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This is a very weird request but does anyone know any famous Voltaire pieces/short story/literary publication that is witty but also very poignant?
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Jan 1, 2011 08:18
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I've never read a Philip Roth novel, so I randomly picked one at the library and ended up with The Counterlife. I'm about one-third of the way through it. While looking at a list of Roth's work on Wikipedia, it has come to my attention that that this book is part of a series revolving around Nathan Zuckerman. Am I screwing up by reading this book and not starting from the "beginning"?
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Jan 2, 2011 03:48
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Not at all Zuckerman is just a stand in for Roth, it's not really a series.
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Jan 2, 2011 04:39
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Farcus posted:This is a very weird request but does anyone know any famous Voltaire pieces/short story/literary publication that is witty but also very poignant? Not sure if it's the best translation (Voltaire himself was both witty and poignant, so the onus is on the translator to bring it out in his/her interpretation), but I have this book, which should have some of what you're looking for. You can also find some of his essays online. Here is his response to an anonymously published work called The Three Impostors, which denied the existence of God (or a similar divine being).
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Jan 2, 2011 04:55
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The Ninth Layer posted:I'm still a literature noob but I've been getting into a lot of postmodern work this year, starting with Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in the summer. Since then I've read and really liked Danielewski's House of Leaves, Auster's New York Trilogy, and am just about to finish up on Wallace's Infinite Jest. I also really liked Kafka's Trial though I'm not sure it counts. I'm at a loss for whee to go next, so does anyone have some good suggestions? I mentioned to JoeWindetc The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. quote:It is "experimental" fiction like House of Leaves so you might enjoy it as well. The premise is super cool: An amnesiac is being hunted by a conceptual shark which feeds on metaphor, text, and memory. It wasn't the best book I ever read, but it's very creative. I also recommend, if you've not yet read him, Jorge Luis Borges. He has a collection called Collected Fictions with a lot of short stories so as not to be too intimidating.  And not to be redundant as I've mentioned him before, but Haruki Murakami is magic realism or "friendly post-modernism", as I like to think of him.  His best book is most likely The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
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Jan 2, 2011 10:35
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Caedus posted:Ok, so I got a Kindle for Christmas and it just arrived today. I opened it about an hour ago, and it's really awesome. I also got a $10 Amazon gift card along with it.. and I've spent an hour on Amazon trying to find a book to buy. it came up a few recommendations back, but if you liked TWWU, definitely check out George Stewart's Earth Abides, which, despite being a 60 year old novel, covers a lot of the same ground. for some similar non-fiction, i really enjoyed The End by Marq de Villiers. for something a little more like GGS, albeit less dense, maybe check out Steven Johnson's Ghost Map.
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Jan 2, 2011 15:39
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Prof_Beatnuts: as far as depressing Hemingway goes, "A Farewell to Arms" is the classic recommendation. I found "The Sun Also Rises" a little soul-crushing, too. WeaponGradeSadness: Have you tried Rohinton Mistry? His book "A Fine Balance," about 4 people of various rank/caste during The Emergency was brilliant. There's a little bit of arranged marriage talk, but that's maybe 10% of the book.
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Jan 2, 2011 17:05
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The Ninth Layer posted:I'm still a literature noob but I've been getting into a lot of postmodern work this year, starting with Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in the summer. Since then I've read and really liked Danielewski's House of Leaves, Auster's New York Trilogy, and am just about to finish up on Wallace's Infinite Jest. I also really liked Kafka's Trial though I'm not sure it counts. I'm at a loss for whee to go next, so does anyone have some good suggestions? Have you read any Nabokov? Pale Fire was a great postmodern book, and you'll be well on your way to understanding it if you could handle the endnotes in Infinite Jest.
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Jan 2, 2011 18:10
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Chamberk posted:Prof_Beatnuts: as far as depressing Hemingway goes, "A Farewell to Arms" is the classic recommendation. I found "The Sun Also Rises" a little soul-crushing, too. Also, don't worry about the arranged marriage stuff, like I said I'm so crazy about India I even get enthralled by all that girly stuff. I have a couple books that are just straight-up marriage-centric chick-flicks-in-book-form that I bought, read, and enjoyed because it was about India. 
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Jan 2, 2011 20:24
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Hey, I'm looking for some good literature that takes place in early-mid 18th century England, preferably London. Anything replete with social commentary is ideal.
