AUGUST BOTM POLL

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take a look, it's in a book This poll is closed.
Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber	7	18.42%
Role Models by John Waters	3	7.89%
Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans	5	13.16%
Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt	8	21.05%
Pompeii by Mary Beard	9	23.68%
Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills	6	15.79%
Total:	22 votes

[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

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

Vote for a book you might want to read next month! You can vote for more than one!

1 ) Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1545452797151387650?s=20&t=suH9Xu1CbE-wFMFMGsWw4w

2) Role Models by John Waters

quote:

William Burroughs once called John Waters the pope of trash, and Waters says he's been milking that title for decades. His 1972 midnight movie classic "Pink Flamingos" helped earn him that title, but the Broadway musical adaptation of Waters' 1988 film "Hairspray" and its subsequent adaptation into a movie musical starring John Travolta won Waters a place in the heart of mainstream of America.

Waters has become an icon of the independent film world. Last year, he wrote a book called "Role Models," about people who have inspired him. It's now out in paperback.

3) Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans

quote:

� rebours (French pronunciation: [a ʁ(ə).buʁ]; translated Against Nature or Against the Grain) is an 1884 novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans. The narrative centers on a single character: Jean des Esseintes, an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete. The last scion of an aristocratic family, Des Esseintes loathes nineteenth-century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation. The narrative is almost entirely a catalogue of the neurotic Des Esseintes's aesthetic tastes, musings on literature, painting, and religion, and hyperaesthesic sensory experiences.

� rebours contains many themes that became associated with the Symbolist aesthetic. In doing so, it broke from Naturalism and became the ultimate example of "Decadent" literature,[1] inspiring works such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890).[2] In his preface for the 1903 publication of the novel, Huysmans wrote that he had the idea to portray a man "soaring upwards into dream, seeking refuge in illusions of extravagant fantasy, living alone, far from his century, among memories of more congenial times, of less base surroundings ... each chapter became the sublimate of a specialism, the refinement of a different art; it became condensed into an essence of jewellery, perfumes, religious and secular literature, of profane music and plain-chant."[3]

4) Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

quote:

Lightning Rods is Helen DeWitt�s merrily demented satire of the obtuse sexual politics of American corporate culture. Brazen, outrageous, and�the key to good satire�just plausible enough to give it the bite of truth. It made me cringe; it made me blush; but mainly it made me laugh. This week, I read Lightning Rods again, and was struck by the degree to which it seems, in our post-Harvey Weinstein world, where each day brings new revelations of egregious male misbehavior, like a work of credible realism. DeWitt�s novel will still make you laugh until you cry.

rngd in the womb posted:

Just finished Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai. I grew to love the characters and their eccentricities. Just a beautiful, and weird story. Lightning Rods, from the same author, is incredible if anyone's looking for a satire right now.

5) Pompeii by Mary Beard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0zBG5R7TXU

6) Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills

quote:

The Restraint of Beasts is a tragicomic debut novel, written by Magnus Mills. In it, an anonymous narrator "the foreman" works for a Scottish fencing company, run by Donald who is consumed by work and the desire for "efficiency". The narrator is promoted to foreman and put in charge of Tam and Richie who prefer a laissez-faire approach to work and so are at odds with both their management and their new foreman.

Mills' deadpan narrative voice is at times either revealing or naive, and both these interpretations of the narrator are supported throughout the text � it is up to the reader to decide where the narrator is ironic or genuinely emoting.

The Restraint of Beasts won the McKitterick Prize for 1999.[1] It was nominated for the Booker prize and the Whitbread first novel award for 1999, and was also praised by the (usually reclusive) author Thomas Pynchon as "A demented, deadpan comic wonder".

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jul 26, 2022

# ? Jul 26, 2022 01:44

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# ? May 8, 2024 17:04

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

Ok, room for a last few votes but it's looking like it's gonna be Pompeii by Mary Beard. I'll get a thread up.

# ? Aug 1, 2022 02:24

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > AUGUST BOTM POLL