So it turns out there are these things called "memes." Derived from the Greek mimema, meaning "that which is imitated," a meme, in everyday language, is "an element of a culture or system of behavior" that is passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation. In the language of the web, a "meme" is a "catchphrase or concept that spreads in a faddish way from person to person via the Internet" (this from Wikipedia).
I have only just learned about the meme. (Even my blogging software doesn't recognize the plural of the word, "memes" - which sounds like a kind of Internet gremlin.) My friend posts the occasional meme on her blog and they're always kind of fun. I decided to indulge the Barefoot Bohemian's memetic ways and pass along her latest, about books. You can play at home, or in the comments section.
One book that changed my life: "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," by Paul Elie.
One book that I've read more than once: "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," by James Joyce.
One book that I'd want on a desert island: "Ulysses," by James Joyce (so I could finally finish it).
One book that made me laugh: "The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount," by Italo Calvino.
One book that made me cry: A book has never made me cry, though the beauty of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" made my heart hurt, and "Everything Is Illuminated," by Jonathan Safran Foer, made me wish my soul wasn't a parched desert.
One book that scared the hell out of me: "Foucault's Pendulum," by Umberto Eco (a conspiracy theorist's dream, or possibly nightmare).
One book I wish had been written: Aristotle's second book of "Poetics," about comedy
One book I wish had never been written: It's a tie between "The Magnificent Ambersons," by Booth Tarkington, and "The Ginger Man," by J.P. Donleavy (numbers 100 and 99, respectively, on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century).
Two books I'm currently reading: "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," by Junot Diaz, and "John Brown: Abolitionist" by David S. Reynolds.
One book you've been meaning to read: Anything by [author's name]. Seriously. I've never read anything by [author's name].*
*Please insert:
Saul Bellow
Truman Capote
John Cheever
Ralph Ellison
Gunter Grass
Graham Greene
Henry James
Robert Lowell
Cormac McCarthy
Thomas Mann
Toni Morrison
Vladimir Nabakov
William Styron
Derek Walcott
Richard Wright
Virginia Woolf
22 comments:
What fun.
One book that changed my life: "The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right," by Robert Lanham.
One book that I've read more than once: "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens.
One book that I'd want on a desert island: "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide (compendium)," by Douglas Adams.
One book that made me laugh: "Killing Yourself to Live," by Chuck Klosterman.
One book that made me cry: None.
One book that scared the hell out of me: "Sphere," by Michael Crichton (when I was 13).
One book I wish had been written: "Sorry 'Bout All That," by James Dobson.
One book I wish had never been written: "Madame Bovary," by Gustave Flaubert.
Two books I'm currently reading: "The Brothers Karamazov," by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and "Reflecting the Glory" by NT Wright.
One book you've been meaning to read: "War and Peace," by Leo Tolstoy. It's on deck.
Nick,
These are great. Love the Dobson title.
John
I just put this on my own blog (heh...I guess that's the goal of a meme?). But one Truman Capote suggestion that is a quick read (actually, most of his stuff is a quick read) is the short story 'A Christmas Memory.' But 'In Cold Blood' and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' are always good bets.
Great list, though! It's always good to find out that other avid readers haven't read some of the classics like Virginia Woolf--so many books, so little time.
Okay, I'll play.
One book that changed my life: "Galapogos" by Kurt Vonnegut. The novel that made me want to write.
One book that i've read more than once: "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Loved it as an idealist teenager.
One book that I'd want on a desert island: "Ada or Ardor" by Vladimir Nabokov. It would probably take me that long to get through it again. Great story, but the prose is insanely difficult to master.
One book that made me laugh: "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. Nothing like political satire to stir the emotions.
One book that made me cry: see above answer.
One book that scared the hell out of me: "The Hellbound Heart" by Clive Barker.
One book I wish had been written: "My True Identity" by Jesus H. Christ.
One book I wish had never been written: "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy. I can't believe that trash is still required reading in high school english.
Two books I'm currently reading: "Digging Up Donald" by Steven Pirie and "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert
One book you've been meaning to read: "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. Just always wanted to know what the fuss was about.
Great list, Robert. I've only ever read one of those books: The Satanic Verses. I read it and loved it.
One thing that struck me about Satanic Verses, as I recall (it was probably eight years ago that I read it), was that the most controversial parts of the book occur during dreams.
Later, when I read "The Last Temptation of Christ" by Nikos Kazantzakis (a great book), I found that the same was true. The most controversial portion of the book is when Jesus comes down off the cross, marries Mary Magdalene, and sires children. But it all turns out to be the fantasy of a delirious Jesus as he's dying on the cross. It was, obviously, his last temptation.
Fundamentalists of all stripes (Muslim, Christian, secular) seem to fear the imagination.