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Jan 2, 2011 23:41
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David Liss has a couple of well-written mysteries set in 18th century London. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Conspiracy_of_Paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spectacle_of_Corruption
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Jan 2, 2011 23:47
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The Ninth Layer posted:I'm still a literature noob but I've been getting into a lot of postmodern work this year, starting with Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in the summer. Since then I've read and really liked Danielewski's House of Leaves, Auster's New York Trilogy, and am just about to finish up on Wallace's Infinite Jest. I also really liked Kafka's Trial though I'm not sure it counts. I'm at a loss for whee to go next, so does anyone have some good suggestions? Read Mrs. Gaskell until your eyes bleed. Choke on the Barchester Chronicles. Roll up a copy of Daniel Deronda and sit on it.
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Jan 3, 2011 04:08
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Caedus posted:Ok, so I got a Kindle for Christmas and it just arrived today. I opened it about an hour ago, and it's really awesome. I also got a $10 Amazon gift card along with it.. and I've spent an hour on Amazon trying to find a book to buy. Ecological Imperialism by Alfred Crosby. Same kind of environmental/science/history stuff. I recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel.
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Jan 3, 2011 14:17
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Can someone recommend a novel that's stylistically similar to Lolita, but that's not by Nabokov?
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Jan 3, 2011 17:46
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:India! These are all good reads: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, India - a Million Mutinies Now, the two books before that and A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul (A bend... is set among Indians in East Africa though, but it's still very much about indians). Have you considered The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga? Some Kipling?
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Jan 3, 2011 18:26
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rasser posted:These are all good reads: Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jan 3, 2011 |
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Jan 3, 2011 19:00
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:end me some good books about India/Indians/Indian-Americans/etc, etc? I don't even really give a poo poo what it's about, fiction, non-fiction, whatever as long as India's involved in some way. I'm not even above the chick-lit "Madhuri's in love with Raj but her parents want her to get an arranged marriage, whatever will she do??? Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is probably exactly what you're looking for as far as modern/1950's India goes. It clocks in at something like 1500 pages, and it's something of a love story/romance, but mostly it's About India, and as such it's pretty much the king of India-themed fiction, as far as I've been given to understand at least (I haven't read it myself, though I've got a copy sitting on my shelf, waiting). Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills is the collection of short stories that first made him a famous writer; may also contain his best overall writing, and definitely the best place to start if you're looking for Kipling on India. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jan 3, 2011 |
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Jan 3, 2011 20:30
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" crap, as long as it offers some insight into the culture of India and/or the lives of its people. For reference, here's what I've got on the subject:
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I was reading some James Rollins, mainly because I like that sorta books. One of his books deals with Die Glocke, which caught my attention. Now, I know that the Wikipedia page has several suggestions for further reading, but I would appreciate some recommendations from you guys: I wanna read something about some of the research done into some of the more... esoteric fields, like Zero Point Energy. Not to dry, please, as I'm a mere humanistic bachelor. Stuff about research in flying saucers, death rays and so on. (Like a more broad version of My Tank is Fight, perhaps. I did enjoy that!)
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Jan 3, 2011 20:31
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Theomanic posted:I mentioned to JoeWindetc The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. PatMarshall posted:Have you read any Nabokov? Pale Fire was a great postmodern book, and you'll be well on your way to understanding it if you could handle the endnotes in Infinite Jest. Facial Fracture posted:Read Mrs. Gaskell until your eyes bleed. Choke on the Barchester Chronicles. Roll up a copy of Daniel Deronda and sit on it. Thanks for the recommendations guys! I'll probably start off with Nabokov and then work my way through.
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Jan 3, 2011 20:41
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I saw Midnight's Children on WeaponsGradeSadness's list, otherwise I would have recommended that as well - loving fantastic book. "The Moor's Last Sigh" is another good one of his, although it has the same main-character-as-allegory-for-India approach. And I will read A Suitable Boy sometime. Just when I don't have 50+ books sitting around and waiting for me to read them...
