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CestMoi posted:I'm sorry for your post. my bad.
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# ? Aug 28, 2016 21:00 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 23:54 |
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Oh hey Ursula K Le Guin made it into the library of Congress.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 01:11 |
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The most surprising thing about this thing Joyce wrote, to me, is that it's well done. It's like he's a gifted writer or something.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 01:15 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:The most surprising thing about this thing Joyce wrote, to me, is that it's well done. It's like he's a gifted writer or something. Funny, but I do get what he means. It's funny to see that a private, dirty letter he probably wrote jerking off still has comparable prose quality to his published work. Agreed about GR too, although the combo of low art and high art is a really important part of it so it's certainly a relevant part of the discussion. There's so much of that book that's objectively beautiful, though
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 03:03 |
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Maybe the reason that Joyce only wrote one sentence per day was because he couldnt stop jerking it
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 03:25 |
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Also maybe cause those sentences were like 60 pages long
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 03:47 |
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Schmischmenjamin posted:my bad. I liked your post.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 03:50 |
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So I guess this is the best thread for it but after being a fan of his earlier work and meaning to pick it up for probably two years now I finally got round to reading Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings and holy poo poo is this something special. The narrative itself is something special covering a tonne of Jamaican history but the real feat is in the characters he creates. He uses a pretty large cast of first person narrators each with a completely individual voice and style some in patois. I've only just finished and think I need some time to fully process it but I dont think I've read a novel that so fully transported me to another place in a specific moment in its history.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 12:24 |
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"The Assistant Commissioner walked along a short and narrow street like a wet, muddy trench" It's this kind of imprecision of language that means The Secret Agent, and by extension Joseph Conrad, will forever be in the shadow of the great G. K. Chesterton
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 13:36 |
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You are drawing a line connecting a great work and a fairytale told to trick children into becoming catholics, simply because they both have the word bomb on the back cover.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 15:42 |
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StoneOfShame posted:So I guess this is the best thread for it but after being a fan of his earlier work and meaning to pick it up for probably two years now I finally got round to reading Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings and holy poo poo is this something special. Yeah, it was really very good. Very cathartic ending as well.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 15:44 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:a fairytale told to trick children into becoming catholics Jesus? *places slightly smaller fedora on top of already existing fedora*
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 15:45 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:You are drawing a line connecting a great work and a fairytale told to trick children into becoming catholics, simply because they both have the word bomb on the back cover. Who are you even talking to
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 16:02 |
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The guy who posted immediately before me, you idiot.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 16:10 |
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genji is a very beautiful man who is the the son of the emperor and is talented at everything he does this includes singing, dancing, poetry, letter writing, kidnapping ten year old girls to groom, getting his father's concubine/mistress pregnant, getting another person he slept with killed by a ghost?, horse back riding
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 20:06 |
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chesterton is better at writing mysteries than any of poe, doyle, christie, or hammett, or most of the other people who have published in that benighted genre, and people should read him if they like mysteries. his ideological and rhetorical goals are orthogonal to this central point.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 21:43 |
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CestMoi posted:"The Assistant Commissioner walked along a short and narrow street like a wet, muddy trench" "Maybe it sounded better in Polish." is my Joseph Conrad mantra.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 00:18 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:You are drawing a line connecting a great work and a fairytale told to trick children into becoming catholics, simply because they both have the word bomb on the back cover. The Man Who Was Thursday is very good and isn't really a children's book at all.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 01:15 |
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The Man who was Thursday is one of the great pieces of Christian literature because it truly captures the judeo-christian God's essence as a passive aggressive manipulative rear end in a top hat
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 01:19 |
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Beyond sane knolls posted:"Maybe it sounded better in Polish." is my Joseph Conrad mantra. Dios mio...
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 06:00 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:The Man who was Thursday is one of the great pieces of Christian literature because it truly captures the judeo-christian God's essence as a passive aggressive manipulative rear end in a top hat The story is a nightmare, the point is that God's not like that at all.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 07:13 |
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A REport: Ngugi's Weep Not, Child sucks, so does Modiano's Missing Person. Now I started a Latvian surrealist novel, but discovered that I'm not too excited about reading a collection of wacky scenes either Maybe I should stop reading alogether for a while and just play football manager, dunno. First I'll try to have a go with Nothomb's Loving Sabotage tho, which is funny at least even if it seems to be trying too hard. Also, somebody read this and tell if the book is as good as the cover (and other reviews) make it seem: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004NSVQE4. Ta!
