Suggest a Book for the dissensus book club!

don_quixote

Trent End
count me in, i'm happy to read anything (but if i can find it in oxfam/barnados etc. then BONUS BONUS BONUS. or i might just join the library again).

i'll think about nominations and stuff
 

DRMHCP

Well-known member
What's wrong with Austen?

Isn't the main criticism for people who don't like Austen that her books seem like they could have been written by someone with the emotional development of a rather overwrought 14 year old girl and have a similar girl's preoccupations. I think the gist of a recent criticism of her by VS Naipaul was something like this. The fact that she died a spinster in her late thirties after spending all her life living in a vicarage with her clergyman widower father probably had something to do with it...

Plus if theres a tortuous way to say something that means you have to analyse a sentence just to decipher what she means she often uses it.

Out of all the writers I've had to study there's only DH Lawrence I loathed reading more...
 

you

Well-known member
Idlerich - I dont mind if you wanna collect PMs, but im not sure if this website has a maxium number of options for a voting thread?????

However I think it may be cool to draw up a list and if there is anything missing people can ask for something to be added, incase everybody thinks 'oh someone else will PM for Conrad!

So heres a small list of authors or books who seem popular over the last 5 pages

Thomas Pynchon- Which book? Personally I want to start at the beginning of his Trilogy or with one of his later books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon

Dostoevsky 'Brothers Karamazov' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov_(novel)

Nabakov - 'Pale Fire' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Fire

Conrad - nostromo? heart of darkness???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad

Steinbeck - grapes of wrath? of mice and men? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steinbeck

Mann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann

Chekov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov

Bataille?? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille

Vonnegut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

Delillo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_DeLillo

Roth? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Roth

Mark Danielewski 'house of leaves' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

im not gonna read slaughterhouse 5, or lolita or notes from the underground though!
 

turtles

in the sea
Yeah I think I'm in for this too.

I don't really have any books to suggest but I do echo the desire for something a bit more modern rather than some of the older stuff, and preferably nice and weird which seems to be my major criteria in choosing books these days...
 

petergunn

plywood violin
"House of Leaves has been described as a "satire of academic criticism."[2]"




sorry, no way in hell i am reading this...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Idlerich - I dont mind if you wanna collect PMs, but im not sure if this website has a maxium number of options for a voting thread?????
Well....I don't know. I was just going to collect the names, then put up a list on Wednesday and then everyone pms me their vote, that way it's restricted to those who said they are going to be in whereas a poll is open to everybody. I don't know how to set up a poll thing and I don't see any need.
To me the problem seems to be that we are suggesting too many books rather than too few. I'd rather make a short list, get everyone to vote quickly and then read the selection because personally I'm not that fussed on what book we read (within reason), I'm more interested in learning something by reading a book at the same time as other people who might have something to say about it. I can't see any benefit in getting people to nominate more than one book or use a more complicated voting system because ultimately we're going to choose one and it's going to something that one guy really wanted to read and some people are quite keen to read and unfortunately some people aren't that bothered about.
 

you

Well-known member
good point, its obviously better that the voting is decided only by the people who are 'in', rather than people who see the vote thread for the first time and vote but then forget about it.

oh, and my PMs dont work, if I click on your name all the drop down options like PM and view profile dont do anything when I click them. So my vote is "Brothers Karamazov"..

EDIT - idlerich - yeah! go with the method outlined yesterday.
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
good point, its obviously better that the voting is decided only by the people who are 'in', rather than people who see the vote thread for the first time and vote but then forget about it.
oh, and my PMs dont work, if I click on your name all the drop down options like PM and view profile dont do anything when I click them. So my vote is "Brothers Karamazov"..
Cool man - so we stick with the method outlined yesterday then?
I'll put you down for Bros K.

Yeah I think I'm in for this too.
I don't really have any books to suggest but I do echo the desire for something a bit more modern rather than some of the older stuff, and preferably nice and weird which seems to be my major criteria in choosing books these days...
Good good. Yeah, if you want a modern book suggest something modern and vote for a modern one from the list. (Seems to be a divide between modern and classic, maybe if we get a classic first time should choose a modern second and vice versa).
 
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mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Maybe all her other novels are a whirling phantasmagoria of sex, war, political intrigue, spiritual anguish and giant robots destroying Neo-Tokyo, but somehow I doubt it.

Austen's Northanger Abbey is a good laugh, tho' it still doesn't have much of the above.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"The fact that she died a spinster in her late thirties after spending all her life living in a vicarage with her clergyman widower father probably had something to do with it..."
She wasn't as innocent as all that though - what was that letter that she wrote to her friend in the navy that said something along the lines of "I know how you behave with your Rears and your Vices"?

