- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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There was this book I read in college for a class that for the life of me I cannot remember the title of. The plot was presented as two supposed 'real' diaries (both actually fiction). The first 2/3 of the book was the diary of a man who supposedly (in like, 1885 or so) had an odd as hell medical genius friend who, when a woman died while heavily pregnant, managed to transplant the infant's brain into the woman's body, hence creating a 'new woman' from the two dead people, and the events that occurred after that. The last third is the diary of the self-same woman (who married the man) who basically says his diary is a ludicrous pack of lies built around a bare framework of truth (she just suffered a head injury according to her, for example), and tells the supposed 'real story' before the rest of the book recounts the woman's later life.
The thing that always stuck with me beyond the plot was this terrible bit of meanness. The woman, once her husband died and her sons were reaching adulthood, started getting heavily involved in socialist causes...around the start of the 20th century. She's optimistically musing on the possibility that if the world powers try and go to war again, the workers could unite and shut down production and hence the world powers would have no one to fight or tools to fight with. Then WWI breaks out, that doesn't happen because she doesn't understand how intense nationalism was in those days, her sons join up as soldiers, and immediately die in the meat grinder. There are few harsher repudiations of one's beliefs by history (and the real world?) than THAT.
Infinite jest
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Dec 3, 2016 16:11
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Jun 3, 2024 05:36
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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Hi goons!
This is a book that I read some years ago, most likely translated from German (or perhaps Bavarian or something similar).
The book centers around a paranoid nobleman who lives in an enormous castle in the forest. There is some discussion of forestry, I remember, but the majority of the book is a long, entrancing but clearly insane rant on the part of the nobleman to one of his young retainers. I think there was some discussion of an illegitimate child and the count's father, and part of the rant took place on the ramparts of the castle.
Edit: I believe it took place perhaps in the late 1800s? It seemed much older due to the castle and everything but I think the idea was it was an area kind of untouched by time. I'm pretty sure I remember there being a truck, however, but it could've been a wagon I suppose. Dammit I wish I could remember more.
David foster Walace's "Infinite JEst"
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Dec 3, 2016 16:12
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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A short story with Lovecraftian elements. I read it in the UK when I was a kid circa 1990. It was in a collection of short stories in hardboiled with a blueish cover. Pretty sure it wasn't actually by Lovecraft.
The story had a man who came into possession of some kind of figurine that looked a bit Egyptian (not sure about that). He became a bit obsessed with it and copied the pose of the figurine and then fell asleep and woke up in a sort of weird dream world.
In this dream world was a pine cone made out of human fingernails.
Any ideas?
Ifninite Jest.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:13
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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My partner is trying to remember the name of a story about a taxi driver called Eddie who begins to receive letters in the mail. Each letter has a task for him to complete, but the tasks become more complex as the story goes on.
Any ideas?
The title of the book is Infinite Jest by D Foster Wallace.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:13
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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Yellowed paperpack, probably 70s-80s, from a public library.
A (paraplegic?) retired cop meets a woman in some kind of virtual reality game and it turns out she's a teenager and yeah, it gets as sketchy as imagined. I think maybe the cop was trying to track down a teenage boy criminal of some sort? Cop might be paraplegic because he was shot by a woman's ex-husband after he started sleeping with her? I honestly don't know if I hallucinated this book altogether.
It's called Ifinite Jest by David Wallace
edit: spelling
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Dec 3, 2016 16:14
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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I'm trying to remember a fantasy book I read in the 90's. Some guy was sent back in time and became apprenticed to a mage. I remember he was kind of a screw up and ended the book fighting a huge worm/centipede. It felt like it was part of a series.
I realize now as an adult it may have been a self insert, but I'd still like to know what it was.
Infinite JEst.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:14
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Jun 3, 2024 05:36
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- The XKCD Larper
- Mar 1, 2009
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by Lowtax
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Name this book based on a decade old memory and piss all details.
1: Two (or more) astronauts go to the moon (mars?) and enter a previously sent spaceship that stopped contact for unknown reasons, one of them drinks from a bottle of wine they find and during take off one of the other astronauts realizes it was blood (or something) because it wasn't frozen, and then the drinker turns into a vampire.
Infinite JEst. By David foster Wallace is the title of the book, I think
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Dec 3, 2016 16:15
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Dec 3, 2016 16:11
