[BOOKS!] The author is dead, and we have killed them

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [BOOKS!] The author is dead, and we have killed them

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

AnimeIsTrash posted:

I finished up 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the 2nd and 3rd books of the Wars of Light and Shadow, and started The White Tiger and The Book of the New Sun.

Liking both so far, the first person pov is pretty interesting in The Book of the New Sun. Favorite thing so far is that the main character is unironically the "I hosed her" character from cumtown.

Have fun with New Sun, it's a magical experience the first time through (and the next few but for different reasons). Severian is a shithead but does a good job making you like him.

I am working through The Dialectical Biologist at this forum's rec and enjoying it, the first essay is very unfocused but the second on adaptation is a lot more meaty so far. Love the random segues of "as Engels says in..."

# ? Jul 28, 2023 17:12

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# ? May 5, 2024 10:48

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

started the grapes of wrath today. it's good

# ? Jul 28, 2023 18:46

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

tristeham posted:

started the grapes of wrath today. it's good

hell yeah

all of steinbecks stuff is really good imo (at least i can relate as a californian). would suggest Cannery Row next. actually a lot of the early-mid 1900s literature is really good and it's a shame it's either haphazardly thrown into grade school curriculum without actual material context to go along with them because everynoe just grows up hating them

# ? Jul 28, 2023 20:57

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

i'd also highly recommend Stud Terkel's Hard Times, collection of real people's stories before, during, and after the great depression. they're really really interesting

quote:

Judge Samuel A. Heller
Retired.

I SAT in the Morals Court for a year or so. One day I had twenty-three defendants, prostitutes. About five or six visitors attended. They were obviously slumming. I said to them: �It�s fortunate that we don�t have people here to come to revel in the misery of others. I�m delighted that sensitive people of your type are here.� (Laughs.)
The girls were all broke, not a penny among them. I thought the visitors were touched. One, the daughter of a former mayor, said, �I want to donate $25 for handkerchiefs, so the girls can wipe away their tears.� Handkerchiefs!

In the Thirties, I sat in many police courts. Monday was usually the most crowded day. Most of the drunks were picked up on Saturday night, and kept in jail over Sunday. This police officer was walking up and down with a biily. He hit them in the shins: �Stand up, you�re in a courtroom.� I said, �Get out of this court and come back without the club.� He said, �They�ve got to respect the court.� I said, �Do you? How dare you bring a billy into this courtroom?�

One of the fellows was bloody. He said the police hit him. This same officer said, �He was talking against the Government.� I said, �He�s not an enemy of the Government. You are. He has a right to his opinion.�

Those forty men were terror-stricken, standing in line. I said, �Are you afraid of me? Would you be afraid of me if you saw me on the streets? Please relax.� I saw some of them I had discharged scrubbing floors. One was washing an automobile. He said the captain told him to do it. I told the captain to pay this man fifty cents. Since when is he entitled to free labor?
Some men I had already discharged were being lined up against the wall in the back of the room. I discovered that a railroad agent was telling them: If you don�t work for us out in Dakota, the judge will send you back to jail. I said, �Get that man.� He ran out.

I called the railroad office. �There�s a man making an employment agency out of my courtroom. What�s his name? I�m issuing a warrant for his arrest.� They didn�t know, they said. So I threatened to issue a John Doe warrant and arrest whoever is in charge of that office. If it�s the president of the company, he�ll be arrested.

The man showed up the next day. He said the police and the other judges always let him do it. That�s how they got day laborers. They�d send �em out west for six or eight weeks and let �em bum their way back.

There was a judge in those days who had fun with drunks. He�d say, �Hold up your hands. Ah, you�re playing piano.� Some of them had the shakes. I said to him, �My God, what are you doing? These people are scared stiff.�

These same judges who had fun with the wretched, oh, did they humble themselves in civil courts! They�d look at the names on the legal briefs. If it was a big firm, oh boy, did they bow! A lot of votes there from the bar association. These same judges, who were so abusive to the poor, were so scared here. You have a chance if the person coming in is as weak as you are�or as strong as you are. There are rights. Everybody�s got rights on paper. But they don�t mean three cents in actual life.

