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~Guest 21181
The Great Fearmonger

Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 3:44 am
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:30 pm 
 

I think you missed something there ;)

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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
Posts: 11852
Location: In the Arena
PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:15 pm 
 

Yeah we talk about Gene Wolfe all the time in here. To date I've read about 20 of his novels and 3-4 short story collections (seriously). Most recently I read Castleview. A lot of his standalone novels are pretty tightly focused on one aspect of the narrative, and in this case it's a bewildering series of events that take place over the course of a day and night in a normal American town which may also be a portal into the faerie world. No unreliable narrators this time around exactly, as it's third person, but rather it's about unreliable events. People see things that might not be there, or see the same thing and think it's something else. It's a pretty wild ride, but in the end it doesn't end up having a ton of depth to it, at least compared to other Wolfe standalones. Overall it was pretty good, worth reading for sure but if you're just getting into Wolfe it shouldn't shoot to the top of your list. Definitely not the worst of his that I've read (An Evil Guest), but not the best of his standalones either (Peace or The Fifth Head of Cerberus, or even Free Live Free, if I'm feeling that way).
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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:55 am
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Location: Tyrn Gorthad
PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:12 pm 
 

Yeah, my post was a joke, my bad.

Imagine if the Dark Souls threads didn't exist, and that therefore all of the posts in them happened in the regular video games thread, then some guy came in and was like, "hey guys check out this sweet game that maybe you haven't heard of called Dark Souls. It has a really cool dark gothic atmosphere, the most amazing/rewarding combat system ever conceived and is just all around spectacular stuff." Basically you interrupted our Gene Wolfe circlejerk to tell us about Gene Wolfe!

I've been a slow reader lately. I do most of my reading in my free time at work, but there hasn't been much of that lately so I'm still plodding my way through The Dying Earth books.
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CardsOfWar
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:33 am
Posts: 856
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 10:42 pm 
 

iamntbatman wrote:
Yeah, my post was a joke, my bad.

Imagine if the Dark Souls threads didn't exist, and that therefore all of the posts in them happened in the regular video games thread, then some guy came in and was like, "hey guys check out this sweet game that maybe you haven't heard of called Dark Souls. It has a really cool dark gothic atmosphere, the most amazing/rewarding combat system ever conceived and is just all around spectacular stuff." Basically you interrupted our Gene Wolfe circlejerk to tell us about Gene Wolfe!

I've been a slow reader lately. I do most of my reading in my free time at work, but there hasn't been much of that lately so I'm still plodding my way through The Dying Earth books.


Okay then. Sorry... Teach me not to read the whole page before jumping in... I should really try to stop being such a fanatical plebeian...
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:06 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:20 am 
 

As atonement, explain the time-traveling Severian plot elements of BotNS without googling.
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:55 am
Posts: 1516
PostPosted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 7:49 am 
 

Nahsil wrote:
As atonement, explain the time-traveling Severian plot elements of BotNS without googling.


Elite level points of you can clarify the relationship between time travel and Kabbalah without going insane and eating your own head
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CardsOfWar
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:33 am
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:49 am 
 

Nahsil wrote:
As atonement, explain the time-traveling Severian plot elements of BotNS without googling.


Okay. I'm only about halfway through The Sword of The Lictor, so this might be a bit inaccurate and ill-informed, but here goes:

Spoiler: show
It seems like The Claw of the Concilliator creates a sort of bubble in time, moving an individual or a small zone to a different time in its own personal timeline. This is a pretty cheap explanation, but it seems like the claw sort of has 'a mind of its own.' It is constantly acting erratically, not based on any command, direct or indirect.

The letter delivered to Severian early on said that the woman with him was his 'mother come again.' It seems to me as if this is a sort of cumbersome way of saying 'grandmother.'(Remember, this is a manuscript being translated into English from some language that doesn't even exist yet.) Now, Severian met Dorcas at what was essentially a mass grave. It has been stated that Dorcas had children before her revival, who in turn could have very well had children of their own. I believe that one of these children is Severian, meaning that Dorcas was Severian's 'mother come again.'


