Rob Ty
People love to quote. It makes them look smart. It makes them look romantic. This explains the proliferation of websites that cater to the would-be literate. These online databases of poetry, lines, and last remarks, are perfect for that digital signature you put at the end of your e-mails to make you look cool.
Of course, if you want to quote someone, you would like to make sure that no one else does it before you. Here's where Generationterrorists.com comes in. Here's why Generationterrorists.com is one of the internet's most closely-guarded secrets.
Generationterrorists.com is what you get when you lock up a bunch of lit majors in one room, throw in a computer, some pen and paper, and a lot of free time. It's the product of having too many people who write, and having too many people who don't read what they write.
GT, as the site is more commonly known, is an online community of writers, poets, and a few other people who respect their craft. It is owned by a certain Jason Quek, who remains as mysterious as the name of the site itself.
Sacrificing visuals for effectivity, GT.com is no thing of beauty. However, the design is quite conducive for what the site really wants you to do, which is to read. Letters are dressed in the lovely, white Arial font, and laid down against a smooth black background.
Menus are right there, and coupled with flashing graphics if there is new content.
The site has a much fewer selection than its counterparts, but it makes up for quality. The quotations range from the weird:
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin
to the sarcastic:
If love is blind, I'll buy myself a cane.
- Anonymous
And finally, to the just plain beautiful:
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and
their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
- Pablo Picasso
But what makes GT.com really stand out from other quotations sites is its content. Sure, you can impress your
girlfriend with the lines from pabloneruda.com. But if you want to stand out, and I mean really stand out, you might
want to use some David Carradine in Kill Bill Vol. 2. While most sites carry the standard Browning or Shakespeare, GT.com
truly innovates by including quotations from modern movies and books like Stephen King or Pulp Fiction.
And it's doesn't just put in one quotation from the movie. It's an exhaustive list. If you spend nights trying to
remember all the cool things Bill Murray said in Lost in Translation, look no further. This is YOUR site.
Of course, it's not all quotations. The GT community has 717 members as of this writing. They come from all over the
world-- India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Orange County California and of course, the Philippines. To foster a sense of community,
members are invited to write articles, or to share links. A new work is showcased everyday, encouraging users to visit often.
Each member is accorded a unique profile page that is accessible from the menu. I say unique because instead of showing
the person's full name, address or zodiac sign, the profiles show that person's favorite quotes, articles and links. It is really
up to you how you want to "design" your personal profile. Some people are really creative. For example, I came across a person
whose profile contained nothing but quotes on insanity. Another guy was collecting articles on cryptozoology, the scientific study
of hidden animals.
Having seven hundred writers in one forum isn't so bad. You get top quality writing even on the most mundane things like,
uhm, candles. And if you're into books, like me, then you practically wet yourself when someone posts Chuck Palahniuk's new
short story for free.
The site has a cool feature called GTword. Here's how it works: You login. You get directed to a screen with a single word, like
for example, "MEMORY". You then have 60 seconds to type in whatever comes to mind that is related to the word. When your
time is up, your literary masterpiece gets displayed on the internet, along with the works of your fellow modern Dickens. A few
days ago, the chosen word was "PISS". It was hilarious.
GT.com also supports a search feature. I searched for the word "love" and it came back with 347 entries, some of which were
contributed by the site's own members. Oh, if you have to wonder, searching for the word "speed" brought only 15 results. I
found this quote most intriguing though:
"We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge
has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need
humanity."
-Charles Chaplin
This magazine is going to kill me.
