General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

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StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

It depends on what I'm reading and how much I trust the author.

I'm not going to skip ahead to the end in a murder mystery.

But there have been a lot of cheap pulp novels I've read where things looked like they were heading towards a nasty hamhanded character death where I've looked ahead or looked up the plot online just to make sure the author wasn't going to do the equivalent of shooting the pet dog just to make the audience wince at a dead dog. "Oh goddammit, is [author] going to do that?!" type thing.

See, e.g., https://www.doesthedogdie.com for a comparable example with films, since that's come up

MASH :argh:

# ? Nov 1, 2018 23:57

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 23:40

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

StrixNebulosa posted:

No, because that's a different medium.

so strix would u say that th emedium is the message

# ? Nov 2, 2018 04:43

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

hi guys back from my political imprisonment to tell you spoiling things is good and cool

if the only value a story has is its narrative its not worth reading. I try to spoil every book I read and movie I watch beforehand because it allows me to focus on the craft.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 15:43

Carthag Tuek: Oct 15, 2005; Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
sl�gt skal f�lge sl�gters gang

maybe there is value in plot, characters, and prose and the gestalt of them lifts up the work and kicking out one leg of a tripod makes it harder to balance on it

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:06

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Krankenstyle posted:

maybe there is value in plot, characters, and prose and the gestalt of them lifts up the work and kicking out one leg of a tripod makes it harder to balance on it

nope

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:22

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

trying to read the iliad but i just cant get into it because some rear end in a top hat told me that troy loses

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:29

Mrenda: Mar 14, 2012

It's not so much whodunnit, more whydunnit, and what effects havingdunnit have wrought.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:31

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

I also find the anxiety of wanting to find out what happens to be unpleasant

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:37

Mrenda: Mar 14, 2012

Mel Mudkiper posted:

I also find the anxiety of wanting to find out what happens to be unpleasant

You're going to end up looking at wikipedia anyway, so why not start by looking at wikipedia?

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:45

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Mrenda posted:

You're going to end up looking at wikipedia anyway, so why not start by looking at wikipedia?

exactly

I also check https://www.themoviespoiler.com before going to most movies

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:47

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

ah, the shitpost brigade is here

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:49

Carthag Tuek: Oct 15, 2005; Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
sl�gt skal f�lge sl�gters gang

chernobyl kinsman posted:

trying to read the iliad but i just cant get into it because some rear end in a top hat told me that troy loses

True story: for my high school classics exam i hadnt read poo poo & i got a section of the Iliad. Teacher asked, so what is this about? Why is there a war? and lovely teenage me was like "probably because of some woman lol". Then I had to identify a column by ionic/doric/corinthian and got it wrong

I got like a B :cool:

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:49

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

StrixNebulosa posted:

ah, the shitpost brigade is here

I'm not joking tho

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:50

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

Mrenda posted:

It's not so much whodunnit, more whydunnit, and what effects havingdunnit have wrought.

The fiction books I read generally only have the first one though. Personally I prefer non-fiction for the brain thoughting and fiction as a light read.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:58

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

learnincurve posted:

The fiction books I read generally only have the first one though. Personally I prefer non-fiction for the brain thoughting and fiction as a light read.

fact is the lesser cousin of truth

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:59

Ras Het: May 23, 2007; when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.

chernobyl kinsman posted:

trying to read the iliad but i just cant get into it because some rear end in a top hat told me that troy loses

They don't lose yet in the Illiad so if you take the book as a self contained universe that joke isn't valid

# ? Nov 2, 2018 16:59

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Ras Het posted:

They don't lose yet in the Illiad so if you take the book as a self contained universe that joke isn't valid

I mean the last hundred pages has every major Trojan going "we're hosed and gonna lose" tho

hands to the looms son, hands to the looms

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:01

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

Fact is often better written than fiction, and in the case of historical fiction does not have a virgin priestess becoming the mistress of Nero.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:05

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

learnincurve posted:

Fact is often better written than fiction, and in the case of historical fiction does not have a virgin priestess becoming the mistress of Nero.

maybe the problem is you read bad books op

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:07

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

Only paying attention to to prose style and aesthetics, and ignoring plot and pacing and story, seems to me like analyzing a bridge aesthetically but ignoring the bridge's engineering. A good bridge is both beautiful and functional.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:10

Ras Het: May 23, 2007; when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.