So there you go. That's just one aspect of what goes on, and that's just my amateur ideas about that one aspect. I don't want my head to explode, so I'm going to stop for now...
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:06 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 6:21 pm 
 

RE BotNS I'm wondering what other people thought about (spoilers if you haven't finished)

Spoiler: show
the claw/thorn bit that's "revealed" on the beach. Was it meant to convey that the claw itself had no power, that it was Severian the whole time? And did anyone else get a really pantheistic vibe from the beach scene? I thought it was neat/interesting, coming from a Catholic/ex-Catholic/struggling Catholic/whatever. But it's been a little while and I don't remember too well.
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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:55 am
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 7:50 pm 
 

Regarding your BotNS spoilers:

Spoiler: show
Yeah, I think it's safe to say the claw itself had no power. I mean, it gets completely destroyed at some point and he takes that plant thorn that he thinks is imbued with the claw's power but there was really no explanation or reason for me to believe that that was true. So, it could be either Severian himself, or perhaps forces external to him acting to guide him?
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:22 am 
 

I recently read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and thought it was pretty great. Definitely deserving of it's reputation. It was the most profoundly human book concerning man's inhumanity to man, among many other things, I've read. It's really quite funny, too. It was a book about a little bit of everything, and quite touching in it's own singular way. So it goes. I'm planning on diving into whatever other Vonnegut books I can get my hands on in the near future. I've heard good things about Breakfast of Champions.

Currently reading Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron. This guy is great, and much more varied than other "Lovecraftian" writers, but he goes slightly overboard with the intense verbosity at times and it hurts some of his sentence construction. Sometimes you don't need to say "his lackadaisical tautology made Higgins immeasurably irate" when something simpler would have sufficed. But that's just a personal annoyance. I think Ligotti does it better.

Speaking of Ligotti, I just ordered The Spectral Link and I can't wait for it to arrive! I have My Work is Not Yet Done to tide me over in the meantime, and I'll have read everything the man has to offer. Except The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Yeah, we get it, Ligotti, existence itself is the greatest of black cosmic injustices. Or you're just depressed and it's much more interesting when you weave those thoughts into, you know, actual stories. But I digress.

Any of you scholars and gentlemen ever read A Confederacy of Dunces? I bought it last week based on the recommendation of a friend, and I hear it's one of the funniest novels ever. Any truth to that?
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andersbang
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:28 am
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:01 am 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
I recently read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and thought it was pretty great. Definitely deserving of it's reputation. It was the most profoundly human book concerning man's inhumanity to man, among many other things, I've read. It's really quite funny, too. It was a book about a little bit of everything, and quite touching in it's own singular way. So it goes. I'm planning on diving into whatever other Vonnegut books I can get my hands on in the near future. I've heard good things about Breakfast of Champions.


I really should read it again, one of my room mates is reading it right now and loving it. I haven't read more than four or five of Vonnegut's books, but be sure to check out Mother Night, it's probably my favorite.

Necroticism174 wrote:
Currently reading Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron. This guy is great, and much more varied than other "Lovecraftian" writers, but he goes slightly overboard with the intense verbosity at times and it hurts some of his sentence construction. Sometimes you don't need to say "his lackadaisical tautology made Higgins immeasurably irate" when something simpler would have sufficed. But that's just a personal annoyance. I think Ligotti does it better.

Speaking of Ligotti, I just ordered The Spectral Link and I can't wait for it to arrive! I have My Work is Not Yet Done to tide me over in the meantime, and I'll have read everything the man has to offer. Except The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Yeah, we get it, Ligotti, existence itself is the greatest of black cosmic injustices. Or you're just depressed and it's much more interesting when you weave those thoughts into, you know, actual stories. But I digress.


