with hidden noise, the personal reading blog worth reading

June 11, 2010 11:43 AM

"I went and saw Iron Man 2 today, pretty good, I read Anathem too, yeah, not bad, I think, and I finally managed to work though those last two seasons of The Wire": few personal cultural blogs are interesting. with hidden noise is different. The blog of Dan Visel of the Institute for the Future of the Book, it covers, regularly and in depth, reading material that's genuinely fascinating and often surprising — and he actually cares, seriously, about culture. Some of the books covered include Nicholson Baker's U and I, Aeschylus' The Oresteia, Jean-Philippe Toussaint's Self-Portrait Abroad and Donald Barthelme's Paradise. (Also, his immortal review of ulillillia's The Legend of the Ten Elemental Masters, though it's not on this particular blog cannot be missed.)
posted by colinmarshall (24 comments total)

Dan Visel

Man but that sounds like a thinly veiled pseudonym for Vin Diesel.
posted by jedicus at 11:46 AM on June 11, 2010 [18 favorites]

That explains the startling number of posts about the state of the XxX franchise.
posted by colinmarshall at 11:49 AM on June 11, 2010

Holy shit. That Legend of The Ten Elemental Masters review is fascinating. I'm surprised I haven't heard of that book before. Thank you for posting this.
posted by Greg Nog at 11:57 AM on June 11, 2010

This looks excellent. Thanks for the post!
posted by sonic meat machine at 12:01 PM on June 11, 2010

Man but that sounds like a thinly veiled pseudonym for Vin Diesel.

Exactly what I came here to say!
posted by mrnutty at 12:01 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

That Legend of The Ten Elemental Masters review is fascinating.

Make sure you check out ulillillia's site. It's a door into the mind of a very creative and imaginative guy who happens to have severe OCD.
posted by griphus at 12:36 PM on June 11, 2010

ulillillia's site, take two.
posted by griphus at 12:37 PM on June 11, 2010

Not caring much for part one, I must say I was damn surprised by how amazing Iron Man 2 was.
posted by puny human at 1:17 PM on June 11, 2010

I can take or leave this guy's commentary, but I do second that you should go spend some time at ulillillia's site. His "mind-game" is absolutely fascinating.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 1:20 PM on June 11, 2010

His "mind-game" is absolutely fascinating.

Holy FUCK, you are correct. This is remarkable.
posted by Greg Nog at 1:26 PM on June 11, 2010

3rding the Vin Diesel comment.
posted by brundlefly at 1:33 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

He posts here as "with hidden noise", if I am not mistaken.
posted by everichon at 1:35 PM on June 11, 2010

4th on Vin Diesel. I bet that annoys him to no end.
posted by lizzicide at 1:36 PM on June 11, 2010

5th, came in here to post that
posted by threetoed at 1:47 PM on June 11, 2010

I have heard of ulillillia, but I've never seen this review of The Legend of the Ten Elemental Masters before. Great stuff.
posted by threetoed at 1:49 PM on June 11, 2010

Seriously I have been on and off MetaFilter all afternoon and the Vin Diesel thing gets me EVERY GODDAMN TIME.
posted by Shepherd at 1:52 PM on June 11, 2010

Awesome post and then I see it was submitted by the even more awesome Colin Marshall, double-score.
posted by Doug Stewart at 1:53 PM on June 11, 2010

I also thought it read Vin Diesel and didn't notice that it did not until just this moment. I was reading through reviews thinking "I wish he'd expose more of this side in public."

Either way, great find!
posted by Doug Stewart at 1:59 PM on June 11, 2010

If you think about it, Vin Diesel is more likely to be a thin pseudonym for Dan Visel.

Back on track though: I found Visel's review of the 10 Elemebtal masters strange for its repeated disclaimers that he is not a gamer, as though someone who is a gamer might more enjoy it. It's pretty clear from the review that the book is essentially a hyper-detailed design document for a fictional game; so to make an analogy, would an architect enjoy examining blueprints for a fictional building? A pharmacist a book of extremely precise prescriptions? A rock climber a book of hold positions and the body motions required to ascend them?

I guess what I'm saying is that being a gamer doesn't mean that my taste in literature is that far from the norm, but I appreciate Mr. Visel's efforts to understand and emphathize with a mind so different from his own.
posted by breath at 2:08 PM on June 11, 2010

When I was around nine, I wrote a story set in a world like that of Final Fantasy VI. I was attempting to make sense of the systems of the game. Unlike ulillillia, I went in the "qualitative" direction, attempting to abstract the mechanisms of the game into something that made sense. All of the main characters ended up being soul-vampires, thus explaining how they grew more powerful by killing creatures.

I hadn't thought about that story in years.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:21 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's so close to being an anagram.
posted by rifflesby at 4:06 PM on June 11, 2010

Some good anagrams for Vin Diesel:

Veiled Sin
Devise Nil
Idle Veins
Snide Evil
End Is Vile

Anagrams for Dan Visel:

Saved Nil
And Lives
Vain Sled
Diva Lens

Clearly, Vin Diesel is the superior name.
posted by Cogito at 5:05 PM on June 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

6thing Vin Diesel. I actually read it that way, and I'm like "Institute for the future of the book?"
posted by delmoi at 7:55 PM on June 11, 2010

Ten Elemental Masters sounds amazing. I think I might get a copy.
posted by painquale at 12:59 AM on June 12, 2010