Flight Vs. Invisibility?

I used to dream the world stood still, except me. Then I would walk in all the shops and just take whatever I wanted. Next option was being invisible so I could listen in to people's conversations. But now I don't care anymore. I know people praise me behind my back. ;-)

Flight . Like a chagall painitg. A minor transcednet flaoting .

ethanp23 (2:46 AM): i think i'd choose invisibility
ethanp23 (2:46 AM): because flying would be fun and stuff
ethanp23 (2:46 AM): but like, you'd get caught
ethanp23 (2:46 AM): and cut up by doctors
ethanp23 (2:46 AM): whereas with invisibility you could steal hella stuff
kortbein (2:47 AM): I'm afraid of heights
kortbein (2:47 AM): invisbility would be way cooler
ethanp23 (2:47 AM): flying would be too weird to live with, whereas invisibility would just make everything better
kortbein (2:47 AM): stealing, yeah
ethanp23 (2:47 AM): your average day would be so much better with invisibility< br> popshots75 (2:47 AM): Nah. Flying.
kortbein (2:47 AM): I would steal mercilessly
kortbein (2:47 AM): total lack of morals
ethanp23 (2:48 AM): like, you know when you're walking somewhere, and you want to get there faster
ethanp23 (2:48 AM): but there's a bunch of people around and you'd look like a dork running?
ethanp23 (2:48 AM): no prob with invisibility
popshots75 (2:48 AM): Invisibility would make young men into total pervs.
popshots75 (2:48 AM): Spying on chicks.< br> ethanp23 (2:48 AM): voyeurism has little pull for me
popshots75 (2:48 AM): You guys must've seen Hollow Man.
ethanp23 (2:48 AM): yes dave we get it< br> ethanp23 (2:48 AM): you didn't have to clarify, christ
popshots75 (2:48 AM): Kevin Bacon gets invisible, goes all girl-crazy.
ethanp23 (2:48 AM): okay are you done?
kortbein (2:49 AM): YES DAVE
kortbein (2:49 AM): fuck
ethanp23 (2:49 AM): honestly it's like he's plugging the movie or something
popshots75 (2:49 AM): Starring Elisabeth Shue.
ethanp23 (2:49 AM): what would invisibility be good for besides stealing?< br> popshots75 (2:50 AM): Stealing & spying.< br> popshots75 (2:50 AM): Hmm.
kortbein (2:50 AM): which are grate< br> popshots75 (2:50 AM): That about covers it.
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): you wouldn't just have to spy on gurls though
kortbein (2:50 AM): also as ethan said< br> kortbein (2:50 AM): avoiding embarassment
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): you could totally know what's going on all the time
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): yeah that'd be great
kortbein (2:50 AM): spying on enemies< br> popshots75 (2:50 AM): You could sneak around companies, get great stock tips.
kortbein (2:50 AM): wearing less clothes in the summer to stay cool
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): um
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): hello, you're invisible
ethanp23 (2:50 AM): you can steal cash< br> ethanp23 (2:51 AM): why the fuck would you get stock tips?
popshots75 (2:51 AM): The cash ain't invisible, tho.
kortbein (2:51 AM): stock tips = money earns itself
popshots75 (2:51 AM): Floating money's a bit conspicuous.
ethanp23 (2:51 AM): you put it in your fucking mouth or something
popshots75 (2:51 AM): ...
ethanp23 (2:51 AM): jam it up your ass< br> popshots75 (2:51 AM): Yeah, yell @ me for the chick thing.
ethanp23 (2:51 AM): wait do you have to be naked to be invisible?
kortbein (2:51 AM): no
popshots75 (2:51 AM): Yep.
kortbein (2:51 AM): better power
popshots75 (2:51 AM): YES!
kortbein (2:51 AM): NO
ethanp23 (2:51 AM): can you just turn all your clothes and stuff too?
kortbein (2:51 AM): yeahyeah
popshots75 (2:51 AM): Extend your sphere of influence?
ethanp23 (2:51 AM): like, project invisibility six inches around you
kortbein (2:51 AM): those too
kortbein (2:52 AM): just your 'person'< br> ethanp23 (2:52 AM): that would rule< br> ethanp23 (2:52 AM): or like the invisible girl
popshots75 (2:52 AM): How about making invisible bridges & shields?
ethanp23 (2:52 AM): i always wondered why they didn't use her more
popshots75 (2:52 AM): Sexism.
ethanp23 (2:52 AM): like, she can turn things invisible
ethanp23 (2:52 AM): she should have turned the thing invisible
ethanp23 (2:52 AM): then it's like, a superstrong invisible force
popshots75 (2:52 AM): Never mind me.< br> ethanp23 (2:52 AM): or the human torch
ethanp23 (2:53 AM): it'd be like invisible fire
popshots75 (2:53 AM): Fanboy alert...
ethanp23 (2:53 AM): she turns the plane invisible sometimes
ethanp23 (2:53 AM): but fuck that
ethanp23 (2:53 AM): she has some of the best powers in the marvel universe, really

it just INSERTS RANDOM SPACES. i copy/ pasted that linebreak tage, goddammit, it should NOT have spaces in it. fuck you greenspun.

In regard to the above conversation...I want both really. You have potential to be a cool super bad guy with both, stealing stuff and flying away, spying on people and flying away.

Anybody here read Nicholson Baker's 'The Fermata'? That's the power I want.

Yes, that'd v.cool. Wouldn't behave in quite such a repulsive way as the narrator does though.

Re Fermata: I would act in an even MORE reprehensible manner. Imagine all these babies who look like me mysteriously being born at the same time, 'Village of the Damned'-stylee.

