Reply With QuoteNow reading Skunkworks. It's possibly related to Biggles, but only in an abstract kind of way.
I blazed through the Benjy section of the Sound and the Fury but got bored in the Quentin section (it was too clearly derived from Joyce and Woolf) and then picked up Anna Karenina, which is a fantastic book.
For people who like "stream of consciousness" writing, I recommend Molloy by Samuel Beckett. I think that was the last real development in world literature even if I'm in a minority for that view. The trilogy it is part of is Beckett's crowning achievement, even though he is almost singularly known for Godot. Stream of consciousness is actually a misnomer for Molloy. I would call it a savagely honest and curious monologue that is shorn of familiar literary conventions and charged with psychosis and the blackest humor. It combines literature, philosophy and theory. If Ulysses is style-based and Joyce perhaps never trumped the content of Dubliners but rather stayed in that domain while innovating in form, then Molloy is heavily content-based and is anti-form. In fact, it was originally written in French because Beckett thought the French language better for delivering a lack of style. If while reading Ulysses you feel you can read page upon page and retain nothing, I assure you Molloy will deliver a cerebral mindfuck. I would love to hear your thoughts on it if you are curious enough to pick it up.
You can look at it here:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ln6b...=7#PRA1-PA5,M1
Now reading Skunkworks. It's possibly related to Biggles, but only in an abstract kind of way.
A few graphic novels "comics" if you will:
Grabbed all four volumes of "52" and currently near the end of vol3. HIGHLY recommend this.
Old Man Logan
Couple of Hellboy volumes.
Scott Pilgrim (all 5).
Awesome reads.
Read The Walking Dead. Great series.
The Quentin section is probably the most difficult to read but you shouldn't have given up. I was reading it a few months ago, wired on americanos, super-alert, and by the end it practically had me in tears even though I wasn't entirely sure what was happening. The last few pages of that chapter are monumental.Originally Posted by sh0ck3r
I switched books when I got a ways into the Quentin section not so much out of difficulty but due to disappointment compared to the Benji section, which I found immersive and powerful and evoking nostalgia for childhood. The disapointment was partly due to my feeling that is was like a token gesture to the modernist SoC world, i.e. "Hey, I can do this too." It was still great literature but I need to keep the ball rolling and there is a ton of high-quality, lucid reading available.
I'll probably pick up the book again some time down the road but I'm binging on Russian lit right now. I've read Notes from Underground and after Anna Karenina I am going to read the Brothers Karamazov.
The Wild Shore is a decent read so far (2 chapters in.) I'd heard the Three Californias books weren't that great, but the people who told me that were basically assholes who didn't like anything.
Just finished it and agree 100%, especially with the whole emotional power still hitting home even if I wasn't quite sure what was going on. When I finished it, I just sat there for a minute or two, completely stunned. I think I'm going to read the first section again before getting stuck into Heart of Darkness.
Last edited by Angel Dust; 14th Jun 2009 at 07:15.
So am I!
Heart of Darkness is endless meandering about how everything is both bleak and beautiful. Perhaps it was a result of "splitting," i.e. in borderline personality disorder. The Secret Agent is probably better. And if you want the perspective of a racist imperialist, Carlyle is a more amusing fool.
Heart of Darkness isn't told from the perspective of a racist imperialist, though.
I'm talking about Conrad's perspective:
"A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards."
But anyway, you'd be wrong even if I were talking about the main character. Marlowe is an imperialist, notwithstanding any haphazard, implicit criticisms of imperialism, who says:
"And whiles I had to look after the savage who was a fireman…to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs…he was useful because he had been instructed".
It doesn't matter though. The book is weak.
Last edited by sh0ck3r; 5th Jun 2009 at 14:36.
A few passages that are written quite in character with the common perspectives of the time are hardly proof of racism on Conrad's part. To the contrary: if Heart of Darkness is a racist novel, then it is absolutely meaningless.
I would disagree with the first part of what you said and so would Chinua Achebe. I don't see how the second part is coherent, although I do think Heart of Darkness is insignificant with or without its racism. it's just an extended and boring meditation on how serene and scary nature and humanity is.
Heart of Darkness, besides being a radical indictment of the effects of colonialism, is the basis of one of my favourite movies of all time so you can go get buried alive in a septic tank if you think it's insignificant.
Appealing to your own emotion and frustration hardly makes Heart of Darkness a monumental piece of world literature, even if it inspired a good movie. It's not drivel, but it's not Conrad's best work, nor does it rank anywhere close to the top in 20th-century lit.
Just finished reading Heart Of Darkness. I would say that Chinua Achebe criticisms of it, especially regarding the fact that the native people are little more than 'props' for Marlow's tale, hold some weight but despite that I still found it an enjoyable read. Marlow may be a bit of a racist and misanthrope, prone to ranting but he was, for me, a fascintating and compelling character to spend several days in the head of.
Now starting The Executioner's Song by Normal Mailer.
Last edited by Angel Dust; 14th Jun 2009 at 08:49.
I liked Heart of Darkness better than The Secret Agent, the latter has much better plot (and humour) but the writing is better in the first. Both are great though.
Finished Einstein: His Life and Universe the other day and thoroughly recommend it to anyone with a passing interest. A great read. I actually got a bit teary eyed at the end (spoiler: einstein dies at the end)
Anthony Steinbock - Home and Beyond: Generative Phenomenology after Husserl
Just finished re-reading the Narrenturm trilogy, by the same guy who did The Witcher series(Blood of Elves). Except Narrenturm is better in every way and the level of detail - historical and otherwise - is just insane.
Too bad you'll never read either!
I read the whole Witcher (at that time) tetralogy some ten years ago, and most of the short stories, too.
All I'm reading right now is a book on Visual Basic 6 (for lack of anything else to read) and some book on algorithm design I got off The Pirate Bay.
I know, I don't read any exciting fiction like the rest of you... I'm just a dullard who prefers his telly and/or games for his fiction.
Now reading Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945.
Still near the beginning, everybody's relieved the war is finally over, or still in shock, rebuilding, hoping for good things ... but I have a bad feeling about the direction things are about to take...
Edit: oh didn't see this.
Riviting, isn't it?
I take it the bamboo thing is a hippy joke? I try to let my books counteract each other, so whatever touchy-feely vibes I got from Husserl (not sure there were any) is anyway about to be slapped away by the realpolitik of Uncle Joe and his East European misadventures.
Last edited by demagogue; 14th Jun 2009 at 14:34.
Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Fascinating read and I love the setting as well as some of the characters. Unlike most novels, Case isn't exactly a typical hero. He lives a bit of a shady existence in a grimy dystopian city which is what makes it interesting.
The only thing I can criticise it for is the constant tech jargon they throw around without always explaining what it means but I suppose you're not really meant to know.
Gibson is great in using unexplained tech lingo to simulate a deep world. I felt it works best with terms that carry (part of) their own explanation like the mono-filament.
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