I love both Barron and Ligotti. Occultation is the only release of his I haven't got my hands on yet. You are quite right that his language can be a bit weird sometimes, but I guess my main criticism is his penchant to ALWAYS use an unreliable narrator (they're always drunk, on drugs, repressed or suffering from dementia). It's a great device, and he uses it masterfully many times (did you read The Croning? It's awesome and he uses it very well in it), but it's like you can't trust 80 percent of his narrators. I still love his stuff and have been genuinely creeped out by it though!

Is The Spectral Link out yet or is it only preorder?

Necroticism174 wrote:
Any of you scholars and gentlemen ever read A Confederacy of Dunces? I bought it last week based on the recommendation of a friend, and I hear it's one of the funniest novels ever. Any truth to that?


It's on my to-buy-to-read list, that's all I can tell you. Be sure to report back!

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:45 am 
 

iamntbatman wrote:
Nothing happens in Return of the King? People saying this kind of shit is why we still have the war on drugs.

Cugel's Saga is amazing so far.



Indeed! That Dying Earth stuff is actually waht turned me onto Vance. Not sure what I would have thought had I read Demon Princes first, but I think Dying Earth is exactly what I needed to get me interested in reading fantasy again. The wit and thurst of the wizardly folk had me laughing with dlight, and I liked the mythological bent of the storytelling. The Cugel books on the other hand are hilarious, and the second is particularly great. Rhialto the Marvelous is great for language and imagination but I felt like vance must have been in a shite mood when he wrote it or something. The last story in particular is a bit of an unjust downer. Still very much worth a read though. In teh final book Vance goes into a lot more detail about the magic of the Dying Earth and how it works, and the rivalries and quirks of the wizards are just as entertaining as you'd expect from him.

Been reading some Don Winslow books lately. He's a clever sort of crime fiction author who weaves a lot of social commentary and interesting observation into his work. There are loads of pop culture references to everything from US politics to surfing to how the ambience of a party changes depending on what drugs people are taking. The stories themselves are pretty straightforward but they just fly by due to the laid back, conversational yet sharp writing style. I think I can recommend him. So far I've read The Kings of Cool and its sequel, Savages (recently made into an apparently not-so-good Oliver Stone movie) and The Winter of Frankie Machine.
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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:31 am 
 

I'll get back into reading again, sometime. I've been somewhat distracted by various things such as, well, video games, but also learning Korean, socializing, and writing/grading exams and student evaluations. Those last two are finished now, though, so I should at least be able to get back to reading more during downtime at work!
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newp
Veteran

Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:07 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:42 pm 
 

andersbang wrote:
Necroticism174 wrote:
I recently read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and thought it was pretty great. Definitely deserving of it's reputation. It was the most profoundly human book concerning man's inhumanity to man, among many other things, I've read. It's really quite funny, too. It was a book about a little bit of everything, and quite touching in it's own singular way. So it goes. I'm planning on diving into whatever other Vonnegut books I can get my hands on in the near future. I've heard good things about Breakfast of Champions.


I really should read it again, one of my room mates is reading it right now and loving it. I haven't read more than four or five of Vonnegut's books, but be sure to check out Mother Night, it's probably my favorite.

Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors, I've been re-reading his novels over the past month. If you have the chance check out Hocus Pocus and Cat's Cradle, those are two of my favorites. Hocus Pocus in particular, it's thematically very similar to Slaugherhouse but probably even more sardonic.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:18 pm 
 

For whatever reason, I've just never been a huge Vonnegut fan. He kind of irks me in the same way that Bradbury occasionally does. But I enjoyed Cat's Cradle especially for the way
Spoiler: show
the ending/last couple of paragraphs basically just pull the ground out from beneath your feet and, well, change everything. I'm a sucker for a real sudden "whoa, what the hell?" kind of ending, I guess.
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~Guest 214846
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:06 am
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:02 pm 
 

I've started reading 2666 after putting it off for quite awhile (I'm pretty hesitant on novels once they exceed 500 pages or so). I'm only about 100 pages in but it's very interesting so far and I'm excited to read further tonight.

