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Can anyone sell me on why they thought Disgrace was good? I had to read it for a college class on Man Booker prize winners and shortlist books and loving despised it on almost every level. The only thing I liked was the writing style. I read some other books in that class that owned (The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin was my favorite) but hot drat I hated Disgrace.
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Jan 3, 2019 06:39
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Mrenda posted:To The Lighthouse seems to have more of a subject I'm interested in, but Mrs Dalloway has more angry reviews quoting passages of the book that read amazingly well. Dalloway, then To the Lighthouse. Lighthouse might be confusing if you haven't experienced Woolf yet. That part in the middle Pretty much everything she writes is good, just be aware that they are various shades of modernist experimental. They're conventional British novels, except time is a viscous fluid shaped by characters' subjective thoughts within them. She has more control than Joyce and the novels aren't boring, but they are quiet and personal.
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Jan 3, 2019 06:49
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In the States? Do you have a link? Amazon and B&N have it released on 02/19/29. Edit: this is re: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
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Jan 3, 2019 06:59
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Doctor Faustine posted:Can anyone sell me on why they thought Disgrace was good? I had to read it for a college class on Man Booker prize winners and shortlist books and loving despised it on almost every level. The only thing I liked was the writing style. It's about an arrogant old white dude getting pwned repeatedly what's not to like.
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Jan 3, 2019 07:54
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Bilirubin posted:yabut this gem from To the Lighthouse At least they are honest with themselves here. I prefer the super arrogant ones putting down experimental classics for not being relatable enough
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Jan 3, 2019 08:29
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Mrs Dalloway owns I find Woolf’s stream of consciousness to be extremely enjoyable.
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Jan 3, 2019 08:56
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Mrenda posted:I'm trying to decide between getting Mrs. Dalloway or To The Lighthouse. To The Lighthouse's description on Woolf's wikipedia page seems to say it'll have more in it that'll rile me up good and proper for some rollercoaster modernism, but Mrs Dalloway's Goodreads page has more angry reviews that quote passages as proof she's a bad writer that just make me feel ashamed of my own writing. here are some posts i made about woolf: Foul Fowl posted:i always recommend that people read her (short) essays modern fiction and mr bennett and mrs brown before trying to tackle her novels. it's a quick read which makes her (unbelievably original) project of literary consciousness much more visible and digestible. i think woolf is also one of those writers who you really come to appreciate after reading lots of modernism, where the deftness and dexterity of her language and narrative locus just blows everybody else out of the water. joyce, elliott, pound, etc. etc. were more clever, but imo woolf was certainly a better writer than all of them. Foul Fowl posted:i would start with reading her essays 'modern fiction' and 'mr bennett and mrs brown', they're very helpful in understanding her aspirations of literary consciousness, and they're on google, and they're also very good. she wrote heaps and heaps of criticism - a room of one's own, three guineas, thunder at wembley, the death of the moth, etc. etc. all good poo poo. i think woolf is a lot less challenging once you understand what effects she's aiming for. but equally i think it's just as important not to think too hard about it and just let the prose wash over you while you're reading. Foul Fowl fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 13:52
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porfiria posted:It's about an arrogant old white dude getting pwned repeatedly what's not to like. Having to read a story from the perspective of a thoroughly repugnant arrogant old white dude, no matter how often he got pwned. Also I might be literally allergic to the “aging professor bangs nubile college student” plot point. It doesn’t matter the book, it is always a massive turn off for me.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:14
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Doctor Faustine posted:Also I might be literally allergic to the “aging professor bangs nubile college student” plot point. It doesn’t matter the book, it is always a massive turn off for me. You should read Chekhov's A Dreary Story for a guaranteed mood-improving take on the aging professor in a spiritual crisis motif
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Jan 3, 2019 15:32
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Burning Rain posted:At least they are honest with themselves here. I prefer the super arrogant ones putting down experimental classics for not being relatable enough what like quote:What drivel is this? (They go on then to suggest that To the Lighthouse is a pale rewrite of Mrs. Dalloway that is just tedious but ends with "Literary techniques? The one where narrative sequence jumps from character to character just like Mrs Dalloway? Check, we got it here. This is what happens to most sequels: they’re just never as good as the pilot. "
