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Trying to find meaning in Camus is the definition of meta-fiction In other news, Mexico has been having an interesting surge in young women authors recently. Guadalupe Nettel, Valeria Luiselli, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia have all become pretty big the last year or so Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Sep 10, 2015 |
# ? Sep 10, 2015 17:39 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 21:10 |
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Smoking Crow posted:What's the point of reading camus the stranger is really funny imho
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 17:41 |
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My existentialism joke flew over y'alls heads
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 17:57 |
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Smoking Crow posted:My existentialism joke flew over y'alls heads you cannot control what the other poster does, only what you yourself do
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 18:10 |
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camus is Good.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 18:10 |
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Smoking Crow posted:My existentialism joke flew over y'alls heads Mel Mudkiper posted:Trying to find meaning in Camus is the definition of meta-fiction Not everyone's
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:03 |
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Smoking Crow posted:What's the point of reading camus discovering that the plague is better than the stranger edit: Mel Mudkiper posted:Legend of a Suicide I'll start with this and dive deper later maybe, thanks. ulvir fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Sep 10, 2015 |
# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:26 |
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CARL MARK FORCE IV posted:Paul Auster's New York Trilogy is really good, y'all. I thought the first book was ok but about halfway through the second one I just found the whole thing really boring and tedious and gave up
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:33 |
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Earwicker posted:I thought the first book was ok but about halfway through the second one I just found the whole thing really boring and tedious and gave up The second one is like 60 pages It says something though that I read the New York Trilogy three years ago and literally remember nothing about it.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:34 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:The second one is like 60 pages yeah but I had them all in one volume and was reading them all at once, I just remember it was at some point in the second one I got sick of the whole thing
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:49 |
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my edition had deckle edges and fake pulp illustrations for each novel w/ tag lines in the nature of "the KEY to the MYSTERY - is MURDER" which i think is very revealing
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 19:52 |
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Seriously I just sat for the last hour trying to remember what the gently caress any of those books were about and I think there was a map of New York in there somewhere and that is it. I've never blanked on the content of a book, much less three, like this before.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:01 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Seriously I just sat for the last hour trying to remember what the gently caress any of those books were about and I think there was a map of New York in there somewhere and that is it. Just play Metal Gear Solid 2 instead
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:02 |
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Smoking Crow posted:Just play Metal Gear Solid 2 instead Phantom Pain bitches
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:06 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Seriously I just sat for the last hour trying to remember what the gently caress any of those books were about and I think there was a map of New York in there somewhere and that is it. i don't know, keeping a child ignorant of all language in the hopes that he will learn the Divine Tongue is a pretty good hook
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:29 |
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Tree Goat posted:i don't know, keeping a child ignorant of all language in the hopes that he will learn the Divine Tongue is a pretty good hook Was that something that happened? Not a joke which one was that because that does sound interesting.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:30 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Phantom Pain bitches I'm sorry, I only play good games
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:39 |
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I remember reading about it in a history book a long time ago - i think it was a persian kid and he said a word that meant 'bread' in aramaic, so it was taken as a sign that that was the first language and should be exalted I am probably mixing up yhe nations tho Also, if the idea of a metaphysical detective appeals to you, read Pamuk's Black Book. It's rad!
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:43 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Was that something that happened? That's City of Glass. Depends how interesting you think ruminations on the Tower of Babel within the remit of a detective story really is. I think they're fun intellectual exercises, but unsurprisingly you're left thinking there should be more to a book than that. Funnily enough the book itself kind of knows that it's a completely pointless thing. Lots of wandering aimlessly.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 20:48 |
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Burning Rain posted:I remember reading about it in a history book a long time ago - i think it was a persian kid and he said a word that meant 'bread' in aramaic, so it was taken as a sign that that was the first language and should be exalted It's in Herodotus, the kid was Egyptian (might've been under the Persians) and the word was Phrygian ("bekos").
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 21:00 |
Burning Rain posted:I remember reading about it in a history book a long time ago - i think it was a persian kid and he said a word that meant 'bread' in aramaic, so it was taken as a sign that that was the first language and should be exalted That's from Herodotus.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 21:35 |
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Herodotus it is then.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 22:11 |
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I finished reading Gravity's Rainbow last week and I'm still pretty floored by it. It is so much more bleak than I was led to believe from all of the hilarious parts. I read it over the summer and after the first 100 pages or so I felt pretty settled into the groove, although the last 100 pages or so were hard to make sense of until I thought about them more afterwards. So...Slothrop just sort of dissolves into The Zone, right? Like he just totally fragments as a person? This still doesn't quite make sense to me beyond just accepting it as is. Did his pursuit of the 00000 and the conspiracy surrounding him just sort of break him, along with Bianca's death? It really started to begin when Bianca died, as far as I can tell. I'm just not quite sure what to make of all of it. Subverting a hero's journey sort of thing? Also, I really enjoyed the parallels between Slothrop's story and Byron the Bulb's. I think I'm probably going to jump back in soon and just start it all over again. What a book.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 23:53 |
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Yep, that's pretty much it.
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# ? Sep 10, 2015 23:57 |
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I just finished Homage to Catalonia and I dunno if it counts as literature but it was good. I like that I was expecting a political tract but that it's mostly just about Orwell wandering around complaining about testicle lice and not being able to find good cigarettes.
