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Do you think his being blind affected his composition of the poem?
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Jan 3, 2017 07:04
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CestMoi posted:He's been chastened since the sci fi thread owned him for being a hipster. His trolling days are over. drat its true
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Jan 3, 2017 07:06
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Twerkteam Pizza posted:Do you think his being blind affected his composition of the poem? It's the best sounding thing I've ever read but idk if that's cos Milton was blind or just really good at writing poetry
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Jan 3, 2017 07:23
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Abalieno posted:This might not be the best place to ask, but has anyone any appreciation for The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon? I told myself I'd try to pick it up again when the series was completed, and it is now, but it exemplifies what I personally consider "bad writing". i always just assumed zafon was just mass market genre-y, like you'd put him next to neil gaiman in the "what people who only read fantasy think lit is like" bucket. i was given a copy of la sombra del viento "to read on the train" and it was just the right level of slight for that. is he really being tossed around as a magical realism heavy hitter?
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Jan 3, 2017 07:33
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Burning Rain posted:If you mean Pevear and Volokhonsky, they are supposed to be the good ones. Yeah there's this one article saying they're rubbish but all translators get that and Pevear does that to other translators too. I don't read Russian so I don't know how good the translations are but I like them and they're pretty literal so they can't be all bad.
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Jan 3, 2017 07:48
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Tree Goat posted:i always just assumed zafon was just mass market genre-y, like you'd put him next to neil gaiman in the "what people who only read fantasy think lit is like" bucket. i was given a copy of la sombra del viento "to read on the train" and it was just the right level of slight for that. is he really being tossed around as a magical realism heavy hitter? yea, i went to this book club in december that was supposed to be 'world lit' and they were diiscussing whether to do zafon or khaled hosseini next, so they are forever linked in my mind.
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Jan 3, 2017 08:37
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Tree Goat posted:is he really being tossed around as a magical realism heavy hitter? Probably not but I kept stumbling on praises everywhere. For me the writing can be quite irritating. I just don't get what people like in this, and I know it's appreciated even by those who have more elaborate tastes. I asked what people thought because the sample of opinions that reached me always sung high praises. i don't understand *why*.
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Jan 3, 2017 09:09
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Abalieno posted:Probably not but I kept stumbling on praises everywhere. For me the writing can be quite irritating. I just don't get what people like in this, and I know it's appreciated even by those who have more elaborate tastes. i think the problem is that 'everywhere' includes a lot of really stupid people
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Jan 3, 2017 10:02
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Its been too long I'm going to have to reread this I recall so little of it e. Paradise Lost that is. Not sure where all these other posts came from
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Jan 3, 2017 16:20
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Paradise Lost becomes slightly better when you realise the opening line has the exact same rhythm as the Flintstones theme. The rest doesn't really work, which is a shame as Milton missed a trick there imo. Satan could have had a gay old time.
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Jan 3, 2017 17:29
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CestMoi posted:I'm reading Paradise Lost and it's the most beautiful and accomplished writing I've ever read and also Milton was horny as hell Samuel Johnson posted:Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader admires and puts down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. for real though its beautiful
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Jan 3, 2017 17:37
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A human heart posted:i think the problem is that 'everywhere' includes a lot of really stupid people it's probably the same reason why the great gatsby is considered a classic even though it's poo poo 
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Jan 3, 2017 17:39
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Foul Fowl posted:it's probably the same reason why the great gatsby is considered a classic even though it's poo poo Truly the Brett Easton Ellis of his time
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Jan 3, 2017 17:49
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i think I'll read the English translation, thank you very muchThe Real John Milton posted:Tell me about man's first sin, when he tasted the forbidden fruit and caused all our troubles, until Jesus came and saved us.
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Jan 3, 2017 18:09
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Burning Rain posted:i think I'll read the English translation, thank you very much oh what the gently caress
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Jan 3, 2017 18:19
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Plain english more like plain poo poo
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Jan 3, 2017 18:19
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Hat Thoughts posted:What's some good non-fiction/essay collections? I really liked Mythologies by Barthes & really hated/quit a third into A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Happy to recommend, but as others have said, are you hoping for more short format cultural criticism or contemporary narrative non-fiction?
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Jan 3, 2017 18:45
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chernobyl kinsman posted:oh what the gently caress It could be worse, it could be attempting a prose version 
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Jan 3, 2017 19:02
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Hat Thoughts posted:What's some good non-fiction/essay collections? I really liked Mythologies by Barthes & really hated/quit a third into A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Orwell's stuff? He's kind of a common man's intellectual, hardly as academic as Barthes but just as cogent. I read the pretty broad Penguin edition myself. BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jan 4, 2017 |
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Jan 4, 2017 00:25
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Orwell's stuff? He's kind of a common man's intellectual, hardly as academic as Barthes but just as cogent. I read the pretty broad Penguin edition myself. George Orwell is real good. "Politics and the English Language" substantially altered the way I approached my own academic writing and made me a lot more confident in my gut appraisals of others'.
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Jan 4, 2017 01:08
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George Orwell was stupid
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Jan 4, 2017 01:22
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He was ok
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Jan 4, 2017 01:23
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A human heart posted:George Orwell was stupid no Lunchmeat Larry posted:He was ok no
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Jan 4, 2017 01:26
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hey did blue squares ever come back after the election or are we just presuming suicide
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Jan 4, 2017 03:09
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Hat Thoughts posted:What's some good non-fiction/essay collections? I really liked Mythologies by Barthes & really hated/quit a third into A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace she has a very particular tone but death of the moth and the common reader volume 1&2 by virginia woolf are really, really good.
