The 9th Gate (1999) - Full Movie Link & Thoughts

 

Shhhhh. (all links tested)

Watch for free on Plex - Free with popups site - Another free with popups site

     It's no secret I'm a huge fan of The Club Dumas and The 9th Gate. See previous unconnected thoughts here, and a couple of other random posts. Some quick history with the book and the movie; I read the book first, it was a gift from a girlfriend and she thought I would like it. The movie came out in 1999, and because news and internet was slow and shitty and I was disconnected from the world, I had no clue the movie and the book were connected in any way. I didn't see a trailer on the E! Channel like I normally would after Talk Soup to clue me in, and that was almost exclusively the way I would have known or seen it.

One to two packs of Pall Malls a day.

   I identified with Lucas Corso ('Dean' in Movie); I smoked a pack a day, collected rare books of different types and had a similar cavalier attitude about life in general. Before the movie existed, I was obsessed with reading anything from Arturo Perez-Reverte's catalog, and though I thought they were all great books, I never liked them as much as Dumas. It was not the first book to really grab me, but it was of the few. I was at a time in my life when 18 year old me was exclusively reading Science Fiction, and this was a huge change for me which led me down the path of the likes of Dan Brown and Umberto Eco. It was a.. witty person's summer reading, and you didn't have to get all the literary references to enjoy it. 

There were... some changes.

    I finally watched the movie after I realized what it was, and rented it from Blockbuster. Initially I was thrilled, until I realized right away that there was some really extreme changes from the book, and why they could not call the movie The Club Dumas. The Dumas connection was removed from the movie, and the roles of several characters have been swapped and moved around to the point where I had to unlearn the book and just enjoy the movie for what it was. The opening of the movie, it shows a young-ish Depp buying some early Three Musketeers books, and scamming them, being quite the con-artist as in the book. Seeing a Dumas reference, I thought.. Oh shit! This is going to be super faithful. If I squinted hard enough, Depp looked the part of a 40's Lucas Corso.

This is not the worst of endings.

    All doubts cast aside, I found myself really enjoying the movie. I did miss the Dumas connection, but even in the book, it turned out that Dumas manuscript had nothing to do with the central plot, and was just a bundle of crazy coincidences and distractions. The book ends in a very serene yet grotesque way, with "Irene" or "The Girl" listening to Borja burning alive inside the building, leaving you to believe that summoning the devil didn't work after all. Corso thinks to himself, it didn't work because the Ceniza brothers most likely forged the book plates after all, and off he goes. No devil, no doors, no gates. I very much like the liberties taken in the movie to visualize the woodcuts from the book, that it's the girl in the final correct cut, and going a step further, finding the page at the Ceniza brothers business and entering the gate himself. Admittedly, I would have like it better if he left with the girl, but that was explained as she left the clue on his windshield. I digress. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, watch the movie, read the book, post some comments. It would make me happy. 

Book Collecting 101

I collect lots of things, but my real passion is.. you guessed it, books. I've collected games and systems, board games, posters, cards, movies, comics.. and sold them all and not regretted it one bit. The books have found a place in my house every time I moved, and i never put any in boxes.

I started buying and sorting books in my room when i was in 7th grade, and in my first year moving to Florida after my parents divorce. My dad bought me a used bed that had a book case in the headboard that would hold about 50+ books. Compelled, i got my lord of the rings trilogy together and set them up like little soldiers right behind where i layed my pillow. One problem, it looked empty. My dad asked me if i wanted some more books, and i said yes just to fill up the headboard so it did not look stupid. For some reason i felt if my friends were to come over, or a girl, they would wonder why i had just three books in there. I was convinced some day a girl would come over so this was pretty important.

He took me to the Flea Market at the run down drive-in movie theatre several times and i got it filled up. I had only ever read fantasy books and not that many really so had no idea what i was looking for. By coincidence i picked up several Piers Anthony books. One night, laying awake in a small duplex in the ghetto with no TV, phone, or anything to entertain me, i reached behind the headboard and grabbed one of these Anthony books and began to read. I stayed up all that night to read that book, and nearly missed the bus the next morning. I had to have more!