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# ? Sep 11, 2015 10:01 |
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OregonDonor posted:I finished reading Gravity's Rainbow last week and I'm still pretty floored by it. It is so much more bleak than I was led to believe from all of the hilarious parts. I read it over the summer and after the first 100 pages or so I felt pretty settled into the groove, although the last 100 pages or so were hard to make sense of until I thought about them more afterwards. I also finished it last week! I found it helped to have one of those chapter summaries at hand, because the narrative just flows on and on until I forgot what the hell happened five pages ago. Some chapters were really great, while the others were too abstract for me to get any footing. I don't think I'll be re-reading it any time soon, but I still appreciate my time with it. As far as Slothrop goes, I think in the end it was quite explicitly mentioned that he represents humankind in Pynchon's eyes with his/our almost erotic obsession with Death and destruction. So his dissolution makes perfect sense, because he stops functioning as a person or a character, instead becoming a part of the greater Whole of the humanity. Also, it makes sense that the closer to 00000/Death he gets, the less real he becomes - also in the eyes of pursuers, which in turn fuels his dissolution until he stops existing like the bomb - obviously before the sound of his disappearance reaches everybody else. That's my take at least Burning Rain fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Sep 11, 2015 |
# ? Sep 11, 2015 11:08 |
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Burning Rain posted:yah it's good. some critics made it sound as if it's hundreds of pages of him eating cereals but it's not that at all mallamp fucked around with this message at 11:24 on Sep 11, 2015 |
# ? Sep 11, 2015 11:20 |
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Byron the Bulb is the best
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# ? Sep 11, 2015 12:09 |
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Finishing up The Prague Cemetary by Eco. Like it a lot but not a patch on Foucalt's Pendulum. Any other recommendations for a literary take on conspiracy theories and / or the debunking thereof?
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# ? Sep 11, 2015 14:29 |
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I finished The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Thanks, people who recommended it. I did in fact like it a lot more than those, uh, unfortunate ones I read before. I thought it was a little slow moving at first but I was satisfied with how it all came together. I think I want a break from Mishima so I'll probably read some other stuff for a bit. I have to return The Metamorphosis soon, so probably that to start with.
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# ? Sep 12, 2015 16:37 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Was that something that happened? There was a case where the Mughal Emperor Akbar, had a house filled with very young children and forbid anyone to speak in their presence or show them writing in order to discover humanities natural language. The results were not what he had hoped for. Also I finished To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I liked it so much that I stayed at work after my shift was over so I could read the rest of courtroom scene. My friend said he'd lend me his copy of the sequel. Having just watched the Gregory Peck film on Netflix my suspicion that much of the controversy surrounding Atticus Finch's `shocking turn` stem from the film and Gregory Peck's excellent performance. It seemed pretty clear to me that Atticus was motivated by his belief in the law, (there's no way in hell Tom Robinson could have done what he'd been accused off) and that's about as far as he goes.
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# ? Sep 13, 2015 15:59 |
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Don't read the "sequel", it's definitely not something that was ever supposed to be published. I've almost finished Between the World and Me and I don't think I understand what is meant by white in the book. Is it supposed to be the national white zeitgeist - the spirit that looks at problems and addresses them from a privileged position where they can only be seen as part of a universal problem and not something inflicted? It's a good book but incredibly depressing. I'm Jewish and my family was only given the position of white in the previous generation - I don't find myself at the severe end of the aggressor but I do feel like I could be doing more.
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# ? Sep 13, 2015 18:34 |
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Baka-nin posted:There was a case where the Mughal Emperor Akbar, had a house filled with very young children and forbid anyone to speak in their presence or show them writing in order to discover humanities natural language. The results were not what he had hoped for. What happened? I can't find any info through google.
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 10:02 |
fez_machine posted:What happened? I can't find any info through google. quote:Herodotus, Histories, Book 2 chapter 2
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 12:32 |
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Cloks posted:Don't read the "sequel", it's definitely not something that was ever supposed to be published. Haven't read it but Ursula le Guin wrote a review about it http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2015/08/03/a-personal-take-on-go-set-a-watchman/
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 16:18 |
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fez_machine posted:What happened? I can't find any info through google. Really?, basically what happened is what always happened in these absurd language deprivation experiments, (there were at least one similar experiment in Scotland and the Holy Roman Empire) they speak no language at all and at best communicate through some kind of sign language. It also had the added bonus of retarding the children making it much harder for them to learn any language at all when the experiment ended. Social deprivation of children is considered child abuse for a reason. There was a modern case (though not an experiment just explicit abuse) they taught here speak but just barely, and brain scans showed that the left hemisphere of her brain was severely out of balance. Baka-nin fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Sep 14, 2015 |
# ? Sep 14, 2015 21:16 |
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Its also worth noting that language is an inevitable biological function of the human brain Denying a human brain language during development is like denying an eye light during development.
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 21:30 |
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Yeah, I had to learn about Genie in a class. I found the whole deal quite depressing. People can be really terrible.
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 22:17 |
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There was a novel about her I wanted to read but I forget it
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 22:18 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 21:10 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:There was a novel about her I wanted to read but I forget it I thought it was A Child Called It but that's a different book about terrible people
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# ? Sep 14, 2015 22:24 |