Bridges are a crime against nature

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:14

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

Mel Mudkiper posted:

maybe the problem is you read bad books op

Yup, and I know it. (I read hundreds of golden age books looking for the good ones, this year alone I�ve read about 80 of them)

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:16

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Only paying attention to to prose style and aesthetics, and ignoring plot and pacing and story, seems to me like analyzing a bridge aesthetically but ignoring the bridge's engineering. A good bridge is both beautiful and functional.

Knowing what happens is not ignoring plot, it's just preventing it from superseding the elements of craft

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:22

Ras Het: May 23, 2007; when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.

You've said "golden age" like that several times in these threads as if that was a phrase with one clear meaning, and from contextual clues I've worked out that you mean "the golden age of detective fiction" I guess? which might be a thing but not a Thing

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:23

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

Golden age of detective fiction/golden age very much A Thing as in an actual genre name that�s been used for over 70 years.

In the U.K. for decades it had the same status as trashy romantic fiction. Books went out of print, publishing houses went out of business leading to the copyrights of even major works being lost in the void. For years you had to scour old second hand bookshops or charity shops to find them but in the last five years they seem to have come back into vogue, and print, as the younger generations view them as historical rather than embarrassing.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:31

Ras Het: May 23, 2007; when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.

That's cool, but the Latin, Spanish and Russian golden ages are also Things

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:34

learnincurve: May 15, 2014; Smoosh

Ras Het posted:

That's cool, but the Latin, Spanish and Russian golden ages are also Things

I would imagine those genre names would not usually be written in English, or written as �the Spanish golden age� and so on, when they are.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:39

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

There's also golden age comics and golden age sci fi.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:45

Ras Het: May 23, 2007; when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child - but now I am a man.

Not to mention sail

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:47

Ben Nevis: Jan 20, 2011

A non exhaustive list is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_(metaphor) Apparently there was a Golden Age of Porn before it was just beamed into every household in free HD.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 17:58

ulvir: Jan 2, 2005

how about a golden age of suck deez nuts

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:07

CestMoi: Sep 16, 2011

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Only paying attention to to prose style and aesthetics, and ignoring plot and pacing and story, seems to me like analyzing a bridge aesthetically but ignoring the bridge's engineering. A good bridge is both beautiful and functional.

youre pre supposing that plot is somehow the functional thing of a book

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:07

CestMoi: Sep 16, 2011

books are written to get from story point a to story point b, which exist prior to the book

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:09

ulvir: Jan 2, 2005

oh boy, just two oafs loitering around Dublin and one of them jerking off a couple of times, really strong plot there, james :rolleyes:

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:11

BravestOfTheLamps: Oct 12, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Lipstick Apathy

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Only paying attention to to prose style and aesthetics, and ignoring plot and pacing and story, seems to me like analyzing a bridge aesthetically but ignoring the bridge's engineering. A good bridge is both beautiful and functional.

The function of a novel is to be beautiful, so no.

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:14

nerdpony: May 1, 2007; Apparently I was supposed to put something here.; Fun Shoe

Krankenstyle posted:

Then I had to identify a column by ionic/doric/corinthian and got it wrong

The more syllables the word has, the fancier the column! :hist101:

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:18

Carthag Tuek: Oct 15, 2005; Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
sl�gt skal f�lge sl�gters gang

plot is the mechanism by which the characters are brought into situations to which they can react characteristically

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:18

Carthag Tuek: Oct 15, 2005; Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
sl�gt skal f�lge sl�gters gang

nerdpony posted:

The more syllables the word has, the fancier the column!

the first two only have 2 syllables in danish

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:19

Mel Mudkiper: Jan 19, 2012; At this point, Mudman abruptly ends the conversation. He usually insists on the last word.

Krankenstyle posted:

the characters....can react characteristically

this makes me so angry for some reason

# ? Nov 2, 2018 18:22

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 23:40

Carthag Tuek: Oct 15, 2005; Tider skal komme,
tider skal henrulle,
sl�gt skal f�lge sl�gters gang

Mel Mudkiper posted:

this makes me so angry for some reason

i wrote it like that on purpose :hehe:

its alliterative ya know?

# ? Nov 2, 2018 19:23

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

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