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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:55 am
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:06 pm 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:

Any of you scholars and gentlemen ever read A Confederacy of Dunces? I bought it last week based on the recommendation of a friend, and I hear it's one of the funniest novels ever. Any truth to that?


Yeah, read it many times. Along with Amis' "Lucky Jim" it's one of the things I turn to when I've gotten depressed by my usual reading and need some cheering up. It is really clever and funny - not sure if it lives up to the massive hype, but it's certainly worth reading.
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:31 pm 
 

@andersbang: Yes, the Spectral Link came out at the end of June. I haven't read the Croning, Occultation is my first Barron book, but I can already see how much he loves himself some unreliable narrators. It makes some stories a bit too vague for my liking (kind of like Ligotti's weaker stories).

@Scorntyrant: That's great to hear! The epic multi-year failed saga to adapt it into a film alone was enough to sell me on it. I'd never heard of Lucky Jim, I initially thought you were referring to Martin Amis, who's novel Money is quite hilarious indeed.
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theposega
Mezla

Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:42 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 10:27 am 
 

Finished a few books since my last post here.

Steven Erikson's House of Chains was amazing. The whole Karsa Orlong storyline was probably the best thing about the series so far, though I'd still say Memories of Ice is my personal favorite. Really hope it isn't the last of Karsa Orlong cause goddamn. And while sometimes his prose can be weird and disjointed and make me have to reread sentences multiple times to figure out what the fuck is happening, Erikson's ability to build something up one way and then completely turn it on its head is truly something to behold.

James S. A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes was really cool. Fun, kinda dumb space opera stuff with a nice little dash of horror elements.

I know how hated the series is here but I enjoyed Robert Jordan's The Great Hunt. Yeah, it can be cheesy as hell, and sure he may borrow just a little too much from Tolkien but I can't help but be charmed by the series. I find the myrddraal/trollocs/Ba'alzamon stuff to be genuinely creepy in a way I can't say I ever felt about the Nazgul.

Up next is Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco to help me get into the Halloween mood. First time with anything Ligotti so I hope he lives up to the hype.
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Jophelerx
Metalhead

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2014 10:37 am 
 

theposega wrote:
I know how hated the series is here but I enjoyed Robert Jordan's The Great Hunt. Yeah, it can be cheesy as hell, and sure he may borrow just a little too much from Tolkien but I can't help but be charmed by the series. I find the myrddraal/trollocs/Ba'alzamon stuff to be genuinely creepy in a way I can't say I ever felt about the Nazgul.


Yay, someone else on this board who doesn't hate the series! To be fair, I recognize and understand most of the problems people bring against it, it just doesn't bother me all that much. I'm going through book 9, been on it for awhile mainly because I've been super busy this semester. The series has certainly slowed down by this point, and fucking Tuon is here now (super ugh, Morrigan can sympathize) but some characters are still fun and I just want to get through the whole thing after putting so much work into it. The first 6, maybe 7, are very good though I'd say, especially the first two and the fourth, great stuff. Not the best series ever, but I've been into it since I was younger (13 I think), one of the first series for adults I got into, so I just have to fucking finish the thing. At least Rand and Mat scene are still pretty decent.
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MacMoney
Man of the Cloth

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:52 am 
 

theposega wrote:
Steven Erikson's House of Chains was amazing. The whole Karsa Orlong storyline was probably the best thing about the series so far, though I'd still say Memories of Ice is my personal favorite. Really hope it isn't the last of Karsa Orlong cause goddamn. And while sometimes his prose can be weird and disjointed and make me have to reread sentences multiple times to figure out what the fuck is happening, Erikson's ability to build something up one way and then completely turn it on its head is truly something to behold.


