Marlon James

[catalog]

no. the Roman Empire and dynastic succession and palace coups interests me vastly less than the Republic.

I probably should at some point, they're supposed to be good and canonical in the popular view of antiquity I guess.

I did read Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series a couple years ago, which is Tolstoyan epic covering the last 60+ years of the Republic (i.e. its most interesting, and best historically documented, period)

not sure if I'd recommend it or not - I quite liked it, but goes on forever and has a million characters, not sure if people here would be into it. the prose is also quite utilitarian, it's very focused on characters, dialogue, plot.

im a bit hazy on the chronology but i think you mean you are into the period immediately after the gravers books? the graves souhnd a bit like the one you've just read, but he does a good job of keeping you very invested in whoev er he is on about at the moment. but yeah, lotta characters. helps thats it first person which i guees the the mccullogiuh is not

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

back on Marlon James I haven't read any of the new fantasy trilogy yet but I'm looking forward to it

was going to wait until all 3 were out and then just read them at one go but maybe I'll read the first one

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

im a bit hazy on the chronology but i think you mean you are into the period immediately after the gravers books? the graves souhnd a bit like the one you've just read, but he does a good job of keeping you very invested in whoev er he is on about at the moment. but yeah, lotta characters. helps thats it first person which i guees the the mccullogiuh is not

no, the Graves books are set in the mid-first century AD, about a century after the end of the Republic

any sprawling historical novel, esp in ancient Rome, is probably going to involve a massive cast of characters, I just find the Republic much more interesting - they were still dickhead aristocratic oligarchs, but nominal equals competing to be primus inter pares is much more compelling, I think, than the typical imperial family and succession bullshit the world over - jockeying for dynastic position, poisoning, intrigues, etc.

but I don't want to hijack this Marlon James thread. @WebEschatology do you have anything to say about his fantasy trilogy? I'm curious.

 

[catalog]

i wolud just like to unreservedly apologise for all my posts from apperox 8pm aonwards

 

[forclosure]

I read about 3/4 of it and then I lost it on a long bus journey, but never bothered to buy it again. Couldn't really get into it.

But then my friend just posted it me (as an exchange present when I posted him neon screams) and my other mate was saying the subsequent Sci fi ones might be up my street cos they feature some outre sex scenes.

Always knew all that intellectual talk was just a cover for thinking with your dick

"Semiotics" yeah right

 

[forclosure]

in re sympathetic character - the obv one is the almost entirely off-page Singer (i.e. Bob) around whom the novel book orbits, tho you could probably look at some other characters (the older head gangster in the Tivoli Gardens equivalent comes to mind) as relatively sympathetic. mostly it's a book about people making decisions in difficult circumstances, occasionally other people who are creating those circumstances, and the consequences of those decisions. not sure the point of the book - or any novel - is sympathetic characters.

there's only one CIA character iirc and I didn't think he was laughable at all - he's portrayed as a frustrated imperial bureaucrat in addition to a mid-70s, paranoid CIA case officer, which rings pretty true to me.

"trying to hit a few too many things" I don't necessarily agree with but is a valid position to take, I think

I mean Bam Bam was entirely sympathetic to me

 

[forclosure]

i think it was one of those i was really looking forward to and it just went in this totally off direction for me. likr the bob depicted felt like an interesting way to do it, wheres he off to one side, if you see what i mean, but there's then this aloofness wehich stops you being arsed about him

Aloofness? Because he was treated more as a symbol than a person,fam Bob Marley was seen as a symbol even back then

 

[shakahislop]

i've got seven killings, its on the dresser at my mum's house, but every time i imagine reading it it looks like it would hurt my hands, it looks heavy

 

[forclosure]

If there was anybody I found funny it was the music journalist guy not because his character felt ridiculous but because he was so in over his head putting himself in places he had no reason to

 

[forclosure]

i've got seven killings, its on the dresser at my mum's house, but every time i imagine reading it it looks like it would hurt my hands, it looks heavy

Just start reading the book,your arms aren't that flimsy

Or maybe go take two of those E pills i know you have stored away for when you want to feel alive before you start read

 

[woops]

Always knew all that intellectual talk was just a cover for thinking with your dick

"Semiotics" yeah right

it's all one

 

[forclosure]

but I don't want to hijack this Marlon James thread. @WebEschatology do you have anything to say about his fantasy trilogy? I'm curious.

I am part of the way through the 2nd one which is different to his first one in some ways but also just as dense and strange,I liked black leopard red wolf but this one because it's more "straight forward" in terms of narrative i can see some people clicking with i easier

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I mean Bam Bam was entirely sympathetic to me

is that the older head gangster? or his queer (Omar Little vibes) right-hand man? or someone else?

been a minute since I read it, don't remember character names

agree in re the music journalist, tho he was kinda more of a plot device than a character

and cool, def gonna check the fantasy series sooner rather than later, thx

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

and @shakahislop Seven Killings is a pretty quick read

it's real-ass Literature but it moves quick, has plenty of action, doesn't drag

plenty of internal dialogue but it's not really of the knotty abstruse philosophical kind iirc

 

[forclosure]

and @shakahislop Seven Killings is a pretty quick read

it's real-ass Literature but it moves quick, has plenty of action, doesn't drag

plenty of internal dialogue but it's not really of the knotty abstruse philosophical kind iirc

If he's going to find anything knotty its the patois and that it comes in different versions

For me that was easy lol

 

[forclosure]

is that the older head gangster? or his queer (Omar Little vibes) right-hand man? or someone else?

been a minute since I read it, don't remember character names

agree in re the music journalist, tho he was kinda more of a plot device than a character

and cool, def gonna check the fantasy series sooner rather than later, thx

No bam bam was the child shooter who ended up getting buried alive

 

[luka]

i liked it when webbie was saying he was going to drown catalog in a bathtub for not liking busta rhymes. that was great.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

If he's going to find anything knotty its the patois and that it comes in different versions

I didn't find it any more difficult than getting thru Irvine Welsh Scots/Edinburgh. significantly less difficult, probably.

I do remember the child shooter and I agree he is sympathetic, tho more in the literal sense than what people usually mean by "sympathetic character"

had forgotten the live burial, tbh

what was the name of the older gangster? that dude - a real evocation of world-weariness in a difficult, inescapable situation, I thought

 

[forclosure]

I didn't find it any more difficult than getting thru Irvine Welsh Scots/Edinburgh. significantly less difficult, probably.

I do remember the child shooter and I agree he is sympathetic, tho more in the literal sense than what people usually mean by "sympathetic character"

had forgotten the live burial, tbh

what was the name of the older gangster? that dude - a real evocation of world-weariness in a difficult, inescapable situation, I thought

Papa Lo

Or if you're thinking of the really greezy don who hides his ability to speak Spanish that's Josey Wales

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Papa Lo

Or if you're thinking of the really greezy don who hides his ability to speak Spanish that's Josey Wales

I was thinking of Papa Lo

Josey Wales is also an excellent character but not sympathetic in the same way, or at all, from what I remember

tho I did like that the gangsters, at least the important ones, were three-dimensional figures with agency

rather than stereotypical rude bwoys or badmen or whatever