Weblog Response: The Brown Wedge

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http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/

We're trying this instead of a comments section on The Brown Wedge. If you read something on the Wedge at any time and want to comment and don't fancy emailing us, then use this thread as a springboard for conversation. We'll put a link to it on TBW and update if and when the thread gets long and we need to start a new one.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep reading Anthony's review as "I Am A Boy Band Benny" by Ramsay Menerofsky. This would be a grebt piece of work on title alone.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 09:14 (twenty-two years ago)

re tom on prinsoer of zenda: "so I gave her a thing of no value" = i think probably an actual real trinket rather than a kiss

i forget the hero's name — it's something like hasselblad? — but he is PURE OF DEED and i think in context his torments are about "impure thoughts" re the lusty wench (also this is where his admiration for her temptress skillZoRz comes from)

tom have you ever read KING SOLOMON'S MINES or SHE?

they are like this: "hmm this is a cracking tale if v.silly and ahem yes somewhat racist OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE SEXUAL SUBTEXT!!"

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 29 August 2003 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think it is a trinket Mark in context, they've been flirting before, I may have to quote the passage now.

I think I might go on a Victorian Adventure Fiction binge now, so yes those books will be near in line. I know Starry has read one or both and speaks highly of them.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 09:59 (twenty-two years ago)

SHE is ridiculous (fun). She who must be obeyed = psycho hose bitch from hell. I'm not sure if you could call it even a subtext, it takes up nearly all of the actual text.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:03 (twenty-two years ago)

that's what i meant, ptee, it is kroll-ish in size and LOOMING LIKE CRAZY

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe rassendyl — sp.? — "gave her one" in his mind's eye?

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Note - premier art and literature weblog starts talking about comics and then Julie Burchill chips in on self same topic - bandwagon jumper.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Can this FT section be renamed please?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

To Tom's Soiled Underpants or something?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

What is wrong with the brown wedge. There was a brief moment when it was call the Brown piece of pie and the Brown Cheese but none of us liked that.

I'm looking forward to Tim's rundown of the Sunday Times Bestseller list calle The Brown Eye.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't get Tom's anus out of my head.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Bootleg that with Blue Monday and you've got a winner.

― Alan (Alan), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not even my anus N., it's Tim's!

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Brown Monday yuk

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

as tim is away, i shall say on his behalf that it is NOT to be called the brown eye.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Book Eye!

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Eye SBN

― Alan (Alan), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

grrrrrrrrrooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn (but best yet ;))

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 29 August 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

After I wrote the thing about poetrymagazines.org.uk my boss emailed me saying 'have you seen...?' as he edits one of the mags featured. Foolishly I said, 'oh yes and have mentioned the site here, look', forgetting that I'd also said I wouldn't be doing any work that day, oops... he made no comment however.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 29 August 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand, Archel.

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 29 August 2003 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, that does read rather garbled doesn't it. Well, can't be arsed to rephrase, you'll have to live ignorant of what I meant forever.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 29 August 2003 11:43 (twenty-two years ago)

how do I get to be one of the writers of Brown Wedge? I could write about the rubbish comics I buy each week. Unlike with do you see I would actually write for it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 29 August 2003 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

When can we expect Brown Wedge to join the choir and trash Martin Amis' new novel.

Has anybody actually read it?

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Friday, 29 August 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

why would anyone?

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 29 August 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

because its naughty.

― anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 29 August 2003 15:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Does the hero have a double!! I'm there if so.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 29 August 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

because it's a new novel by a notable author. just curious, yo.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm looking for a new novel by a fuckable author, anybody seen one?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 29 August 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been a crap FT blogger.. but I've overloaded with packing and finishing up my last week of work. After this weekend I will be a better person and I'll finally finish my piece about Garbage Pail Fiction. I pwomise.

― Mandee, Friday, 29 August 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm looking for a new novel by a fuckable author, anybody seen one?

