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zoux posted:Cat's Cradle is my favorite Vonnegut book btw. same
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Aug 19, 2014 04:47
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zoux posted:It's a very long book that tells you that capitalism inevitably concentrates wealth in the hands of a microscopically small elite.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:48
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THS posted:anthem is americas 1984 and its assigned to millions of students I just wrote what was asked and got a decent grade and forgot about it. There was nothing foreboding or worrisome or indoctrinating about the experience. It was just another homework assignment with an oddly specific word in the title. Now 1984, when I read it as an adult, that hosed with me.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:49
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Anthem, of course, is the third book in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Trilogy. Shame she never got around to writing the second one.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:50
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Pope Guilty posted:Anthem, of course, is the third book in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Trilogy. Shame she never got around to writing the second one. It's a shame she got around to writing the first one. yes I read the link / got the joke
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Aug 19, 2014 04:51
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Doctor Spaceman posted:It's a shame she got around to writing the first one. Or anything at all, for that matter.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:51
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i wasnt assigned any rand or 1984, just animal farm. i dont remember what we were taught on it, i think our lessons were basically just teaching us what allegory was and checking that we actually read it. tbh i barely read any of the poo poo they assigned in school and a lot of the typical "high school lit" books that i have read like slaughterhouse five or catch-22 or brave new world or fahrenheit 451 were not assigned and i read of my own volition. there was like one year of high school where i had an english teacher i liked and we read to kill a mockingbird and gatsby and those were good but mostly having a teacher tell me to read a book was a good way for me to lose all interest in it
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Aug 19, 2014 04:56
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zoux posted:It's a very long book that tells you that capitalism inevitably concentrates wealth in the hands of a microscopically small elite. Yeah, I have a question. What did DFW find so goddamn fascinating about Comm. Ave? I read most of Infinite Jest while commuting on the B line, and that was the only thing that bothered me
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Aug 19, 2014 04:58
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We read Stranger in a Strange Land in 10th grade and we had to have a permission slip beforehand.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:59
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capital in the twenty-first century suffers from the typical soft leftist rot which ignores the fact that if nothing is done, if there are no radical social movements to steer the global economy to other ends, that the consequences will be catastrophic like a lot of left-academia it's the useful Very Serious Analysis you can print in the NYT, ignoring that we are fast running out of time, that we are creating a hot house planet with billions of future refugees, resource shortages where a lot of people die  analysis of the near future without going over the necessary political responses to such dire circumstances is unhelpful hth
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Aug 19, 2014 04:59
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Geez we just read a bunch of Shakespeare and classics from the likes of Steinbeck and Sinclair.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:00
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THS posted:capital in the twenty-first century suffers from the typical soft leftist rot which ignores the fact that if nothing is done, if there are no radical social movements to steer the global economy to other ends, that the consequences will be catastrophic The planet are sick 
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Aug 19, 2014 05:03
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I read 1984 in 7th grade and our teacher told us to skip the chapter with the first sex scene.zoux posted:Cat's Cradle is my favorite Vonnegut book btw. Yeah it's the best one. THS posted:anthem is americas 1984 and its assigned to millions of students With how much Republicans love to make kids learn about how evolution is just a theory and abstinence and that slavery/the Trail of Tears/ etc weren't all that bad I'm suprised that Ayn Rand being required reading isn't more pervasive than she already is.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:05
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I had to read Brave New World and hated it and I don't even care if that makes me a philistine
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Aug 19, 2014 05:07
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Shear Modulus posted:With how much Republicans love to make kids learn about how evolution is just a theory and abstinence and that slavery/the Trail of Tears/ etc weren't all that bad I'm suprised that Ayn Rand being required reading isn't more pervasive than she already is. because if you read anything else she wrote shes a militant atheist and writes a lot about atheism
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Aug 19, 2014 05:07
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DemeaninDemon posted:Geez we just read a bunch of Shakespeare and classics from the likes of Steinbeck and Sinclair. I had to read No Exit and The Stranger in 12th grade and I used the fact that I'd read them to impress a French girl once. Also they were both pretty great. She also thought my shortening of Les Miserables into "Les Mis" like everyone in the English speaking world does was the most hilarious thing ever.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:09
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i remember when i was still a student i had to work only night shifts at my job during the week but this also meant i was the only person in my dept so i'd just chill out sitting on milk crates for a few hours a night reading, so i like les miserables because i got paid to read it basically
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Aug 19, 2014 05:14
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Just had another son, named him Barrack. Just kidding named him Anton after Marcus Antonius
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Aug 19, 2014 05:23
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Pornographic Memory posted:i remember when i was still a student i had to work only night shifts at my job during the week but this also meant i was the only person in my dept so i'd just chill out sitting on milk crates for a few hours a night reading, so i like les miserables because i got paid to read it basically what's it like to be part of What's Destroying The American Workforce
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Aug 19, 2014 05:23
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Badger of Basra posted:what's it like to be part of What's Destroying The American Workforce Employers already steal the difference between the revenue we create for them and what they pay us, he's just doing his part to fight back.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:27
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I started rereading Elmer Gantry today, it's a shame Sinclair Lewis like isn't widely read anymore. Babbit is also a very funny book.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:41
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Capital in the 21st Century, much like any work created by mere mortal lumpenproletarians who actually dare get published and discussed by anyone outside certain circles, is deficient in that it is not the ultimate agitprop/revolution manual that Maosit Third Worldists imagined the Communist Manifesto and Mao's Little Red Book to be in the 1960s and 1970s. Do radicals dream of pragmatic sheep? Nope
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Aug 19, 2014 05:59
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RE: Vonnegutchat Sirens of Titan is rough as hell but it has a lot of heart and fun ideas. Breakfast of Champions felt like Vonnegut parodying himself. Slaughterhouse-Five is incredibly good but it's a bit like someone telling you they're favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption, I mean come the gently caress on. The first time I read Harrison Bergeron was when I used to read/post in FYAD and someoner pasted the full text in a random thread so I don't feel I can judge it objectively given the connection but I can see why dumb people use it as a lazy socialism strawman. Did anyone else find it weird in Cat's Cradle when for like a page and a half one of the characters stopped being a jokey archetype for a second to deliver a really profound speech about the young men that die in war? It felt like he just had to put it in there even though it was tonally completely out of place in an otherwise perfectly constructed narrative. Guess he just couldn't wait to write S5. Mother Night is the best one. And then all the rest! I never read Timequake.