By the time i was 16, I had finished collecting Piers Anthony books and had most editions and at least one legit copy of each title he published, which was around 250 to 300 books. I had others in my collection by different authors but with no serious direction how i bought them, or how i read them. Altogether i had about 500 books total or 2 book cases and that stupid headboard full to overflowing. I have pictures I will upload later if i can find them. Yes, i took pictures of my books.

Limited funds did not allow me to buy books for a few years after high school. If i saw something at a garage sale for 10 cents i would pick it up, otherwise i would just skip it. So between 2000 and 2002 i bought and read maybe 75 books total. My hand written ledger confirms this. So for those who are keeping track, i had about 575 books at this point. That's about 3 Super Target bookcases super-full. Between 2003 and 2004, i became a hunter. I pinned thrift stores and flea markets on paper maps in my bedroom and made weekly road trips. People brought me books they were throwing away. I abused the paperback exchange stores with throw away books from libraries and picked up another 300 books in this time. Money way better, so i spent it. In the long term, my hobby does not really cost anything significant, and my girlfriend at the time was supportive and loved telling people our house was a library.

In 2004 i got married (different woman) and my hording tapered off some. I started to sell some of my first edition rare titles to make some extra money in 2008. I told my wife anything over $100.00 list on ebay is going to be sold which she was really happy about as our house just got destroyed by a tornado. (the books were fine) I sold three books before i almost had some kind of emotional breakdown. I had sold or lost everything else i collected over the years, why should i sell something I've some passionate about? I felt with each ebay sale as if a piece of me was being sucked away.

Once we stabilized and had our son, i dragged myself to every store i could find, plotting my weekends finding, sorting, reading, writing, and just collecting more books. In this period of time between 2009 and 2011, i bought over 1000 books. Yes you read that right. And i only sold one, for the sole purpose of using that money to buy even more books.

I changed jobs in 2011 and all of a sudden, I'm getting paid about double what i use to make. My job allows me to travel Florida and see new things and find all these hidden book store not on google. The 50 mile radius around my house became dry, and the only things i could find were at garage sales. I started to search abroad and discovered gold. Since may 2011, i have brought back over 500 books home with me. Again, i only sold one for some mad money to buy even more books.

I do not have all my books in my database yet as i have been buying them faster than i can get them sorted and put in, but i think I'm well over 2,500 different science fiction and fantasy paper backs. With that i have about 500 or more hard backs. It's enough to fill a room full of bookcases, which is exactly what i will be doing in the coming weeks.. buying lots of bookcases and getting everything organized. I might have to take time off work for this one.



The Princess Bride First Ed. Paperback (1973)

The Codex Seraphinianus: First Few Pages

If you don't know what the Codex Seraphinianus is, then please click here right the fuck now. For those who hate to click links in fear of trojan horses or virus threats, stop being a pussy. I'll explain:



The Codex Seraphinianus is a book written and illustrated by the Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini during thirty months, from 1976 to 1978.^[1] The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in one of its languages, a thus-far undeciphered alphabetic writing.

Click the pictures below to enlarge. Comment and i'll post some more otherwise I'm not going to bother.

Three new Harry Potter books? She might.. she might not.

You Evil Whore.

Let me explain something to you. J.K. Rowling is a billionaire and she has only wrote 7 fucking books. There are more copies of her books in print than the Bible.

So why did she think it was important to go on Oprah and shake shit up and say she "might in 10 years, i have all the plots for three books", or "might not" and that she feels that the series is not over. Of course if she wrote three new Harry Potter books there would be three new movies, merchandising, movies on break.com of people spoiling the endings.. the list goes on.

I suppose if i were J.K. Rowling and i needed a new sparkling 24k gold toilet in which to flush my billionaire turds, i would write a new book. With each subsequent book i would then encrust my new throne with diamonds and rubies, and with the release of the last movie, i would invent gold bacon, eat it, then flush it down my wonderful solid gold with platinum accents shitter with a hen's egg sized ruby for a handle.