While sitting in the Landlord and Tenants Court, I had an average of four hundred cases a day. It was packed. People fainted, people cried: Where am I going? I couldn�t bluff them and tell them to make an application, there�s a job waiting. I was told my predecessor had taken down their names and qualifications. He promised them help. On my first day, I came across thousands of cards in filing cabinets. I told the clerk I was going to examine these files to see how many of these people got jobs. My mistake. Within twenty-four hours, all the files disappeared.

A woman with three children, one in her arms, walked all the way downtown. No carfare, no defense. Oh, they were all desperate and frightened. When I�d come in, they stand up. I would tell them: Will you please sit down, so I can sit down?

These defendants all had five-day notices: if you don�t pay rent in five days, suit to dispossess is started. There is no legal defense. Out of a job means nothing, sickness means nothing. I couldn�t throw these people out. So I interpreted the law my way: five days was the minimum. No maximum was set. I gave everybody ten days. Of course, I offended the real estate brokers. I made them still more angry by allowing an extra day for each child in the family. Finally, I was giving them thirty days.

About that time a group of real estate men invited me to lunch. Each was introduced: this one was five thousand tenants, that one, eight thousand. There were about sixty thousand tenants represented�if I may use that word�by these few men. After the meal, the man who had cordially invited me, suddenly became hostile. The others smiled, as though they knew what was coming up. He said,�I�m going to speak straight from the shoulder. Isn�t it a fact that judges favor tenants because there are more voters among the tenants than among the landlords?� All of them laughed.

I got up and said, �You didn�t speak straight from the shoulder. If you did, you�d have said, �Are you playing politics in court?� Now I�ll answer straight from the shoulder. If I were playing politics, I�d play politics with youse guys.� I purposely used the vulgar expression. �Because you have long pockets and long memories, and you support those who serve you. Who are these tenants who come into my court? They�re destitute, out of jobs, poverty-stricken. When election day comes, one�s out looking for a job, another will sell his vote for fifty cents to buy his baby milk, and most will forget it. There�s no political reward in helping the poor. But what makes you think the man who sits in judgment between the landlord and the tenant must have the mentality of a renter?

�Someday you�ll succeed in intimidating the judge who sits in my place. He�ll have the chance of throwing four hundred families out on the streets of the city each day. When a man is hungry and out of a job, and nobody knows it, he can control himself. But when his few pieces of furniture are thrown out into the street, his neighbors know it. He has nothing to lose. A wise man comes along and says, �Idiots, why don�t you organize? Quit paying rent. When you get the five-day notice, ask for a jury trial.� �

One of the real estate boys said to me, absolutely astonished, �Can they ask for a jury trial?� So I said to this brilliant man, �What makes you think the right of trial by jury is limited to rent collectors?

�With a jury trial, you can hardly try one�at most, two�cases a day. At the rate of two thousand cases a week, in four months you�d have 32,000 people asking for jury trials. If they closed every court in this state, you still wouldn�t have enough judges to try your case. And then you�d wish there were a man like Heller, who had the courage to tell you: Why don�t you mind your own business and let him mind his business?�

One of them said, �I admire your candor, but you�re not doing yourself any good.� He was right. When I ran for office, the real estate organizations sent out thousands of letters: I have no respect for private property. They defeated me. They keep score. The poor are so busy trying to survive from one day to the next, they haven�t the time or energy to keep score.

There was a man running against me, who said you can evict people without notice, if it�s done peacefully. We agreed to have a public debate. He didn�t show up. In the election�in the very neighborhood where many of the tenants live�he got thousands of votes and I got hundreds.

During those hard times, I learned a good lesson. A good deal of the misery that the poor suffer�and ignorance�is due to the fact that they�re not organized. They�re isolated, brainwashed. I could have remained on the bench until I died. If I could have degraded myself . . . just go along. I couldn�t do it. But I was on the bench for twenty-one years�and that, to me, is a miracle.

# ? Jul 28, 2023 21:01

err: Apr 11, 2005; I carry my own weight no matter how heavy this shit gets...

Started watching China's adaptation of Three Body Problem and it's better than I expected. Basic Chinese prestige TV. It has 30 episodes for the first book and seems like it will do more justice than Netflix's lovely 10 ep one. Free on Youtube from Tencent too :blessed:

MeatwadIsGod posted:

I read the original version a couple years ago and am like 1/3 through the illustrated version now. It's like 80% of the original's text supplemented by paintings, Currier & Ives political cartoons, photos, party programs, etc. Sometimes you get some gems like this incredibly low energy Constitutional Union Party drawing which is basically "what if modern day Democrats ran in 1860"

Didn't know there was one with photos and stuff, that would be nice. I'll check it out.

