SA Book Club! Current: North Woods by Daniel Mason

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SA Book Club! Current: North Woods by Daniel Mason

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Part of why Dracula is so well remembered, it almost goes without saying, is that it was adapted into hugely successful movies. Nosferatu in 1922, Dracula in 1931, and a whole bunch of sequels that were all based on the book, really over-weighs the influence of the book to us (not that it isn't good).

For BotM, now that it's being remixed: do they have to be novels, or can we throw in suggestions for nonfiction, essays, plays?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2022 01:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:02

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

It has to be a "book", that is, it has to be printable on pages between covers, and ideally it should be some combination of fun, interesting, and low-cost.

I'll put the following out, and I think each one would drive some good discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAOS:_Charles_Manson,_the_CIA,_and_the_Secret_History_of_the_Sixties
The best crackping CSPAM brain-breaking book of the last decade. Just incredible in scope and scale. This is both the story of Manson, and also the story of journalism, unravelling the established story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Country

quote:

Snow Country (雪国, Yukiguni, IPA: [jɯkiꜜɡɯɲi]) is a novel by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel is considered a classic work of Japanese literature[1] and was among the three novels the Nobel Committee cited in 1968, when Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man
More fun and readable than you'd think; one of the more enjoyable selects of important Black American Lit.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31451077-autumn-of-the-black-snake

quote:

Autumn of the Black Snake tells how the early republic battled the coalition of Indians that came closer than any adversary, before or since, to halting the nation�s expansion. In evocative and absorbing prose, William Hogeland conjures up the woodland battles and the hardball politics that formed the Legion of the United States, the country�s first true standing army. His memorable portraits of soldiers and leaders on both sides�from the daring war chiefs Blue Jacket and Little Turtle to the doomed Richard Butler and a steely, even ruthless Washington�drive a tale of horrific violence, brilliant strategizing, stupendous blunders, and valorous deeds. This sweeping account, at once exciting and dark, builds to a crescendo as Washington and Alexander Hamilton, at enormous risk, outmaneuver Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other skeptics of standing armies�and Washington appoints General �Mad� Anthony Wayne to lead the Legion. Wayne marches into the forests of the Old Northwest, where the very Indians he is charged with defeating will bestow on him, with grudging admiration, a new name: Black Snake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels:_The_Strange_and_Terrible_Saga_of_the_Outlaw_Motorcycle_Gangs
Just a classic for anyone who hasn't read HST yet, or only read FaLiLV

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
In case you're looking for something RU/Ukraine - tangential

# ¿ Oct 16, 2022 01:50

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

It�s really really obvious but a lot of le Fanu�s material is direct or indirect allusion to the absentee landlords of Ireland. It�s probably less interesting to modern audiences than the lesbian vampire reading, but there�s a lot in Carmilla about the English owners of the land sucking it dry and dead, and giving nothing back to the people (who are being literally fed on).

Anyway, good voting options.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2022 23:56

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

There's definitely a risk when picking classics, which I think we all tend to fall into. The old quote that a classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read, where it sounds like a good idea and then nobody shows up because it's a slog. 20,000 leagues under the sea, Red Badge of Courage, and even 1984 can all drag, even if they're important and everyone should read them. It's why I wouldn't suggest hemingway or Woolfe, even if they're awesome. I think a month of the thread digging into Ts Eliot would be awesome but I doubt it will ever happen.

All the Light We Cannot See is a good pick: accessible, easily available, a fun read, but also has some depth and drives discussion. So would Gulliver's Travels (if you want to keep up the Irish theme) or Time Traveller. All these books are also good to have in the thread because they have good historical reference points that people could help give context and background to, that you wouldn't necessarily get just reading straight through. Michael Criton's State of Fear could be interesting because there would be a ton of people getting banned while arguing about climate change, but I'm not sure there would be much to talk about in the book itself (unlike Gulliver's Travels or whatever).