Teasing the population of america's youth, (and not so youthful) was not the smartest thing to tell the worlds richest talk show host who also happens to be an overweigh black woman who would like nothing more than her very own solid gold toilet and golden bacon in which to flush. People are disapointed and want another book. I waited in line with my wife at the last two releases, lines miles long, all to find out dumbledore is gay.

I can picture it now. Miss Rowling, sitting at a large banquet table carved out of a single piece of the finest emerald, eating her Foi Gras and ground extinct animal porriage, picking her teeth with the reverse end of a Dodo bird feather she purchased from a museum for such a purpose, musing about making enough money to clone herself so she would know what it would be like to know admiration. Then, at the moment when she has used all her money and has cock-teased america enough into believeing she has written another book, she rides as what can only be described as a Unicorn transformer into her local Books-A-Million and proceeds to defecate on sheets of notebook paper.

Group Discussion: Top 100 Sci-Fi Books

I took this picture from this website. Its a current and ever changing list that the Science Fiction community goes by. I disagree with some of it.

I'll talk top 10 and just let me know in the comments if you disagree.

1) Move Neuromancer to #2. The book changed how we think about the world, before it happened. Coined the terms Cyberspace, Internet, The Web, The Net. (side note: Sold my first edition on Ebay last year.)
2)Dune is sci-fi, but its fantasy too. Its modern fantasy and it reads like the bible so its not for everyone. It needs to be put down to #5. (The movie sucks HARD, but i watch it anyways)
3) 1984 was another huge book, and probably the most read on the list being it being in the school and college curriculum for years now. I feel this book made the top 10 just for that reason. I'm going to throw it down the list to #13 or so. Sorry guys, I've put alot of thought into this one and I'd rather read other books.
4) I, Robot is an awesome book, one of my personal favorites. It's on this list because it talked robot culture, and robotics in general... but not for the first time. Foundation coined the terms and used the same premises, so I'm removing I, Robot from the list and tossing it to #11.
5) You knew this was coming. Hitchhikers Guide does not belong in the top 10 at all. Its a funny book, it makes you think against the grain, but i read a whole chapter in the second book about the engines running on a waitresses tip book, and when the engine bay was finally looked at, sure enough there is a french cafe in there.
6) Ringworld to #4. If you have not read Ringworld, then i don't want to hear it. Halo references welcome.

How many of these books could i have read? I just picked apart the top 100 and these are the books i do not own: (read as well)

-14 Arthur C Clarke Rendezvous With Rama
-31 Alfred Bester The Stars My Destination
-33 Roger Zelazny Lord of Light
-67 Harry Harrison The Stainless Steel Rat [S1]
-90 John Scalzi Old Man's War

Most of the books i have on this list i own in "Top Science Fiction Books of 19xx" compilations so I'm cheating, but I've read them, enjoy them all, disagree with some. People will argue that i did not move Ender's Game. I don't like Orson Scott Card personally, he believes in the wrongs things, sues people for stupid shit and is Mormon but fuck sir, Ender's Game is genius and i can't describe it any other way.

Also i don't think anyone will agree with me but i think Killobyte by Piers Anthony deserves at least an honorable mention in the top 100. I did not see any of his books in there, and some of his books from the 60's were groundbreaking and deserved a spot for sure. Other lists mention him several times but lets no go there right now. Killobyte is one of the first books to really take the (then trivial) world of Online Gaming serious, explore it's roots and to explain in detail how people can forget themselves inside of a mere "game". With over 75 million people playing just a dozen online games, I'm surprised this book is not much more popular than it is. Remember this book was conceived in 1981, far before virtual reality. He was sure that when he would be done with the book in 1991, that virtual reality over networks and MMORPGs would more popular than they were. Hrm.

The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion

Go ahead. Google it. While your at it, google the name "Henry Darger." I'll give you a minute then scroll down some.

Henry Joseph Darger was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, (also know as Into the Realms of the Unreal) along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story. Darger's work has become one of the most celebrated examples of outsider art.

15,145 pages.. one book?