# ? Aug 2, 2023 23:42

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

What do people use for pirating Audio Books? Z-lib is great for ebook, but is there a Z-lib type resource for audio books?

# ? Aug 12, 2023 04:25

Mr Hootington: Jul 24, 2008; I'M HAVING A HOOT EATING CORNETTE THE LONG WAY

I use the library apps

# ? Aug 12, 2023 04:32

COPE 27: Sep 11, 2006

anonymouse

# ? Aug 12, 2023 05:00

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

doing a reread of dune, probably will stop after book 2

# ? Aug 12, 2023 16:20

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

2une

# ? Aug 12, 2023 18:29

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

Xaris posted:

What do people use for pirating Audio Books? Z-lib is great for ebook, but is there a Z-lib type resource for audio books?

you can find some on soulseek

# ? Aug 14, 2023 01:01

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

tristeham posted:

soulseek

thank you for the hot tip, tristeham

# ? Aug 14, 2023 04:13

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

found a copy of open veins at goodwill yesterday

# ? Aug 16, 2023 15:06

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

started Malazan cuz what I need is a longass fantasy book series. so far its written very straight-forwardly, I assume all the confusion people have with it comes from there being a billion characters and not that the writing is hard to follow?

Erikson doesn't have the gift of naming fantasy characters unfortunately so this might be painful. Hope it gets good.

# ? Aug 16, 2023 17:37

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

its that + erikson is a really dense writer. i havent finished the series but there were many times where i had to go back and read entire chapters because there was so much going on

the characters arent that bad, most of them appear throughout the story but there are a few that only show up in 1-2 books and each book is a relatively self contained story

# ? Aug 16, 2023 17:41

SardonicTyrant: Feb 26, 2016; BTICH IM A NEWT
熱くなれ夢みた明日を
必ずいつかつかまえる
走り出せ振り向くことなく
&

I'm working our way through Barefoot Gen. This isn't meant to be a hot take, but....I wasn't expecting the author's experiences to remind us so much of what people have been going through since covid.

# ? Aug 16, 2023 17:48

my bony fealty: Oct 1, 2008

I'm halfway through Ride the Tiger and I still have no idea what "Tradition" is. Evola was not a good writer or thinker, this poo poo is so stupid lol

# ? Aug 25, 2023 14:49

ziasquinn: Jan 1, 2006; Fallen Rib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw

# ? Aug 26, 2023 03:00

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

Started wretched of the earth yesterday

# ? Sep 20, 2023 15:40

SardonicTyrant: Feb 26, 2016; BTICH IM A NEWT
熱くなれ夢みた明日を
必ずいつかつかまえる
走り出せ振り向くことなく
&

my bony fealty posted:

I'm halfway through Ride the Tiger and I still have no idea what "Tradition" is. Evola was not a good writer or thinker, this poo poo is so stupid lol

Men rule, women obey. I dont even need to read the book to know that's the real answer

# ? Sep 20, 2023 18:31

Zedhe Khoja: Nov 10, 2017; sürgünden selamlar
yıkıcılar ulusuna

my bony fealty posted:

I'm halfway through Ride the Tiger and I still have no idea what "Tradition" is. Evola was not a good writer or thinker, this poo poo is so stupid lol

tradition has something to do with sentient gaseous spirits that zap culture into the brains of the superior races

# ? Sep 20, 2023 20:12

War and Pieces: Apr 24, 2022; DID NOT VOTE FOR FETTERMAN

Zedhe Khoja posted:

tradition has something to do with sentient gaseous spirits that zap culture into the brains of the superior races

third eye open

# ? Sep 21, 2023 20:05

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

War and Pieces posted:

third eye open

wrong thread pal

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4036777&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

# ? Sep 21, 2023 20:20

Leroy Diplowski: Aug 25, 2005; The Candyman Can

Visit My Candy Shop

And SA Mart Thread

my bony fealty posted:

Have fun with New Sun, it's a magical experience the first time through (and the next few but for different reasons). Severian is a shithead but does a good job making you like him.

I am working through The Dialectical Biologist at this forum's rec and enjoying it, the first essay is very unfocused but the second on adaptation is a lot more meaty so far. Love the random segues of "as Engels says in..."

