Comments | rosewater: Band names

rosewater

Band names

Feb 27, 2007 16:26

So I decided, kind of out of the blue, that "Susie the Bear" would be a great band name. From there, I leaped to this excellent plan: generate band names by looking up your favorite books on Amazon and checking out their "statistically improbable phrases." I really think Exit Clov may have gotten to this idea before me, but it's a good idea ( Read more... )

Comments 20

redindigo February 27 2007, 21:59:45 UTC

I think it's kinda funny how John Irving has all this mainstream appeal...like Barnes & Noble appeal...when really he's a sick, twisted fuck of a writer. Especially as he gets older.

rosewater February 28 2007, 04:38:41 UTC

I think it's because people get to read absolute filth while still looking literary. It's like slapping a Dostoevsky dust jacket on Flowers in the Attic. People assume that Irving is just a shade too intellectual for everyone else, and that therefore nobody will know that they're pretty much reading about kinky sex and horrible deaths (and depressing bears).

khakipants February 27 2007, 22:12:31 UTC

Well, I recognize Good Omens and Hitchhikers Guide (or, um, Mostly Harmless?), and Wodehouse . . . and I totally have to play this game myself.

rosewater February 27 2007, 22:16:13 UTC

Mostly Harmless indeed, and you TOTALLY DO.

After all, it's Sharif's band too. :> (Insofar as it's a band. Can't be a band without a name, anyway.)

khakipants February 27 2007, 22:25:20 UTC

And it is, of course, up to the girlfriends to make suggestions of this kind. Maybe we can't play around with musical notes, but we can absolutely play around with words.

mightcould February 28 2007, 15:15:45 UTC

which ones are from douglas adams?

Thread 6

cthulhie February 27 2007, 23:45:11 UTC

Lantern Creatures; Scope Room
Garbage Cop (which should really be "Jonathan Lethem and the Garbage Cops"
Bloated Colonel

...Not having much luck. I'm surprised that more of them aren't unusual. What's striking to me is how often I look at the SIPs and think, "Yeah, that's what the book is about." It really is an astonishing system.

rosewater February 27 2007, 23:47:59 UTC

Ooh, "Lantern Creatures" is great!

meestagoat February 28 2007, 00:14:14 UTC

Gathering Shadow
Ghastly Ordeal (which, per John, should really be "so-and-so and the Ghastly Ordeals")
Man with Red Eyes

rosewater February 28 2007, 04:35:27 UTC

Ooh, wouldn't Aunt Beast be a great one?

I wasn't sure about Ghastly Ordeal, but you're right: "the Ghastly Ordeals" is way, way better. There doesn't even need to be a so-and-so.

chavvah February 28 2007, 00:37:00 UTC

It's not that he's completely uncultured, it's just that he doesn't play favorites (and is slightly uncultured).

I laughed really, really hard at this. Probably because Jamie also doesn't have favourite books, and is totally uncultured. He recently decided that he should read the Harry Potter books "so that I can have a conversation with, you know, the rest of the world, and not be totally lost."

I must be a total Amazon noob, because I can't figure out how you get to the 'statistically improbable phrases'.

P.S. INCEST IS WAY GROSS.

rosewater February 28 2007, 04:29:44 UTC

Later that day we saw ducks on the ice, and I said "well Holden Caulfield would be interested to know that and Dan said "who?" So I said "oh nothing" and he said "I'm not acquitting myself very well with literary references today."

Not every book has SIPs, but if it has them, it'll actually say "Key phrases:" with a list right under the title. Then there's a more complete list under "Inside This Book."

rosewater February 28 2007, 04:36:44 UTC

Wow, this was a pretty worthless comment now that I look back on it. I told a rambling story and I missed a quotation mark. At least I imparted some useful information.

Anyway, we are total literary pioneers for discovering and codifying the basic grossness of incest.

rosewater February 28 2007, 04:43:33 UTC

One final note: I do not think Dan has read Harry Potter, actually.

He'd probably like them. But I haven't even gotten him to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yet, which I loved way more than Harry Potter. I made a big pile for him of books he had to read and he gave up partway through. He does read -- he just doesn't read like me, so he was a little taken aback by the fact that there was a new book on the pile every week or so. And I can't tell if he gets as much enjoyment out of it as I do. Which is fine, because I can discuss books with Laura, who is almost always right except for not liking Confederacy of Dunces.

Thread 6