...I mean, tuition is free when you're on staff at a college, so why not take a class or two to keep sharp, right?

So I talk to a friend of mine in the Humanities department and she lets me swing an independant study from her called "Advanced Fiction" and I'm happy. She says something to the effect of "I want you to write fiction for me, but I also want you to be reading"... so she plucks a list from the air and hands it to me and I'm off to the library.

Before I leave, though, she leaves me with a disclaimer saying, "There's going to be a dark cloud everywhere you go for the next six months."

Thinking it just a weird, random astrology thing (since she can be a little spacey... which isn't a bad thing, by the way in case she's miraculously found this site and is reading this), i go on my merry way.

So I'm reading Kafka for the first time since High School, Thomas Mann, and Camus... and I am now in a perpetually dark mood... and im not talking everyday DarkForum angsty, i mean those once or twice a year days of complete existential despair have now been EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past week... and I'm wondering if it's going to keep up the entire semester.

Oiy Ve Gavolt.

So now I'm walking around more pissy than five women on the rag combined, biting peoples' heads off and wanting to off every living being on the planet.

Ain't that just a ray of sunshine?

well... whatever.

screw you guys, im goin'ta work.

I take medication for that.

she's a witch! buuuurn her!!!

People that read Kafka on purpose scare me.

that's so eighteenth century...you have better effect if you throw water on her...especially if her shirt is white...

That's a good witch test! We can accuse women of being witches, pour water on them, and if the shirt sticks, then they're innocent.

yes, existenialism....ain't it fantabulous

whenever a book depresses me, i realize that i'm not a big pussy, and continue reading.

good to know... *reads kafka in front of all*

pussy

suck it, bitch.

I like 'metamorphosis', it's a good story.

Have you read any Milan Kundera? I tried reading 'the unbearable lightness of being' but it was too deep (read: boring, plotless, wanky) for me.

Although not really existentialist, the beat writers of the USA in the 1950s are good, people like Kerouac and the such.

I agree with (anti) actually, if I'm reading a book that depresses me I stop, realise that it's just a book, and get on with it.

actually, i have... and enjoyed it much more than i did Mann or Kafka.

I've only read some stuff by Camus...



and I do really enjoy existentialism...when we studied it in HS english class I was the only student very interested...not to mention that the plays and books that we read for this philosophy etc. were the only ones that I actually read. Hmm...

but yes, Im going to have to get myself settled and read some more...