Everyone seems to love Karsa, but I keep finding him one of the dullest and most annoying of the mains in the series.

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CardsOfWar
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:33 am
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:18 am 
 

I just recently started reading the classic novel, Moby Dick, and I've got to say, its classic status seems very well-deserved. Even though (so far) there has largely only been pretty mundane happenings, (especially when compared to the fantasy literature I usually read) they're all written about in such a charismatic manner that when I'm reading it I don't really mind.
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Scorntyrant
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:55 am
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:16 am 
 

Ordered a copy of Jorge Luis Borges collected fiction which arrived the other day. Reading "A universal history of iniquity" (his first collection of short stories) at the moment - nice to be reminded about how much I always enjoyed his work.
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failsafeman
Digital Dictator

Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 8:36 pm 
 

So I finally finished Jack Vance's Alastor trilogy (having taken breaks between each book to read other stuff), and my initial verdict is that it ranks up there with Vance's best. Each book was connected in setting only (and the Connatic, the godlike ruler of the Alastor cluster), and each focused on one of the huge variety of worlds in the cluster. What makes the books different from Vance's other best stuff (Demon Princes, Durdane, Planet of Adventure, etc.) is that in Alastor it's the culture of the planet that takes center stage and even directs the plot.

Of course all of Vance's works are famous for the weird cultures he comes up with, but not only are these some of his best, they also form the basis and even the structure of the stories themselves, instead of just being the background. For example: the first of the trilogy takes place on a planet of islands where life is easy, the people are laid-back, and sports are extremely popular. Much like the people, the plot is laid-back, content to let things happen as they come, and in no particular hurry or urgency. The son of a local landowner joins the interplanetary military, and returns home after ten years to find his father dead, his older brother missing, and himself the head of the household - however, his (slightly younger) twin brother has no interest in the land and the titles and has in fact badly mismanaged their holdings. So, the older twin must put things to right - by WINNING at SPORTS! What would seem like a directionless plot actually ends up being massively entertaining, since Vance is able to convey very convincingly that this is just how these people live - unhurried lives, concerned mostly with ease and entertainment and only minimal labor. In fact, the "evil" twin joins a cult-like movement that exults puritanical hard work and striving and modesty - much to the dismay of his brother. In essence, it's the cultures themselves which are the main characters - each with their own quirks, strengths, weaknesses, all richly realized.

The third one, Wyst, is probably the best - Wyst's culture is like a typical dystopian megacity with a massive population, moving sidewalks or "man-ways", and an unchanging diet of mediocre food that everyone is legally obligated to subsist on - combined with a utopia, because nobody has to work more than 12 hours a week, everyone is equal, and food and lodgings are freely available to all. A young painter from another planet wins a contest and decides to visit Wyst, where he's read the light is perfect for painting. He's placed in an apartment building and then for about 150 pages just immerses himself in this bizarre culture of aggressive, egocentric pleasure-seeking and disdain for labor. Only then does the plot show up!

Anyway it's hard to explain what's so good about these books without just summarizing them; everything is just really well-constructed and a delight to read, and the cultures really come across as alien and different, with their own unique mindsets, rather than people just like us who wear funny clothing. The second book for example centers around a culture that is utterly ruled by puritanical custom, to the point where they're revolted by the act of eating and drinking and use special screens to hide their mouths from each other when they eat in a group. The main character is an amnesiac, and as soon as he returns home he's beset by these tiny indignities that wouldn't even be noticed by normal people - for example the fanfare that greets his return is slightly insulting to a person of his station, the table that is set for him includes a chair that is normally for servants, and a million other things that attempt to subtly undermine his position, until he finally gets the hang of it and starts exerting his own influence in the war of manners and status. It's nuts, but it makes sense because Vance lays it out in such a way that it becomes engrossing.

