metadiegetic narrative. A narrative embedded within another narrative and, more particularly, within the primary narrative; a hypodiegetic narrative. The situations and events recounted by Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut are metadiegetic in relation to those recounted by M. de Renoncourt (which are diegetic or intradiegetic). When a metadiegetic narrative functions as a diegetic one (when its metadiegetic status is forgotten, as it were), it is said to be a pseudo-diegetic

“Perhaps the most obvious thing called into question by this meta-picture is the structure of ‘inside and outside,’ first- and second-order representation, on which the whole concept of ‘meta-‘ is based. And image of nested, concentric spaces and levels is required to stabilize a metapicture, or any second-order discourse, to separate it cleanly from the first-order object-language it describes. Thus, most metapictures depict a picture-within-a-picture that is simply one among

“But who are the participants in this social act called ‘irony’? The party line says that there is an intending ‘ironist’ and her/his intended audiences — the one that ‘gets’ and the one that doesn’t ‘get’ the irony. What do you do, then, with the obvious fact that ironies exist that are not intended, but are most certainly interpreted as such? Similarly, there are ironies you might intend, as ironist,

“The world of human aspiration is largely fictitious, and if we do not understand this we understand nothing about man. It is a largely symbolic creation by an ego-controlled animal that permits action in a psychological world, a symbolic-behavioral world removed from the boundness of the present moment, from the immediate stimuli which enslave all lower organisms. Man’s freedom is a fabricated freedom, and he pays a price for it.

Q: What do you get when you cross Steven Den Beste and an outraged French journalist? A:  57,000 words and a surrender. **** h/t’s: Amish and Mike.

Robin Williams. Still so over.

Here’s how the Christian Science Monitor’s Jane Lampman summarizes Yasser Arafat’s time on the world stage: In a tumultuous 40-year odyssey, Arafat has gone from armed revolutionary steeped in a violent struggle against Israel; to found Fatah, a militantly nationalist Palestinian organization, in the early 1960s; to peacemaker and 1994 Nobel Prizewinner; to the first elected Palestinian president; and now, to semisidelined leader. “Peacemaker”? “Elected”? “Odyssey“…? C’mon, Jane: A Greek

No.

Sei un uomo buono, signore Berlusconi. Grazie mille. Romano Prodi? Cagna.

From LGF: This Friday the terror-enabling morons of the ISM are converging on Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria, joined by the parents of Rachel Corrie, to demand that Caterpillar stop doing business with Israel: Stop Cat Coalition. After that, they’ll be heading to Kansas to protest dirt and thresher combines, presumably. Because they’re fucking insane.