And a poetic man once said “ To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.” - Melville
And “Revenge is a dish best served family style.” -Sideshow Bob

I never denied saying that. I'll say it again if you like.

"You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate
As reek o' th' rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you!"
-Shakespeare

"Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run."
-Herman Melville

"That Edward shall be fearful of his life,
And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death.
King Henry and the prince his son are gone:
Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest,
Counting myself but bad till I be best."
Shakespeare

"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it."
-Herman Melville

“Destruction is a form of creation.”
-Graham Greene


I should probably thank @bobknight33 . Now I know why people cut the tongues out of some men.

You haven't really read Melville until you've read it in the original Klingon.

@Sarzy, @lucky760:

To's output can be roughly divided into three categories:
- Straight Film Noir influenced by Jean-Pierre Melville, including his early Milkyway Image productions, his The Mission / Exiled / Vengeance sort-of-trilogy, etc, with a special mention for Election 1 & 2.
- Somewhat more 'commercial' ventures: Running Out Of Time, Full Time Killer, Drug wars, and Breaking News... Less edgy, but better production value.
- And his more 'out there' attempts, that are usually crime films with some surreal aspect: Running On Karma (Shaolin-monk-turned-stripper sees people's past incarnations, tries to reverse their karma), Throwdown (everyone is a secret Judo master), Mad Detective (schizo detective can see people's inner personality and dialogue with them)...

He sometimes misses the mark, but his films are usually worth their salt (this often extends to other Milkyway films he produces).

Breaking News, it turns out, is a minor To film. It's well directed (as you can see by yourselves), and it's definitely fun to watch, but ... it's just that his other films are better! My advice : start with PTU, Exiled, or Full Time Killer. Then if you like what you see, go for the rest.

And if you like Running On Karma, check out Wai Ka Fai, To's writer / Milkyway co-founder and sometimes-director. That guy is good.

"There she blows!-there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!”
― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Well, I'm not sure you can't go wrong with classics. I guess it comes down to taste in the end, but I found myself bored to tears with Russian classics, for example. I'm somewhat embarassed to say I just couldn't get through Crime and Punishment - it had no pace, for mine. As someone well read, this is probably sacrilege to you, but then I found the Lord of the Rings trilogy similarly overcooked.

I will get around to reading one of your suggestions when I'm next in the market for a book, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.
In reply to this comment by jonny:
Well, that's the thing about classics - you can't really go wrong with any of them, so yeah, A Connecticut Yankee is as good place to start as any. But it really comes down to your own preferences. Guys like Faulkner and Melville are generally considered giants of American literature, but I can't stand their stuff and would be very unlikely to recommend them. Steinbeck is another great that, while I personally like most of his work, a lot of people don't care much for it, even if they appreciate the quality.

You might find Good Reads a useful resource for finding the classics you'd most enjoy.

In reply to this comment by kymbos:
Hey, thannks for the leads. I just watched some of Midnight in Paris, and realised I'd never read the classics. Would you suggest I start with your Connecticut one?

Well, that's the thing about classics - you can't really go wrong with any of them, so yeah, A Connecticut Yankee is as good place to start as any. But it really comes down to your own preferences. Guys like Faulkner and Melville are generally considered giants of American literature, but I can't stand their stuff and would be very unlikely to recommend them. Steinbeck is another great that, while I personally like most of his work, a lot of people don't care much for it, even if they appreciate the quality.

You might find Good Reads a useful resource for finding the classics you'd most enjoy.

In reply to this comment by kymbos:
Hey, thannks for the leads. I just watched some of Midnight in Paris, and realised I'd never read the classics. Would you suggest I start with your Connecticut one?

same is true of the Tolkien series.

After reading the Hobbit at age 10, I felt ready to read Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and after that, well, why not Melville?

>> ^Sagemind:

Not great comedy - but there is a point in there - Harry Potter is just that - a stepping stone to greater literature. Sure Harry Potter books introduced kids who never picked up a book before into the world of literature. (But) How many people people stepped down from a world of literature to read Harry Potter?
There are So many great books out there and kids everywhere just keep re-reading the same Harry Potter books or Twilight books and are stunted from ever moving on. My daughter has read the HP books a few times and the Twilight books perhaps 5-6 times each.
Move on already..., My daughter just finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy now so I'm hoping to get her moving on to other stuff - Many never will read another book series ...

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitue for pistol and ball."

Moby Dick, Melville

I'll be with you in spirit.