I always found DeLillo to be an academic's idea of "insightful": a verbose style substituting for lucidity and power, clumsy metaphors everywhere and a scattershot attempt of covering themes at the expanse of exploring them. Some of the parallels he attempts to draw in White Noise border on the laughably absurd.

Huh, weird, I love that book. But then, I am an academic. I don't think its particularly insightful (although I find SIMUVAC hilarious), but then in general I dont think art is very insightful ever. Also, the themes of consumerism have come and gone already? Thats just what consumerism wants you to think D: really liked Libra as well.

I'd say very Gaimanesque, but I didn't get much Pratchett. I liked it, but since I have also read The City and the City, which is very different and I enjoyed it more; particularly the conclusion was great.

Fair enough. I was mostly thinking of Good Omens, so that seems accurate.

I'm on break from books mostly for three weeks, but I picked up Braudel again. And I bought Ortega's book about the Masses in spanish to help me immerse myslef in the language more, hah

CosmicSpiral

United States15275 Posts

August 07 2016 22:25 GMT

#223

On August 08 2016 06:39 Surth wrote:
Huh, weird, I love that book. But then, I am an academic. I don't think its particularly insightful (although I find SIMUVAC hilarious), but then in general I dont think art is very insightful ever. Also, the themes of consumerism have come and gone already? Thats just what consumerism wants you to think D: really liked Libra as well.

I found his critique of consumerism shallow, but then again it's also passe in the sense that White Noise came out in '85. There are probably certain aspects of consumerism now that were not ubiquitous back then. However, the attempts to tackle such material come off as goofy. They often come across as a complete lack of familiarity with his subject matter. Insinuating supermarkets provide emotional nourishment? Completing missing the point and nature of advertising? He could've just read the fourth section of Ways of Seeing and copied it verbatim; it would've been more effective.

His prose style is also grating to me. That's a personal thing though.

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

August 13 2016 05:39 GMT

#224

Nore123

Netherlands2 Posts

August 14 2016 23:38 GMT

#225

Currently reading musashi after I read the manga Vagabond but it was never finished and now I can finish the story.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

September 02 2016 02:18 GMT

#226

RvB

Netherlands6292 Posts

September 02 2016 08:16 GMT

#227

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

September 03 2016 20:43 GMT

#228

Picked up Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Hyperion is one of my favorite books and given that these are somewhat controversial I've been holding out until now

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

September 14 2016 01:42 GMT

#229

B.I.G.

3251 Posts

September 15 2016 14:41 GMT

#230

So at the moment I am reading "The Warded Man" (AKA The Painted Man) by Peter V. Brett after someone recommended it (thought it was this thread but cant find the post)
[image loading]

Disclaimer: I haven't finished it yet.

The premise in short is a world where demons rule the night. The demons are essentially unstoppable slaughter machines that want nothing more then to fuck humanity in to the ground. The only thing that humanity can do is use wards. Good ol' wards where you make a fancy drawing that creates a magic barrier that 100% effectively keeps the demons out.

As long as people don't fuck up.

See there starts my problem with a story like this. It reminds me a bit of The Walking Dead where the baddies are scary and dangerous for sure but there seem to be so many ways to effectively fix the problem practically permanently (tree huts, moats, greased up slopes anyone?). The story makes it clear that people have categorized the kinds of demons and how they work pretty well. They know where they appear and under what circumstances, what kinds there are and how they react to things.

You know where it goes wrong most often in this story? People being too fucking negligent to check the wards around their house. That's right. Any normal human being would check that shit 10 fucking times a day but no here they can't be bothered "I checked them last winter so I don't see what could go wrong?! It's not like a failed ward will mean the most horrible and gruesome death for me and my entire family!"

What bothers me about that is that any REAL human society would use those wards in a much more systematic and effective way to "fix" the problem ("demons can't rise on pavement? guess what we are doing!") Same as in Walking Dead where everything goes to hell because of some emotional bullshit where someone throws a tantrum and forgets to lock the door and lets all the zombies in. I call it a stupidity driven plot and as you probably gathered by now I do not like it too much.

On the plus side I do like the idea of the oh so dark and dangerous outside world. They should just have packaged in a more of an eternal conflict kinda way (like the Stormwall for those who've read Malazan books) and make warding something only very unique individuals can do. Characters have been written well and I do really like the main characters. The thing that confuses me though that the simplicity of the story, the colorful descriptions of the demons (they kinda sound like Pokemon sometimes), and the age of the main characters makes me think its a book aimed at 14-16 year olds. Then again you also have passages where one of the main characters hears her mother bang another dude while her dad is sleeping next doors, as well pretty gory details.

I will finish the book first before my final judgement but I would say that it is a book that seems to be targeted to a younger crowd (which in many parts makes sense) but then someone decided to make it more mature by adding some gore and sex.

Yurie

12119 Posts

September 15 2016 15:32 GMT

#231

Been reading a lot of Asian novels recently and just read one I want to recommend:
https://distractedtranslations.wordpress.com/the-girl-who-ate-death/

The basic plot is that a child that is starving to death eats a death god (Shinigami) when it comes for her. From this she gains a lot of power and sets out to eat good things and get revenge for her village's destruction. What I really liked about this story is that an ending is said and confirmed multiple times during the story. Making one wonder how it gets there and if it is just a lie or not.

I especially got emotionally involved with the story, laughed at a few points and cried near the ending.

A bad point is that the last half of the ending lost its translation in some site migration. Thus it ends on an open note instead of closing up all points. The open ending is likely better though since one can imagine what one wants into it.

A disclaimer is that the English translation isn't perfect, it improves as the story goes along but expect a spelling mistake or grammar mistake a chapter.

Jerubaal

United States7684 Posts

September 17 2016 02:42 GMT

#232

It was somewhat amusing, but I imagine it would get really fucking old really quick.

I went to the Nimitz museum in Fredericksburg a few years ago. It was neat.

Xxio

Canada5565 Posts

September 20 2016 22:47 GMT

#233

Love these threads. Thanks to you guys, I have a huge backlog!

IgnE

United States7681 Posts

September 30 2016 03:57 GMT

#234

What's the best JM Coetzee novel for someone who hasn't read any of his works? Where do I start?

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

September 30 2016 04:08 GMT

#235

Idk but look out for the new Nell Zink coming out 10/4, the one she got a 6 figure advance for and will be one of the most hyped drops of the year, similar to yeezys but in the literary world.

IgnE

United States7681 Posts

September 30 2016 04:35 GMT

#236

I read her last book. It was good.