You seem like you would be into stern taskmaster thing so I'm going to suggest the new Ann Coulter tome Treason.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Friday, 29 August 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

which, although it is not listed as a work of fiction, is most likely as preposterous and hardboiled as any Amis novel.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Friday, 29 August 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom--Penguin Classics have started putting "spoiler warnings" at the beginnings of their introductions of late, so they do seem to be learning.

― Angus Gordon (angusg), Saturday, 30 August 2003 07:35 (twenty-two years ago)

d.boyle's point taken on advisement re f.west's bad workmanship maybe possibly: i tried to find the pix on the net to prove the point but couldn't

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah you should see the shoddy interweb analysis I do at home.

Oh wait, you do.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 31 August 2003 22:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Erm, where is the brown wedge? I get a title and links, but no proper content.

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 8 September 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Can there be a FT blog that is modelled on The Wright Stuff?

― David. (Cozen), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

How about now Anna (pretends he has done tremendous technical jiggery pokery).

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

anna, are you some sort of content rockist ;) "proper content" indeed...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

What my mentalist friends appear to be trying to say is: "it seems to be working fine from this end". Sorry if that's not much help.

I'd ask you about what browser you were using but I wouldn't be able to do anything with the reply.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

anna on some browsers the blog stuff is pushed way down the page for some reason

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

My hunch is that the mighty Vic Fluro was right the first time about 1602.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 12 September 2003 06:36 (twenty-two years ago)

mark sinker made me love the 18th century.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 15 September 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

when it comes to the arts, michael ignatieff has always been a total idiot (which makes me distrust his political intuitions also, though that may be more my bad jadgment than his)

iggo's first novel came out the same week as roger scruton's: the combo gave a lot of malicious ppl a tremendous amt of decide-which-is-worse pleasure

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 22 September 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Na na na na na na na na
Batman!
Racing down the motorway,
A lorry came the other way,
Flatman!

Genius. As is Bum Tit Tit, obv.

― gobemouche, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

jesus christ superstar
bombed down the road on a yamaha
did a skid
killed a kid
ripped off his balls on a dustbin lid

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

See also http://www.playgroundlaw.com . Neil Gaiman wrote an interesting comic ages ago about all this stuff that's handed down sideways - no kid ever had to learn hopscotch from a grown-up, etc. This was before his current career of charging you 8 quid to do the crossword.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Alang I think that a lot of those girls comics were written by the same collection of mentalist hacks who wrote Action and 2000. In the days before market research it was completely acceptable to have Mills, Grant, Wagner etc be churning out ladycomics, just like it was fine for the likes of David Hepworth and Tom Hibbert (!!!!!!) to be involved in the launch of a teen-pop mag I suppose.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 3 October 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i like that the bunty story = the entire synopsis of harry potter (except he is a girl)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 3 October 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Certainly Pat Mills wrote a fair bit for Misty - see my interview with him in FA years and years ago. Kevin O'Neill cover, if I recall the right issue.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 3 October 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Wondering whether Sarah has read The Merciful Women by Federico Andahazi? Much sex, mentalist vampiric twist, and playing fast and loose with the whole Polidori/Byron/Shelley shebang. Hurrah!

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Archel, thanks for the next idea for my Christmas prezzie---to myself.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

FA, Martin?

I'd mis-remembered that that story was Bunty BTW, it was something else like a recent "Penny" (obv a reprint of an old story).

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

FA was a mag about comics I edited for many years, Alan. It was pretty good, honest.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh thanks Archel! I'll put it on the list!!!

*goes to amazon*

Any more anyone??

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2003_10_01_wedge_archive.html#106674014110397550

adrian serle!!! has this man been to any art in the last four decades!!!! or has he been living in a cave?

the brietz show is marvellous. we had to rush through it, but i could have happily spent another half an hour there easily. is serle known for being this rubbish?

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I have asked to join (both BW and DYS), but haven't heard anything yet. (And geeta was interested, too, I think??) What's up?

