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What real world fiction should I read if my favorite fantasy work is Perdido Street Station, specifically because of its vivid sense of urban life, all the neighborhoods and architecture and depictions of crowded, lively places, the sheer density of history and culture?
FPyat fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 19:37
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| # ? May 31, 2024 17:48 |
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Manhattan Transfer.
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Feb 2, 2020 19:45
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What is perdido street station? If I just came off William Gibson, should I give it a read?
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Feb 4, 2020 03:36
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Blind Rasputin posted:What is perdido street station? If I just came off William Gibson, should I give it a read? One of the very few steampunk novels that is actually worth reading. Extremely marxist. Author probably masturbates with a thesaurus.
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Feb 4, 2020 03:44
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:One of the very few steampunk novels
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Feb 4, 2020 03:49
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:One of the very few steampunk novels that is actually worth reading. Extremely marxist. Author probably masturbates with a thesaurus. Excuse me I believe you mean he partakes in, *checks soaked thesaurus* onanistic activity.
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Feb 4, 2020 07:53
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https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1224657940390514688?s=20
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Feb 4, 2020 12:36
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Back in highschool, I read and loved James Clavell's Shogun although I imagine it would come across as a little silly if I read it today. Is the rest of his Asian Saga worth reading?
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Feb 5, 2020 07:35
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Lester Shy posted:Back in highschool, I read and loved James Clavell's Shogun although I imagine it would come across as a little silly if I read it today. Is the rest of his Asian Saga worth reading? The whole thing is pretty much at the same level throughout, yeah.
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Feb 5, 2020 09:31
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I've only read King Rat, but i liked it.
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Feb 5, 2020 16:54
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I’ve read..10 pages of Perdido Street Station so far and my god yeah he is out of control with his thesaurus use. It makes the writing so dense it borders on being more a chore than an enjoyment to read. Also, if there are whole chapters in italics then I don’t even know what.
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Feb 5, 2020 18:03
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Mimicking the ponderousness of the Gormenghast trilogy without the meta-ness of that, yeah. I quite liked it though, one kind of just needs to get into the rhythm of it.
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Feb 5, 2020 18:19
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Yeah I would imagine it is very good once you get on it’s rails. It reminds of William Gibson writing, which uses a way of describing a scene or a concept like.. starting the reader somewhere in the middle of the thing instead of at the beginning and moving ground up. I always feel as if my brain is dropped into the middle of the thing and I have to extrapolate both backwards and forwards to figure out what it is or what’s happening. Not only for a character, but a setting and place and time all at once. It can be disorienting and fragmentary at first, but once you’re in the rhythm it makes things feel much more alive and fluid within the novel’s world. (Such a hard thing to describe for me.) An example of the protagonist in the book Agency meeting (and introducing to the reader) one of the other main characters, Senior Detective Lowbeer: “When Lowbeer wished a conversation in public to be private, which she invariably did, London emptied itself around her. Netherton had no idea how this was accomplished, and he was seldom, as now, much aware, during a given conversation, of the isolation. On leaving her company, though, he’d encounter a pedestrian, see someone cycling, or a vehicle, and only then be aware of emerging from her bubble of exclusion. Seated with her now in a darkly varnished booth, in this ostentatiously pre-jackpot sandwich shop in Marylebone Street, he found himself eager for exactly that: their goodbye, his walk away, and that first glimpse of some random stranger, abroad in the quiet vastness of London. “Salt beef good?” She was having Marmite and cucumber. He nodded. “Do they still make Marmite? As opposed to assemblers excreting it as needed, I mean.” “Of course.” She looked down at the perfectly rectangular remaining sections of her sandwich, her brilliantly white quiff inclining with her gaze. “It’s yeast, and salt. Manufactory’s in Bermondsey. Bots prepare it, but otherwise traditionally.” Ask her something, almost anything, and she’d have the answer. Meeting strangers, she might answer questions they hadn’t thought to ask. The whereabouts, for instance, of possessions long misplaced. She was fundamentally connected, she’d disconcertingly allow, in ways resulting in her knowing virtually everything about anyone she happened to meet. She’d apologize, then, declaring herself an ancient monster of the surveillance state, something Netherton knew her to well and truly be.” — Agency by William Gibson You find yourself just right in the middle of it all. Disoriented at first, but quickly upon peering both backwards and forwards to find yourself exactly where you’re meant to be.
