EPTThere is something wrong with my imagination. - Page 3
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Deleted User 238668
344 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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Deleted User 238668
344 Posts
This is my first time with Pynchon, so I can't speak to his other works. His blank verse (The Courier's Tragedy) is wonderfully worked. | ||
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Azera
3800 Posts
I still have problems with pages like ![[image loading]](http://www.imgur.com/NhoG4.jpg) | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
We like to think about the late modern period (late nineteenth and early twentieth century) in terms of the "fracturing" of the subject. What about the language of the passage seems fractured to you? How is this different than the way you might expect a narrative to be told? What might that difference tell you about the way that the speaker understands himself and his relationship to the world that might be different than ours or different from the way things were at an earlier point in history? | ||
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Deleted User 238668
344 Posts
I remember laughing out loud at this when I first read it. | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
Azera: the secret to understanding that page is to understand that it's supposed to be funny. That actually is a great passage. "Everybody said the French were through. Rinaldi said that the French had mutinied and troops marched on Paris. I asked him what happened and he said, 'Oh, they stopped them.'" It helps if you think about what a shattering event WW1 was for Western civilization. | ||
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jodogohoo
Canada2533 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On March 19 2012 14:28 jodogohoo wrote: ahh hmm, a small contribution i can hopefully make is that i found science fiction short stories pretty awesome to read. like the ones that get the nebulla awards or something lol. they are pretty relevent to contemporary, pretty easy to understand, and are pretty fun and not too long ^.^ Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award can be a pretty good reading list. Sometimes of mixed merit post about 1985 or so... some good stuff but also some more... vulgar material  . | ||
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Warble
137 Posts
You're doing fine if that's the only passage you struggle with. Tip: use a pointer to track your eyes across the page. You'll find that the sentences are easy once and it's just the lack of paragraphs that makes it look hard. Let me know if you ever get around to reading The Colour of Magic. | ||
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Azera
3800 Posts
I feel that one thing I can't get used to is the massive wall of text without any punctuation. | ||
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missefficiency
Germany105 Posts
On March 17 2012 14:03 Azera wrote: Recently, I have decided to pick up reading again. A friend (Yay!!!) and I ventured to the public library near to our school yesterday. He picked out 2 books for me, -A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway -The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke I started to read 'A Farewell to Arms' first, but I found that it is rather hard to read. I'am just starting Chapter 3 and I just can not imagine the scene that he describes. I don't know if this is because of my lack of reading or my poor imagination, because all I see are just words. Also, Hemingway writes in a style (in this book I guess) that doesn't use much punctuation. I'm not used to this and it sort of breaks up the flow of my reading. Any suggestions/advice? It's Hemingway. I didn't like him either, his style was too much of tryhard naturalism for my taste, and I couldn't escape "The old man and the sea" since I had to read it in class and my teacher loved Hemingway as though he was her grandfather. My advice is to go to a bookstore, explain to the bookseller what genre you like, let him give you about five books, sit down and read a chapter of each book. Then pick those you like. Same thing goes for library and librarians, they actually go crazy with happiness if you ask them for advice Edit: Read the page you posted. I remember wanting to throw my copy of Hemingway against the wall *blushes* I guess I just really don't like him. Are you reading the book because it's a "classic" or because your friend picked it out for you? | ||
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Azera
3800 Posts
On March 19 2012 18:25 missefficiency wrote: It's Hemingway. I didn't like him either, his style was too much of tryhard naturalism for my taste, and I couldn't escape "The old man and the sea" since I had to read it in class and my teacher loved Hemingway as though he was her grandfather. My advice is to go to a bookstore, explain to the bookseller what genre you like, let him give you about five books, sit down and read a chapter of each book. Then pick those you like. Same thing goes for library and librarians, they actually go crazy with happiness if you ask them for advice Edit: Read the page you posted. I remember wanting to throw my copy of Hemingway against the wall *blushes* I guess I just really don't like him. Are you reading the book because it's a "classic" or because your friend picked it out for you? Reading it for pleasure and maybe to learn something about the human condition I guess | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On March 19 2012 19:37 Azera wrote: Reading it for pleasure and maybe to learn something about the human condition I guess How cute! ^.^ you don't have to go looking for the human condition. It finds you on its own just fine. | ||
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