what are you reading now?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I think that's why there's such a huge market in this country for 'journalism' of the Jordan's cellulite-divorce-abortion-drugs-booze-cancer ordeal EXCLUSIVE!!! stripe: we, the common people, simply can't bear the thought that being rich, famous and beautiful actually might make people happy, so we delight in their every downfall.
(OK, so 'beautiful' might be stretching it a bit in Jordan's case, but you know what I mean.)
(OK, so 'beautiful' might be stretching it a bit in Jordan's case, but you know what I mean.)
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This is one of the things I love most about it. It's about what it means to dream, particularly about what it means to live in a kind of society where you are encouraged to believe your dreams are attainable. It is also about what you give up and what you gain by having this basically non-compatible spiritual belief in the material world. Thematically, it actually sort of reminds me a bit of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, but more American.
Fitzgerald is also my favourite prose stylist of all. He is obsessively concerned with complex structure and vision, but writes very simply and directly. He is able to get poetic on you without making you a little nauseous, since he doesn't rely on flowery and narcissistic language to make his imagery vivid. I admire that level of professionalism and objectivity. In my mind he's like a synthesis of only the good qualities of Hemingway and Conrad.
IdleRich
IdleRich
That's basically what Jacqueline Susan (is that her name? The one who wrote Valley of the Dolls) said about her writing strategy. Beautiful/rich people - because they're more interesting of course - but they have to suffer so that the proles who read her don't become jealous.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I just read Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark and enjoyed it a lot although it was relatively slight and it sort of felt as though he had explored a lot of the same themes in Blood Meridian and possibly gone further in the later book. One thing I wonder though, what is it with McCarthy and these mysterious and possibly supernatural characters that always crop up in his books as some kind of personification of death or fate or evil or something? I'm thinking the mysterious trio in this book, Judge Holden in Blood Meridian and Chigurh in No Country For Old Men.
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
The front page of the Daily Star http://includemeout2.blogspot.com/2011/06/daily-star.html 
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
Ballard's 'Concrete Island', which I'm ashamed to say I had never got 'round to until now, even though I'm a fan. Man stuck on wastleand in the middle of motorways. Brilliant.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Just started The Narrow Corner by Maugham whom I've never read before but if this is anything to go by I'll be reading more. It's a light touch story of men without morals up to no good in and around the islands of the pacific - a setting I find interesting although I've never read much set in these parts. Kind of reminds me of Conrad in its colonialism but it's much easier to read and less ponderous.
Anyone know any good stories set around those parts with smugglers and opium and the like? It's the sort of thing Graham Greene could do well I guess.
Anyone know any good stories set around those parts with smugglers and opium and the like? It's the sort of thing Graham Greene could do well I guess.
Imperial by William Vollmann.
A very long piece of jounalism rather than a novel, although some of it is fiction. It's about the border between Mexico and California, and the illegal immigration, agriculture, water flow, desertification, salinity, maquiladoras, smuggling and everything else that contributes to the make-up of the place. it's exhaustive to say the least. and really, really good.
A very long piece of jounalism rather than a novel, although some of it is fiction. It's about the border between Mexico and California, and the illegal immigration, agriculture, water flow, desertification, salinity, maquiladoras, smuggling and everything else that contributes to the make-up of the place. it's exhaustive to say the least. and really, really good.
slowtrain
Well-known member
Heh, I remember trying to read this in fifth form (thought it'd be like the Crash movie or something) - I can still remember it in pretty fair detail, the wine bottles, the bit when his wife drives past, etc.
The writing in it just seemed so harsh. Not in a cruel or mean way, but just in a really uninviting (I suppose, in a concrete-motorway-way), barren and emotion-less and I suppose 'poetry'-less way. Thats just what I remember though, might be miles offf. I read Crash (the book) as well, don't remember a word of that,
Definitely gotta revisit them sometime soon.
EDIT: I'm reading Eco's Baudolino at the moment, not as good as The Name of the Rose, but its a lot of fun. Monsters, lies, theological and scientifical discussions that go on for pages and pages. I love how he manages to sneak his theory in so subtly and unobtrusively.
luka
Well-known member
i dont think the narrator from notes fom undrground s a prat or a partridge. a lot of what h says is very insightful and important. hs not a 'winner' in the charlie sheen sense but hes not a prat. not loathsome in th slighest in my opinion. not admirable exactly but crtainly not loathsome.
Ballard - one half-good idea spun out over two dozen mediocre books. Plus Empire of the Sun. To clarify: he cannot write for shit.
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You Bright & Risen Angels by Vollmann has some spectacular passages - a ship trying to navigate through a jungle creek and being lifted out of the water by hungry/curious vegetation springs to mind.
I've been trying to get my hands on The Atlas for years, but it's very elusive. Then there's Rising Up & Rising Down, his multi-volume work on violence... anybody?
bandshell
Grand High Witch
I just disliked him because at one time or another I've agreed with what he's saying / done similar things.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Can't really discuss this in any depth since it's been a while since I read it, but I remember that when I read 'Notes From The Underground' I couldn't figure out how sympathetic the narrator was supposed to be. I suppose not particularly, given Dostoevsky's religious leanings... I think I took him to be blinded, a comically/tragically limited observer of the world and of himself. But at the same time, his attacks on pompous and corrupt individuals were sympathetic in a sense. Isn't he supposed to represent a certain ideological type in 19th Century Russia? A type that Dostoevsky felt enmity towards?
I'm stalled halfway through 'Great Expectations' at the moment. I was falling in love with it a few weeks ago and then I took an ill advised break and now I can't bring myself to start reading it again
This happens with a lot of books for me. No self-discipline.
luka
Well-known member
ballard writes good prose but its fun to attack sacred cows i agree. a lot of what the narrator of notes says i think dostoyevsky would agree with. hes not a hero obviously but the attacks on all he silly things that weere happening at the time all thee stuff about a rational world of rational people pursuing their own self intereest in a rational way, which he scoffs at is very good and still relevant today. theres still crazed ideologues around, it all still holds....