Suggest a Book for the dissensus book club!

rivetrenuck

rivetrenuck

Well-known member
Just mentioned this in another thread, but since this is a sticky i reckon i should mention it here as well.

A Taste of Life by Mahesh Bhatt
 
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faustus

Well-known member
100 pages in.

Amazing: both the Claude Sylvanshine sections, the Toni Ware trailer park section.

The rest - we'll see. Lots of characters caught in double-binds, relationships, sweating, being too nice. Some meh stuff about authorship and copyright.

Was much more excited about it at 30 pages in than now. But gonna take my time, don't want to finish too soon, which is always a good feeling.
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
he mentions a rufige kru song in the book.

first chapter was a lot of fun. second chapter it goes into a realist state of the nation sort of stuff. bit of a downer. i wanted more of the frantic author twat racing around for stuff to plagiarise (this might be more my own problems, than the authors)

i recommend it to all of you regardless.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Im reading this now, about halfway through. Ambivalent so far, writing seems quite stilted, though there are some great raving descriptions and the whole thing is suffused with nostalgia.
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
droid said:
Im reading this now, about halfway through. Ambivalent so far, writing seems quite stilted, though there are some great raving descriptions and the whole thing is suffused with nostalgia.
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some good bits of dystopia but he didnt go quite far enough with it IMO.

i know it was only meant to be slightly in the future, but while it was weird/troubling enough, it also seemed a bit reserved on that front.

ive not read his non fiction books, but i can imagine what theyre like after reading this.

the first chapter promised a bit of a caper, but i dont think hes able to hide the transparency of his socio-realist observations/predictions in the narrative yet.

each new character/chapter seemed slightly too in service of delivering his prognosis on modern britain.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
I dont mind that too much actually, its in the grand sci-fi tradition - if anything, Id like more of the near-future expositions.

Just reading Nick's bit now. Impact of corporate culture on public service bureaucracy with the purpose of immiserating all involved is quite well observed.
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
droid said:
I dont mind that too much actually, its in the grand sci-fi tradition - if anything, Id like more of the near-future expositions.

Just reading Nick's bit now. Impact of corporate culture on public service bureaucracy with the purpose of immiserating all involved is quite well observed.
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admittedly i am a bit under-read when it comes to sci-fi. going to change that this year. but i think we agree - id have liked more near future exposition myself.

the nick chapter/character is one of the best.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Posting books to each other sounds like a great idea but I guess the cost of postage both ways makes it cheaper to just buy a second hand copy yourself, right?
 
sufi

sufi

lala
droid said:
You should've received a mail...
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I did, and got engrossed in the PDF rather quickly - sorry i shoulda written to say TA!
Enjoying the tale a lot so far...

Corpsey said:
Posting books to each other sounds like a great idea but I guess the cost of postage both ways makes it cheaper to just buy a second hand copy yourself, right?
Click to expand...

Well maybe, nice to get stuff in the post though, perhaps we could add marginalia or something, kinda like Napalm Chef's notorious dissensus cassette swap
 
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