# ¿ Oct 17, 2022 16:54

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Gotta say I am surprised at the overwhelming response to Snow Country. But I'm glad for it; this should draw conversation if anything does. It's short, has dramatic interesting sentences, and is capital-L Lit. Disclaimer is that the main character is not supposed to be likable, which is always a turn-off to some. The language is a primary draw, being likened to a haiku about impermanence, sadness, and beauty.

https://japaneselit.net/2011/10/15/snow-country/

quote:

Snow Country won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, a year which serves as a convenient temporal marker for the changing perception of Japan in the collective consciousness of the Western world. The postwar American occupation of Japan had ended fifteen years prior, and many of the American G.I. officers returned home from the country with the knowledge and motivation to create Japanese Studies departments in American universities like Columbia and Harvard. With their classes and translations came a new respect for the Japan of the twentieth century among academic circles. Meanwhile, Japan itself had risen from the ashes of wartime devastation and had begun to enter an era of double-digit GNP growth. The city of Tokyo had hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964; and, with the ultra-modern Tokyo Dome stadium and high speed bullet train between Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan was able to prove itself the technological and economic equal of any country in the world. The Nobel Committee thus awarded its literary prize to Kawabata for reasons that were partially political, as they would to many candidates over the following four decades. As with these other laureates, however, Kawabata did not win the world�s foremost award for literary distinction for political reasons alone.
....
Kawabata turns his keen gaze on a small mountain village in the �snow country� of Niigata prefecture, a region on the west side of the Japan Alps that is referred to as such due to its heavy winter precipitation. Along with luxuriant snowfall, the words �snow country� conjure up images of ski vacations, deliciously warm hot springs, high-quality sak� brewed with snowmelt runoff waters, and small, traditional inns catering to all of the fall and winter tourists. To men of a certain generation, the snow country is also associated with the geisha who service these tourists. Unlike the artistically skilled geisha of urban areas such as Kyoto, these �hot springs geisha� are known for using their minimal training in music and dance as a cover for more intimate performances.

The US translator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seidensticker

quote:

"Do you not, my esteemed master, find this a rather impenetrable passage?" Mr. Seidensticker recalled asking [Kawabata], ever so gently, during the translation of Snow Country.

"He would dutifully scrutinize the passage, and answer: 'Yes,'" Mr. Seidensticker wrote. "Nothing more."

# ¿ Oct 25, 2022 03:55

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I got the audiobook for this, and I�m enjoying it. There was a five minute intro with spoilers to the (minimal) plot, but it did a great job laying out what to look/listen for in the book. Mainly that the details are ambiguous, and that they�re really pushed forward by inference.

Listening to an hour or so, it�s been great. 5/5, would listen to a guy looking at a reflection of a woman�s eye in the window again

# ¿ Nov 3, 2022 18:53

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Yeah I read the first part and just am having trouble thinking of anything to say.

To me, I think the reason he keeps thinking things are sad, or wasted, etc. is that the main character realizes he�s using this woman. He is so locked up inside his own head that he can�t really engage with anybody or anything. So he�s kind of sad about it.

I�m enjoying it, but I couldn�t tell you why.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2022 22:48

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

This is a serious vibe book. Finished it. Still not much to say. It seems like everyone enjoyed it, at least!

# ¿ Nov 14, 2022 06:52

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

It�s like reading a novel written in a parallel universe that is very close, but in many small ways different, from our own

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 17:18

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Yes. It does a kind of fade to black/elide over what they�re actually doing, but the first time is during the conversation where she comes to see him after drinking and complaining about her headache. She wants to stay but also knows there�s no future there so she�s trying to convince herself to go; the next day she ends up coming back again and it says something like how she stopped trying to sneak out before morning after that.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 20:39

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Honestly I think I�m done with meta- by this point

# ¿ Dec 9, 2022 22:22

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Still thinking about snow country.

I think I finally get why him calling her a �good woman� was so pivotal in the book (in that it�s apparently the climactic event, although I didn�t know why). She was afraid he was laughing at the �women� that he used as prostitutes; in contrast to Yoko and the girls that were more formal geishas. When he called her a woman, she knew that he thought of her as a prostitute and not as a real person. By then, he�d started becoming infatuated with someone else, and the snow started really falling, and he was getting tired of the routine, because it was getting too close to real life.

