The University of the Absurd

"Another important department is Adynata, or Impossibilia.  Like Urban Planning for Gypsies.  The essense of the discipline is the comprehension of the underlying reasons for a thing's absurdity.  We have courses in Morse syntax, the history of antartic agriculutre, the history of Easter Island painting, contemporary Sumerian literature, Montessori grading, Assyrian-Babylonian philately, the technology of the wheel in pre-Columbian empires, and the phonetics of the silent film."

Jacopo Belbo in Umberto Eco' "Foucault's Pendulum"

Ever watch a seagull?
A seagull at rest will just stand and look into the ether of the air.
Does he think?  Does he remember or have foresight?
In the winter if he gets cold he may switch the legs he is standing on;  the only reaction he gives to the external world.
Nothing in those lifeless eyes.
Does he get bored?  Can he get bored?
Is there a past or a future for him? or just a never-ending present.

- 1/30/09

Post Halloween excerpt from Frankenstein

"Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of thier doting parents; how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb!
Of what material was I made that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture."

Question: Was the fiend in Frankenstein "real" in the novel or was it a metaphor/analogy for some other torment suffered by the protagonist or the author?

Favorite Movie Quotes (post yours in my comments section)

"you're gonna need a bigger boat" - JAWS (1975)

"buzzards gotta eat, same as worms" - The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

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