In the Realms of the Unreal includes The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, and extends over 15 immense, densely-typed volumes of 15,145 total pages. The text is accompanied by three bound volumes of several hundred illustrations, scroll-like watercolor paintings on paper, the work of six decades, derived from magazines and coloring books. In addition, Darger wrote an eight volume, 5,084-page autobiography, The History of my Life; a 10-year daily weather journal; assorted diaries; and a second work of fiction, provisionally titled Crazy House, of over 10,000 handwritten pages. He started writing in 1908.

The son of a bitch was crazy, spent his entire life writing and drawing huge elaborate pictures from tracings of childrens books about 7 sisters on another planet. Some of the drawings he made took up to 3 years to complete, were 10 feet long, and had 10,000 or more tracings.

What the hell? I'm right there with you. Just watch the vid below.

The 9th Gate Revisited

I have read The Club Dumas almost every year from highschool at least one time. This year for some reason i read it twice. Morgan posted the wood cuts from the movie, which are just awesome.

I'm an admitted Bibliofile.. i collect books, read them, love them. One day i would like to sell them.

Let me tell a quick story about Corso Books.

I contacted a guy who lived in Wales who was a college student. His father whom he never talked to left him a huge mass of books and a library to put them in. Books mostly on the subjust of the Occult and some various other subjects lied within the library, dating back to the early 15th century. The house was given to his family, and the burden of the estate was dumped on him. The books were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sell a book to a museum over here, to an occultist over there, pretty soon life was pretty good for this guy. He didnt care if he sold one book a year if thats all it took to get food on the table and pay the bills.

I emailed him and asked if he would ever broker sales to the United States and Canada, out of curiosity, and nothing else. He said not a problem at all, and he would send me scans of the books as he got to them, he had several books on vellum that he had several doubles of, that he would loan them to me and see what damage i could do. This man had no fixed and updated website, did not sell on ebay, and was not interested in travel. We made an agreement, and he sent me the first of the scans.

I looked over the scans and did not know what to say. All the ideas i had, and i knew no one that would be interested in these books. Hell, one of them would be a months salary for me, some of them, much more. I had no idea he was serious. Who would want these books? The pictures scared me sometimes. The woodcuts in the scans stood out like they jumped off the page. The writing was in perfect practiced latin hand, and the vellum of the pages was uneven, but cut so straight, that you would never know how old it was.

I did the only thing i knew how to do: I made a website. I tried to hide refrences and homages to movies, to add little secret buttons and mouse-overs, i really gave it my all with the design. I talked to a friend of mine at work and he said he was interested in the selling part if we could get any bites. We did get bites, calls somtimes from across america. "Are those book really for sale, or is this a joke.", Was a the main theme for the basis of all the emails.

Once in a while the gentleman from wales emails me and asks me if i sold the books. I tell him no, and im sorry, and he says no problem, don't worry about it. They will sell someday.

Visit Corso Books Homepage (sitecopy)

.

.

Oh, to settle rumors, the Nine Doors to the Kingdom of Shadows (Nonus Porta) Does not exist, (but you can get your own here.) When Arturo Perez wrote the book it was obvious that he had to make some things up to make the story believable, and lets face it, the devil didn't write anything.

.

Or did he?

.

The Book of Soyga

.

The truth is, there really is a book that is the treastise on magic, that you can use it to summon the devil, that has no known origin with secrets laying across 3 copies, and you need all three and the key words and phrases to unlock them. There were errors (?) across the three known books, that the wood cuts of the diagrams were copied from an unknown source, so you need all three books present to get it right. It has been translated.

.

So what are you waiting for? Go summon the devil already... you assholes.

Voynich Manuscript

This one is a hard pill to swallow. Almost as hard as flying Indian Nuclear powered death machines.

The Voynich Manuscript is a book written in an unknown language in the 15th century, and has never been deciphered. It contains pictures and diagrams split into chapters like Astrology, Botany, Cosmology with extensive maps. No Big deal right? Tons of old maps and things have been found over the years.

Nothing in this book makes any sense whatsoever. The pictures of plants alone are enough to make your nose bleed, with pictures of trees with unknown fruit, star clusters that don't exist, maps and formations that have never ever been found to exist on our world. The writing is nothing like anything we have ever come across, and has not been translated as of yet. Tons of money has pumped into programs to have it translated and its diagrams deciphered to no avail.

