what are you reading now?

[slowtrain]

Only really half a post here,

But I found the names in 100YOS to be fairly easy to follow, but I really struggle with the names in Russian lit. Dunno why that is?

Also, you guys have made that Potocki book sounds really appealing to me, haha.

Will have to look into it.

 

[e/y]

was it Borges who said that 100YOS was about 50 years to long...?
re-reading it now, actually, and the names are still a pain to keep track of.

I've given up on C&P 3-4 times now. tried reading it in Russian at first, but only got through a few chapters before switching to an English translation, which was easier to read but lacked a bit of the power of the original text.

 

[Mr. Tea]

But I found the names in 100YOS to be fairly easy to follow, but I really struggle with the names in Russian lit. Dunno why that is?

Well in 100YoS the names are all Spanish, which probably makes them more familiar to most English-speakers than Russian names. Also, IIRC, they're (individually) quite short and easy to pronounce: Juan, Carlos etc. Whereas a lot of Russian names are quite long and gnarly ("Mr Lebezyatnikov").

What's confusing in 100YoS is that there's like six generations of men in this one dynasty who all have exactly the same name, and in one generation there's something like 12 or 15 brothers, all with the same name...zomg, wacky!!

 

[luka]

crime and punishment is nang. i like how russians, particulalry russian women are in a state of perpetual hysteria.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah, they don't come across as a particularly chilled-out bunch.

 

[you]

There are loads of small little things in Dostoevsky text that amuse me. He, or the translators perhaps tend to use the same description over and over again, maybe it's a translation issue. I can't remember which book or character it was who kept 'mincing his feet' in between almost every exchange, I smiled as I had a picture of some russian in skinny jeans and pointy trainers tap dancing and posturing all the way though a scene! Another thing that makes me chuckle is how often the guys use there teeth to express feelings, loads of characters grind their teeth (not observed this myself in a pub in england, maybe at Glastonbury but that different....) and gnash their teeth when they get cross with someone - I get this mental image of some red faced vexed russian dude opening up massive jaws and gnashing pointy teeth making comical gnash gnash gnash sounds at the other characters..

One thing I like about Dostoevsky though is how all the characters are pretty much losers, the amount of page space devoted to the protagonist's internal monologues of regret and second thoughts... 'shit, should've done this, could've done that, that would've shown them'.... - for anyone who over analyses stuff it's easy to relate to, i'm not a big emotional empathiser when I read but this trick really works on me.

 

[IdleRich]

"Hmm, I thought that a lot of the ideas were still under-explored and that the book ran out of steam towards the end. I agree that it was a less ambitious book than IJ but I feel that it succeeded less even on its own terms than IJ. Not read Oblivion though."

By the way, what is it with DFW and legs? In both Broom of the System and Infinite Jest one of the main protagonists had a brother with a special leg which he (the brother) referred to as The Leg - in one case a prosthetic due to an accident when he was born, in the other an almost superhuman leg which propelled him to an unhappy stardom as a kicker in american football. These two cases seem to mirror each other.
The lack of resolution in Broom was different from that in Infinite Jest which made me want to figure things out, it just left me feeling that maybe Wallace isn't good at endings.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Other than a few bits here and there, I havent read much fantasy in about 20 years, but loving the game of thrones books. Was always suspicious of Martin TBH. Fevre dream was pretty good, but avoided his fantasy stuff. That was a mistake.

I'm not into fantasy stuff either, so I've only just clocked that its the same guy who wrote Sandkings. Now thats a great collection of nasty little Sci-fi stories. Game of thrones definitely worth checking out then? What are they like?

 

[Mr. Tea]

There are loads of small little things in Dostoevsky text that amuse me. He, or the translators perhaps tend to use the same description over and over again, maybe it's a translation issue.

I read the Odyssey years back and it does the same thing. The phrase "As soon as Dawn appeared, fresh and rosy-fingered..." seemed to start every other bloody paragraph, it was annoying at first but then I just started to find it funny. I assume it's a direct translation as no modern author would do that unless they were either unforgivably terrible or taking the piss. There are also lots of amusingly semi-homoerotic lines that go something like "He arose and put on his gleaming armour, and stepped out looking a god...".

Rich, it's funny how authors fixate on certain things, isn't it? Murakami seems to have a thing for women's ears. And how James Clavell is obsessed with penises, especially European penises and how superior they are in size to Japanese ones, after I noticed this in Shogun and you said "yeah, he mentions that in all the other books too."

 

[slowtrain]

Well in 100YoS the names are all Spanish, which probably makes them more familiar to most English-speakers than Russian names. Also, IIRC, they're (individually) quite short and easy to pronounce: Juan, Carlos etc. Whereas a lot of Russian names are quite long and gnarly ("Mr Lebezyatnikov").

What's confusing in 100YoS is that there's like six generations of men in this one dynasty who all have exactly the same name, and in one generation there's something like 12 or 15 brothers, all with the same name...zomg, wacky!!

Yes, I think in 100YoS, all the names were always different (if still very similar.)
E.g, the first one was always José Arcadio Buendía, while the son was always just José Arcadio.