I just posted this over on the goblin, and then I saw that it's over here too! So what the heck, here it goes again:
One book that changed my life: Gluten-free, Sugar-free Cooking by Susan O'Brien
One book that I've read more than once: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
One book that I'd want on a desert island: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (hopefully it would remind me to find the wonder in my situation)
One book that made me laugh: The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
One book that made me cry: Women by Charles Bukowski, but I don't think that was the desired effect...
One book that scared the hell out of me: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
One book I wish had been written: Oops, My Bad by Bill O'Reilly
One book I wish had never been written: Heartsongs (and the rest in the series) by Mattie Stepanik. This book was the bane of my existence when I worked at a bookstore in college. I know the story behind it, I know that disliking it isn't PC, but man I hate those books.
Two books I'm currently reading: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
One book you've been meaning to read: One of those fiction books by Chuck Norris...you know that has got to be good.
Nobody had responded yet on The Goblin and I really wanted to hear people's answers, so I cross-posted it here. The discussion is much livelier.
Changed my life: 12 steps and 12 traditions of AA
Read more than once: ‘Til We Have Faces, by CS Lewis
desert island: Simply Christian, N.T. Wright
Made me laugh: Naked, David Sedaris
Made me cry: The Lovely Bones, Alice Siebold
Scared the hell out of me: Oprah magazine.
Wish had been written: The Profanity Bible: All the Greek and Hebrew words too shocking for polite society, put back into the text. in Philippians 3 … I count it all sh#$ compared to gaining Christ.” That’s the original meaning
Wish had never been written: The Bridges of Madison County by Idiot Wind
Currently reading: Surprised by Hope and my rewrite.
One book you've been meaning to read: The Koran for Dummies
Aah! Susan, yes. How could I have left David Sedaris off of my list? That man is beautifully insane...
And how could I forget "Brothers Karamazov?" That's definitely a desert island book for me.
BTW, in français, même means "same" or "self." Same thing is même-chose. Myself is "moi-même." But I'm still not quite grasping meme in cyberwiki speak. And is it pronounced "mem or meem? Or with a shwa? Or does it matter?
That's right, Susan. The famous quote - "The more things change, the more they stay the same"- comes from the French, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." That's from Alphonse Karr's satirical journal Les Guêpes.
My dictionary says that "meme" should be pronounced with the long "e" sound.
meme is a term invented by Richard Dawkins to describe a theory he stated in his book The Selfish Gene. It's meant as a combination of the words gene & mimic.
The broad definition is any unit of cultural information which is passed verbally or through repetition (i.e. theories, habits, even cultural identities). Dawkins uses this term in his theories of evolutionary biology in order map which memes were most likely to carry on in the future, usually those related to danger, sex, or other primal instincts (hence urban legends).
There is an entire field (memetics) devoted to this within psychological and biological evolutionary theory. It's still controversial, but pretty interesting.
And it BTW, it rhymes with dream, John's right.
BWC readers are smart.
you guys all read too many damn books. you should be writing your own. i don't see the big deal about a 'meme' - kinda reminds me of those teenie bopper facebook quizzes:
Please list the last 12 people who commented on your wall and answer these questions:
1. Did you ever date number 3?
2. What does number 5 eat for a bedtime snack?
3. Does number 9 look good in cashmere?
etc, etc.
Anonymous,
I will use any forum and format to talk about books. That's part of what writers do.
And to answer your questions:
1. No, though I wanted to.
2. She feasts on love.
3. He looks frumpy.
John
Someone memed me with this about a month ago, so it's somewhere in the archives on my blog, but I just wanted to check in and let everybody know that, yep, I read! Even though it doesn't really matter to you because you don't actually know me.
Anyway, good idea to post it here.
Oh yeah . . . and the Virginia Woolf thing? Don't bother. Well, except for the fact that our literary tastes seem to differ, so probably you'd like her.
great post, john. i think i'll play too.
One book that changed my life: Cliché for a young girl, but The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It awakened within me a desire to write.
One book that I've read more than once: Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
One book that I'd want on a desert island: A tie between The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky and The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
One book that made me laugh: Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
One book that made me cry: A fair few. From To Kill a Mockingbird to The Virgin Suicides to East of Eden.
One book that scared the hell out of me: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and other dystopian nightmares.
One book I wish had been written: more Glass family stories by Salinger.
One book I wish had never been written: anything by the Marquis de Sade.
Two books I'm currently reading: Bid Me to Live by H.D. and Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.
One book you've been meaning to read: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.
Here's my list, if we're keeping score at home...
Jenn-I agree, Virginia Woolf is totally over-rated.
Anon-I'm not surprised the meme thing reminds you of those facebook quizzes because those are great examples of meme's. Dawkins would say that people are interested in them because they appeal to our primal needs of sex, power (class), etc.
John-How did you know that I feast on love before bed?
I notice there's no Hemingway on anyone's list. I think he's as overrated as Virgina Woolf.
"He sprayed the pan. He cooked the eggs. He ate them. They tasted like nada.
"Bryce," Marnie sighed. "If only."
"Don't."
"I didn't."
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