what are you reading now?

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droid

Guest
padraig (u.s.) said:
I like burroughs but really he wrote one book over + over innit; beautiful boys having sex, heroin, galactic language viruses, ectoplasm, sinister men in gray flannel suits, freight-hopping yegg antiheroes, etc. he wrote it good, granted. that bit at the beginning of naked lunch where he talks about how they just have to drive + drive, to keep moving or be swallowed up, is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever.
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lol. Thats some recipe! Beats Ballard's one book hands down.

I never understood the Ubik love TBH. Its just too badly written for me. I cant recall which short story it's cribbed from, but it was definitely better in edited form.

Anyone seen paycheck? Now THATS a bad PKD film. See also 'next' and 'the imposter'. The adjustment bureau was quite silly but marginally less offensive.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
droid said:
I never understood the Ubik love TBH. Its just too badly written for me.
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I agree. Kept reading about how it is his masterpiece, seeing it in GOAT lists etc...was quite disappointed when I actually read it.

Its funny cos usually if someones got a crap prose style, its crap all the time. What struck me about Ubik was how inconsistent it was. You get a whole page of great writing directly followed by some complete drivel with terrible dialogue and clunky exposition, then more isolated bits of greatness. Quite infuriating to read. Obviously you can't fault him on ideas though, I don't really mind if the plot doesn't make that much sense. Dunno, maybe I need to read it again at some point.

He must have been completely off his tits when he wrote that book
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"The idea that this sort of approach to writing (and reading) is actually closer to and more representative of human experience than most 'realist' fiction is very interesting to me. But who else has took the the reins from Burroughs and Ballard (and maybe even Joyce or PKD for that matter)?"
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There must be loads of writing which works in that way - Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is the first that springs to mind although that obviously predates Burroughs and Ballard. This maybe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(Julio_Cortázar_novel)

A few of the people mentioned here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._S._Johnson

Also thought that Bridget Penney - Index would fit the bill although I can't say that it coalesces into a whole in the way that The Sound and the Fury does.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
There must be loads of writing which works in that way - Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is the first that springs to mind although that obviously predates Burroughs and Ballard. This maybe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopscotch_(Julio_Cortázar_novel)

A few of the people mentioned here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._S._Johnson
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Have thought about giving BS Johnson a go before. have you read him?

I have actually tried to read a cortazar short story, but made the mistake of attempting it in Spanish. I wasn't quite ready for it :eek:
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
droid said:
Beats Ballard's one book hands down
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hell yeah it does. tho I've never read empire of the sun but the film is great.

I feel sorry for yall that you can't feel the magic of UBIK. terrible character names! psychics! vague allusions to the tibetan book of the dead! no one knows if they're really alive or in some weird post-death + we're traveling backwards in time but inside a dream but you can talk to people who are still alive except they're possibly also dead! or something! UBIK!

did you know there is a new version of total recall starring your countryman colin eyebrows to come out this year? it's being directed by the guy who did the underworld movies. it will almost certainly be johnny mnemonic-level terrible.
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I love faulkner. sound + fury is great but absalom absalom is even better.

also benny made me think of mexican literature. the death of artemio cruz by carlos fuentes is great.
 
grizzleb

grizzleb

Well-known member
Bolano does that collage/juxtaposition well too of course; cf. savage detectives. Cheers for the link to that Kafka thing Corpsey, a really insightful read - the rest of that journal looks interesting too.

Fwiw this late on - I think Ballard's rather stale late style is entirely chosen for affect, and isn't really present at all in say, the drowned world. I think it works well for it's purpose - though I did get a bit exhausted with all the repeated puns in Crash.

Late psuedoreligious PKD is freakin' awesome, though his writing is pretty terrible that doesn't dent my enjoyment. The pulpish potboiler quality of it gives it, as padraig says, a certain charm. Like having stumbled across the most fucked up airport trashy novel.
 
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slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Yes I think South American lit is the inheritors of cool in hte latter 20th century.

DH Lawrence has that appallingly bad/stunningly gorgeous thing going on to.

TS Eliot said that he is a writer that has to write very badly before he can write well.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I adore Ursula and Gudrun.

Women In Love is an insane and ridiculous book full of posturing nutters and unbearable yet irresistable upper middle class women. I cannot recommend anything more than this.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
There's a really good scene set in an open air furniture market where Ursula and Gudrun go and buy a chair by mistake. It's one of the funniest things I've ever read.
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Yes I had a very big crush on Gudrun until the end of the book when

SPOILER!!
she turns into a bitch

Also Birkin really pissed me off. You are right though, it is full of dicks and losers that book.

I love Hermione though.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
ive read a couple of dh lawrence novels but sadly cant remember a thing about either of them. ive got a feeling there was at least one tactirun northerner in one of them. an thats it. i like his beard though.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
ssoc_amazons1.jpg
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
grizzleb said:
Fwiw this late on - I think Ballard's rather stale late style is entirely chosen for affect, and isn't really present at all in say, the drowned world. I think it works well for it's purpose - though I did get a bit exhausted with all the repeated puns in Crash.
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I love all of Ballards ideas, but his prose just isn't as good. Like you say, it seems to be a deliberate thing but in Crash, as I think we've noted before, the sheer amount of references to seminal/windscreen fluid, broken phallic gearsticks, chromium shiny whatnots and all the rest got a bit repetative by the end. Likewise by the end of Highrise I was thinking get on with it mate, you can't roll around in the writing itself and savour it like you can with so many other writers...i'm happy to have a scattering of Ballard knowledge and an idea of Ballardism/ideas but he's not near top of people to read...
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Mr. Tea said:
Good, innit? There's something, I dunno, spooky about it. Very strange book. I'd like to read more by him.
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I read Antwerp yesterday afternoon. Just a little baby book.

It's kind of like Bolano does Burroughs, lots of "the girl with red hair opened her legs.... hunchback at night by the screen in the forest... the englishman lit a cigarette and watched the side of the trailer park..."
 
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