The link is not obvious, because Slacker addresses these questions with a sly sense of humor, an affectionate mockery of its slacker philosophes that disguises its love for the deeper questions theyвЂ™re obsessed with. ThereвЂ™s another Russian link, to Turgenev and his novels of the вЂњsuperfluous man.вЂќ (And, to make a cross-cultural comparison, thereвЂ™s a link as well to the seventeenth-century British pastoral вЂњpoetry of retirementвЂќ tradition, whose varieties are best limned in a volume with the lovely title The Garlands of Repose by the scholar Michael OвЂ™Loughlin.)Д«ut on a deeper level, the true Russian kinship is less with Goncharov or Turgenev than with Dostoyevsky, to a novel like The Brothers Karamazov: the kind of novel that is unashamed in its preoccupation, its obsession, with ultimate philosophical and metaphysical questions. Not just in its obvious kinship to Oblomov, Ivan GoncharovвЂ™s great nineteenth-century Russian novel, the classic celebration of the luxuriant pleasures of lethargy and the sensual delights of the contemplative life.

ItвЂ™s an obliqueness that disguises the fact that, despite its Texas college-town setting, its cosmic-shitkicker accents and characters, Slacker is at heart a very Russian film. A dismissal that can be attributed to one of the filmвЂ™s subtle strengths: to what it describes in a self-referential episode as its вЂњoblique strategy.вЂќ Such a film is Slacker, a film that was either dismissed (or appreciated) as an amiable satire of Austin hippies, heads, coffee-bar layabouts, and beer-garden lounge lizards. Deserves not just celebration for the way itвЂ™s вЂњheld up,вЂќ but for the way itвЂ™s grown since its debut in the sense that time and repeated reading or viewing have disclosed layers and depths not necessarily apparent on the first encounter. Prices are generally ridiculous (for buyers)ДЄn Internet search will turn up websites offering Oblique Strategies, and app versions are available for your mobile device вЂ“ see your App Store.One of my favorite things about this column is the opportunity it gives me to put in a word on behalf of an overlooked or underrated classic: a book or film that may have gotten respectful attention when it came out, but deserves more now. Tom claims he has an unboxing video here:Д®arlier editions of the Oblique Strategies decks frequently appear atДЄuction at places such as eBay. There was also a very limited Sixth Edition in a burgundy box. World and made available for purchase direct from Opal at Enoshop. Later the Fifth Edition of the Oblique Strategies was unleashed upon an expectant Soon to publish the fifth version of them.' It came to pass that a mere 15 months

Still like Oblique Strategies, and I still keep adding to them. In a chat with garageband (a short-lived online music community site) in September 02000, Brian said: 'I Gregory has the complete text of editions 1-4 of theД¬ards, scans, descriptions, history and commentary. Taking a look at the most comprehensive guide that we know of, at Gregory

Yes, you can simply divine the meaning of the Oblique Strategy cards by

Oblique strategies list