.

.

Wikipedia Entry (super detailed) View the complete Manuscript here

Currently Reading 3 - Eon by Greg Bear

Having finished The Lost Star so quickly, i decided to get right into another book. I took vacation from work to spend some time at home with the wife and kid, and this book just flew by. Such a sharp contrast between the two books, Eon being the most adult, free thinking, man's novel, and The Lost Star being a coming of age Care Bear hug-fest, while using protection.

I wont name characters because there are so many, but ill run it down for you.

A huge asteroid shows up out of no where right outside of earth atmosphere. We send a bunch of astronauts to check it out and it turns out the asteroid is hollow and contains an abandoned city. A science team goes up to check things out, find a library, and discovers that the earth is going to die of nuclear winter in like month or so. Give or take.

You learn these vital details in first few chapters, and this is a 500+ page book, small typeface. (which reminds me, The Lost Star had a small typeface but the margins were fucked) people have sex, kill others, fight, meet alien species, travel to far away worlds, you name it, this book does not miss any of the elements.

I hearby declare this book officially the bomb. Amazon - Wiki

Currently Reading 2 - The Lost Star by H.M. Hoover

Yes that's the book i just finished reading.

I had read a few other books by H.M. Hoover, namly The Return to Earth and Shepard Moon. I liked them both, though i thought they were not "adult" enough for me. I don't really need to have an adult theme, but i like the thoughts and ideas and jokes of adults, so there we go.

Lian Webster goes off planet with her parents when she is 16 and gets friendly with a cute and cuddly race of centaur teddy bears that everyone passes off as dumb, and no one give a shit. While her parents are off digging up bones and relics of time past (They are archeologists) she discovers ancient computers and an intelligence ancient race of.. centaur bear things.

I liked this book, i really did. It was very easy to read and it was old classic science fiction, which I'm into. Fighting, romance, and maybe some action would have made this better for me.

I give it 4 our of 5 centaur Tee Shirts. Available here.

Top 10 things you can do with your early 90's Comic Books

I had alot of comic books and i traded them and sold them away for Magic: The Gathering cards in the late 90's. I had so much.. thousands and thousands literally. I miss them. Morgan bought a box from a friend and is really enjoying them. Some people look at them in discust and put them in their family's garage sale.

Yeah they are not worth as much as they were. Millions were printed, and printed, and printed again. Series were spun off into other series and spun off again. But don't throw them away just yet.

There is hope.

10) Sell them on craigslist.com. Pull your crap out of your guest bedroom.

Get on craigslist and post them for sale. $50 a box sounds good, then with the $50, goto Gamestop and guy Conan for XBOX360 so you can have virtual sex with maidens in distress. Crom!!


9) Find obscure funny advertisments for NES games.

My personal favorite. I love this shit.


8) Frame your Spawn #1, put it next to your spawn VHS poster.

People do this. No really.


7) Wallpaper.


I did this in 9th grade, with all X-Force comics. My girlfriend is like "Why! They could be worth money!" Yeah, just like Turkish Lira.


6) Hostess ads:
Thank you Seanbaby for causing this to be popular.


5) Price check!
Get a new Issue of Wizard magazine, then cry.. and cry hard. You never know, sometimes you might find a diamond in there somewhere. (First appearance of Gambit is a good example, also the Superman death, black bag with armband)




4) Buy more.
Complete your worthless Cable #3-7 story arch. I'll ruin it for you, Cyclops is Cable's dad, and he cures the Techno-virus. I did not know a single friend of mine that did not go down the Drug Store on Main street and get at least one of these, (Cable #1) and no good 90's Comic collection should be without it. An awesome read is the Revenge of Sinister Six. The most printed comic arch of the 90's is.. good. There i said it.


3) Collect all the different Spiderman #1 covers.

I had the silver one. The one that was like more shiny, no not the silvery blue one the.. chrome one? This is a big one. Some are worth more than others. One was in a sealed bag.