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Jan 4, 2017 10:31
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im reading Aquarium because of this thread. It's good
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Jan 4, 2017 10:38
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Orwell was a snitch
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Jan 4, 2017 12:22
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Ras Het posted:Orwell was a snitch
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Jan 4, 2017 12:35
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And how could I forget: read Montaigne.
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Jan 4, 2017 13:26
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:im reading Aquarium because of this thread. It's good Yes it indeed is
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Jan 4, 2017 17:29
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I really liked George Saunders' collection Tenth of December, which was recommended in the recommendation thread. It's the first work of his I've read. He has an interesting fixation on pharmaceuticals and i wanted to see if anyone itt had thoughts about something in the story Home. I hope this is a good thread for this, someone in the recommendation thread said it might be a good place. So in Home, the main character Mike is a returning veteran experiencing crushing alienation gilded with token appreciation from his family and town. I found it to be an insightful and depressing look at the modern veteran experience (not that I'm one but I know a few and read about this stuff sometimes). The thing I wanted to discuss, which I'm not quite sure what to make of, is: Mike keeps going back to this weird store or lounge where they sell (?) things called MiiVOXmax and MiiVOXmin. They're just blue plastic tags that say those things on them. Mike remarks that it seems like a tag you'd hand to someone and they'd hand you some MiiVOXmax, whatever that is. Other things from the text I can recall: He asks what it is and they twice reply "it's more like, what's it for" It doesn't seem to cost any money He accidentally walks away with one, brings it back later and they seem cool with it but they had noticed it was gone and were about to "call it in" Both visits, he picks up the Max and they say he might want the Min instead. Both times in the shop someone is serving espresso and cookies Other veterans seem to like this shop, it's the only other place we see any (2) One time someone volunteers that it's a data hierarchical structure and a data storage device in a "yes and no" sort of way  Mike picks one up and puts it down a few times after one of the other vets makes him uncomfortable while telling war stories My first thought, given that it's a depressing look at the alienation of a returning veteran, is that it's that world's stand in for heroin / opiates. Prescribed to veterans for their pain and often they end up hooked, big depressing problem IRL for veterans. Also in the story it doesn't seem to cost anything, so... the first hit is free? And they recommend the Min for him, which might be a smaller dose - possibly he'll move on to the Max later. But there's that weird computer jargon in there? And nobody else seems to be using it per se, they're just hanging out there? Also even before the computer jargon came up, the way the tag is described was making me think of the Best Buy logo and therefore technology. But I can't quite make sense of that angle. And the name itself has to do with voice (vox). He's trying to find a big (Max) voice and they try to give him a small one instead, like his voice is so small that he's sort of ignored in town as a problem that nobody wants to take care of even as they thank him for his service? Just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts about that part of the story. I only read it the other day, so these are kinda my off the cuff, first-pass thoughts. alnilam fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Jan 4, 2017 |
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Jan 4, 2017 17:49
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:yeah. He had really confused and contradictory politics lol, going from volunteering to fight with socialists/anarchists to contributing to a list of commie infiltrators just spitballing here but maybe something about his experience fighting alongside Communists in Spain shaped his later opinion of the international Communist movement?
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Jan 4, 2017 19:35
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at the date posted:just spitballing here but maybe something about his experience fighting alongside Communists in Spain shaped his later opinion of the international Communist movement? Lunchmeat Larry fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jan 4, 2017 |
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Jan 4, 2017 19:40
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Best (literary) books read in 2016 Neapolitan series - everyone should read them, if only for the writing. Train Dreams - should have won the Pulitzer, wtf Wolf Road The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Submission Barkskins - Should have won the NBA Moonglow Cloud Atlas All That Man Is - should have won the Booker Blood Meridian Best book I read that was released last year is Barkskins, but I think Submission was the most enjoyable book I read.
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Jan 4, 2017 20:02
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the_homemaster posted:Best (literary) books read in 2016 I read about half of Extension du domaine de la lutte and thought it was pretty meh. Is there a substantion improvement in Houellebecqs latter work?
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Jan 4, 2017 21:13
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The Belgian posted:I read about half of Extension du domaine de la lutte and thought it was pretty meh. Is there a substantion improvement in Houellebecqs latter work? is that the one that's translated as "Whatever"? I've read all his novels, and that's definitely the worst one. I think that The Elementary Particles and The Map and the Territory are both top-tier books, almost God-tier.
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Jan 4, 2017 21:56
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at the date posted:just spitballing here but maybe something about his experience fighting alongside Communists in Spain shaped his later opinion of the international Communist movement? He wrote a bunch of trot nonsense about how bad living under socialism was despite never experiencing it himself, and said nonsense is still taught in schools to this day to reinforce communism being bad.
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Jan 4, 2017 23:23
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A human heart posted:He wrote a bunch of trot nonsense about how bad living under socialism was despite never experiencing it himself, and said nonsense is still taught in schools to this day to reinforce communism being bad. go away
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Jan 5, 2017 01:47
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stalinism is good while the capitalist wolrd order is bad imo
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Jan 5, 2017 05:12
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Ras Het posted:stalinism is good while the capitalist wolrd order is bad imo finally someone who knows what they're talking about
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Jan 5, 2017 05:22
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