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nut posted:I used it to ask for recs of my own in the chat thread by Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan is just about my favourite book. It’s a really funny multigenerational story about landowner killed and resurrected as different animals on his land through the back half of the 20th century in rural China. That sounds cool
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Jul 4, 2020 01:55
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Humerus posted:I started The Count of Monte Cristo the other day and for a book that's ~1100 pages I'm actually surprised at how fast the plot is moving. Dumas wanted to waste no time in getting to the actual plot and I really appreciate that. I feel like I've read too many books where I get halfway through and the main plot hasn't even started. Yeah, I think if I was asked to name one book that feels far shorter than its length I would choose that one. Super entertaining
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Jul 4, 2020 01:57
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That said, I think the best place to start with literature is short fiction and short novels. Like yeah, the Sot-Weed Factor is funny but it's like a bajillion pages long. Is there a short story thread?
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Jul 4, 2020 02:00
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:More on Ishmael (and someone feel free to come in and make fun of my interpretation) but the thing where he disregards Linnaeus is to convey to the reader that despite all his philosophizing, Ishamael knows no more about this mad quest than Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, or the rest of the beleaguered denizens of the Pequod. He's astute enough to pick up on some of the essentials but never connects the infernal imagery to the prophet Elijah showing up to tell him and Queequeg that this is a really bad idea and indeed is sublimated when the ship begins to fire up the furnaces (I forget the exact name) that turns the Pequod from a regular whaling ship into the damned bellows of hell. I think you;'re significantly underplaying how self-aware and ironic Ishamael is. This isn't him narrating the story as it's happening, this is him telling the story retrospectively, in the knowledge of what will happen.
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Jul 28, 2020 19:45
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