EPTWhat Are You Reading 2014 - Page 40
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21247 Posts
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
Also part of the problem is that Tolkein is just too close to us, despite his mastery of being able to make things seems distant and strange. the authors of Genesis are ACTUALLY completely foreign to us, and I think that makes a much more interesting text than one which is actually close to us but only attempting to BECOME distant | ||
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
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FuDDx
United States5018 Posts
Prince of Thorns King of Thorns Emperor of Thorns By Mark Lawrence I enjoyed them. If I were to try to describe them Id say a mix of Salvatore meets George R R Martian kinda..... Also Read Paul Cornell's London Falling Kept me reading and if I buy a hardcopy of the second in a series or from the same author then I feel its a good read. In a nutshell its cops who find out there is more to this wold than meets the eye. Cops develop a second sight, Kinda a mash-up of Penny Dreadful meets Dr. Who ... Not too suprising from someone who wrote a few Dr.Who episodes among his many accomplishments. And picked up the second book in the series The Severed Street ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cS4dHNj.jpg) | ||
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ComaDose
Canada10357 Posts
When i read the Bible i found it to be a dry, meandering, poorly paced, inconsistent fairy tail that was not very relatable or believable. I would not recommend it for anyone looking to enjoy their time. If you are looking for a better understanding of art, literature, laws and social conventions there are many text books on the subjects (including information on the regretful influence from outdated ideologies) that are better paced and more informative. Otherwise if you are a fan of fiction I would recommend delving into the world that Tolkien created which influenced the fantasy genre across all media since its publication. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
On June 04 2014 05:28 ComaDose wrote: Otherwise if you are a fan of fiction I would recommend delving into the world that Tolkien created which influenced the fantasy genre across all media since its publication. Wow, never read such a mean attack on Tolkien  | ||
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ComaDose
Canada10357 Posts
On June 04 2014 05:51 corumjhaelen wrote: Wow, never read such a mean attack on Tolkien I don't get it | ||
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21247 Posts
On June 04 2014 04:07 bookwyrm wrote: Yes I know, I cringed a little inside when I wrote it. I don't want to go through the spiritual journey right now that would enable me to come up with the right verb, so we'll just have to use that one and put it under erasure. kay~ The point is, I think your appeal to the "coherence" of Tolkien gets things backwards... my point is just that I think that "coherent" texts are much less interesting than "contradictory" ones, since reality is "contradictory" and not "coherent". The longing for "coherence" for me is a kind of nostalgia or fantasmatic defense mechanism :D Ain't nothing wrong with that! Also part of the problem is that Tolkein is just too close to us, despite his mastery of being able to make things seems distant and strange. the authors of Genesis are ACTUALLY completely foreign to us, and I think that makes a much more interesting text than one which is actually close to us but only attempting to BECOME distant I don't think Tolkien was trying to become "distant" at all. If anything, the tale was quite traditional and universal. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
Let's say I'm not a huge fan of what I've read of Tolkien's successors, neither in cinema nor in litterature, so that was sort of a stupid joke (I think it's funny though). But it is especially strange to make that point when you're comparing him to the Bible, whose influence on almost everything written is so big I can't even think of a proper adjective to characterise it. Also the obsession with pacing seems really weird to me, it often sounds like a call for everything to be written the same way, especially when it comes to very different eras. | ||
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ComaDose
Canada10357 Posts
On June 04 2014 06:08 corumjhaelen wrote: Let's say I'm not a huge fan of what I've read of Tolkien's successors, neither in cinema nor in litterature, so that was sort of a stupid joke (I think it's funny though). But it is especially strange to make that point when you're comparing him to the Bible, whose influence on almost everything written is so big I can't even think of a proper adjective to characterise it. Also the obsession with pacing seems really weird to me, it often sounds like a call for everything to be written the same way, especially when it comes to very different eras. Well can't blame me for not understanding then. I didn't figure you were being so narrow minded as to discredit an entire genre while mistaking influence for responsibility. You also seemed to have forgotten about how most of the world wasn't influenced by the bible. You've confused mentioning twice with being obsessed with and seem to think the entirety of a book is summarized with its pacing? I'll clear it up saying that i men't that i found the bible contained many hundreds of uninteresting pages that didn't contribute to the story. | ||
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FuDDx
United States5018 Posts
What are you reading thread.... People like many things, Have many and varied loves, hates, likes..... Share what you enjoy what you did not and stop arguing....Please | ||
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ComaDose
Canada10357 Posts