Edit: It's not a letter, it's Mansfield Park

"Certainly, my home at my uncle's brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. No, do not be suspecting me of a pun."

The friend I was thinking of in the navy was actually her brother - presumably the person via whom she knew enough to make the pun.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
One oblique reference to bum-happy sailors does not a readable book make.

Although having said that, I'm now chortling at the idea of a Drummond/Zodiac 'remix' of Mansfield Park...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Reminder

So....about fifteen people said that they would be up for the Dissensus Book Club but I've only had four or five suggestions for books to read and tomorrow is the last day for nominations. Of course you can still read the eventual selection even if you haven't nominated one but I'm surprised that more people aren't putting anything forward.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Yeah I think I'm in for this too.

I don't really have any books to suggest but I do echo the desire for something a bit more modern rather than some of the older stuff, and preferably nice and weird which seems to be my major criteria in choosing books these days...
Y'see, I quite liked the idea of doing something a bit Classic, if only because it's a bit of a cliche for Dissensians to have a slightly macho drive towards things that are Weird! and Modern! and Experimental! and full of Big Ideas! and I suspect it'd do us good to have to appreciate boring old fashioned stuff like plot and characterization.

That said, if it's not already down, I nominate Gravity's Rainbow. :p
 

petergunn

plywood violin
Y'see, I quite liked the idea of doing something a bit Classic, if only because it's a bit of a cliche for Dissensians to have a slightly macho drive towards things that are Weird! and Modern! and Experimental! and full of Big Ideas! and I suspect it'd do us good to have to appreciate boring old fashioned stuff like plot and characterization.

i'm with it...

i'll cast my vote as seconding Bros. Karamazov...
 

ripley

Well-known member
Isn't the main criticism for people who don't like Austen that her books seem like they could have been written by someone with the emotional development of a rather overwrought 14 year old girl and have a similar girl's preoccupations. I think the gist of a recent criticism of her by VS Naipaul was something like this. The fact that she died a spinster in her late thirties after spending all her life living in a vicarage with her clergyman widower father probably had something to do with it...

Plus if theres a tortuous way to say something that means you have to analyse a sentence just to decipher what she means she often uses it.

Out of all the writers I've had to study there's only DH Lawrence I loathed reading more...

Not to derail the thread, but I think this is a ridiculous reading of Austen. She is a cynical social satirist. Her sarcasm and near-nihilist critique of the position of women in her society is well-understood by many critics (and readers). Overwraught- are we even talking about the same author? Understatement is her main tactic. Come on, what else can you make of this comment on a character's mental capcaity:

"Mary wished to say something intelligent but knew not how"

that's funny, that is.

anyway, does anyone here read any chicks except for jane austen?
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Heheh - that's good, reminds me of that bit in the film 'Suburbia'

Punk lad "I'd like to fuck your brains out."

Punkette "Oh yeah?"

Punk lad "Yeah. Too bad it looks like you don't got any."

:D

Oops - derail. I'm up for reading the book whatever it is.
 

jenks

thread death
Not to derail the thread, but I think this is a ridiculous reading of Austen. She is a cynical social satirist. Her sarcasm and near-nihilist critique of the position of women in her society is well-understood by many critics (and readers). Overwraught- are we even talking about the same author? Understatement is her main tactic. Come on, what else can you make of this comment on a character's mental capcaity:

"Mary wished to say something intelligent but knew not how"

that's funny, that is.

anyway, does anyone here read any chicks except for jane austen?

Agree with everything you have to say here about Austen - most of these comments seem to have some kind of Merchant Ivory notion of her as a kind of 'heritage' writer rather than as an astute critic.

yeah i read plenty of female writers, too many to mention here but I must mention Fred Vargas as someone who is doing excellent work in the much maligned detective genre.

Anything you would recommend, Ripley?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Margaret Atwood is a female writer I've greatly enjoyed recently.

Anyway, I've had about seven suggestions for books. Last chance to pm me with a suggestion tonight because when I come in to "work" tomorrow I will put the list up for everyone to see and won't accept any more nominations. From then on anyone who wants to can pm me one vote for a book other than their own nomination and I will also allocate a book one vote for each person who suggested it (because otherwise books suggested than more than one person would be at an instant disadvantage as they would have more people who couldn't vote for them). Hope that all makes sense.
See you tomorrow
Rich
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
anyway, does anyone here read any chicks except for jane austen?

By coincidence, Ripley, I've read a stack of Patricia Highsmith. Also Sara Paretsky. I'm an equal opportunities middle brow reader
 
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