Blizzard Wine!

originally posted by Jay Miller:
I arrived and mentioned my reservation for a part of five. He seemed confused at the idea of a reservation but set up a table for five. A little while later he came over and asked if I'd like water I said yes and he asked, "water for six?" I replied , "no, five."

About five minutes later he came out of the kitchen with a tray of water glasses and dropped them on the floor.

About five minutes after that I asked if we could get another try with the water. He asked, "water for six?" I replied, "no, five."

About five minutes after that the water arrived and I asked if we could get menus. About five minutes later they arrived.

We ordered the selection of dips for the table while deciding on apps and entrees.

After 5 or 6 attempts to flag him down (he always stared straight ahead and ignored any customers trying to get his attention) we ordered appetizers and entrees.

About ten minutes later we asked about the dips. About 15 minutes later two of the appetizers arrived. After 5 or 6 attempts to flag him down we asked about the dips and the other apps. He consulted his notes and apologized. About fifteen minutes later the dips arrived. We asked about the remaining appetizers.
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Impressively thorough and consistent, this waiter.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by MLipton:

Post-apocalyptic scii-fi? Deus Irae? A Canticle for Leibowitz? Are there other examples of the genre? BTW, you know that the alternate title for the Book of Revelation is the Apocalypse of St. John, which helps explain the semantic drift of that word?

Apocalyptically yours,
Mark Lipton
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Well, your posts do occasionally seem to presage the onset of the end of days - or did you mean to write 'apocryphally yours?'

Anyway, the St. John's has a somewhat longer pedigree and broader currency than Lenny Bruces routines; so, yes, this is a meme I'm acquainted with. Also, I've probably watched The Seventh Seal more times than is good for me.

Canticle for Liebowitz is a blast from the past, along with Zamyatin's We and 1984; takes me back to junior-year seminar in high school. We called them anti-utopias back then.

Nowadays, series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Legend qualify, under popular classification, as post-apocolyptic dystopias; at least according to my son, who has become something of an authority on such matters. He passes them on to me, and I read them at night when I wake up and can't get back to sleep.

Getting back to the Hautes Mourrotes, however, what a good wine - the memory still haunts me.
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Ian,
I may be mischaracterizing the works in question, but I'd draw a distinction between dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. Works like 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451 fall squarely into the former camp, dealing as they do with futuristic societies organized along unpleasant lines where the proximate cause is either unknown or less than cataclysmic in nature. True post-apocalyptic fiction requires a recent-ish disaster of such magnitude as to remake (or destroy) society in an instant. In addition to the two examples I already cited, there's A Boy and His Dog, 12 Monkeys and Neal Stephenson's recent SeveneveS. Although I have only seen a part of the Hunger Games movie (under protest at my inlaws') and even less of Divergent, I would place both in the dystopian camp. Why it is that we feel the need to present teen readers with dystopian visions I leave to the armchair sociologists among us.

Mark Lipton
 
...(long synopsis)...Why it is that we feel the need to present teen readers with dystopian visions...
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Perhaps this is the future they see if front of them? Not all rosy or morning in America any longer.
 
Cormac McCarthy, for my money one of the most overrated currently living authors, wrote The Road, which I believe is postapocalyptic, based on reviews I read. I gave up reading him after Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Cormac McCarthy, for my money one of the most overrated currently living authors, wrote The Road, which I believe is postapocalyptic, based on reviews I read. I gave up reading him after Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses.
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I, for Juan, found The Road riveting and, as a parental unit, deeply affecting. OTOH, Blood Meridian I did not like. Too much scalpin' goin' on.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by MLipton:

Post-apocalyptic scii-fi? Deus Irae? A Canticle for Leibowitz? Are there other examples of the genre? BTW, you know that the alternate title for the Book of Revelation is the Apocalypse of St. John, which helps explain the semantic drift of that word?

Apocalyptically yours,
Mark Lipton
Click to expand...

Well, your posts do occasionally seem to presage the onset of the end of days - or did you mean to write 'apocryphally yours?'

Anyway, the St. John's has a somewhat longer pedigree and broader currency than Lenny Bruces routines; so, yes, this is a meme I'm acquainted with. Also, I've probably watched The Seventh Seal more times than is good for me.

Canticle for Liebowitz is a blast from the past, along with Zamyatin's We and 1984; takes me back to junior-year seminar in high school. We called them anti-utopias back then.

Nowadays, series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Legend qualify, under popular classification, as post-apocolyptic dystopias; at least according to my son, who has become something of an authority on such matters. He passes them on to me, and I read them at night when I wake up and can't get back to sleep.

