How to be a Punk: The Reading List
(Teal today, people.)
Over the past six months or so, I have been conducting a detailed study in How to be a Punk. This does not mean simply listening to "Pretty Vacant" ad infintum. No, there is a literary element to Punk as well. Below I present a list of books guaranteed to make you feel pretty vacant.
THE LIST:
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess.
Yarbles, what a horrorshow book! This is the perfect complement to a chasha of milky chai and Ludwig van's ninth. I only have two warnings to give any malchick or devotchka who wants to read this: First and foremost, it is a very violent book. The imagery is very dark and it describes the lowest level of the human condition. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Second, it is written in nadsat-speak, making it largely indecipherable. Who knows what "devotchka" means (besides of course a good band)? Listening material: Never Mind the Bollocks
Brighton Rock,by Graham Greene
The author is namechecked by John Cale on Paris 1919, Paul Simonon and Johnny Rotten cite it as an influence, and the book becomes an overnight punk-junkie classic. Its fame is well deserved. (Yes, I named my guitar after it.) Listening material: Clash UK or "The Guns of Brixton" on London Calling
1984, by George Orwell
This is similar to Clockwork Orange in that it deals with the scary world of the future, but it has an even stranger premise. The government, headed by Big Brother (he is watching you...) can edit the past. Doublethink. Get out speedwise. (More invented slang in this one.) Listening material: London Calling
The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
More Orwellian prose put in a SciFi setting. A must for those who like dark humor or philosophical thought. Listening material: The Essential Clash, disc 2
The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon
I have seen paranoia and its name is Pynchon. This is a wonderful, weird, wacky story about rival mail services (I kid you not) set in post-Beatlemania California. It has wonderfully bizarre characters, like Oedipa the confused housewife, Hilarius the crazy shrink, and the Paranoids, a Beatlemaniac rock band. The perfect pop art novel.Listening material:The Queen is Dead, by the Smiths
Happy reading! Keep sniffing, you punks!
Over the past six months or so, I have been conducting a detailed study in How to be a Punk. This does not mean simply listening to "Pretty Vacant" ad infintum. No, there is a literary element to Punk as well. Below I present a list of books guaranteed to make you feel pretty vacant.
THE LIST:
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess.
Yarbles, what a horrorshow book! This is the perfect complement to a chasha of milky chai and Ludwig van's ninth. I only have two warnings to give any malchick or devotchka who wants to read this: First and foremost, it is a very violent book. The imagery is very dark and it describes the lowest level of the human condition. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Second, it is written in nadsat-speak, making it largely indecipherable. Who knows what "devotchka" means (besides of course a good band)? Listening material: Never Mind the Bollocks
Brighton Rock,by Graham Greene
The author is namechecked by John Cale on Paris 1919, Paul Simonon and Johnny Rotten cite it as an influence, and the book becomes an overnight punk-junkie classic. Its fame is well deserved. (Yes, I named my guitar after it.) Listening material: Clash UK or "The Guns of Brixton" on London Calling
1984, by George Orwell
This is similar to Clockwork Orange in that it deals with the scary world of the future, but it has an even stranger premise. The government, headed by Big Brother (he is watching you...) can edit the past. Doublethink. Get out speedwise. (More invented slang in this one.) Listening material: London Calling
The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
More Orwellian prose put in a SciFi setting. A must for those who like dark humor or philosophical thought. Listening material: The Essential Clash, disc 2
The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon
I have seen paranoia and its name is Pynchon. This is a wonderful, weird, wacky story about rival mail services (I kid you not) set in post-Beatlemania California. It has wonderfully bizarre characters, like Oedipa the confused housewife, Hilarius the crazy shrink, and the Paranoids, a Beatlemaniac rock band. The perfect pop art novel.Listening material:The Queen is Dead, by the Smiths
Happy reading! Keep sniffing, you punks!
posted by RACL at 1:19 PM
2 Comments:
Hi, snowy.
Got rid of the spam forever, no worries.
Well?
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