He liked the idea of things, but couldn�t commit to their reality. Once they get too real, he retreats.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2022 20:06

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I�m kind of partial to a few months of second chances. Books that narrowly missed winning their votes from the last few years

# ¿ Dec 16, 2022 05:16

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I might have finished it if I hadn�t JUST read like two other metatextual novels. But I was like �Oh, not this again�

This month is a tough pick. I don�t love any of the choices, but I don�t hate any of them either. They all feel like �chore� novels, but it might be my end-of-year exhaustion speaking.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2022 19:27

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

McSpankWich posted:

I finally finished December's book yesterday, and I have to say that I liked the concept but it was just too much. Are there more books like this that are perhaps more subtle or less intense with it?

Pale Fire
Ship of Theseus
House of Leaves

# ¿ Dec 29, 2022 17:15

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

�Oil!�
�Oil?�

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXnkFd373T4

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 18:22

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igvP806798U

# ¿ Feb 23, 2023 18:48

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Checking archives, yes, but in 2011.

If we're able to re-do old books from the BotM, then what about John Ringo's Ghost, Richard A. Knaak Diablo #1: Legacy of Blood, or Marian Engel's Bear :troll:

But for real, if we can plumb the archives from books that were done more than seven years ago? Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, White Noise, The Atrocity Exhibition, The Blind Owl?

# ¿ Mar 28, 2023 18:06

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

All the Pretty Horses for broadest appeal on the westerns.

No country for old men for best conversation.

Th e Road for bleakest movie tie in

# ¿ Jun 18, 2023 00:06

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I do believe that man is reading that book

# ¿ Jul 9, 2023 14:23

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

It�s like Bukowski if Bukowski knew how to write, and had a point

# ¿ Jul 22, 2023 19:31

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Just keep Sutteee rolling through august. Nobody is gonna finish this book in a month and there�s at least another thirty good quotes to mine

# ¿ Jul 26, 2023 03:16

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I think you captured it. There are these reverse, these kind of dark negatives is the world, that keep reminding the reader that the sort of placid middle class life is on tenuous ground. it can always get worse, you can always fall further and experience more pain.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2023 17:15

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Good news: we�re gonna keep it rolling another month (hopefully)

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 01:02

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Milo was the only sane person in that whole book

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 03:57

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Corman McCarthy and Steven King

Suttree and AntiSuttree

life and death

twinned

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 19:26

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

There is an ingrained, probably masculine, idea that you have to get dirty, raw, stripped away from all the comforts of a traditional life to understand reality. The idea of Suttree is to almost live a debased life of dirty, lonesome survival and to approach some kind of meridian where life and death touch; there is some theme permeating every aspect of the book about twins and duplicates; and the idea being that where they touch, or where the profane and the sublime meet, that's where you're going to find reality and truth.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2023 19:28

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I feel like he d have left at any time, though. Here�s a question for the thread: why did he choose this life? Could he go back to his old life whenever or was he excommunicated for some unspoken sin?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 02:29

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 16:44

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I'm really glad they let this book run another month. It's just a classic. I don't really have anything to say about it, but it's nice just all reading it.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2023 14:41

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Don�t blame me, I voted for kodos

# ¿ Sep 15, 2023 04:22

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

Lawman 0 posted:

Enjoying suttree so far, the writing is quite uh earthy.

Hell yeah suttree stays winning three months in a row

# ¿ Sep 24, 2023 01:10

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

I really thought I would hate White Noise, but I ended up loving it when I read it. It perfectly captures this ennui and feeling of listless uselessness of modern life

# ¿ Jan 3, 2024 06:19

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:02

poisonpill: Nov 8, 2009; The only way to get huge fast is to insult a passing witch and hope she curses you with Beast-strength.

That might explain it. It definitely wasn�t for me

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 19:12

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SA Book Club! Current: North Woods by Daniel Mason