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Jan 3, 2019 15:42
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ban goodreads from the internet
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Jan 3, 2019 16:08
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Even positive goodreads reviews are insufferable, like an extension of a poo poo mfa project, people who think they're Knausgaard This is the same phenomenon on mubi, where user reviews of good movies are often downright incomprehensible even with a character limit suspendedreason posted:I'm reading the 2002 Melisende Kalila, translated by Saleh Sa'adeh Jallad from al-Muqaffa's edition. I only have selections (a half dozen stories plus al-Muqaffa's intro) in PDF form but they give a flavor; happy to host/link to anything people are interested in. Thank you pal, I'll get searching for similar material
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Jan 3, 2019 16:21
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J_RBG posted:Even positive goodreads reviews are insufferable, like an extension of a poo poo mfa project, people who think they're Knausgaard The only reviews on Goodreads that are ever halfway tolerable are negative reviews of poo poo books, but given that Goodreads is the website where The Name of the Wind has like a 4.5 star average, those are vanishingly few.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:01
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Reading 'name of the wind' was a sort of epiphany for me. I realized that even smart, well-read people who I enjoy being around and who are great conversationalists and great people in general, actually don't know how to read. That book was the most talked up/poo poo ratio I've ever experienced.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:04
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my goodreads reviews are second to none
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Jan 3, 2019 17:21
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CestMoi posted:my goodreads reviews are second to none so 1/10?
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Jan 3, 2019 17:22
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Jan 3, 2019 17:23
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derp posted:Reading 'name of the wind' was a sort of epiphany for me. I realized that even smart, well-read people who I enjoy being around and who are great conversationalists and great people in general, actually don't know how to read. That book was the most talked up/poo poo ratio I've ever experienced. I know people with loving English degrees who think that book is great and it baffles the hell out of me. Like, if you have a degree in English presumably have read actually great books, so how could you think The Name of the Wind is that good? Or good at all? I get it if all you’ve ever read is bottom of the barrel pulp SFF but there’s even plenty of other fantasy books that are miles better than Name of the Wind. Everything even remotely interesting in NotW, Ursula LeGuin did like a thousand times better in the sixties with A Wizard of Earthsea and managed to do it in less than 300 pages while Rothfuss is two 1000 page doorstoppers deep and nowhere close to being done. Doctor Faustine fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 17:29
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Let's talk some more about the Rothfuss guy who every other thread on these forums is already about
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Jan 3, 2019 17:40
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Ras Het posted:Let's talk some more about the Rothfuss guy who every other thread on these forums is already about don't raise a wroth fuss about it
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Jan 3, 2019 17:43
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Doctor Faustine posted:Also I might be literally allergic to the “aging professor bangs nubile college student” plot point.  I’d rather read a million schlock fantasy novels than another self-serous thinly-veiled author insert as the misunderstood genius and blah blah like if Nabokov wrote Lolita without any deeper level of irony. Also seconding Woolf’s literary criticism. It’s very good and infinitely more insightful than your standard Pomo garbage
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Jan 3, 2019 17:50
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Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:54
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Doctor Faustine posted:if you have a degree in English presumably have read actually great books I have an English degree and let me just dispel this notion
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Jan 3, 2019 17:58
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Ras Het posted:You should read Chekhov's A Dreary Story for a guaranteed mood-improving take on the aging professor in a spiritual crisis motif
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Jan 3, 2019 18:02
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MockingQuantum posted:Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great. Maybe a bit of a stretch, but have you read Beloved by Toni Morrison? It’s extremely good, very powerful, but it’s also deeply unsettling at points. If you like short fiction, a lot of Hawthorne’s short stories have a good creepy vibe to them, too. Lex Neville posted:I have an English degree and let me just dispel this notion My bachelor’s and master’s are both in English and yeah... there was definitely a reason I used the word “presumably.”
