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Shitstorm Trooper posted:It's directed at the Nazis by Americans, that's what made me laugh. Figure the shared space in the Venn diagram of Nazis and BDSM Uniform Fetishists is pretty large.
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Apr 16, 2022 03:18
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Stuporstar posted:sf safely in Pulitzer-poo poo-tier lit fic territory or something? Station Eleven is good but not Pulitzer Prize good 
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Apr 16, 2022 04:36
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gideon the ninth made it to a jeopardy clue tonight 🤢
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Apr 16, 2022 04:42
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Armauk posted:Station Eleven is good but not Pulitzer Prize good I dunno, I think Station Eleven compares favorably to poo poo like Jennifer Egan, because at least Emily Mandel’s lovely bland ultrawhiteanglofic characters are more likely to get killed by plague
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Apr 16, 2022 05:37
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Tezer posted:I felt the same way about 'Zone One' by Colson Whitehead - it's supposed to be elevated genre fiction but just reads as derivative of more interesting works. I enjoyed Zone One purely for seeing extremely familiar tropes written by a hugely talented author, but yeah, it didn't do anything else new with the genre and didn't feel like e.g. Ishiguro writing SF.
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Apr 16, 2022 08:10
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freebooter posted:I enjoyed Zone One purely for seeing extremely familiar tropes written by a hugely talented author, but yeah, it didn't do anything else new with the genre and didn't feel like e.g. Ishiguro writing SF. Off topic I know but christ man, old mate Potatohead smiling is the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time.
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Apr 16, 2022 08:55
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freebooter posted:I enjoyed Zone One purely for seeing extremely familiar tropes written by a hugely talented author, but yeah, it didn't do anything else new with the genre and didn't feel like e.g. Ishiguro writing SF. Yeah. It's a very solid, well written zombie story... but it's just a zombie story. I did like the twist at the end, though, indicating that everything was completely hosed everywhere.
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Apr 16, 2022 17:55
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The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WUYPTC/ The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MZN172/ The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PI181JI/
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Apr 16, 2022 19:37
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This is kinda random but I was thinking about all the Fantasy stuff on my mind lately - Xena, Conan, things like that - and I wanted to know what "Pulp" means to you all? 'cuz it's kind of a derogatory label in my experience but Lovecraft was "pulp" and he's a very famous, influential author now. Robert E. Howard was also fairly influential, probably others I'm unfamiliar with. So is Pulp a bad thing, an insult?
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Apr 16, 2022 20:19
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NikkolasKing posted:This is kinda random but I was thinking about all the Fantasy stuff on my mind lately - Xena, Conan, things like that - and I wanted to know what "Pulp" means to you all? It's a description of the paper stock cheap magazines were printed on, so "pulp fiction" isn't a description of the quality of the fiction, just of where it was first published.
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Apr 16, 2022 20:23
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NikkolasKing posted:This is kinda random but I was thinking about all the Fantasy stuff on my mind lately - Xena, Conan, things like that - and I wanted to know what "Pulp" means to you all? I hear pulp I perk up because to me it means swords n sorcery, laser guns n jetpacks older fantasy/sci-fi, and if it's modern it's gonan try to ape those styles. It means action and adventure and mass-market appeal. That's usually how I see the term used when it's not being strictly accurate like how Runcible Cat is using it.
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Apr 16, 2022 20:34
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StrixNebulosa posted:I hear pulp I perk up because to me it means swords n sorcery, laser guns n jetpacks older fantasy/sci-fi, and if it's modern it's gonan try to ape those styles. It means action and adventure and mass-market appeal. That's usually how I see the term used when it's not being strictly accurate like how Runcible Cat is using it. I also associate pulp with sword and sorcery/lasers and jetpacks, but also with melodrama. Not in the sense that I expect something very purple or overwrought, but in the sense that it probably takes big swings in terms of stakes and emotions. Also, and I say this completely without irony, pulp is more likely to have cover art that gets me interested right away. Oil paintings of ladies in starships facing off against aliens or dudes in wizard robes in the middle of some kind of summoning, with really vivid colors and at least a few visual references to things that happen in the book itself? That’s my poo poo. I want it. Spoon it into my mouth. Promise me a brightly-colored world where weird poo poo is happening and you’ve made an easy sale.
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Apr 16, 2022 20:57
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"Pulp" makes me think of pre-superhero adventurers like Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Spider, the Avenger, etc. Simple, fast-paced, and formulaic but satisfying storytelling, not unlike an episode of Law & Order.