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 07:53 |
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I haven't been reading much lately, because I've been looking for a new job, but I wanted to say the chapters where Honda is in India in The Temple of the Golden Pavillion were really cool and intense and resonated with me as someone who was a foreigner living in India.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 08:16 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:The Man who was Thursday is one of the great pieces of Christian literature because it truly captures the judeo-christian God's essence as a passive aggressive manipulative rear end in a top hat great post, you're really taking those Christians down a peg or two Burning Rain posted:A REport: Ngugi's Weep Not, Child sucks,
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 11:25 |
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Tree Goat posted:chesterton is better at writing mysteries than any of poe, doyle, christie, or hammett, or most of the other people who have published in that benighted genre, and people should read him if they like mysteries. There's a cool Borges essay where he's talking about how people that write mysteries seem to not really understand what it is that makes mysteries good and he uses Chesterton as the example of someone who actually does. Incidentally Borges' mysteries are some of the only ones that can stand up to Chesterton IMO
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 11:48 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:You are drawing a line connecting a great work and a fairytale told to trick children into becoming catholics, simply because they both have the word bomb on the back cover. I think you are being unfair to G. K. Chesterton with this post, and I apologise for being the one that caused you to make it.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 11:49 |
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Not to mention I'm fairly sure Chesterton was still Anglican at the time The Man Who Was Thursday was published.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 11:52 |
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A human heart posted:great post, you're really taking those Christians down a peg or two Wasn't taking down Christians at all? If you can't laugh at the fact Old Testament God is a prick, don't know what to tell you.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 13:24 |
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CestMoi posted:There's a cool Borges essay where he's talking about how people that write mysteries seem to not really understand what it is that makes mysteries good and he uses Chesterton as the example of someone who actually does. Incidentally Borges' mysteries are some of the only ones that can stand up to Chesterton IMO Is it in Collected Essays?
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 14:49 |
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Burning Rain posted:A REport: Ngugi's Weep Not, Child sucks, so does Modiano's Missing Person. Now I started a Latvian surrealist novel, but discovered that I'm not too excited about reading a collection of wacky scenes either I just finished Villa Triste by Modiano. It's the second I've read by him, and I'm just not really into it. There were some great scenes but I finished and sorta wondered why I read it. I didn't feel like there was really much of a takeaway. Any Modiano fans feel like offering some help with him?
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 15:14 |
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Is it in Collected Essays? https://libraryofbabel.info/Borges/Borges-SelectedNonFictions.pdf Page 133. It's good and very short.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 15:32 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Wasn't taking down Christians at all? If you can't laugh at the fact Old Testament God is a prick, don't know what to tell you. yeah, name a story where god isn't an rear end in a top hat besides the creation "FREE WILL WHAT THE gently caress YOU IDIOTS YOU ATE AN APPLE THAT GAVE YOU FREE WILL, GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT"
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 15:51 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Wasn't taking down Christians at all? If you can't laugh at the fact Old Testament God is a prick, don't know what to tell you. Old Testament God isn't Christian God, duh.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 15:56 |
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:yeah, name a story where god isn't an rear end in a top hat besides the creation Please shut up
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:02 |
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Gas
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:02 |
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Bandiet posted:Old Testament God isn't Christian God, duh. New Testament God is the abusive dad who wants to make it up to you and take you to baseball games but everytime he gets a little angry you panic and worry he will break mommy's arm again
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:30 |
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:33 |
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Ras Het posted:Please shut up Sorry about that, I'll make an actually decent post that isn't purposefully stupid poo poo. In apology. --- I finished the new Whitehead and it's really nice to see an author who can write sci-fi (Zone One is all I'd read by him previously) make an attempt at Lit that doesn't fall flat on its face. Personally, I'd like to see more "literary" SF writers attempt works that don't involve zombies, plagues, spaceships, or whatever (I'm looking at you Paolo Bacigalupi). This relates to my previously ignored post Twerkteam Pizza posted:Oh hey Ursula K Le Guin made it into the library of Congress. There are a ton of "pulp stars" that actually can make good Lit. Specifically, Le Guin's Sur ( http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1982/02/01/sur ) is really good, and I find it sad that her work isn't taken more seriously. I get why, because a ton of SF is awful, it's corporate as gently caress, and ppl who take it seriously are often socially crippled spergs (AKA me). Still, are there any SF authors today besides Whitehead (again, thinking of Zone One) that have made the successful transition to Literature?
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:34 |
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:I get why, because a ton of SF is awful, it's corporate as gently caress, and ppl who take it seriously are often socially crippled spergs (AKA me). Still, are there any SF authors today besides Whitehead (again, thinking of Zone One) that have made the successful transition to Literature? Whitehead started as literature though. Zone One was very much an aberration. His earlier works like The Intuitionist and John Henry Days are explicitly literary. (P.S. I met Whitehead, he is cool) The problem with the distinction between sci-fi and literature is that its a marketing term and not a genre term. Plenty of literary authors write books that are ostensibly Sci-Fi in terms of content but are just well-written enough to be called literature.
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:37 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 23:54 |
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Whitehead started as literature though. Zone One was very much an aberration. His earlier works like The Intuitionist and John Henry Days are explicitly literary. (P.S. I met Whitehead, he is cool) That's my bad about Whitehead then, I didn't know. I think that's what I meant by the whole 'corporate as gently caress' thing personally though, but it'd be cool to see how many 'sci-fi' authors have personal investments in their work (beyond "I really like writing") and how many are just trying to make money. I wonder if there are any surveys like that that have been distributed to pulp authors. I mean Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Ann Leckie, Paolo Bacigalupi, Charles Yu, and others seem to have the writing chops and literary projects that blur the line between pulp and Lit. I know that sci-fi is a marketing term, but how often do you think that means the people who write sci-fi are just shoe horned? Maybe I'm just rambling and should get a probation or something, but I feel like marketing genres often shoe-horn genuinely good writers. Is that the case for Historical Fiction or some other marketing genre? Just curious, do you know of any other Lit authors that have dipped their feet into 'sci-fi'?
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# ? Aug 30, 2016 16:53 |