Category Archives: Hallucinations

When I first read this, I imagined for a moment that 1204 and 1453 had been nothing but bad dreams. Reality dawing on me felt like a fist in my guts

By terje | Published: November 21, 2008
“Constantinople was an impregnable city …” — Robert B. Kebric, Roman People (4th edition), epilogue.
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Greek stuff, Grief, Hist2125, History, Hope, Irony, Language, Literature, Love, Medieval stuff, Misery, Nostalgia, Oh noes!, Pain, Quote of the day, Regret, Roman stuff, Wistfulness | 3 Comments

A Plague! A Plague on Our Houses!

By terje | Published: May 24, 2008
In my Last.fm shoutbox, I was recently asked by one of my readers to post more frequently in my blog, and seeing as your whim is my law, I bring you this: an essay of sorts about the last topic you’d expected me to write about! One of the things you might not know [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Annoyance, Boredom, Conflicting emotions, Disappointment, Discomfort, Dumb luck, Evilness, Failed attempts at subtility, Family, Football, Forums, Glee, Gloating, Goosebumps!, Great Expectations, Grief, Help!, History, Hope, Impressions, Irony, Language, Laziness, Links, Lists, Lotta, Media, Megalomania, Misery, Music, My microcosmos, Norse stuff, Norway, Nostalgia, Oh noes!, Opinions, Optimism, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Pettiness, Pleasant surprises, Politics, Potential, Pride, Procrastination, Roman stuff, Scepticism, Speculations, TMI, Television stuff, This Blog, Various, Videos, Weird stuff, Whoa, Why do I think anyone cares?, Wistfulness, Words, Yay!, lol, meh. | 11 Comments

Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut

By terje | Published: November 27, 2007
Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death. By Kurt Vonnegut. 156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970. First published in English in 1969. How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Ambiguity, Art, Awe, Bliss, Conflicting emotions, Discomfort, Language, Literature, Misery, My microcosmos, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Recommendations, Review, Speculative fiction | Leave a comment

Ullr, the onion of war!

By terje | Published: September 29, 2007
From Wikipedia’s kenning article: Bárum Ullr, of alla ímunlauks, á hauka fjöllum Fyrisvalla fræ Hákonar ævi; nú hefr fólkstríðir Fróða fáglýjaðra þýja meldr í móður holdi mellu dolgs of folginn Simply based on meaning, i.e. without kennings, the passage runs: “Accursed King Harald! We carried gold in our arms during all of Hakon’s life; now the enemy of the people has hidden gold in [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Art, Awe, Discomfort, Evilness, Goosebumps!, History, Language, Literature, Megalomania, Norse stuff, Norway, Nostalgia, Poetry, Quotes, Religiousity, Weird stuff, Whoa, Words, lol | Leave a comment

Concerning Harry Potter…

By terje | Published: September 8, 2007
You know you’ve read too much Harry Potter in too short a time when you one night dream that you, brandishing a fucking huge two-handed sword (originally belonging to one Godric Gryffindor, I seem to remember), kill one of your flat-mates, because, apparently, he’s Voldemort.
Also posted in Harry Potter, Megalomania, My microcosmos, Weird stuff, Whoa | Leave a comment

A silent prayer of thanks to the patriarchate and all male chauvinists

By terje | Published: July 26, 2007
Oh, patriarchal social structure! Oh, male chauvinists of the past! I praise thee! While thy general wisdom might leave something to be desired, and while I dislike thee quite strongly, thee have done me — and in fact the whole nation — a great service! And while thy rancid ignorance and silly prejudices have also done us all great [...]
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Ambiguity, Annoyance, Bliss, Conflicting emotions, Disappointment, Discomfort, Failed attempts at subtility, Goosebumps!, Grief, Impressions, Misery, My microcosmos, New Heroes, Norway, Opinions, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Pettiness, Rant, Regret, Relief, Revelations, Royalism, Weird stuff, Whoa | Leave a comment

Solaris

By terje | Published: April 29, 2007
Me and one of my flat mates also watched “Solaris” tonight. And we both kinda wish we hadn’t. Because this was uninteresting and boring. I won’t even try to describe the plot, except that it took place on a space station in orbit around the planet Solaris, and that strange things had happened. George Clooney’s [...]
Also posted in Annoyance, Boredom, Disappointment, Failed attempts at subtility, Great Expectations, Movies, Review, Speculative fiction, Weird stuff, Whoa, meh. | Leave a comment

Trainspotting

By terje | Published: April 10, 2007
“Trainspotting” is a movie with many deeply disturbing scenes. Its theme is drug abuse and the consequences this has on a person’s life. It’s set in what must be the ugliest parts of Edinburgh, a city I’ve never heard praised for its beauty. There’s truly meaningless, accidental death; HIV; overdoses; the nastiest toilet in Scotland; [...]
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Art, Awe, Boredom, British humour, Conflicting emotions, Death, Goosebumps!, Misery, Movies, Recommendations, Review, Weird stuff, Whoa | Leave a comment

The Fountain

By terje | Published: March 25, 2007
Just came back home from a quick visit to the movies; my sister and I thought we’d check “The Fountain” out, and I am glad we did. Because it was a rather nice movie. Kinda peculiar, and almost impossible to do justice to in a short synopsis, since revealing even the smallest detail could diminish [...]
Also posted in Death, Grief, Movies, Pleasant surprises, Review, Speculative fiction | Leave a comment

… And The Infinite Sadness — AS5×12 You’re Welcome

By terje | Published: March 25, 2007
This is almost too much. Every single one of the four Angelsodes (doesn’t sound as good as “Buffysodes”, does it? ) I’ve watched tonight, have been fucking masterpieces. They’ve been thrilling, they’ve been emotional, they’ve been funny — everything the best of Whedonverse episodes always are. This one falls into that wonderful category by merit, of [...]
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Angel, Awe, Bliss, Death, Goosebumps!, Great Expectations, Grief, New Heroes, Old Heroes, Regret, Review, Speculative fiction, Television stuff, Wistfulness | Leave a comment