Books I read & recommend
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“The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an abecedarian book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author’s distinctive black and white illustrations.” (Wikipedia.org)
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They Live is a 1988 American science fiction satirical film written and directed by John Carpenter. The film stars Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster. It follows a nameless drifter referred to as “Nada”, who discovers the ruling class are in fact aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. Many of the ideas in this film are clarified and expanded upon in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW. (see below)
“I want you to get these documents published. I want IS-BEs on Earth to have a chance to find out what is really happening on Earth. Most people will not believe any of it, I’m sure. It seems too incredible. No “reasonable” person would ever believe a word of it. However, it only seems “incredible” to an IS-BE whose memory has been erased and replaced with false information inside the electronically controlled illusion of a prison planet. We must not allow the apparent incredibility of our situation prevent us from confronting the reality of it.
Frankly, “reasons” have nothing to do with reality. There are no reasons. Things are what they are. If we don’t face the facts of our situation, we’re going to stay under the thumb of the “Old Empire” forever! The biggest weapon the “Old Empire” has left now is our ignorance of what they are doing to all the IS-BEs on Earth. Disbelief and secrecy are the most effective weapons they have!
The government agencies that classified the enclosed transcripts as “TOP SECRET” are run by IS-BEs who are nothing more than mindless automatons covertly ordered about through hypnotic commands given by the “Old Empire” prison operators. They are the unknowing slaves of unseen slave masters — and all the more enslaved by their willingness to be slaves.
Most of the IS-BEs on Earth are good, honest, able beings: artists, managers, geniuses, free thinkers and revolutionaries who have harmed no one, really. They are no threat to anyone except the criminals who have imprisoned them.
They must find out about the “Old Empire” amnesia and hypnosis operation. They must remember their own past lives. The only way this will ever happen is to communicate, coordinate and fight back. We have to tell other people and they have to discuss it openly with each other. Communication is the only effective weapon against secrecy and oppression.
This is why I am asking you to tell this story. Please share these transcripts with as many people as you can. If the people of Earth are told what is really going on here, perhaps they will begin to remember who they are, and where they came from.”
— from a letter written by Nurse Matilda MacElroy, published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW
VISIT THE WEBSITE and BLOG for the book at www.alieninterview.org and www.alieninterview.org/blog
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As lovers of learning and literature know all of the best fantasy, science fiction, history, romance, imagery, imagination and revelation are contained in books. The content of movies and TV shows are often spewed from minds who pander the prurient interests to the lowest common denominators of money and mayhem. The finest thoughts, the highest aspirations and the flightiest heights of imagination are dreamed and written by artists who write books.
Unfortunately, as my body grows older, I find that it is increasingly difficult to read books. Diminishing eye sight, arthritis in my neck, bad back and insufficient time makes reading books more difficult. Thank the gods, and technology for the wonderful inventions of MP 3 players and AUDIO BOOKS!
Now I can download and listen / read a vast array of literature on audio books, read to me by the some of the most talented actors: it’s better than a bed-time story! And I can listen to books while driving, waiting in the dentist office, walking around, sitting in the park and muti-tasking in general. Personally, I’ve listened to more books during the past two years than I read in the previous five years.
Thanks to audio books I’ve been able to read books that I probably wouldn’t have read previously due to the sheer size and expense of the books, some of which are several thousand pages in length! Free audio books, in the public domain, are available from www.Librivox.org. And, a vast library of books read by professional actors is available from www.Audible.com. The most important (FREE) source of audio books is your local public library. More and more books are available of CDs and cassette tapes every day. I use and recommend all of these.
As for subject matter, here are some of the books I listened to recently that are my personal favourites:
All 7 books of THE LENSMAN SERIES, written by E.E. “Doc” Smith (I consider these to be the finest science and science fiction books ever written). I listened to most of them twice!
All of the Sherlock Holmes books written by Arthur Conan Doyle (most of these I read previously, but audio books make them more fun)
American Gods and The Anansi Boys by the magical Neill Gaimon.
Enders Game by the marvellous science fiction writer, Orson Scott Card
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, a compilation of his autobiographical writings and commentary.
Any of the legion of electrifyingly frightening books by the fantastic fiction writer, Dean Koontz.
Under the Dome by Stephen King.
The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. One of the finest works of historical commentary ever produced.