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Jan 3, 2011 21:13
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Chamberk posted:
Glad I'm not the only one :P When I read about India I tend to focus on British Imperial India -- such a fascinatingly horrible era. So many things you wouldn't expect to, tie into it -- Sherlock Holme's The Sign of Four to The Secret Garden. How about George Orwell's On Shooting An Elephant? Burma, not India, but still colonial southeast asia.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:29
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Goons posted:Ecological Imperialism by Alfred Crosby Thanks guys! Only Ghost Map is available on the Kindle, but I checked out the other ones and they all seem right up my alley. I got impatient and ended up using the gift card on Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy by Gwyneth Cravens, and it's quite interesting so far. Even with the Kindle, I still like the idea of physical books so I'll look for the other ones next time I'm in a bookstore.
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Jan 3, 2011 21:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is probably exactly what you're looking for as far as modern/1950's India goes. It clocks in at something like 1500 pages, and it's something of a love story/romance, but mostly it's About India, and as such it's pretty much the king of India-themed fiction, as far as I've been given to understand at least (I haven't read it myself, though I've got a copy sitting on my shelf, waiting). Chamberk posted:I saw Midnight's Children on WeaponsGradeSadness's list, otherwise I would have recommended that as well - loving fantastic book. "The Moor's Last Sigh" is another good one of his, although it has the same main-character-as-allegory-for-India approach. Thank you both!
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Jan 3, 2011 22:26
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One India book I've been meaning to read for a while is The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell - it's about the Sepoy revolution. Most of my India reading has been about pretty recent history, so I should get into some of the more colonial-era stuff as well. I'm not entirely sure why I'm so into India myself, but drat if they don't write good novels about it...
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Jan 3, 2011 22:57
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Chamberk posted:One India book I've been meaning to read for a while is The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell - it's about the Sepoy revolution. Most of my India reading has been about pretty recent history, so I should get into some of the more colonial-era stuff as well.
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Jan 4, 2011 00:08
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Serious Men by Manu Joseph came out last year, it's a really interesting look at caste relations in modern India. It's also a satire on the science and technology boom in India, with the powerful wealthy classes pushing to establish India more on the global stage while completing ignoring most of their problems at home. And it's loving hilarious.
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Jan 4, 2011 01:43
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ShutteredIn posted:Serious Men by Manu Joseph came out last year, it's a really interesting look at caste relations in modern India. It's also a satire on the science and technology boom in India, with the powerful wealthy classes pushing to establish India more on the global stage while completing ignoring most of their problems at home. And it's loving hilarious.
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Jan 4, 2011 02:18
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The Ninth Layer posted:Thanks for the recommendations guys! I'll probably start off with Nabokov and then work my way through. Keep us posted! I'd love to hear what you think of the books - I also am eternally looking for good post-modern literature that isn't pretentious.
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Jan 4, 2011 06:27
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calling all you india folks! caught this on npr this morning and thought it might be of interest: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132631222/india-calling-the-new-land-of-opportunity
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Jan 4, 2011 15:27
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@ WeaponGradeSadness: You might want to read Churchill's speech in the House of Commons after the Amritsar Massacre. He's been a quite harsh imperialist in my eyes but basically describes this military massacre as clear as it stands. It made a great impression on me some years ago. http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/churchill/am-text.htm 60% down the page a chapter starts with "These obvervations are mainly of a general character, but their relevance..." search for this and read on from there. After reading that, there is an interesting interview in Harper's Magazine with Madhusree Mukerjee who wrote Churchill's Secret War. The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II (which I have no knowledge about otherwise, but I might buy it). http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/11/hbc-90007797 rasser fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 15:37
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Thanks to both of you, those were very interesting. I'm glad to hear all that caste restrictions are easing up a bit--I'm planning on living and working there and have been sort of worried about where I'll be sitting as someone who doesn't even have a caste. And rasser, you should get that book if you're interested. I don't know about that one in particular, but the whole history of that time is interesting and kind of sad. I had always thought of it as Gandhi's protests and civil disobedience making the British realize they were a bunch of dicks and leaving, when in reality it was that combined with the fact that Britain had sucked the whole country dry for war-fighting resources in WWII and so were losing money since nothing was coming in from India. While I still think Churchill's good outweighs his bad, he's definitely a more complicated figure than the hard-drinking, wise-cracking badass that won WWII that I always thought of him as. Thanks again to you both, that was some good reading! edit: India takin' over this thread 
Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 17:03
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As an atheistic Westerner who had just been in India for the past three months, I must honestly say that I was surprised to see that the caste system is still alive and kicking in 21st century India, even despite parliamentary efforts to curb its influence. Although I mainly stayed in northern India and interacted primarily with the Tibetan community there, one of the more interesting revelations was had while glancing at the classified ads as I snacked on some cucumbers (a lot of the vegetables and fruits and other food stuffs come wrapped in spare newspaper). There's a lot of emphasis on family background, incomes, level of education (management or IT is widely preferred) and a lot of the ads seemed to have been put in there by the family looking for an arranged marriage rather than the single woman herself. In any event, I would like a recommendation for books on techniques/motivation for writing a short story or a novel. I have a lot of ideas that I jot down and keep floating around but I have a bad habit of not putting them into action. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 20:33
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OrangeGuy posted:There's a lot of emphasis on family background, incomes, level of education (management or IT is widely preferred) and a lot of the ads seemed to have been put in there by the family looking for an arranged marriage rather than the single woman herself. Yeah this happens online too, this is a hugely popular Indian matrimony site: http://www.shaadi.com Pick Hindu for religion and look at the caste list.