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Apr 16, 2022 21:20
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I'd expect pulp to be nothing mindblowing, formulaic but actiony and easy to read, some nice mindless fun
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Apr 16, 2022 21:31
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habeasdorkus posted:Yeah. It's a very solid, well written zombie story... but it's just a zombie story. I did like the twist at the end, though, indicating that everything was completely hosed everywhere. the detail where the main guy laughed along with the joke about the black swimmer and had to look it up in a book later made me laugh
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Apr 16, 2022 22:25
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Speaking of zombie books, I had no idea Max Brooks put out a bigfoot horror book in 2020. It's called Devolution, and I just started it 
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Apr 16, 2022 23:08
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Bargearse posted:Off topic I know but christ man, old mate Potatohead smiling is the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time. I'm split between scaling down my posting because I'm sick of seeing his face, or seriously ramping up my auspol posting so somebody replaces it
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Apr 17, 2022 00:52
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Danhenge posted:I'm about halfway through Saint Death's Daughter and enjoying it. Sapphic necromancer fiction, but not as internet shitposter as Harrow the Ninth. A little bit more classic fantasy, maybe towards The Goblin Emperor in terms of...feel...? But not as cozy & with the sense that there are actual stakes. I finished and enjoyed this! It's also got some of the footnote-style of Pratchett. The end clearly leaves an opening for this to be a series, but the finale is satisfying enough that it would be OK as a one-off.
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Apr 17, 2022 00:57
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AARD VARKMAN posted:Speaking of zombie books, I had no idea Max Brooks put out a bigfoot horror book in 2020. It's called Devolution, and I just started it It's cheesy and corny as hell but it's pretty good and entertaining
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Apr 17, 2022 01:08
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NikkolasKing posted:So is Pulp a bad thing, an insult? When I think "pulp," I think "trying to be entertaining through whizz-bang action, crazy fun stuff, and general excitement rather than anything high-brow." I treat it as a word of praise.
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Apr 17, 2022 17:25
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Pulp has become an insult in the high-brow set, the same types who occasionally write genre fiction but pretend it is "elevated" or whatever and also pretend they are reinventing it, when what they do is just stumble across some of the same concepts pulp writers developed decades ago (and often do them poorly or don't fully engage with it enough) The past decade or so has saw a resurgence in interest in pulp style, for a lot of the reasons covered above (cool covers, fast-pasted writing style, cool space lasers) and there is a lot more availability of pulp thanks to the internet, digital pulp magazines, and retro-style comics that borrow the settings and do their own spins. The new pulp often sidesteps a lot of pulp's problematic elements, such as massive racism, sexism, colonialism, etc, which brings in even more new fans. Collected volumes that reprint the better entries are great for casual fans, and more hard core fans like me have more digital scans of magazines then they could ever read. And the best part of those is if the story sucks, you can just skip to the next one. Even Amazon's algorithm seems to favor elements of pulp style, such as short stories published frequently. So expect more pulp in the future. In conclusion, pulp rules.
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Apr 17, 2022 17:58
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I think Bizarro and Extreme Horror are kinda the realm of what I think of as pulp in the modern age. Being over the top solely for the sake of doing it is a key part of pulp storytelling in my mind.
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Apr 17, 2022 18:13
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moonmazed posted:gideon the ninth made it to a jeopardy clue tonight 🤢 It’s pretty neat and a well-liked novel, not sure what you’re upset about. For actual content: has anyone read The Sandman novelizations by Gaiman? They’re available on Audible and I’m thinking about picking them up as I generally love Gaiman’s stuff but I’m trying to figure out how they compare to the comics.
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Apr 17, 2022 18:18
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DreamingofRoses posted:It’s pretty neat and a well-liked novel, not sure what you’re upset about. Novelizations isn't quite the right term: they're basically radio plays with very high production values. Straight script reading of the comics, plus narration by Gaiman (who's quite good at that) for the visuals. Hearing the characters voiced is interesting, but so much of Sandman's power comes from its art that it loses quite a lot in translation. Not recommended for anyone's first exposure to Sandman IMO, but if you've read the graphic novels they can make interesting adjunct material. Check out the Audible preview and if you like what you hear, you'll like the rest, and vice versa. Also, the Song of Orpheus in part 2 is just astonishing and I'm constantly annoyed that it isn't on youtube or spotify.
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Apr 17, 2022 18:42
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Kestral posted:Novelizations isn't quite the right term: they're basically radio plays with very high production values. Straight script reading of the comics, plus narration by Gaiman (who's quite good at that) for the visuals. Hearing the characters voiced is interesting, but so much of Sandman's power comes from its art that it loses quite a lot in translation. Not recommended for anyone's first exposure to Sandman IMO, but if you've read the graphic novels they can make interesting adjunct material. Check out the Audible preview and if you like what you hear, you'll like the rest, and vice versa. Excellent! Gaiman has a great voice for narrating, and a radio play sounds great. Thank you!
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Apr 17, 2022 19:16
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How would you describe these Riftwar books? Not just in terms of quality but tone and the like? Are they about characters, or more about action or...? I know absolutely nothing about them. I was just browsing reddit and somebody used the empire in them as a good example of Chaotic Evil. (I will never outgrow D&D Alignments any more than I can outgrow DBZ Power Levels)
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Apr 18, 2022 01:38
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I always feel 'pulp' just means 'I won't have to think too hard at any point' and that's neither good or bad in itself. Sometimes that's what I want and sometimes not.
