, especially that famous penultimate chapter with the single punctuation mark that was probably a squashed fly on the proof copy - but having never studied Latin or the Greek classics or anything much apart from music, much of it went over my head. Does a book like this really hold much value for the average reader?

As all writers are different, and everyone gets different things out of books, I don't think it's fair to say "The Emporer has no clothes" applies to all "classics" or books that we are force-fed at school; "Animal Farm" was presented to us on the English curriculm shortly after we had studied the Russian Revolution in History. As a consequence, the metaphors were painfully paper thin and many of us wondered what was so great about it.

The other thing with the "classics" is that if you keep at them long enough, one or two can actually surprise you and capture your imagination in some way - and that can be very satisfying. "Don Quixote" seems an incredibly modern and relevant parable, considering it was first published in its entirity at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Left to myself, however, I will happily re-read my Pratchett collection all over again

I'm like that with music;

On one hand, I like to listen to music for the sheer pleasure of it - just drifting into the soundscape and allowing my mind to wander within it.

On the other, I particularly enjoy disassembling the music, looking for influences from other artists - or even evidence of plagiarism, the application of "classical" music rules (a la Annie O Warburton) or rules of song structuring or soundscape evolution, and technical devices or bluff vs musical embellishment. That's probably why I like prog so much - the "secret codes" are much more in evidence here!

One thing I find particularly challenging is picking apart the production techniques that are commonly used to hide the majority of artists' lack of actual musical training or ability. You just don't hear that on recordings of "classical" music; for example, I don't think Caruso ever used Antares... (talking about emporer's new clothes ).

...and the 3rd category is wallpaper; the kind of music that you don't really listen to but is good to have on to enhance or dissipate the mood you're in; Good old-fashioned rock is a great outlet for aggression or bad moods - especially when combined with the guitar cranked up (I can't be doing with "air guitar" - I have to play along!).

I've left instructions that should I perish in an auto accident, my epitaph shall read: "Died searching for the perfect soundtrack." Right now I have a Nick Drake compilation, Screaming Trees' "Uncle Anesthesia", a Grateful Dead bootleg from '77, and Zappa's "Thing-Fish".

Weezer's first album gets into the car a lot, and so does Rush's "Hemispheres", David Byrne's "Rei Momo", "The Yes Album", "Close to the Edge", Leftfield's "Leftism", "Portishead" and Bjork's "Debut". I can definitely identify with the Fishbone..."The Reality of My Surroundings" was in my car for a long time, although I hate to think of how white I looked trying to sing along to "Housework"

I generally have wallpaper in the car, mainly because I drive at rush hour and I'm scared about what other drivers might do. EVERY DAY I hear about at least two or three accidents on the motorways in my area ON EACH JOURNEY. I don't ever intend to be one of those statistics.

That said, if I'm driving a long way at a quiet time, on goes the Marillion and I am singing along like I'd only just become familiar with the words - which I often feel like I have!

I know what you mean about the speed cameras - they're more dangerous than not having speed cameras, IMO, because you concentrate on your speedometer instead of the road...

James Lee wrote:   It does get a little scary in the middle of the night when you're hundreds of miles from the next town and you see those roadside shrines people put up at the site of fatal accidents...little white crosses ringed with flowers (and stuffed animals, for the really sad ones)...

There's a nasty bend near where I live with a few such (permanent) shrines. I tell you something, that works a lot better than a poxy speed camera at tempering my boy-racer tendencies.

danbo wrote: . I have noticed, though, that the older I get the more I listen to talk radio,

Hate to admit it, but I'm a bit of a BBC World Service fan myself.

emdiar wrote: James Lee wrote: It does get a little scary in the middle of the night when you're hundreds of miles from the next town and you see those roadside shrines people put up at the site of fatal accidents...little white crosses ringed with flowers (and stuffed animals, for the really sad ones)... There's a nasty bend near where I live with a few such (permanent) shrines. I tell you something, that works a lot better than a poxy speed camera at tempering my boy-racer tendencies.

Don't get many of those in NYC.. but a couple of years ago when I only had a few days to see most of New Zealand... I drove like a maniac from the top of the North Island to Rotarua... and every bend had a bunch of those little white crosses next to it.  I stopped believing in them after the first 100 miles.. and thought the New Zealand highway patrol probably put those babys there just to spook you... otherwise.. I'd say New Zealanders must be the worst drivers in the world...