The Republic by Plato is the pre-eminent discussion of the philosophy and culture of Western Civilization, written in 368 B.C.E.
Mien Kamph by Adolph Hitler. This is a ‘must’ read if you care to understand the demented ‘logic’ of a demonic Germanic mind.
The Confession by John Grisham. This is a damning diatribe, written as fiction, on the subject of capital punishment.
The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. This is a marvelous perusal of the entire subject of Western philosophers.
The complete writings of the Father of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine.
The Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tze. (The new English translation)
At the moment I’m listening to Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.
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Good listening! Lawrence R. Spencer
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Imagine that you are an Immortal, Omniscient, Omnipotent spiritual being. You have existed through all eternity, and cannot do otherwise. You are Eternally responsible for the existence of everything you can perceive in your Universe. Your every thought and whim materialize instantly, and disappear as soon as you stop. You know the outcome of every action you take before you make a move. Imagine how boring it might become?
What price would you pay to be amused by someone other than yourself? What would you be willing to do to solve the problem of perpetual boredom? For an Immortal Being, mortality might be a coveted and convenient relief from eternal loneliness: no sensation, no surprises, no fun.
What if a “Mortality Mechanic” could make your existence more exciting and less boring? Are you interested? After billions of years of testing and experimentation solutions to Immortality have been codified in the Mortality Mechanic’s Guide. You are the living proof that their job is done.
A new book by Lawrence R. Spencer. Read it now…Immortality doesn’t last forever.
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“Much like Leonardo da Vinci, I worked intermittently on this single painting over a period of many years, never satisfied that it was finished, and continually improving upon the original. This painting is my personal Mona Lisa, my daughter, Maria.
We had a live-in servant for many years, named Tanneke Everpoel, hired and paid by Maria Thins. She did all of the “heavy labor”, as it were: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, carrying water, tending fires, and a myriad other chores, including helping with the children. However, the expense of paying her wage and room did not include standing for endless hours, day after day, while I painted this portrait! My daughter, Maria, was lovelier and much more readily accessible for the task of standing for this portrait.
It is argued, convincingly, that the immortal painting by Leonard was his own self-portrait as his own, feminine reflection. What man, or woman, regardless of sexual preference in a given lifetime, has not inhabited the flesh of ten thousand bodies, some human, many not, through a nearly infinite cascade of galaxies, stars and planets come and gone. Is not survival a nearly infinite game, in which we interchange ourselves as the players of many parts?
Leonard kept his portrait with him all his life. He never considered that it was complete or perfect. Nor did he ever intend to sell it. How could one sell a most cherished reflection of himself? It is more meaningful than one’s own body, which only disguises the inner self, the essence of spirit that animates the fragile flesh.
In fact, a body hides the reflection of the soul! How can any substance, especially that as rude and fragile as meat, reveal the inherent qualities an immortal nothingness? Indeed, it is the fundamental challenge and the most formidable task of an artist to reveal it!
The name given to this painting by others, “The Milkmaid”, is a sacrilege! It rivals the incomprehension others have for Leonardo’s personal masterpiece. Yet, how can anyone truly understand that a painting is meant to reflect the essence of an immortal being, seen through the eyes of another?
She is painted with angelic colors: blue, gold and white, in contrast to the menial nature of her station in life. From her issues, for me, the Milk and Bread of Life. Life is embodied in her and through her. Women, are the source of children, the source of energy, the source of care. There is no more vital responsibility for any being who plays the game of life, than to confront dreary daily tasks. To humbly make the daily loaf. To soak that bread, mix and soften it with milk, make it warm and feed it to a teething child. Survival is made of such things.
In those days I viewed life as idyllic. My dreams were more real than reality. All things were a possibility. Tragedy could not find me. Until it did, of course. Even when we lost a child, which we did with several, my wife, Catharina, remained resolute in her Faith. God guided us. He did what was best. We knew not why and need not question His purpose for us.
I have no such faith in predetermination. A loaf of grain, clean water and a bed was my fare. Time and a place to paint, uninterrupted, were necessities. My love, shared with wife and family, was the staple diet of my life. I assumed, as a Fool who knows not his own mortality, that they would endure, even when I was gone.”
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Excerpt from the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer
DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vermeer/id443800993?mt=11