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Feb 6, 2020 00:13
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Blind Rasputin posted:I’ve read..10 pages of Perdido Street Station so far and my god yeah he is out of control with his thesaurus use. It makes the writing so dense it borders on being more a chore than an enjoyment to read. Also, if there are whole chapters in italics then I don’t even know what. It does calm down eventually
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Feb 6, 2020 02:06
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Seeking recommendations for books about the lovely dickheadedness of entrepreneurship. Thanks in advance. EDIT: Non-fiction!! Carly Gay Dead Son fucked around with this message at 04:20 on Feb 9, 2020 |
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Feb 9, 2020 03:28
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Budgie Jumping posted:Seeking recommendations for books about the lovely dickheadedness of entrepreneurship. Thanks in advance. The Fountainhead. Atlas Shrugged. UR welcome
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Feb 9, 2020 03:56
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Budgie Jumping posted:Seeking recommendations for books about the lovely dickheadedness of entrepreneurship. Thanks in advance. Do books about grifters count?
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Feb 9, 2020 04:29
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Budgie Jumping posted:Seeking recommendations for books about the lovely dickheadedness of entrepreneurship. Thanks in advance. You've read Bad Blood already, right?
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Feb 9, 2020 15:41
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Bought a Kindle for my gf for Valentine's day and I want to get a couple books for her to load on it. I have a couple picked out but they're both a bit weightier and I want something lighter and fun so that it doesn't feel like I'm handing her a homework assignment. What's a book that is fun, light, frothy while still being qualitatively good? Genre is wide open. E: something like The Princess Bride, except not The Princess Bride
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Feb 10, 2020 03:18
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regulargonzalez posted:Bought a Kindle for my gf for Valentine's day and I want to get a couple books for her to load on it. I have a couple picked out but they're both a bit weightier and I want something lighter and fun so that it doesn't feel like I'm handing her a homework assignment. What's a book that is fun, light, frothy while still being qualitatively good? Genre is wide open. https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1161639920227749888?s=20
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Feb 10, 2020 03:21
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Anyone got recs for locked room mysteries? Assume I've read 90% of Agatha Christie. The more modern the rec the better. Also yes I know, read more John Dickson Carr. I'm working on it.
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Feb 10, 2020 03:25
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Recently been binging on some shows and movies that fall under the southern gothic genre and enjoying them, looking for some book recs in the genre as its not something Ive read alot of. Thanks.
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Feb 10, 2020 04:17
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TheHawk posted:Recently been binging on some shows and movies that fall under the southern gothic genre and enjoying them, looking for some book recs in the genre as its not something Ive read alot of. Thanks. Flannery O’Connor’s complete short stories and Wise Blood Carson McCullers’s The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and other stories The Neon Bible by John Kennedy O’Toole Beloved by Toni Morrison To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee William Faulkner
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Feb 10, 2020 04:49
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regulargonzalez posted:Bought a Kindle for my gf for Valentine's day and I want to get a couple books for her to load on it. I have a couple picked out but they're both a bit weightier and I want something lighter and fun so that it doesn't feel like I'm handing her a homework assignment. What's a book that is fun, light, frothy while still being qualitatively good? Genre is wide open. Get them there Murderbot books.
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Feb 10, 2020 05:21
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regulargonzalez posted:Bought a Kindle for my gf for Valentine's day and I want to get a couple books for her to load on it. I have a couple picked out but they're both a bit weightier and I want something lighter and fun so that it doesn't feel like I'm handing her a homework assignment. What's a book that is fun, light, frothy while still being qualitatively good? Genre is wide open. Gideon the Ninth. Tell her to bookmark the dramatis personae and use the X-ray feature to remember who everyone is. Also, Murderbot.