New sun is great, but I liked the Long Sun series even better because it really grapples with the connections between belief morality guilt and behavior and there's a talking bird who's the best comic relief character I've ever read.

Also has anyone read anything by the Strugatsky brothers?

I am like 25% through doomed city and it's quite the ride. So far the city is invaded by baboons, everyone decided to get super drunk together including the Nazis, and the government decided to gift each citizen with a free baboon.

# ? Sep 21, 2023 20:52

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

I've read Roadside Picnic but that's basically the free space. It's famous because it's good tho

# ? Sep 21, 2023 20:53

tristeham: Jul 31, 2022

Leroy Diplowski posted:

Also has anyone read anything by the Strugatsky brothers?

hard to be a god is good

# ? Sep 21, 2023 20:58

Yadoppsi: May 10, 2009

Leroy Diplowski posted:

Also has anyone read anything by the Strugatsky brothers?

Roadside Picnic of course, that one deserves all the praise it received. Tales of the Troika was interesting but I think I'm too far culturally removed from its context to really pick up what they were putting down. The short story collection they edited: Aliens, Travelers, and Other Stangers was also quite good.

# ? Sep 22, 2023 10:45

Leroy Diplowski: Aug 25, 2005; The Candyman Can

Visit My Candy Shop

And SA Mart Thread

StashAugustine posted:

I've read Roadside Picnic but that's basically the free space. It's famous because it's good tho

Yeah roadside picnic is real good. Not as much of an allegory as doomed city. It reminds me of anhiliation.

Oddly enough Jeff vandermeer drank at the same bar I did in Tallahassee. Too bad we never crossed paths.

# ? Oct 1, 2023 07:52

AnimeIsTrash: Jun 30, 2018

AnimeIsTrash posted:

I finished up 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the 2nd and 3rd books of the Wars of Light and Shadow, and started The White Tiger and The Book of the New Sun.

Liking both so far, the first person pov is pretty interesting in The Book of the New Sun. Favorite thing so far is that the main character is unironically the "I hosed her" character from cumtown.

Tried to get part 2 of the book of the new sun from the library but apparently there is a very long waiting list. So I started reading the Wheel of Time series from the start.

# ? Oct 14, 2023 03:37

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

AnimeIsTrash posted:

Favorite thing so far is that the main character is unironically the "I hosed her" character from cumtown.

lmao absolutely

# ? Oct 14, 2023 03:46

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

Took a break from capital 3 and started reading the fan translation of the Kurvitz book. Not yet sure what to think. Certainly not bad, but certainly an earlier work. Also, who knows how good the translation is.

# ? Oct 14, 2023 11:26

Demon_Corsair: Mar 22, 2004; Goodbye stealing souls, hello stealing booty.

my bony fealty posted:

started Malazan cuz what I need is a longass fantasy book series. so far its written very straight-forwardly, I assume all the confusion people have with it comes from there being a billion characters and not that the writing is hard to follow?

Erikson doesn't have the gift of naming fantasy characters unfortunately so this might be painful. Hope it gets good.

The key to getting Malazan is to understand that the plot doesn�t really matter, and it�s the history that is the real meat of the series.

Still working my way through capital and thankfully now that I�m through the first ten or chapters it�s finally starting to not be a miserable loving slog.

I also finished Imperial Tragedy, which wasn�t great. It makes it�s point but it�s just a constant rapid fire of names that show up for a page or two before dying off.

# ? Oct 14, 2023 16:51

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

genericnick posted:

Took a break from capital 3 and started reading the fan translation of the Kurvitz book. Not yet sure what to think. Certainly not bad, but certainly an earlier work. Also, who knows how good the translation is.

Finished it. Still don't know what to think. I guess there is no literal solution to the murder mystery? I suppose the most likely one is that the linoleum salesman murdered them and then the past vanished? Still not quite sure why Ziggy was the missing link, except that he too tried to keep the past in tact.
Pretty funny that they had Graad, post Communist Russia, go to war in a book that came out in 2013.