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I am lazy and need constant reminding is what's up. I'll do it right now!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

OK done it - I used the email you use for ilx, was that right? Sorry about that!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Tracer Hand review THE DEMOLISHED MAN here in response to Tom's "The Stars My Destination" ok thx bye

― pip pop bim bam (mark s), Friday, 24 October 2003 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

bah i blogged something last night but it hasn't registered it yet :(

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 October 2003 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

oh now it has

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 October 2003 10:19 (twenty-two years ago)

why am i not on the nyplm links tom, do i suck ?

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 26 October 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

is blogger down? (anthony u don't suck)

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 26 October 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry Anthony I keep forgetting people. You (and Marcello and a cpl of other people) will turn up next update in place of the rogue second Tuflove.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 26 October 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Blogger is behaving weirdly at the moment. I made a post to TMFD hours ago and it's not up yet, while the one I just wrote fr NYLPM took seconds to appear on FT.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 26 October 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

The TMFD post is up now for me. I wonder if FT is getting near its space limit :( I thought we were on about 70% of BT's (miserly) allowance, but maybe that's got something to do with delayed post propagation.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 26 October 2003 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

the various posts i made today all appeared immediately (i bumped the one that got stuck last night by reposting it and then deleting one of them)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 October 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I put another post on TMFD, and that caused both to appear.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 27 October 2003 13:23 (twenty-two years ago)

tom did you get my email?

(sent to freakytrigger@hotmail.com)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 October 2003 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Not only did I get it I replied!! - I hope Hotmail isnt playing up.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

oh ok, i didn't get it yet but the main address wz my work address which i'm not back at till wed :/

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 27 October 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2003_10_01_wedge_archive.html#106751456489188927

Would that Richard Carpenter be the same one from telly's Robin of Sherwood/Dick Turpin/Catweazle d'ya reckon?

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 30 October 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Almost certainly. It was 1971 it was originally made...

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 30 October 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Just lost a post re Flashman.

Briefly (mark you deserve a longer comment, sorry)
- "wire jacket" in Dragon fucking scary. Yi fucking sexy. Mixture of desire and horror (always a Flashman staple) done better than ever.
- Don't see GMF (at least in Flashman) being anti or pro Empire. Back that up with more than just deep-reader reference!

― Sam (chirombo), Friday, 31 October 2003 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

haha "Frasier"!

― Sam (chirombo), Friday, 31 October 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

in flashman (ie the first one) i think the tenor is basically ANTI: GMF zones in a (forgotten/overlooked) disaster of the 1840s (the first afghan war, caused by Brit political-military incompetence), as told by a famous fictional villain

(and charge and great game are not dissimilar in focus - the crimea was a catastrophe, and he's very even-handed about the mutiny) (and this was classic 60s/70s anti-hero debunking of the unthought past)

by mountain of light, though, i think he's quite assiduously explaining how i. the brits on the whole DIDN'T WANT AN EMPIRE OH NO THEY WERE TRICKED INTO IT BY THEIR FOES and ii. said foes are not exactly spotless/blameless in other ways blah blah (he starts rather crustily using the term "revisionist" in the notes, w/o saying who he means, but to point at - yes unthinking- CRITICS of brit imperialism)

in dragon he fairly carefully sets up the horrors of both sides of the taiping rising/civil war - compared to the brits ie - in order to take the line that elgin's destruction of the summer palace was justified (and cheerfully downplays eg the opium wars) (i mean, they come in a bit, under the heading of "haha classic wicked amoral flashy business", when flashy himself has long ago stopped being plausible as a villain...)

but what i'm talking abt in dragon really is the (unconsious?) association of Ged and the Brit Emp: on the surface he is still working hard to be even-handed but i do think his underlying allegiance has switched (he used to think the brits were all pompous moralising idiots - eg anti-arnoldism - but now he';s thinking, well they could be a lot worse - eg pro-elginism)

yes, i have a blind spot abt the spelling of GMF's name, i actually went to look at the spine of the book in the book-case and still got it wrong!!