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Jan 4, 2011 21:00
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ShutteredIn posted:Yeah this happens online too, this is a hugely popular Indian matrimony site: http://www.shaadi.com Pick Hindu for religion and look at the caste list.  Also, to Orange Guy, I heard Stephen King's On Writing and The Elements of Style by William Strunk are really highly respected. I haven't read either one of them so I can't give you any first-hand accounts, but Amazon users have rated them both 4.5 out of 5 stars, and they've got hundreds of votes each, so they can't be that bad. Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 21:29
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Jeez, that's crazy. How do they even keep up with that? Yeah it's complex, but it's almost entirely regional and community based. Nobody using that site knows all of those castes, just some of the ones in their part of the country. On another note, has anyone here read Ismail Kadare and could recommend where to start?
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Jan 4, 2011 22:00
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I got an interesting assignment in one of my computer science classes; I have to comment on a fictional non-humanoid artificial intelligence. What are some good hard science fiction stories that deal with such a subject? I was originally just going to look for an Asimov story involving a non-humanoid robot or something but then thought maybe it would be more interesting to find someone more modern than Asimov or at least different from him (since I read a lot of Asimov as a kid).
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Jan 4, 2011 22:30
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Elements of Style is more of a guide book regarding correct writing. There are some good tips in it, but if you want stuff about plot/characters/pacing, don't look there. On Writing is solid. I'm not going to go on record saying everyone should follow Uncle Stevie's lessons, but it's an entertaining read with some good insights, especially on publishing. In terms of King works, it's actually one of his best.
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Jan 4, 2011 22:41
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Strunk and White's Elements of Style is a useful guide to polish up writing, but it's not really something to help with plot or pacing or anything like that. I'm reading Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running right now and he's got some insights into what helps him write a novel and creative process (although not a lot), so that may be worth checking out.
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Jan 5, 2011 00:01
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Falls Down Stairs posted:I got an interesting assignment in one of my computer science classes; I have to comment on a fictional non-humanoid artificial intelligence. What are some good hard science fiction stories that deal with such a subject? I was originally just going to look for an Asimov story involving a non-humanoid robot or something but then thought maybe it would be more interesting to find someone more modern than Asimov or at least different from him (since I read a lot of Asimov as a kid). Peter Watts has written about head cheese - genetically engineered computer meats. He talks about them in Starfish and the following books, but they're not the star of the show. However, there is some good stuff in there on the difficulty of understanding how they reason. Peter Watts is a scientist himself so it's pretty feasible.
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Jan 5, 2011 03:45
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Falls Down Stairs posted:I got an interesting assignment in one of my computer science classes; I have to comment on a fictional non-humanoid artificial intelligence. What are some good hard science fiction stories that deal with such a subject? I was originally just going to look for an Asimov story involving a non-humanoid robot or something but then thought maybe it would be more interesting to find someone more modern than Asimov or at least different from him (since I read a lot of Asimov as a kid). my favorite recent usage of AI is the belt valets in David Marusek's excellent short story collection Getting to Know You (and the series inspired by one of those stories). not only are they a nifty extrapolation of current technology, he puts them in a fascinating sociological context. i'm afraid it might not meet the "hard" criteria, however (and no, that's not what she said). also, have you looked at this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_fiction
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Jan 5, 2011 03:55
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