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Apr 18, 2022 01:48
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Almost done with The Man in the High Castle and of all the things for it to remind me of American Psycho comes to mind. Not really the whole thing but how the American-junk-obsessed Japanese businessmen all sound like Patrick Bateman talking about his business cards or meals. Just this long rehearsed speech meant to show how cultured and wise they are.
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Apr 18, 2022 02:51
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My take on pulp is it's gonna be action/adventure of some kind. Mainly because I never heard of a pulp novel about finding your true self through the use of photography and overcoming your childhood trauma.
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Apr 18, 2022 03:57
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NikkolasKing posted:How would you describe these Riftwar books? Not just in terms of quality but tone and the like? Are they about characters, or more about action or...? The early ones aren't especially original in setting or plot (generic fantasy with elves, dwarves, goblins, etc.) but Feist gets more inventive as the series goes on (but conversely also retreads the same "an even greater evil!" plot over and over again). The writing isn't especially evocative or anything, but it's also rarely overblown or purple. The whole series of books covers dozens or maybe hundreds of years* and thousands of characters, but they aren't as thematically heavy on intergenerational relationships (or anything at all, really) as, say, ASoIaF. All that said, they're very readable, and Feist is pretty good at wringing emotions out of the reader. I enjoyed the books when I was a young teenager and even reread a couple of my favorites from time to time. You've probably read a whole lot worse. Like Dune, I think it's good advice to give the series a shot and stop when you get bored. For me that was the end of the Serpentwar Saga, around eight books in. Also, as a whole, the series is around PG-13. There's mild swearing and some rough scenes (especially in the Serpentwar Saga), but nothing gratuitous or GRRMy. *I can't speak to the timeline of the last dozen or so books, since I never read them. Eason the Fifth fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Apr 18, 2022 |
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Apr 18, 2022 04:18
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It's worth mentioning that Feist seemed to phone it in more with every series (and they're enjoyable, but nothing spectacular to begin with), so probably everything after Serpentwar* is of dubious quality. I read the Krondor novels as a kid because I loved the game but even then I felt like they were a little bare-bones. *I haven't read the ones he wrote with Janny Wurts but I assume they're good, they might have come out after Serpentwar, can't remember.
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Apr 18, 2022 04:52
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Agree Serpentwar is the quitting point for me, as a die hard fan I couldn't even finish the final trilogy. I really like Serpentwar though and when I reread it held up better than I thought. gently caress it though, Pug's magical university turning into a liberal arts college is my favorite bit and tremendously funny
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Apr 18, 2022 05:10
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MockingQuantum posted:It's worth mentioning that Feist seemed to phone it in more with every series (and they're enjoyable, but nothing spectacular to begin with), so probably everything after Serpentwar* is of dubious quality. I read the Krondor novels as a kid because I loved the game but even then I felt like they were a little bare-bones. The Janny Wurtz books are fantastic in their own right, and in my opinion, substantially superior to any of the Feist books. You can almost read them without any knowledge of the Midkemia novels, although Magician Apprentice at least gives some context. Lady Mara of the Acoma fucken rules.
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Apr 18, 2022 05:59
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Also, the Empire would be Lawful Evil, not Chaotic Evil.
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Apr 18, 2022 06:06
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My vague memory of Riftwar from ages ago is that it's extremely "I turned the tabletop RPG campaign I was doing with my friends into a series of book"
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Apr 18, 2022 06:20
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Thanks for the inputs on the books, everyone. I guess I'll just add it to my Maybe Someday list.Khizan posted:Also, the Empire would be Lawful Evil, not Chaotic Evil. It came up in this Reddit thread. What does a chaotic evil nation look like? quote:Another example I can think of would be the Dasati from Raymond E Fiest's Riftwar books. A multiplanet empire where death, betrayal and struggle are considered sacred. (incidentally, this reminds me of a guy I knew who really hated the Drow because he was convinced CE societies just aren't really possible or believable)
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Apr 18, 2022 07:32
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Ah, yeah, I was thinking of a different empire. Stopped reading the books before they got to that one.
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Apr 18, 2022 08:10
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Qwertycoatl posted:My vague memory of Riftwar from ages ago is that it's extremely "I turned the tabletop RPG campaign I was doing with my friends into a series of book"
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Apr 18, 2022 09:48
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:My take on pulp is it's gonna be action/adventure of some kind. Mainly because I never heard of a pulp novel about finding your true self through the use of photography and overcoming your childhood trauma. Bet there's plenty as long as your true self is a vampire/a psychopathic murderer/of Innsmouth descent/etc etc.
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Apr 18, 2022 11:24
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Shitstorm Trooper posted:Almost done with The Man in the High Castle and of all the things for it to remind me of American Psycho comes to mind. Not really the whole thing but how the American-junk-obsessed Japanese businessmen all sound like Patrick Bateman talking about his business cards or meals. Just this long rehearsed speech meant to show how cultured and wise they are. You have to admit the idea of people becoming obsessed with Bakelite stuff and I dunno Johnny Rockets style bullshit as a status symbol is an extremely funny thing.
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Apr 18, 2022 12:25
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