(also: ged is not actually the prisoner who's naked and trussed up in tombs of atuan, that wz some other ppl)

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 31 October 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I know what you mean. The books have changed - but perhaps a bit more in the notes than the stories. That long digression in dragon - where he's going on about whether or not the summer palace's destruction was justified - is very out of place and in retrospect feels like an argument between F and GMF! He has difficulty justifying the destruction I thought - Flashy doesn't let him go all the way. GMF has perhaps always been more pro-empire than flashy, and maybe he's less good at keeping his distance now??

I need someone's apart from F's view on the period to really make a judgement! (Like I need someone apart from Asterix's view of the Romans.) But F's view of his superiors in Dragon IS different (Elgin vs Elphinstone - or Custer!) - and his juniors too - he romanticises the Scotsman who refuses to bow and gets killed, (which to be honest the sucker in me completely responded to, but it wasn't very Flash).

(I know your post was actually about Le Guin but I haven't read any!)

― Sam (chirombo), Friday, 31 October 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

four weeks pass...

Ooh links.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Also: I AM AN IDIOT. It ONLY JUST occurred to me that 'Brown Wedge' is a fucking Trivial Pursuit reference.

*returns to photocopying which is clearly all she's good for*

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

What did you think it meant? (*gulp*)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

(I am a bigger idiot than Archel: I thought it was a Red Wedge reference in some way)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

calling it 'Bid Wedge' would be better as Fish solo records are the apex of culture

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

see i am not even good enough for photocopying as i would just press the wrong buttons all the time (it was 'BiG Wedge')

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha I feel better now. I thought it was some obscure cultural (or possibly scatalogical) reference that I was too thick to get. Which in fact it was, I suppose.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

that 'Talkin tax with the poet, man' line really bugs me for some reason

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it had to do with something like Carter USM, I never really played Trivial Pursuit.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

it's BILLY BRAGG "talking poetry with the taxman" isn't it?

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve it probably bugs you because it is not funny. Nothing on Freakytrigger has anything to do with Carter USM. Except the articles about Carter USM.

Sort of Carsmile. Its about time some of those tags were changed.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

it bugs me because it sounds like the sort of thing some people i know would use as their msn chat 'name', haha

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I like it more and more with every passing minute.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 28 November 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Have none of you grasped that you must use REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY with a contrarian like Tim? Sorry, ignore that: don't, whatever you do, use reverse psychology!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 28 November 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't know what it meant either, Archel. That's a great weight off my mind.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 29 November 2003 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2003_12_01_wedge_archive.html#107064560928258979

Tim, I totally sympathise with what you say about it being a bit of a waste him getting upset and writing about this, but when you say "Can he really mean that the words of the artist, or the curator, invalidate his enjoyment of a piece of art?" - I totally sympathise with Mr Searle, yes the words of the artist and/or curator can totally ruin what little enjoyment of art I manage to squeeze out. Then again I'm not an arts reviewer for a nash paper

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Monday, 8 December 2003 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Also thanks to Tom for pointing me (indirectly via Bookslut) to Joe Sacco's new book

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Monday, 8 December 2003 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the Nobel Prize goes to the author, not one book in particular. It says on the back of 'Soul Mountain' that 'it was a recognition of the inspirational role played by Gao's work in the aftermath of Tiananmen,' whatever that means. Does anybody know anything about this inspirational role? I couldn't be arsed finishing this book, although I liked the bit about pandas.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I think i only finished it because I dipped in and out of it over a two week period whilst on holiday (and on Holiday I could finish the phone book if I had run out of reading).

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

four weeks pass...

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2004_01_01_wedge_archive.html#107390940042807006

Mark, it's OK, step away slowly from the theatre, just put the osborne down and everything will be OK, nobody's been hurt yet...

(sounds like a grebt book by the way)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

four weeks pass...

I heart Vic Fluoro

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 10:27 (twenty-two years ago)

We all do, for he is a man of passion.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

[spam deleted]

― private health insurance plan, Thursday, 11 August 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

i should.. erm, write in this blog, more often.. i havent in 2 years

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 11 August 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

yes, yes you should, as should we all ;)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

Tell, and here at you always so?

― Artemiy, Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

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