2) Tape together your xmen #1 fold out.


Just rip it out and hang it up like the rest of the world. God knows every third kid in America had one hanging above his bed, right next to his black light poster of a mushroom.


1) Read them.


No better advice in the world. They may be not worth as much as they were, but god they are still awesome to read on the shitter. Some really, really good comics were seeing the light of day and tons of characters were being introduced. People were created and then killed in the same comic, only to be resurrected down the road to be killed again.

Currently Reading 1 - Conan The Freebooter by Howard

I will not hide my love for Conan novels, even the L' Sprague de Camp knockoffs. He put his name all over them, used the basic gist for his books and pasted Robert E. Howard'a name of the front. For shame!

.

I picked this book up about five years ago in a paperback exchange in Sarasota Florida. This is the first edition, and its the same one im reading now. The pictures came from google image search so i felt compelled to say that.

.

It's a collection of short stories with a novella in the middle about him taking over an army, killing bastards that wield magic, and eat joints of beef whilst banging the common folk with his giant penis club. He also drinks wine occasionally.

.

Wikipedia Entry

XXX Xanth? Fan Fiction meets pornography.

God... Xanth.

My Social Studies teacher was very strict in 8th grade, but god love him, he likes Piers Anthony novels as much as me. Well.. maybe not as much as me. I remember having to hide the cover to The Color of her Panties, because i was afraid the teachers would not get the right idea if they saw it. I mean as far as book names go, its really easy to get the wrong idea with that title. Recently i read Xanth number 33.

Truth be told i have all the Xanth books. I will also admit i have all his books.. Rare ones, first editions and so on. I guess im a collector. I love books in general, but thats an epic saga all by iteself. Today we talk about XXX Xanth, a fan fiction about and in Piers Anthony's famous Xanth universe. With hardcore sex.

A few years back i wrote Mr. Anthony a letter about it, and he thought it was pretty interesting. He wrote about it in one of his Author's notes in one of his Xanth books, and also in his newsletter on Hipiers.com, his website. Alas, it never garnered alot of attention in the public eye. So.. here it is.

Part One: XXXanth Novels, Dana by Athena e19

Author's Note: These are a series of stories which I am basing on one of my all time favorite fantasy works, the Xanth Novels. The actual books contain mild erotica and were a great influence on me during my earlier years. They speak of sex between numerous fantasy creatures including centaurs, elves, nymphs, harpies, mermaids, fauns, fairies, humans, dragons, naga, gorgons, and numerous others.

Major's note: I do not fucking agree with this, but i do see there is some sexual innuendo in the series, which towards the end was a little too much for me. The over-use of love springs to get random characters to fuck is just not my thing, but i will admit i wanted a horse and man to do it from the outset. Okay what was i saying this is awesome. Sorry.

Quotes:

"Dana felt strange twinges in her maidenhood as the soft velvety fur of Arthurs equine half rubbed against her thin panties."

"If you do not obey me I will rip each of your little maidenly nipples from your body and eat them. Do you understand?" the harpy asked in a small menacing voice."

God I could go on.

I like the use of the word 'Maiden', which is used almost 30 times in the course of the first part of this epic adventure.

It seems to me this Author loved Xanth, as did i , growing up. I'm under the impressions that this author is a woman, which also scares me because that woman could be my wife, and in that case i would have to dress her up and do unmaidenly things to her nipples.

Yar!

Updated Tomb Of Horrors 4thED Revised Free!

Gary Gygax's awesome adventure, The Tomb of Horrors is available free for download at Wizards of the Coast here.

I played this with friends of mine over at Pioneer Games in Fort Myers, many, many moons ago.

Free baby!

I'm Writing a book.

Its about technology, video games, drugs, the 80's, computers, you name it. It follows the events of the video game crash of 1983.

I'm writing with a friend of mine, Morgan Hallett. He is a trouble maker from New York, and i work with him, and we are heterosexual. Really.

Two years in the making, have a publisher, editor, and things are going well. Just have to collect the time to get with him and finish the ending..

Show some love! Read the first chapter, check out the feed.