inappropriate book game
Posted by trevor Wed, 11 May 2005 18:11:16 GMT
I’ve just begun to read a borrowed copy of “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid”.
Here’s a game you can play if you need an occasional diversion when plowing through the material:
Let the book fall open to a random page. Scan the page for a lengthy paragraph which is completely incomprehensible. Something where you can pronounce the words but you have absolutely no idea why they are significant when strung together. It shouldn’t take long to find a likely candidate.
Next, picture Wallace Shawn sitting across from you at a restaurant. Imagine that he is speaking the words as you read them from the page.
As he goes on, he becomes agitated. His voice becomes more and more shrill and his lisp is uncontrollable. The pace of his speech becomes feverish and he occasionally stabs at the air with pudgy fingers.
He approaches the climax of his diatribe and he can no longer contain himself. He is speaking far too quickly to allow for pauses so he flails his arms and smacks the table as a whole-body substitute for punctuation. Tiny globules of spittle arc from his bottom lip – luckily not far enough to reach your bowl of soup.
Somehow, squeezing the last bit of air from his lungs, he actually manages to increase the pitch and volume of his voice even further. Face purple with effort, he utters the final words – the fundamental truth of what he’s been describing (and what you’ve been reading).
He slumps in his chair, silent, nodding, smiling. And looking to you for a reaction-in-kind.
Okay, so it does nothing to help you understand the material but it sure can be entertaining.
Try it. It’s fun.