Didn't it already happen, Davo? The events in Midwich, New Brunswick — after which emigration was the only possible option? You know Midwich recently changed its name to Spin on This Mofo

i thought i was the only sick fuck who liked that book... hmm, search dave graney & the coral snakes -- Rock and Roll is where I hide.

Don't recall Fermata protag being esp. repulsive; stripped few chiXoR cuz curious [as you wld be] & did nowt more? (Dunno, memory fogged...) Someone in charge at Pentagon saw moovee Predator wherein alien wears invisibility suit (comprised of multiple light-reflectors) & said, "Make me one of those." According to Future Fantastic on BBC World, it's possible & not far off. But functional human wings via gen-engineering & clone-tech can't be far off, either. Thus, future = invisible people colliding mid-air!!

Advantages to invisibility: A lifetime of vouyeristic pleasure. Ability to listen in on conversations about you. Theft. Is invisibiility the superpower for cowering insecure masturbators? Wouldn't anybody use their invisibility to 'fight crime'?? So who would kick who's ass in a fight, invisible man vs. flying man?

Didn't Fermate progtag. jizz on said women's faces? Again memory fogged, but ISTR more unpleasant stuff than taking womens clothes off.

Hmm, which one of these is more indicative of schizoid personality?

I'd say flight, if I had to pick. I have travel considerations and it would be one safe alternative to London transport. Also, if the invisible person was a-hassling, it would be easy enough to find them via infra-red and dump paint on them, dohhhh...

I'd be invisible, and then pop down to the Eva Hart in Chadwell Heath and start fights amongst the beer boys.

Flight, of course. THen I could fly to the top of skyscrapers. But the superpower I want is the ability to make my poison Ivy go away. :(

I want to be the lice in Momus' hair. Flip flop fly all over his head.

What hair? Bettter to be the worm in his eye.

Those were amoebas, Mike. Besides which, who said lice only go for the scalp?

Suzy: If you were invisible, you could sneak onto planes whenever you wanted.

But I LIKE being visible. Invisible on planes = drag. It's hard enough to wait for various trolleys when the stews are supposed to be able to see you. Or maybe I was tweaked by the 'Invisible' Buffy episode.

I would choose invisiblity becasue then I could listen to the album Diamond Dogs . I would sneak into clubs and imobilise the DJ and spin it.

Mike, way to stick up for the underappreciated power of flight. Nathalie, think of the fun you could have dropping heavy objects on un- pop stars... Still no one uses their superpower for the good of society. Predictable.

I think secretly impregnating everybody WOULD be for the good of society, ultimately. That is, only if it was ME who was doing it.

Of courseon the internet you CAN be invisible....

I would just like to register my objection to a world full of little Dave Qs RIGHT NOW. Nothing personal, man.

Re: The Fermata. I found the whole thing disquietingly pathetic - Not Nicholson Baker himself... normally I love what he does - but his character in this was so benign in his intentions (conventionally immoral as they might have been) as to be completely inhuman and un- embraceable. For some reason, the writing also seemed oddly sub- standard (his standard at least). Lots of redundancies - kept saying to myself, I. Get. It. Already. Nevertheless, it was interesting. I liked the tiny loose piece of note paper 'planted' in the book, that added an appropriate touch of paranoia for the involved reader.

But of course, if I had that power, undressing my co-workers would definitely not be high on my list.

Flying is more like it - pulling off a Peter Pan / Crouching Tiger type of spectacle while doing something mundane as grocery shopping would be so great. "Oh gosh darn it, we forgot to pick up those celery hearts four rows back." "No problem! I'll just be a second!" *Whooosh* Then you'd get to be all capable and cool with the celery.

Kim, what loose piece of notepaper? I fear you may genuinely have been the victim of someone with special powers' lewd activities.

Wow, but wouldn't that be just the coolest? But no, I'm convinced that it was actually put there by Random House at Mr. Baker's request. I just assumed anyway. It was just a small black square of paper, about two inches square, with a white fermata symbol on it. Falls out from the pages about one third into the book - perhaps meant as simply a bookmark, but I doubt it. Really quite a great trick. It being truly loose though, I'm sure many copies might have been missing it. Honestly, hadn't thought about it since I read the book last year.

Hmmm...creatively placed book inserts: classic or dud? I have never read any Nicholson Baker, but he has been getting enough action on this thread to make me think about picking up 'fermata' at least. Maybe Nicholson Baker: search and destroy is apropos. Anyone?

The Mezzanine is my favourite so far. But Vox is good too...

Trying to get through his book of essays "The Size of Thoughts" at the moment. The one on rarity seems as if it could have been written as a diatribe on things (such as nostalgia) that, by their accessability, have been 'spoilt' by the internet. But he wrote it sometime back in the eighties I believe, so I'd be curious to know what he thinks on the subject now.

Er, just to clarify - he didn't write about the net at all. He wrote about rarity and it's ruin. But it fits so well... is what I was trying to say.

Thats So Bull Shiet KIM. Deep inside you know you want to see that guy across the street naked, sneak inside a sold-out concert, hear what that Bitch in your class said about u, and rob money from the bank...forget money, just steal what u want!!! What the hell are you gonna do with flying? People would just catch u with a net, and do experiments on you! IF everyone would stop for a second to think about the advantage of invisibilty..they would definitely choose invisibility. People Who choose flying are just lying to themself...TryIng To be All Mythics and Heoric!!!

But I don't want to turn into pudding

I'd still choose invisible, so I can avoid someone I caned on another board...

"caned" in this context = ?????

It's depressing that it's as much as said here, that the only reason a person wouldn't steal things or invade other's privacy is just because they might get caught.