Chris

That's fair, I was just speaking to the broader point I suppose, which is probably outside the scope of what was being specifically discussed.

That's a more typical length for a novel so yeah I'm sure there will be selections in that ballpark. Our first book wasn't chosen because it's short, although that did seem like a tertiary benefit for a debut. We will definitely consider episodes on books none of us has read. I think we're probably roughly going to be alternating between the three of us when it comes to suggesting books, and someone could easily nominate a book he hasn't read.

Comparing Harry Potter and Game of Thrones is a pretty specific example because those are both series/franchises. An author simply writing a novel, and not beholden to writing a long (often even indefinitely long) series like that is probably less likely to be worrying about that crowd-pleasing thing, because what's important is creating a satisfying and meaningful work in and of itself, and not a character (or set of characters) the reader is compelled to keep following for many books' worth.

I was browsing around a bookstore today and as I was leaving I saw a hardcover copy of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on sale, so I bought it. Hooray!

This is an incredible post

That would be a strikethrough tag complemented by a soiler tag

WELL I THINK THIS IS JUST BULLSHIT, ADULTS SHOULD BE PERFECTLY FREE TO ENJOY CHILDREN'S BOOBS AND YOUNG ADULT BOOBS

The PAX show is not so much a typical TMA episode as it is a general show about the state of strategy games, so I'd say it's actually a great entry point.

Yeah, I've been meaning to get around to that as well.

Fair enough. I sort of agree in theory, but in practice, it's hard for me to see much going on in (for example) Lord of the Rings on any really meaningful level. That's not to say there definitely isn't, and it's been a number of years since I've read it so I can't be utterly confident here, but it kind of strikes me as a pretty quintessential example of a straightforward story whose characters have fairly little depth. Among contemporary fiction I've recently read: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Sight for Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell, Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. Not all of those works are equally excellent, obviously, but they're all at least good. They all have a lot to say about being a human being in a world filled with other people.

Yeah definitely, that's what I mean by interior lives.

The soundtrack is cool in that half of it is the actual in-world jazz by the Chico Hamilton Quintet, and half of it is the amazing original score by Elmer Bernstein.

Paddy Cheyefsky Billy Wilder (pretty much always as a collaborator) Woody Allen Francis Ford Coppola P.T. Anderson Ernest Lehman Clifford Odets (his greatest work, Sweet Smell of Success, is credited to him along with Ernest Lehman and the film's director Alexander Mackendrick, but it's a matter of record that Odets is essentially responsible for the screenplay) Martin Scorsese (always as a collaborator)

Okay, our web guy Doug wiped out that restriction, so it should be fine now. Reply here again if it's still not working.

We don't even really know anymore. This forum is a hacky piece of shit and we set our permissions so many years ago that they've been difficult to unravel them. We're going to upgrade to better forum software in the hopefully very near future and that should address some of these problems. You can see your post count under your name in any post you make, and posts to Idle Banter don't increase your post count.

I think it's neither of these things. I don't think many people (including me) go around constantly obsessed with the things they have opinions about and actively applying them in that kind of zealous way. (I know you weren't suggesting that is actually the case, but rather were essentially presenting a devil's advocate position.) Happiness and unhappiness I think are far too complex and circumstantial to be simply tied to one given opinion or evaluation--being happy doesn't make you not care about things you care about, and vice versa. I do think that reading good adult fiction is one of the most effective and nuanced ways in modern society to truly gain insight into the interior lives of fellow humans. I think literature is much better equipped to facilitate this than other media like film or games or whatever--which isn't to say those things aren't valuable or beautiful, but I do firmly believe that writing that deals intimately with the circumstances and motives of people's lives and actions offer pretty unique benefits. I don't want to get mired in claims of complete exclusivity--another medium can do those things as well. But it's the real wheelhouse of serious fiction, which I think does it more regularly and generally speaking with the most depth. A skilled and compassionate author can achieve a level of true human insight that reaches a level of depth and focus that is hard to achieve elsewhere, and can do it in the context of a story that is compelling, readable, enjoyable, enriching. I think books (at least, books that aren't attached to franchises or become mega-successful franchises in and of themselves) are less encumbered by the kind of intensely commercial structures that surround most mass media at this point. There are things literature does not do as well, and that's why we have other forms as well, of course, and there are creators in those forms who can achieve a worthwhile vision despite the large financial structures around them. I still do think there's something vital and vibrant about fiction despite that.

Cards you can use at a given moment are highlighted. You can always see what's possible for you to do.

He doesn't, it's a stock clip.

Being totally unfamiliar with this sort of game, it's unlikely I would have picked it up for $30, but for $13 all it took was some positive mentions on Twitter.

Good because we're doing it.

That's awesome. I haven't listened yet but I love the idea of turning on a bunch of new readers to the show through a topic that's obviously directly related to your podcast but not attractive exclusively to its existing base.

I am quoting this post so that this thread is bumped and this text appears again.

Welcome to the forums! I am having a dumb fan moment with you hanging out here. Sorry.

We may release a short episode early to "officially" announce the book, but the first real episode is intended to go live the same time as the first new episode of Idle Thumbs proper.

Hey bro. That stache is magnificent. You appear to be having quite a Quincy day.