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
On June 04 2014 05:28 ComaDose wrote: a bad understanding of the definition of contradictory. Do tell :D On June 04 2014 06:39 FuDDx wrote: I thought this was a What are you reading thread.... People like many things, Have many and varied loves, hates, likes..... Share what you enjoy what you did not and stop arguing....Please We already had this argument a few pages ago. Mostly, this thread is people arguing about what should and should not be in the thread On June 04 2014 06:16 ComaDose wrote: You also seemed to have forgotten about how most of the world wasn't influenced by the bible. well, that's really not true, seeing as two of the four major world civilizations consider it a foundational text. and the others have probably been "influenced" by it, whether they wanted to be or not. Look, maybe you're not interested in being an educated person, which is fine. But it's quite absurd to think that one could become "educated" without putting some serious thought into "the Bible". Arguing about whether or not it's "boring" or whatever, is really entirely beside the point. It wouldn't be boring if you learned about it. But people in this thread also believe in a distinction between "reading for pleasure" and "reading for learning" which my brain doesn't process, so maybe we are just speaking different languages. On June 04 2014 05:28 ComaDose wrote: I hope the bible enthusiasts understand why anyone that doesn't prefer Genesis to Tolkien isn't offended for being called hopeless. he started it! The dude picked a fight on purpose. some of the main past-times of this thread are: 1) Showing how cool you are for how you can disdain classic literature 2) Showing how cool you are for how you can accuse people who read classic literature of being pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who try to be "edgy," whatever that means 3) Complaining about how the pretentious pseudo-intellectuals start fights by talking down about fantasy, despite the fact that it's always the other way around 4) Complaining about how people argue 5) Complaining about how people don't argue and just post book covers | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
On June 04 2014 06:16 ComaDose wrote: Well can't blame me for not understanding then. I didn't figure you were being so narrow minded as to discredit an entire genre while mistaking influence for responsibility. You also seemed to have forgotten about how most of the world wasn't influenced by the bible. You've confused mentioning twice with being obsessed with and seem to think the entirety of a book is summarized with its pacing? I'll clear it up saying that i men't that i found the bible contained many hundreds of uninteresting pages that didn't contribute to the story. I am not blaming Tolkien for anything, poor man, I have way too much admiration for him. And to be clear, I don't think anyone is stupid for reading fantasy. But I do wonder who are the heirs of Tolkien who have managed to get passed their admiration for him and produce something as revolutionnary as their forefigure. Fantasy just seems to be one of the most stale genre out there, which means it can produce entertaining books, but great ones ? Maybe it's time they kill the father. Also, "pages that didn't contribute to advance the story", this is too good, I can't really really focus on anything else after reading this, it's even funnier than comparing Tolkien's and the Bible's influence. I'm not sure if I should point out first how the Bible isn't exactly a novel or the pages about pipe-weed in LoTR, which I don't really view as an exception... | ||
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
Like, imagine there was a book that chronicled the entire history of the House of Habsburg... but a fantasy novel. Preferably with as few spells and elves and goblins as possible. And with one billion characters named "Aureliano Buendia", that would be fun. | ||
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babylon
8765 Posts
On June 03 2014 10:44 bookwyrm wrote: has anyone ever written an epic fantasy series that takes place over a large number of generations, like one hundred years of solitude with like dynastic intrigue and stuff like that Try Enūma eliš. Only half joking. It does take place over couple generations during primordial time, involves plenty of scheming, contains plenty of fantastical elements (Tiamat!), is a couple tablets long, is a super-learned cannibal (also probably sacrilegious) text, etc. Hell, it's not even that long, and a decent edition/translation was just published by Lambert in Babylonian Creation Myths (there are other translations as well floating around if you can't get a copy of it). The only thing is that you'll probably miss a lot of its subtleties if you're reading it in translation and aren't very familiar with the surrounding texts it borrows from (e.g. the Anzu epic, the Erra epic, godlists, etc.), but I still think it's a pretty good yarn ... still has nothing on Gilgameš though. But I also really like Dragonlance, so maybe I have bad taste. | ||
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
Really though I was just watching game of thrones yesterday and wishing that the story took place over multiple generations, like you would start with the invasion of the Targaryens and go all the way through up to when the story takes place :D It makes dynastic intrigue more interesting if you can see it take place over the scale proper to it, which is a plurality of generations | ||
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babylon
8765 Posts
I place a huge emphasis on characters when I read, though, and if you don't do that, I can see how it might be interesting. | ||
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bookwyrm
United States722 Posts
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