Today, when I got home from work, I saw that my copy of Crooked Little Vein had arrived.
This evening, before I went to bed, I finished reading my copy of Crooked Little Vein.
When it comes to creativity, Warren Ellis is plenty capable. When it comes to doing research -- thorough research -- about the things that tickle his fancy, however, he's incredible.
He's a sick, twisted shell of a man, with a particular gift. His mind is so white-washed with the depravity that fascinates him so that he, and he alone, can keep up with the entirety of the ever-advancing, ever-accelerating front of the collective social norm, digest it with a rhetorical colon the size of Nebraska, and shit out a surreal, delightful and hilarious little book, enjoyable to anyone who's ever truly browsed the web and lived to tell about it.
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An interesting side note about reading the book. I've been reading his blog for a long time, both in its current form and the old Die Puny Humans (which I still kind of miss...).
Whether he knows what it's for or not, he's constantly doing research, and that was what DPH was for at its inception -- an online log of all the horrible things he dug up.
This happened on a few times (fortunately!), but every once in a while, while reading, I'd come across something familiar. "Oh, I remember when he discovered that. Ewww."
Maybe I'll actually write a proper review later.
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5 comments:
I don't think it's clear that the social norm is accelerating. I'm not inclined to think it is, but my first thought is actually whether or not there is any research attempting to digest whether that is happening.
Hey, it's my working assumption. I figure the fringes of acceptable behavior are only bounded by a) someone willing to try weird, new shit and b) our ability to communicate and share our new discoveries. There certainly isn't any doubt that those quantities (affecting the rate, my assumption) are increasing.
I agree that (b) is increasing. Why is there any reason to believe (a) is increasing? Wouldn't the increase in (b) mask any increase in (a) that may or may not be there?
It's possible that the social norm is accelerating, but I'm interested basically in seeing some sort of research that looks into it.
Well, I assume that a) is proportional to the population.
You don't have to agree, but it feels right enough for me. Then again, flexibility in semantics can make anything possible.
It seems to me that (a) increasing is definitely an assumption. I can't say with any degree of confidence either that it is or that it isn't.
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