Page 123 meme
» Wednesday, February 13, 2008
It's true beyond the telling that I hate internet blog memes - not only has it degraded the meaning of the word 'meme', it usually comes off as a form of soft coercion. I may not want to reveal ten kooky things about myself, or talk about the last four songs I listened to, but once I've been 'tagged' I feel as if someone is constantly prodding me in the small of the back. You gonna do that meme? Huh? You gonna?But - if the meme turns out to be something cool, fascinating, and not particularly onerous, then I say bring it on. Many thanks to Cecilieaux of Shavings Off My Mind for offering me a meme I can get behind.
Here are the rules.
The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.
Those were the rules. I don't quite understand why rules 3 & 4 aren't collapsed into one rule (ie. Post sentences six, seven and eight) but I'm not going to argue with rules. Especially meme rules, which are tinkered with at the user's peril. I understand that Jenny B. from Rapid City tinkered with the rules once, and the next day she developed hives, and the hives developed mouths, and the mouths wanted to watch the special edition of Ghost with the cast & crew commentary, and through the nights and days they screamed and lowed and ululated for Ghost, until eventually she broke down and bought a copy, and you know what? It sucked. That's twenty-five bucks she's never getting back.
And now the mouths rest quietly, waiting for the 3-disc box set of Pretty Woman.
Anyway, the book nearest, my God, to me, is Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach, his crazy 1979 "metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".
Tortoise: ....You don't have to think about it consciously. But in this piece, Bach was playing tricks, hoping to lead you astray. And in your case, Achilles, he succeeded.
Let's see, whom do I tag?
Nate from Okay City
Matt or Rebecca of Sporky
Amblus
rekabek
Tamara from Awkwardly Social
Labels: meme
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10 comments:
anonymous - If there are no words on the 123rd page, then either you are out of luck, or you choose the following page, or the preceding page, or any page, or go for a walk, or eat a healthy burrito, or eat an unhealthy burrito, or write that novel you've been meaning to for the last five years, or flip through the cable channels until you find something to masturbate to, or flip through until you're too depressed to masturbate, or book a flight to exotic lands with warm soft breezes. In fact, I recommend all of these things before thinking about the formal rules of blog memes.
Thank God you didn't tag me. The closest books I have at hand in my office are all computer manuals.....and you don't want to read any of Page 123 from those.
lotus07 - A lucky thing. You're on my list of people to tag, though, so consider yourself forewarned.
nate - Yes, I saw. That was some swift reacting.
I never mean to avoid anyone's memes but then I notice I never do them so this must be osme kind of protest.
Anyway, mine is: "Now let us not multiply confusion and distraction in a host of individual details." God, that could be a total motto for me for the rest of my life.
Matt and I are arguing over which one of us are responding to your meme. I did the last one, but I have the best book on hand: a crock pot cookbook. Page 123 is a recipe for corned beef and cabbage.
I despise internet memes as well. I've only actually ever done one of them.
I thought about doing this one for a moment until I realized that the nearest book has enough pages but has virtually no text, being a book of photographs without captions or commentary. The next nearest book is in German and I don't feel like translating right now and the third nearest is a Bible which lacks proper sentences anyway. Further evidence both that I need never do internet memes and that the universe conspires against me.
This has nothing to do with the content of your blog and I don't know if it's just me but the left-hand side of your blog is cut off just a teensy bit, on my screen.
Although it seems inconsequential (compared to our city's homeless situation, the war and a very good friend's sadness in marking the second year of her father's extremely untimely and heart-wrenching passing among a catrillion other awful things going on this stupid non-sensical world) I'm bothering to say anything because I like reading your blog and I'm a perfectionist and it annoys me that it's cut off, albeit a teensy bit. Truth be told these days, I'm annoyed at most everything. God bless yoga. post a comment ~ Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] ~ main page
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