Getting back to the Hautes Mourrotes, however, what a good wine - the memory still haunts me.
Click to expand...

Ian,
I may be mischaracterizing the works in question, but I'd draw a distinction between dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. Works like 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451 fall squarely into the former camp, dealing as they do with futuristic societies organized along unpleasant lines where the proximate cause is either unknown or less than cataclysmic in nature. True post-apocalyptic fiction requires a recent-ish disaster of such magnitude as to remake (or destroy) society in an instant. In addition to the two examples I already cited, there's A Boy and His Dog, 12 Monkeys and Neal Stephenson's recent SeveneveS. Although I have only seen a part of the Hunger Games movie (under protest at my inlaws') and even less of Divergent, I would place both in the dystopian camp. Why it is that we feel the need to present teen readers with dystopian visions I leave to the armchair sociologists among us.

Mark Lipton
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I don't mean to be a douche, Mark, but I just put that bit in my note as a throw-away line; I don't actually care deeply about the subject - though I cherish the old books. And I try to read what my son gives me out of a sense of solidarity.

When I was his age, I read Lord of the Rings four or five times, so I appreciate the sense of engrossment these fantasy worlds can offer. Is mass slaughter of orcs conceptually, aesthetically or ethically superior to kids slaughtering each other to entertain a ruling elite, in a modern adaptation of the Minoan tribute mytholgized in the story of Theseus? Not sure. Is it better than many hours of TV or Grand Theft Auto each week? Yes.

Divergent does particularly suck, though. Handmaiden's Tale (leaving out the italics now, apologies) is work of genious, imho - 'speculative fiction,' in Atwood's phrase - as is Brazil.

Agh, did I just agree with Sharon? OMG!
 
I suppose I was hoping Sharon would say what she meant - that seems kind of obvious. It doesn't mean I have to agree with her; or, in this case, with you.
 
On second thought, Kirk, apologies. I've been trained to a certain amount of verbal jousting with Sharon over the years (mostly friendly, I hope), but that's no reason to fire barbs at you.
 
Is it a requirement on an apocalypse that it include everyone? What I'm angling at is this: would Robinson Crusoe qualify as "post-apocalyptic" since the lead figure has had a personal rupture with all he ever knew?

More mainstream... I have never seen Mad Max but I'm told that Mel Gibbers' early movies were post-apock as well as dystop.

Omega Man, perhaps?

How about "the world's shortest science-fiction story"?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Is it a requirement on an apocalypse that it include everyone? What I'm angling at is this: would Robinson Crusoe qualify as "post-apocalyptic" since the lead figure has had a personal rupture with all he ever knew?

More mainstream... I have never seen Mad Max but I'm told that Mel Gibbers' early movies were post-apock as well as dystop.

Omega Man, perhaps?

How about "the world's shortest science-fiction story"?
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Yes to the Mad Maxes after the very first one. No to Robinson Crusoe. There is an important difference between being completely isolated from society and knowing that society no longer exists and no longer will. The second case removes certain kinds of motivations and questions others (no one will try to rebuild things if no one will ever be there to use them at all, and if, as in the Walking Dead, there is a way of hoping for recovery, there weill always be debate as to whether the hope is real enough to merit sacrifice for it; there is a recent philosophy book on how our knowledge that everyone would die would change our actions, even if we already don't believe in any form of existence after death that is relevant here). Crusoe actively knows that there is a world out there and moralizes according to the reality of that existence. He also tries to rebuild a life that is more than survival but something like a simulacrum of that social existence even as he foresees existing only by himself or with Friday. In movie terms, Castaway is an obvious Crusoe like plot.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Is it a requirement on an apocalypse that it include everyone? What I'm angling at is this: would Robinson Crusoe qualify as "post-apocalyptic" since the lead figure has had a personal rupture with all he ever knew?

More mainstream... I have never seen Mad Max but I'm told that Mel Gibbers' early movies were post-apock as well as dystop.

Omega Man, perhaps?

How about "the world's shortest science-fiction story"?
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The last human on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
How about "the world's shortest science-fiction story"?
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The last human on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
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And the shortest horror story is one letter less:

The last human on earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
Cordeloux -day 2Very happy to report that the Benetiere was all violets, crushed rocks and delicate purple fruit after 18 hours with vacuu vin stopper in the fridge. Really beautiful. So, my suggestion is leave it sleep, or open way ahead of when you want to drink it.
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Open a day ahead, got it.
 
Oh, yes, also, for Sharon:
MustacheDali.jpg
 
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