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Feb 10, 2020 20:29
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Pretty great list, I've read about half of those and they're all solid choices. I went with All Creatures Great and Small. Thanks!
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Feb 11, 2020 21:39
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Any recommendations for books covering the history of medicine? I'm more interested in something that doesn't get too technical and covers a more broad look at medicine throughout the eras of human history.
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Feb 16, 2020 00:25
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Bloopsy posted:Any recommendations for books covering the history of medicine? I'm more interested in something that doesn't get too technical and covers a more broad look at medicine throughout the eras of human history. Maybe The Poisoner’s Handbook? Just early 20th Century US medicine though. It is excellent, in any case!
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Feb 16, 2020 06:14
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After seeing it get recommended here again and again and again, I finally checked out Bridge of Birds from my library, and now I am almost a little mad at myself that I didn't do this earlier - I am now currently halfway through and having a blast. What similar reads are there in the vein of fun, semi-fantastical adventures like this? Unrelated question - I was thinking of possibly giving Mason & Dixon a try, but would that potentially be a bit much if I haven't read any Pynchon before?
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Feb 16, 2020 14:44
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Just read the book; it's good. 
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Feb 16, 2020 15:06
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IBroughttheFunk posted:After seeing it get recommended here again and again and again, I finally checked out Bridge of Birds from my library, and now I am almost a little mad at myself that I didn't do this earlier - I am now currently halfway through and having a blast. What similar reads are there in the vein of fun, semi-fantastical adventures like this?
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Feb 16, 2020 15:20
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IBroughttheFunk posted:After seeing it get recommended here again and again and again, I finally checked out Bridge of Birds from my library, and now I am almost a little mad at myself that I didn't do this earlier - I am now currently halfway through and having a blast. What similar reads are there in the vein of fun, semi-fantastical adventures like this? Honestly, there isn't much like it. Maybe A Night in the Lonesome October, maybe the book version of Princess Bride. Asprin's Another Fine Myth. quote:Unrelated question - I was thinking of possibly giving Mason & Dixon a try, but would that potentially be a bit much if I read any Pynchon before? Just jump in, Pynchon is always overwhelming, just drown your way through it.
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Feb 16, 2020 15:39
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Bloopsy posted:Any recommendations for books covering the history of medicine? I'm more interested in something that doesn't get too technical and covers a more broad look at medicine throughout the eras of human history.
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Feb 16, 2020 18:21
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IBroughttheFunk posted:After seeing it get recommended here again and again and again, I finally checked out Bridge of Birds from my library, and now I am almost a little mad at myself that I didn't do this earlier - I am now currently halfway through and having a blast. What similar reads are there in the vein of fun, semi-fantastical adventures like this? Besides the other recommendations above, check out Terry Pratchett.
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Feb 16, 2020 19:22
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Selachian posted:Besides the other recommendations above, check out Terry Pratchett. do not, under any circumstances, check out terry pratchett (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 16, 2020 21:14
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Yeah, Pratchett is a slog and a pain to read. If you want fun, fantastical adventures you’d better check out some stuff outside of the conventional genre titles. Gargantua and Pantagruel, Tristram Shandy, Candide and Pynchon’s Against the Day come to mind. There was a discussion about this type of book a few weeks ago, possibly even in this very thread. Good recommendations were made.
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Feb 16, 2020 21:29
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imho, check out Terry pratchett and start with Guards Guards. It's fun, standalone, and has some meat on its bones. (whereas the first published Discworld didn't work for me. It was a weird pastiche of genre fiction of the era, which was neat, but I didn't love reading it.)
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Feb 16, 2020 22:30
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Isn't Bridge of Birds specifically a pastiche of classical Chinese novels like Journey to the West?
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Feb 16, 2020 23:26
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Eh gently caress off Pratchett is great, maybe you'll like it, maybe not. Tons of people love Pratchett for a reason, tons of people probably dislike him too but whatever. Check out Pratchett.
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Feb 16, 2020 23:40
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| # ? May 31, 2024 17:48 |
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chernobyl kinsman posted:do not, under any circumstances, check out terry pratchett gently caress off. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 16, 2020 23:43
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