Anyway, in short: A+, fans of Vance should read, Jonpo doesn't know what he's talking about.
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Nahsil
Clerical Sturmgeschütz

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 10:51 pm 
 

I have that trilogy in a single book, will have to take a look at it when I have time (stupid grad school readings).
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Thumbman
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 11:49 pm 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
I recently read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and thought it was pretty great. Definitely deserving of it's reputation.

Fuck, I should really get around to finishing that. Read the first quarter of it and really enjoyed it but then I had to go back to school and never ended up picking it up again. Also, Confederacy of Dunces is another one I've been meaning to read; got it as a present and just haven't got around to it yet.
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Ancient Sunlight
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:36 am
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 8:28 am 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
I recently read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and thought it was pretty great. Definitely deserving of it's reputation.

I'll be reading it soon - probably for the book club I'm in (don't laugh!).

iamntbatman wrote:
I'll get back into reading again, sometime. I've been somewhat distracted by various things such as, well, video games, but also learning Korean, socializing, and writing/grading exams and student evaluations. Those last two are finished now, though, so I should at least be able to get back to reading more during downtime at work!

There are other approaches to reading, next to the straightforward one. I'm an awful reader, technically: I have extreme difficulties reading for prolonged periods of time -- more than half an hour is usually rather vexing; and I rarely read books from cover to cover too. By having many books by my side, and reading many shorter pieces (essays, poetry) I can remain an active reader, bypassing many of my limitations.

Scorntyrant wrote:
Ordered a copy of Jorge Luis Borges collected fiction which arrived the other day. Reading "A universal history of iniquity" (his first collection of short stories) at the moment - nice to be reminded about how much I always enjoyed his work.

Have you read the Collected Non-fictions? There are some great things in there, including film reviews and capsule biographies! I also really like Professor Borges, which contains some excellent lectures transcribed by his students, filled with great lines ("One of a writer’s most important works—perhaps the most important of all—is the image he leaves of himself in the memory of men, above and beyond the pages he has written"). His note on the nature of reading is insightful, and worthy of repeating here:

Quote:
I believe that the phrase “obligatory reading” is a contradiction in terms; reading should not be obligatory. Should we ever speak of “obligatory pleasure”? What for? Pleasure is not obligatory, pleasure is something we seek. Obligatory happiness! We seek happiness as well. For twenty years, I have been a professor of English Literature in the School of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Buenos Aires, and I have always advised my students: If a book bores you, leave it; don’t read it because it is famous, don’t read it because it is modern, don’t read a book because it is old. If a book is tedious to you, leave it, even if that book is Paradise Lost—which is not tedious to me—or Don Quixote—which also is not tedious to me. But if a book is tedious to you, don’t read it; that book was not written for you. Reading should be a form of happiness, so I would advise all possible readers of my last will and testament—which I do not plan to write—I would advise them to read a lot, and not to get intimidated by writers’ reputations, to continue to look for personal happiness, personal enjoyment. It is the only way to read.


I recently finished John Batchelor's biography of John Ruskin ("No Wealth but Life"), and am currently reading Hazlitt in Love by Jon Cook - a mini-biography about the period of Hazlitt's life from which stems the infamous Liber Amoris; Or, The New Pygmalion.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 12:07 pm 
 

Ancient Sunlight wrote:
There are other approaches to reading, next to the straightforward one. I'm an awful reader, technically: I have extreme difficulties reading for prolonged periods of time -- more than half an hour is usually rather vexing; and I rarely read books from cover to cover too. By having many books by my side, and reading many shorter pieces (essays, poetry) I can remain an active reader, bypassing many of my limitations.


