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Baa?21242 Posts
On January 14 2014 04:45 dmnum wrote:
Finished Einchmann in Jerusalem. Interesting but not very good, it's a bit all over the place. Arendt's ideas are neat though and I'll eventually come back to her philosophy.
Also read Candide, which was funny but I studied Voltaire so I already knew most of the book.
Now reading Madame Bovary. I'm not really fond of Flaubert's description of places but he brings thunder every time he comments on human nature.
I remember quite liking Flaubert's setting. Often you see ham-fisted attempts at linking the external environment to the internal thoughts of characters that just come off as awkward and slightly amateurish, but from what I remember Flaubert did a good job of making it seem very natural :o
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On January 14 2014 04:52 corumjhaelen wrote:
Did you read l'Education sentimentale ?
It's about 10 times better imo. And Mme Bovary is a great novel.
Edit : I also like Salammbô better, but I'm a bit crazy and the cruel poetry might get lost in translation :/
Nope, first Flaubert I've read. I'll read Sentimental Education some time soon.
On January 14 2014 05:06 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:Show nested quote +On January 14 2014 04:45 dmnum wrote:
Finished Einchmann in Jerusalem. Interesting but not very good, it's a bit all over the place. Arendt's ideas are neat though and I'll eventually come back to her philosophy.
Also read Candide, which was funny but I studied Voltaire so I already knew most of the book.
Now reading Madame Bovary. I'm not really fond of Flaubert's description of places but he brings thunder every time he comments on human nature. I remember quite liking Flaubert's setting. Often you see ham-fisted attempts at linking the external environment to the internal thoughts of characters that just come off as awkward and slightly amateurish, but from what I remember Flaubert did a good job of making it seem very natural :o
The setting is fine, is his way of describing things that doesn't please me too much. He took way too many pages to estabilish the setting, while other writers I've read(Tolstoy jumps to mind) manage to paint broader pictures in fewer words. He toned it down a lot during the second half of the book(because there's no need for him to describe the same places again), so it didn't bug me too much.
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Jim B. Tucker M.D. - Return To Life
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418CDKblQXL.jpg)
In actuality, I finished this book in December last year but it's a very recent read. It's one of many books exploring the phenomenon that is past life memories. Jim Tucker explores a number of cases mainly within North America where children as young as two have started to recall living before. This includes a number of cases such as a child remembering that he died when his plane was shot down in Iwo Jima in 1945, another remembering that he used to direct Hollywood films and a third in Scotland remembering a life on the remote island of Barra.
There are some frightening consistencies in these cases. 1) Contradictory to what child psychologists say, these children don't constantly change their stories as they normally would if they were making stuff up, 2) Children have put a lot of emotiional attachment in each of these cases and 3) A vast majority of the details these children supposedly remember has been consistent with the actual previously living person investigated.
However, I do find his quantum mechanics theory for why this happens very farfetched and not based on a deep knowledge of the subject. It goes a lot into the idea of 'multiverses' and 'quantum consciousness' when findings in neuroscience have slowly contradicted this.
Haruki Murakami - South of the Border, West of the Sun
![[image loading]](http://covers.booktopia.com.au/big/9780099448570/south-of-the-border-west-of-the-sun.jpg)
On the recommendation of a friend, I picked this book up and started reading it all the way to the end on a night where I wasn't feeling very well.
It focuses on a guy called Hajime and his childhood lady-friend, Shinamoto. Because of his own lack of self-esteem, he pretty much stops talking to her once they go to separate schools, doesn't approach her when he sees her a decade later then finally meets her again when he's married and in his mid-thirties and has to decide whether to plough her and ruin the sanctity of his marriage or keep her at a distance and risk losing her again.
I won't spoil what happens but the ending is messed all the way up and ends on such a twist that makes you wonder "What the fuck happened?"
When I mentioned this to my friend, she said that's how Murakami apparently loves to end his stories. Perhaps he's like the M. Night Shyamalan of novelists.
EDIT: I don't know what I plan to read next. People constantly tell me to get into ASOIAF but I didn't like the Game of Thrones TV series all that much.
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Can anyone shed light on if Paglia is a good feminist?
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LOL.
Read the US politic megathread about twenty pages back or something :p
Also Flaubert's description in Bovary are very funny imo.
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I searched her on TL and found a bunch of incoherent posts. So is she not? If so who's a reasonable feminist?
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that really depends on what you mean by "reasonable"
she's a very controversial figure
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I understand that, I just wanna ask if she's worth reading, I don't know anything about feminism.
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if you want to learn about feminism, don't start with camille paglia.
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who is someone in her generation i can read then.
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I can't really recommend anything, sorry, I avoid gender politics like the plague
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so how do you know shes not worth reading lol
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oh I think she probably IS worth reading, in fact I probably agree with her about a lot of things. I'm just saying that if you read her you should know that probably most mainstream feminists think that she is a dutiful daughter of the patriarchy or something.
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I understand, I was interested because I read some article about her and found her lack of resentment refreshing.
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Steven Erikson - The Malazan Book of the Fallen
I just started reading the 4th book: House of Chains.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2IE4C0r.jpg)
+ Show Spoiler [Alternative Cover + Series Cover] +
Recommended if you like A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF / Game of Thrones). First book is a bit confusing, and I didn't really get into it until ~halfway through the 2nd book. The 3rd book however, Memories of Ice, was really good.
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Canada5565 Posts
yo, not cool
no links to torrents...
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I'm currently reading The Prism Wars by Brent Weeks. It's not bad... not amazing though.
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Got this for chrismas. Just started reading it.
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410UkKG0LcL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
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On January 14 2014 23:30 KillerSOS wrote:
I'm currently reading The Prism Wars by Brent Weeks. It's not bad... not amazing though.
That's what I thought of his Black Prism book. Not bad but not amazing.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5h7VDON.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/o2rcAjV.jpg)