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Jan 3, 2019 18:02
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I was being a little facetious because I absolutely did read a lot of great books as part of uni courses but I'm definitely guilty of passing entire courses by way of synopses etc too
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Jan 3, 2019 18:12
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Doctor Faustine posted:Maybe a bit of a stretch, but have you read Beloved by Toni Morrison? It’s extremely good, very powerful, but it’s also deeply unsettling at points. I have not read Beloved, but I've been meaning to, thanks for the reminder! I've also never read any Hawthorne, so I'll track some down as well. Though I remember being forced to read some bizarre excerpt (but by no means much) of The Scarlet Letter in junior high and dissect it because the way American schools teach literature is bullshit
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Jan 3, 2019 18:13
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MockingQuantum posted:Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great. the sailor who fell from grace with the sea
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Jan 3, 2019 18:16
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You can trust Goodreads reviews if there are about 10-12 of them. That indicates a book that avid readers have decided to check out based on their publicity or word of mouth and felt strongly enough about to review. Any fewer and you're going off the word of some anonymous rando and any more you're looking at the lowest common denominator.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:19
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MockingQuantum posted:Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:23
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The most horror-y book on my shelves that isn't by Stephen King is The Master and Margarita, which is about demons coming to Moscow and loving with everyone. It's more lurid and frantic than scary, but it's some excellent Real Literature. I absolutely love Master and Margarita. Blew my mind when I was a teenager and was one of the few non-assigned books I found time for in my junior year of college. I'm well overdue for a re-read though. Who's the preferred translation these days? I think when I got my copy, there was only one translation I could find, but that was over 15 years ago now. CestMoi posted:the sailor who fell from grace with the sea Excellent, also been meaning to read some Mishima forever.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:26
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MockingQuantum posted:I have not read Beloved, but I've been meaning to, thanks for the reminder! I've also never read any Hawthorne, so I'll track some down as well. Though I remember being forced to read some bizarre excerpt (but by no means much) of The Scarlet Letter in junior high and dissect it because the way American schools teach literature is bullshit Stephen Crane's collection The Monster and Other Stories is also good and spooky.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:38
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MockingQuantum posted:Who's the preferred translation these days? I think when I got my copy, there was only one translation I could find, but that was over 15 years ago now.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:59
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MockingQuantum posted:Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great. I like White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi Also, nobody volunteered to run the new yearly reading challenge, throwing this out there in case anyone in here would be interested in starting one
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Jan 3, 2019 19:05
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I kind of liked the scene from disgrace where he has to answer to the university committeeCestMoi posted:the sailor who fell from grace with the sea Yeah read this
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Jan 3, 2019 19:13
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Guy A. Person posted:I like White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi Oh my gosh I started that one and then completely failed to finish it before I had to return it to the library, I will definitely do that one soon, I remember liking what I read of it. Franchescanado posted:Stephen Crane's collection The Monster and Other Stories is also good and spooky. Excellent, will check it out. Thanks! Sham bam bamina! posted:The Burgin/O'Connor (which is from 1995). Cool, I'll see if I can track that one down. I'm 90% sure my copy is a Pevear/Volokhonsky, but I have no idea where it is.
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Jan 3, 2019 19:24
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now i want to read 'a dreary story' but i'd have to either buy a whole collection full of stories i've already read, or buy a 99c 'classics to go' that doesn't even list a translator.
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Jan 3, 2019 19:30
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Guy A. Person posted:Also, nobody volunteered to run the new yearly reading challenge, throwing this out there in case anyone in here would be interested in starting one i'll do it, what do i do
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Jan 3, 2019 19:52
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derp posted:now i want to read 'a dreary story' but i'd have to either buy a whole collection full of stories i've already read, or buy a 99c 'classics to go' that doesn't even list a translator. Are you specifically avoiding reading it on a desktop or tablet? Cuz there are plenty of free versions a Google search away.
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Jan 3, 2019 19:52
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MockingQuantum posted:Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great. A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan
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Jan 3, 2019 19:54
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