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Photo from Bookshelf Porn.

The Swiss author Robert Walser on how to approach a bookseller.

“‘May I’ I asked with diffidence, ‘take a moment to acquaint myself with, and taste the fine qualities of, the most sterling and serious, and therefore of course the most read and most quickly acknowledged and purchased, reading matter? You would pledge me to unusual gratitude were you to be so kind as to lay before me that book which, as certainly nobody can know so precisely as you, has found the highest place in the estimation of the reading public, as well as that of the dreaded and thence surely flatteringly circumvented critics, and which furthermore has made them merry.’”

Answer you’re likely to get: “Out of stock.”

Unless you ask Nanay Socorro Ramos. She’ll clap her hands and say: “Ang galing-galing mo naman! Anong libro ang gusto mo?”

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In the NYT: Prep School Predators.

Mr. Antolini.

WARNING: SOME FOUL LANGUAGE. WE HAVE A COLD.

Dr. Shaw after her self-Caesarian section in Prometheus. It is a fact that women are physically strongest after giving birth. We’ve read that in some states, female athletes were impregnated prior to competitions so they would perform better. Though probably not 30 seconds after a Caesarian.

Reader cheezmiss raised some intriguing questions in our original post on Prometheus.

does the alien represent the masculine and the feminine psyche?

By way of an answer, recall that the biggest fear in the original Alien was not the fear of being killed by the creature. It was the fear of being impregnated by the Alien. Of being turned into a mother—a woman. The soldiers in Aliens preferred to blow themselves up than to be raped by the creature. Alien and Aliens are full of scary, slimy openings that looked like killer vagina.

Alien is a horror film about being a mother. You might say that the creature is one acid-bleeding motherfucker.

(Our Jedi master’s question after seeing Lord of the Rings: Why is Sauron a flaming vagina? Trivia: Ash the android in Alien was played by Sir Ian Holm, who also played Frodo Baggins in the BBC recording and Bilbo Baggins in the LOTR trilogy.)

was the movie about birth and death and birth again and death again…?

Maybe. We prefer to think of it as “Creationists, you’re screwed”. You find your Engineer, but who is the Engineer of your Engineer, and the Engineer of the Engineer of the…?

And they may not be as benign as you want to believe.

hasnt David been pissing on the entire mission the whole time?

Does an android/artificial human have free will? Interesting connection to Roy Batty in Blade Runner. We sort of understand David because Holloway was an asshole.

The creation mimics his creator. David is to the humans as the humans are to the engineers.

is the “operating” machine that took out that baby octopus alien sexist?

The medical pod was not programmed to deal with female issues. See “fear of women” above.

In all the discussion Prometheus has triggered we forgot to mention that the movie is GORGEOUS. The 3D is not a gimmick to charge moviegoers more, it is texture. Ridley Scott may not make the most intelligible movies around, but he knows beautiful.

P.S. One of Ridley Scott’s indelible contributions to the cinema: Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise.

FAQ for Prometheus at IMBD.

We get it, you’re coasting. You can beat anyone below the top two just by showing up. But for Djokovic and Nadal you have to actually be there, occupying your body, you know?

The French want to believe he’s 50% Swiss, 50% French. Well there is no “French” gene or “Swiss” gene or “Filipino” gene you can isolate as proof of whatever-ness. In case you’re in a mixy-matchy mood.

Faulty film grammar, says critic Jim Emerson. Watch the video. Read the annotations.

We’re planning a trip to Japan in the fall, which gives us a few months to cram some Japanese lit.

A selection of modern Japanese classics by Kawabata, Akutagawa, Tanizaki and Natsume, plus an anthology of 17th century amorous tales. All from Tuttle Publishing, Php565 each at National Bookstores.

Much as we admire the design of the hardcover edition of Murakami’s 1Q84, we like to keep our reading and our weight training separate. Fortunately the publisher has released 1Q84 as a 3-volume box set—so you can read in traffic with no danger of fracturing your foot if you drop the book. The set is Php995 at National Bookstores.

Have you heard us complaining that only one-sixth of The Avengers is female? No. Because Black Widow saves the day. She is the coolest, smartest, most level-headed, most practical and least diva member of the group. She’s the one who points out that all their heroics are useless unless the portal is shut, and then she goes and shuts it. And she doesn’t even have super-powers.

Read Ian Grey’s appreciation of Black Widow, in which he notes how dismissive the media have been of this amazing woman.

We should’ve given Black Widow her due, but we were blinded by square jaws, biceps and testosterone inundation. Massive apologies. Black Widow, we are honored to have you represent our sex. (We’re not keen on seeing Scarlet Witch and The Wasp in The Avengers.)

So the biggest movie of the year so far is a feminist work. Joss Whedon has given us Buffy, Faith and Kendra the vampire slayers, Willow the nerd and Wiccan, Firefly’s River Tam, Echo in Dollhouse, Angel’s Fred/Illyria. (Don’t forget Dana in The Cabin in the Woods—the one everyone expects to die first is the one who decides the fate of the world.) And now we get Black Widow.

Yeah, let them think Black Widow is just tits and ass. We know who really runs things.

This is why we have only contempt for Twilight. The vampire is her boyfriend, by the way.

Read Adam Rogers’ profile of Joss Whedon in Wired.