EPTWhat Are You Reading 2013 - Page 17
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
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farvacola
United States18846 Posts
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Mortal
2943 Posts
On January 24 2013 03:47 farvacola wrote: lol it most certainly is, one of those inane adolescent online handles that I figure I ought to keep around for whatever reason. Kudos on gathering together the gumption needed to even attempt any Pynchon novel other than The Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice; one of the professors I studied under at OSU is a Pynchon scholar (Brian McHale) and I developed a Pynchon habit as a result. Against the Day is a typical Pynchon work in that it seems like the narrative structure suffers from some sort of ADHD inspired schizophrenia; the revolving door of characters, metaphor, and strange side tracks can be quite overwhelming if the reader approaches the work like they do more traditional novels. Instead, I would recommend that you not read Against the Day unless you plan to read it at least a 2nd or 3rd time; each reading experience will tease out a different brand of narrative focus, and accordingly a single read through does not do the work justice. Think of it as a massive Rorschach Test; stare too hard and the blots appear like....blots, but if you sort of fix your gaze and let it wash over you, the experience becomes far more rewarding. That sounds about right. I am willing to give it more than one readthrough, although I do plan to bookend it (lol) with a variety of other reads to break up the readings, as well as force the brain into different thought patterns and pathings. I doubt I'll be able to coax out every reference and biway, but I do look forward to the experience. | ||
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Pucca
Taiwan1280 Posts
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9b/LordOfTheFliesBookCover.jpg/200px-LordOfTheFliesBookCover.jpg) | ||
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farvacola
United States18846 Posts
 Edit: Yes Pucca, that book is totally meh. | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On January 24 2013 04:11 farvacola wrote: What's funny is that breaking up reading material with other reading material actually makes a lot of sense; reading material can be quite intertextual. Enjoy fixed it for you  | ||
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Mortal
2943 Posts
I think sometimes yes, sometimes no. but I agree w/ both  | ||
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farvacola
United States18846 Posts
Nobody breaks up my Harry Potter reading, nobody! | ||
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rezoacken
Canada2719 Posts
On January 23 2013 18:51 sam!zdat wrote: @rezoacken: yes! my secret plan is to get everyone in the world to read Red Mars! the series is incredible, probably my favorite novel I'm halfway through. It's ok so far. I definetly like the science part and how good the writer is at describing the step y step colonization. However some parts in the "Nadia arc" were really boring. I recently finished the Millennium Trilogy by Steig Larsson (Better known as 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and so on). It was definitely up there are one of my better reads; and great to see a female character take the intellectual and kick*ss reins for a change. For me, Millenium is one of those book that everybody around you love but you hate with a passion. I thought the first one was ok but damn the next 2 I wanted to burn the books. It was probably the first time I was emotionally pissed while reading ! I ended up skipping pages to know it ends and gifted the book to my girlfriend (who loves it). The praise is a mystery to me By the way if people like science fiction I definetly recommend the following books by R. Morgan which is now my favorite author of the genre but sadly not really known of the general population. The Takeshi Kovacs trilogy takes place in 2500 something and humans have now the ability to download, copy and upload their consciousness into bodies (now called Sleeves). Everybody as an implant called stack which is your whole mental being stored in case of death. This technology enabled humans to travel through space even though travel times is sometimes in the hundreds of years (they just send ships with bodies and download people in them once at destination). But that's only the background. The serie isn't about a revolution or a "save the world" thing. It's 3 very different stories in this world where the "hero" is either trying to solve a murder (first novel), find a lost ship on a war ridden planet (second novel) or help revolutionaries in his homeworld (third novel). ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/Altered_Carbon_cover_1_(Amazon).jpg/155px-Altered_Carbon_cover_1_(Amazon).jpg) ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Broken_Angels_cover_(Amazon).jpg) ![[image loading]](http://alleko.com/wp-content/woken_furies.jpg) Also there are two other SF books by the same author, out of the two I recommend Black Man (Thirteen in the US), Market Forces being a bit weird and more an allegory than a real story. | ||
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Recognizable
Netherlands1552 Posts
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
On January 24 2013 02:27 aZealot wrote: Yeah, I think it was a writer's convention at that time, but Hugo heads off track a fair bit. Another example, iirc, is his description of the battle of Waterloo which goes on for a fair few pages. All of these can be skipped without missing out on the story. It is a grand story though with giant characters. At lest the battle of Waterloo is an interesting event in itself, even if it has nothing to do with the story. I actually quite like those pages, especially as the bias is insane^^ On January 24 2013 03:32 sam!zdat wrote: idk man I loved every word. Anyway don't you read all this french modernist stuff? I don't think you have any room to talk about "some good ideas but long and boring" If you refer to Proust I think its most boring pages (there are about 10 in the novel when he enumerates etymologies of imaginary villages) are about a hundred time better than any sci-fi page I've ever read^^ | ||