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Aug 19, 2014 06:08
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The grapes of wrath by Steinbeck is one of my favorite books of all time, I don't care if this makes me a weirdo
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Aug 19, 2014 06:17
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:The grapes of wrath by Steinbeck is one of my favorite books of all time, I don't care if this makes me a weirdo Just as long as it's not "The Pearl." gently caress that book in the ear.
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Aug 19, 2014 06:34
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:The grapes of wrath by Steinbeck is one of my favorite books of all time, I don't care if this makes me a weirdo It's pretty good so I don't see how it makes you a weirdo. Not as good as East of Eden, but still good. It's not like you're saying your favorite book is Atlas Shrugged or A Song of Ice and Fire or Harry Potter or The Watchmen or something.
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Aug 19, 2014 06:37
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i kinda liked the lyrical interludes about the american landscape and poo poo better than the actual plot of the grapes of wrath
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Aug 19, 2014 06:43
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Shear Modulus posted:It's not like you're saying your favorite book is Atlas Shrugged or A Song of Ice and Fire or Harry Potter or The Watchmen or something. Hey now, all but the first of those are good books. No one should say they're their favorites, but still. 
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Aug 19, 2014 06:46
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i may be autistic but my favorite book is Hell In A Very Small Place
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Aug 19, 2014 06:47
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My favorite book is Warren Piece.
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Aug 19, 2014 06:50
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Hedera Helix posted:I never finished Sirens of Titan, so it would be that one I guess? Correct. zoux posted:Cat's Cradle is my favorite Vonnegut book btw. That's #2 for me.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:05
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Shear Modulus posted:It's pretty good so I don't see how it makes you a weirdo. Harry Potter is actually a really well written series even if it is targeted at a YA demographic, and The Watchmen legit owns as long as you're not talking about the movie.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:07
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I liked the movie. It was flawed, but it captured a lot of the important themes I thought. Also I saw Billy Crudup on stage with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart last year, so I'm better than you all.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:19
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Majorian posted:I liked the movie. It was flawed, but it captured a lot of the important themes I thought. Also I saw Billy Crudup on stage with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart last year, so I I am literally shaking with envy.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:20
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Absurd Alhazred posted:I am literally shaking with envy. "No Man's Land." Excellent, but not exactly uplifting.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:21
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Majorian posted:Just as long as it's not "The Pearl." gently caress that book in the ear. Well, gently caress being given the book at age six by your grandpa like "this is a great book!" at least.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:27
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Majorian posted:Hey now, all but the first of those are good books. No one should say they're their favorites, but still. That's what I'm saying, I never said they're not okay to like but anyone who says they're their favorite books is either a weirdo or is the kind of person you know reads maybe one book a year. A Winner is Jew posted:Harry Potter is actually a really well written series even if it is targeted at a YA demographic, and The Watchmen legit owns as long as you're not talking about the movie. I really liked the Harry Potters that were out when I was young enough to be in the target demo, but she took so long to finish the series that I never read the last two or three because by that time I had moved on. Also I only saw the first few movies because as far as I'm concerned they died when Richard Harris did .
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Aug 19, 2014 07:28
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SedanChair posted:Well, gently caress being given the book at age six by your grandpa like "this is a great book!" at least. Even in high school I hated it. I don't know, maybe I'd like it now, but I just have the worst memories of it. Here's my summary of the book: "Knock knock!" "Who's there?" "Dead headless Indian baby in a sack." e: \/\/\/good point. Edited.\/\/\/\/ Majorian fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 07:31
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Majorian posted:Even in high school I hated it. I don't know, maybe I'd like it now, but I just have the worst memories of it. Here's my summary of the book: "Knock knock!" "Who's there?" "Dead Indian baby." in a sack
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Aug 19, 2014 07:32
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Any PKD fans in the house? I was utterly exhausted on a plane once and tried reading part of VALIS. I had some loving weird dreams as I drifted in and out of sleep.
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Aug 19, 2014 07:54
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