I definitely tend to prefer reading (novels, anyway) in extended chunks of time. Several hours on a rainy day, or several hours in a park in the sun, or whatever. It's actually much tougher for me to make progress reading in many smaller doses.
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 3:05 pm 
 

Just picked up The Stars My Destination at the library - if it's good enough for Mike Scalzi it's good enough for me!
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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 6:58 pm 
 

Just found some Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche books. I'm a huge fan of all of them and I already have a bunch of books of Fyodor but never read White Nights before. I did and I cried like a child. It's not like the story is too deep and complicated but the main character resonated in me so much I couldn't help but feel in my very skin his own feelings, more like a remembrance than anything else.

Obviously autors like Pessoa read it as well (and probably also cried).
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StainedClass95
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:33 pm 
 

CardsOfWar wrote:
I just recently started reading the classic novel, Moby Dick, and I've got to say, its classic status seems very well-deserved. Even though (so far) there has largely only been pretty mundane happenings, (especially when compared to the fantasy literature I usually read) they're all written about in such a charismatic manner that when I'm reading it I don't really mind.


I remember reading Moby Dick several years ago, and it still stands as the most boring book I've ever read. It's nice to hear that someone else enjoy it, but it was a massive chore for me to finish.

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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 9:45 pm 
 

Occultation was excellent! Almost on par with Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco for sheer greatness and singular narrative voice, in my mind. Lair Barron writes a variety of characters in a variety of settings that Lovecraft could only dream of. Such sure, masterful, evocative writing and word choice. Not a weak story in the lot, with the standout being The Lagerstatte. He's very, very fond of unreliable narrators. Having them in all but two of the stories. But he does it in an incredibly subtle way. I loved it.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:39 am 
 

I really need to hop on Ligotti, and I guess Barron too. Too many school readings...
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theposega
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:13 pm 
 

Finished Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance yesterday and I'm still trying to recover. Best book I've ever read. Cannot recommend that series enough. Holy shit.
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niix
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 4:06 pm 
 

..
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Last edited by niix on Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 5:37 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:
I really need to hop on Ligotti, and I guess Barron too. Too many school readings...

You really do!
Read the Spectral Link by Ligotti. Really slim volume. The first story, Metaphysical Morum is everything I dislike about Ligotti. It's muddled, doesn't have a clear goal, is basically an excuse for Ligotti to be all "murrrrr existence is futile." Even the "horror" elements are pretty random and not that good. The other story, on the other hand, The Small People is excellent. One of the most human tales he's ever written, and profoundly disquieting. Not the book you want to start with for Ligotti though.
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So good. Makes me want to break up with my girlfriend, quit my job and never move out of my parents house. Just totally destroy my life for Satan.

http://halberddoom.bandcamp.com/releases

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Jophelerx
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:35 pm 
 

theposega wrote:
Finished Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance yesterday and I'm still trying to recover. Best book I've ever read. Cannot recommend that series enough. Holy shit.


Yeah I really need to read that one, the first book knocked me on my ass, fucking amazing. Once I finish slogging through WoT (I *will* finish it eventually, damn it!), that's definitely next on my list. Can't wait.
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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 6:24 am 
 

Found some other nice books yesterday.

Borges' Fictions is just excellent. The closest to Lovecraft I've read (besides Poe which was like the origin), yet it has its own character.

Dostoyevsky's The Gambler was a nice surprise. It starts like a typical story then, as it happens with Fyodor's tormented characters' goes into a maelstrom of madness.

Also got Mann's The Buddenbrook, Saramago's Small Memories, Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, A nice compendium of Poe's tales, Molière's The Imaginary Invalid and Osho's fear itself (as a present to someone else, but still very good).
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:05 pm 
 

Borges is way better than Lovecraft :P no offense to Lovecraft.
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shouvince
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:22 pm 
 

I recently finished reading a book by xkcd writer, Randall Munroe, called "What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions". It was a lot of fun reading his scientifically accurate (?) speculative answers to really silly questions like - "what will happen if you throw a baseball at the speed of light" and many more.

At present, I'm torn between reading Assassin's Apprentice (Robin Hobb) and Embassytown (China Mieville). I've started both though, will eventually end up reading one of them completely first.

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