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farvacola
United States18846 Posts
On January 24 2013 05:49 Recognizable wrote: Can anyone recommend me books regarding the subjects death and consciouscness? Or maybe you know a good Philosopher I should look up? Do you want happy death, sad death, or I don't know how to feel about death? Edit:^lol corum, them be fightin words. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
On January 24 2013 05:51 farvacola wrote: Do you want happy death, sad death, or I don't know how to feel about death? Edit:^lol corum, them be fightin words. You can't seriously discuss litterature with a philosopher anyway :p + Show Spoiler + And I like sam!zdat quite a bit in fact^^ | ||
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Recognizable
Netherlands1552 Posts
On January 24 2013 05:51 farvacola wrote: Do you want happy death, sad death, or I don't know how to feel about death? Edit:^lol corum, them be fightin words. How to think about death? | ||
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snotboogie
Australia3550 Posts
On January 24 2013 03:15 Animzor wrote: Rereading Feast for Crows? Wow... why would you do that to yourself? The first time I read Feast for Crows, it took more than a year of on and off reading and I came out of it thinking it was the worst book GRRM had written. A few years later, when Dance was scheduled to be released, I reread the series again, and Feast became my favourite book in the series. Give it a chance! I really feel it's a book you appreciate more on the reread, because on the first go through you are expecting something much like the first three books, and when those expectations are broken you feel disappointed. But if you go into it knowing that it's a slower book, you get to enjoy it for what it is. I personally thought it was a much deeper book than the first three. | ||
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farvacola
United States18846 Posts
Well, you could go the existential route and do some Sartre, Heidegger, or Kierkegaard (Heidegger and Kierkegaard are the most worthwhile imo) or maybe a bit of absurdist existentialism with Camus (his perspective on suicide is probably his most worthwhile thought process imo). Ultimately the philosophical approach to death can be rather unfulfilling, and if you want more of a literary approach, one of my personal favorites is William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying; difficult to comprehend experiences like that of death fit stream of consciousness styles of writing in a particularly enjoyable way. For an entirely different take, some of Sylvia Plath's earlier poetry is really rather good, especially from her first collection, The Colossus and Other Poems. If poetry isn't your thing, you could always go the more religious route; there are incredibly useful insights in regards to death throughout the Bible and other major Christian works that are rather divorcible from the doctrinal nonsense. Hope that helps in some way. | ||
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snotboogie
Australia3550 Posts
On January 24 2013 05:29 rezoacken wrote: I'm halfway through. It's ok so far. I definetly like the science part and how good the writer is at describing the step y step colonization. However some parts in the "Nadia arc" were really boring. For me, Millenium is one of those book that everybody around you love but you hate with a passion. I thought the first one was ok but damn the next 2 I wanted to burn the books. It was probably the first time I was emotionally pissed while reading ! I ended up skipping pages to know it ends and gifted the book to my girlfriend (who loves it). The praise is a mystery to me By the way if people like science fiction I definetly recommend the following books by R. Morgan which is now my favorite author of the genre but sadly not really known of the general population. The Takeshi Kovacs trilogy takes place in 2500 something and humans have now the ability to download, copy and upload their consciousness into bodies (now called Sleeves). Everybody as an implant called stack which is your whole mental being stored in case of death. This technology enabled humans to travel through space even though travel times is sometimes in the hundreds of years (they just send ships with bodies and download people in them once at destination). But that's only the background. The serie isn't about a revolution or a "save the world" thing. It's 3 very different stories in this world where the "hero" is either trying to solve a murder (first novel), find a lost ship on a war ridden planet (second novel) or help revolutionaries in his homeworld (third novel). Also there are two other SF books by the same author, out of the two I recommend Black Man (Thirteen in the US), Market Forces being a bit weird and more an allegory than a real story. While I absolutely loved the first book, Altered Carbon, I found the second to be so disappointing that it immediately killed any desire for me to continue reading the series. I get what Morgan was trying to do in having each book be a different sub-genre of sci fi but I just felt Broken Angels was a bad book. I guess I'll read Woken Furies eventually, but for most people I'd only recommend Altered Carbon. It's great pulpy sci-fi noir. | ||
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RedSox12
58 Posts
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RedSox12
58 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5rg0OM1.jpg) | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On January 24 2013 05:29 rezoacken wrote: I'm halfway through. It's ok so far. I definetly like the science part and how good the writer is at describing the step y step colonization. However some parts in the "Nadia arc" were really boring. The characterization gets much stronger. The first half of the first book is the most "old-school SF" feeling of the novel (i.e. the characters are a bit wooden). Keep in mind he has to introduce a lot of people. http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/phil-176#sessions | ||
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