All the Ivans in Russian lit do my head in I think.

EDIT: I can agree with Murakami on ears. I think they're one of the best parts of a cute girl. The clavicle is also important (but this is for another thread.)

 

[smokeyrobinson]

Wharton - House of Mirth

 

[viktorvaughn]

Well yeah. It's a literary device that can serve multiple ends. I meant repetitive with the implication of dullness, boredom, of going over old ground in a way which doesn't result in any deeper engagement with the subject at hand, in a storyline that becomes utterly predictable, etc. But yes, repetition of something in itself isn't bad.

JG Ballard also, especially crash with lots of repetition about engine/seminal fluid dripping off broken indicator rods, smashed up metal grilles etc, massive repetition going on in phrasing

 

[viktorvaughn]

Absolutely. Also, although it's big it's (in most parts at least) kind of a page-turner (not so much because you want to find out what happens next, although at times that is true as well, but because of the sheer fun it is to read) and I don't think it takes long to read. Took me less than two weeks and my friend took it on a one week holiday with him on my recommendation and he has nearly finished it after that. I mean, most books are what, three hundred pages long and I suspect you wouldn't think that reading three of them would necessarily require an investment of an unreasonable amount of time.

I'm 300 pages in now and loving it. Was semi unsure for the first 100 pages but now I’m into the rhythm of it and the length is no longer daunting but a nice thing as I know I have 700 pages more to enjoy.

I’m, not sure what purpose it being set in the near future rather than the present is yet. It also gives you the courage to read other long books which is good. Might try Bonfire of the Vanities next as I have not read that.

It's one of those books that I am amazed on person’s head could contain all those ideas in, properly seems like a semi genius or something.

 

[droid]

I'm not into fantasy stuff either, so I've only just clocked that its the same guy who wrote Sandkings. Now thats a great collection of nasty little Sci-fi stories. Game of thrones definitely worth checking out then? What are they like?

It starts with a fairly straightforward scenario, rival families/characters jooustling for political power in a fairly prosaic medieval setting, told through first person chapters from 8 or so characters.. then it just keeps on expanding, with more characters, more cultures, multiple epic battles, huge chunks of complex history revealed as the narrative unwinds... quite dark and brutal, with very little actual 'fantasy' in there until the later books. Offhand the only comparisons I can think of in terms of complexity are Neal Stephenson's Baroque trilogy, maybe a touch of Eco's 'Baudalino' in there too.

Its not without its flaws though. The first three books are pretty amazing, 4 suffered from some poor editing decisions I think. Definitely as readable as Tolkein.

 

[IdleRich]

Surprised that everyone is giving up on the Saragossa Manuscript - I guess it's repetitive and sags in the middle but surely not enough to make one give up. The film cuts a lot of the fat out I guess if you like the overall story.

 

[IdleRich]

"I’m, not sure what purpose it being set in the near future rather than the present is yet. It also gives you the courage to read other long books which is good. Might try Bonfire of the Vanities next as I have not read that."

Bonfire of the Vanities is an awful lot more simplistic and easy to read than IJ - not to say that it's not good, I just mean that you definitely don't need to prepare yourself for it by reading books that are considered kinda difficult.

 

[drilla]

JG Ballard also, especially crash with lots of repetition about engine/seminal fluid dripping off broken indicator rods, smashed up metal grilles etc, massive repetition going on in phrasing

i meant to go back in and count all the 'chrome's and 'chromium's after reading it but haven't

 

[slowtrain]

Definitely as readable as Tolkein.

My 14 year old self would like to:

 

[droid]

My 14 year old self would like to:

I had that experience with LOTR as well, but got into it. Read it again about ten years back and couldnt put it down....

 

[Gregor XIII]

Hmm, I thought that a lot of the ideas were still under-explored and that the book ran out of steam towards the end. I agree that it was a less ambitious book than IJ but I feel that it succeeded less even on its own terms than IJ. Not read Oblivion though.

You're right. But I just love the terms that BotS work on, even though it doesn't really develop them that well. There is this sense of posibility and freedom in the book. You can do what you want about language, you can use your tv as you want to, and if people create this vast conspiracy to do something to you, well, who cares. In IJ, everone is an addict and the world is almost destroyed. DFW really discarded a lot of the ideas from his earlier work, probably because they were incredibly naive and useless. They made me happy, though.

Another example is the setting in time. Normally, when you set something in the future you can create anything you will. BotS is set three years into the future, just for kicks. IJ is set in the near future, but most of the changes are for the worst, and has been driven by addictions and human weakness. For contrast, the final short story in Oblivion is set in the office of a magazine, located in WTC, and the time is summer 2001... It doesn't really play into the story, you just know that everyone is going to die from page 1, which is why this is not a spoiler.

On names: The thing that confuses me with Russian books is that everyone always has so many nicknames. Peter Petrovitj Petrokov will be called Peter, Pjotr, Petja, Peter Petrovitj or Petrokov, depending on who he is talking to.