# ? Oct 22, 2023 13:48

Xaris: Jul 25, 2006; Lucky there's a family guy
Lucky there's a man who positively can do
All the things that make us
Laugh and cry

does anyone have any recommendations for books deconstructing the 'beatnik movement' and even early hippie-era? i've always pictured the whole thing being a bourgeois-driven aesthetics-base rebellion but also really i don't really know that much other than some kind of instinctive disdain for it all

# ? Oct 22, 2023 21:39

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Xaris posted:

does anyone have any recommendations for books deconstructing the 'beatnik movement' and even early hippie-era? i've always pictured the whole thing being a bourgeois-driven aesthetics-base rebellion but also really i don't really know that much other than some kind of instinctive disdain for it all

just quoting this to save it for future readers who can gaze at its ignorance.

in all honesty, please look up the difference between the Beat generation and "beatniks," the extremely dumbed down mainstream take by idiots from previous generations who had no idea what was going on

# ? Oct 23, 2023 12:37

dead gay comedy forums: Oct 21, 2011

genericnick posted:

Finished it. Still don't know what to think. I guess there is no literal solution to the murder mystery? I suppose the most likely one is that the linoleum salesman murdered them and then the past vanished? Still not quite sure why Ziggy was the missing link, except that he too tried to keep the past in tact.
Pretty funny that they had Graad, post Communist Russia, go to war in a book that came out in 2013.

In DE terms, the girls went Motorway South. Same thing that happened to the ship that Khan has a replica of. Ziggy had written stuff which could provide some clarification of, but he decides to go into the superdeep (that keeps broadcasting A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E N-E-G-A-T-I-O-N on signal code)

Knowing from Disco Elysium if you bothered to look for everything Pale-related, it can be then implied in Sacred and Terrible Air that there are some sort of implosion or Pale-maelstrom that if something gets caught in it, it retroactively negates its existence. History outside of the Pale with reference to that object breaks down, basically. Words disappear, things break, photographs go bad, memories fade, etc until just vanishing, like the ship replica.

# ? Oct 23, 2023 17:48

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

dead gay comedy forums posted:

In DE terms, the girls went Motorway South. Same thing that happened to the ship that Khan has a replica of. Ziggy had written stuff which could provide some clarification of, but he decides to go into the superdeep (that keeps broadcasting A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E N-E-G-A-T-I-O-N on signal code)

Knowing from Disco Elysium if you bothered to look for everything Pale-related, it can be then implied in Sacred and Terrible Air that there are some sort of implosion or Pale-maelstrom that if something gets caught in it, it retroactively negates its existence. History outside of the Pale with reference to that object breaks down, basically. Words disappear, things break, photographs go bad, memories fade, etc until just vanishing, like the ship replica.

Guess I'll have to finally do a re-run of Disco. Yeah as presented things vanish from history when hit by some Pale anomaly, which presumably wouldn't happen to murdered people. Of course the singer the vanished boat was named after committed suicide. I guess the mundane explanation would be they went out to do drugs on the beach wich Zig, got caught by one of those freak waves and then carried into the pale. And the second guy they suspected of the murder was the source of the birthmark picture, but was otherwise uninvolved except that he was also going mad because the past was vanishing.

And I guess Khan's final appearance is living as a crazy person in the subway as opposed to letting the past vanish like the authorities want? Kinda fitting, but I also wouldn't be surprised if my version lacked a final chapter or whatever.

# ? Oct 24, 2023 12:39

War and Pieces: Apr 24, 2022; DID NOT VOTE FOR FETTERMAN

Xaris posted:

does anyone have any recommendations for books deconstructing the 'beatnik movement' and even early hippie-era? i've always pictured the whole thing being a bourgeois-driven aesthetics-base rebellion but also really i don't really know that much other than some kind of instinctive disdain for it all

back then being gay made you Lumpin

# ? Oct 27, 2023 13:49

side_burned: Nov 3, 2004; My mother is a fish.

I want to ask about Norman Finkelstien last book "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It" because criticizing :airquote:

woke culture :airquote:

has lead to the down fall of more that one person and I have listened to enough Chapo Trap House to have a more than healthy contempt for how liberals, deploy identity politics against the left, on the other I am not sure he is the right person to have this conversation.

World events and the Youtube algorithm now have videos with Norman Finkelstein showing up in my feed and his opinions on Israel's genocide in Gaza are as correct as ever.

# ? Oct 27, 2023 21:35

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# ? May 5, 2024 10:48

In Training: Jun 28, 2008

Bump!!!! Anybody got a good rec for a biography of Huey P. Long. And curious if there's any easy resource of opinions from the US left in the 30s about long and his assassination.

# ? Dec 21, 2023 00:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [BOOKS!] The author is dead, and we have killed them

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