ThunderPeel2001

Books, books, books...

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Just downloaded Moby Dick on audiobook.22 glorious hours!

(I'm only listening because I wanna hear the reader shout "From Hells heart, I stab at thee!!")

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McCarthy's Child of God is short, easy to get into and features as its protagonist one of the best psychopaths I've encountered in literature.

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McCarthy's Child of God is short, easy to get into and features as its protagonist one of the best psychopaths I've encountered in literature.

"THE PSYCHOPATH IS AMAZING." - IGN.com

I think I'm laughing a bit harder at this joke than its worth.

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McCarthy's Child of God is short, easy to get into and features as its protagonist one of the best psychopaths I've encountered in literature.

Ahh that's the name of the one I read but couldn't remember/be bothered to go look.

Also

isn't he not a psychopath, but actually mentally disabled? From what I can remember there was a big theme of society abandoning him and marginalizing him on account of this.

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Just finished The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr, a pretty interesting true story about a bunch of art historians and their journey to find one of several works by Caravaggio that has been missing for years. I'd recommend it if you enjoy nonfiction that explores a subculture most people don't know about (Like The Orchid Thief). In this case, the European art history world.

Working right now on If On A Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It's a book (fiction) about reading books, really. The plot is hard to describe. It's about a reader (written in second-person) trying to enjoy his copy of If On A Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. Except that, just as he gets interested, he finds that - due to a printing error - he (you) can't finish it. So he goes on a journey to find the rest of the book, during which time he tries to read other books but is continually thwarted just as he gets interested in those. He also meets a girl who joins him on his quest to discover why this is happening. The narrative jumps between the chapters about "you" and the beginnings of all the other books the reader cannot finish - all with completely different settings, characters, writing styles, and tone. This makes it a pretty slow read, but fascinating and totally unique.

After that, I was hoping to read something funny. I'm a big fan of fiction in the vein of Vonnegut and Tom Robbins or nonfiction in the vein of David Sedaris or Chuck Klosterman.. Any suggestions?

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A few years ago, I picked up the first Dark Tower book and within a few months, I read all 7. Since then, I've been reading other King books that relate to the Dark Tower arc. The regulators, Insomnia, Black House, and currently reading Desperation. I like them a lot.

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A few years ago, I picked up the first Dark Tower book and within a few months, I read all 7. Since then, I've been reading other King books that relate to the Dark Tower arc. The regulators, Insomnia, Black House, and currently reading Desperation. I like them a lot.

Interesting! There's been a slight discussion about it in the Books, book, books thread (edit: just realised we're in that thread right now). I did the thing where I ordered the Stephen King Box on Amazing and proceeded to read the books according to a dependency graph I found on some site, so that the greatest possible number of references would make sense. However, the last three or four books in the main Dark Tower series were so shit it almost ruined the whole thing for me. I'm still glad I read most of the books, but I now appreciate them more as separate stories, rather than components of a single complex one. For example, The Stand, From a Buick 8 (my first King book), It, and many more are simply fantastic.

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Working right now on If On A Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It's a book (fiction) about reading books, really.

Have you read any other books by Italo Calvino?

I was supposed to read that book but ended up buying The Complete Cosmicomics instead, as it was the only Calvino novel in the book store. Some of it was really interesting but, overall, that book didn't really do it for me. I guess I just forgot about Italo Calvino altogether after that and focused on something else (Kurt Vonnegut most likely).

Just finished Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and began reading Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of short stories by Vonnegut. My sister gave me The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi as a birthday present, so I guess I'll be reading those soon too.

Has anyone read Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon? Is it good? I really liked The Crying of Lot 49, and I would like to read more books by him but I doubt I will be able to stay focused for 700 pages on V-2 rockets.

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But I'm interested in Adventures in the Screen-Trade!

I finished it last week, and it's a highly recommended book! The last section was particularly interesting, where Goldman came across an short story he'd written decades earlier, and decides to adapt it into a short film. So you get the short story, then his thoughts on the process of adapting it, then the screenplay.

Then he shopped it around to production designers, cinematographers (Gordon Willis), editors, composers (Dave Grusin), producers and got their thoughts on the project, and how they would use the screenplay in their work, etc.

What was particularly amusing, and enlightening, was that, after a good handful of helpful, constructive, but positive sections from the filmmakers, he ends with a section from director George Roy Hill, who completely tears the screenplay apart, shows glaring errors and faults that no one else picked up on, and concludes saying it was worse than live television.

In that section, he dials back the anecdotes and gossip, and instead just provides, in miniature, an awesome insight into the creative process, the production process and, importantly, how completely unpredictable and chaotic making a film can be!

I've started reading his follow up, called Which Lie Did I Tell?, which was published in 2001 (the Farrelly brothers are held up as the biggest contemporary screenwriters, go figure). And he starts the book with admitting that, when he published Adventures in the Screen Trade, he didn't realise he was in the middle of a 9 year slump, during which he had no screenplays produced. In his words, the phone stopped ringing. And this is a two-time Oscar winner.

Then he goes on about stalking Sly Stallone, following him into a swimming pool, and waiting until he left - barefoot - so that he could see how tall he was.

Awesome.

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Have you read any other books by Italo Calvino

Nope, sorry.

I picked up V by Pynchon, though, on a recommendation. Have yet to crack the spine... Should I dive into that one soon?

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Interesting! There's been a slight discussion about it in the Books, book, books thread (edit: just realised we're in that thread right now). I did the thing where I ordered the Stephen King Box on Amazing and proceeded to read the books according to a dependency graph I found on some site, so that the greatest possible number of references would make sense. However, the last three or four books in the main Dark Tower series were so shit it almost ruined the whole thing for me. I'm still glad I read most of the books, but I now appreciate them more as separate stories, rather than components of a single complex one. For example, The Stand, From a Buick 8 (my first King book), It, and many more are simply fantastic.

I read those back in High School and my undiscriminating mind just ate up the idea of cowboys in Western-fantasy. It was around the time I was really into the "Deadlands" TCG. Jeez, I'm such a nerd.

To recommend something: anything Raymond Carver.

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I'm trying to remember the name of a picture book about an archaeological expedition to the USA (Pronounced "YOOSA"). Did anyone ever read this? I remember that there was this elaborate description of a burial chamber with an urn that created a ceremonial whoosh sound to honor the dead, which was actually a motel bathroom. It was in black and white, and all the pictures had notations on them with descriptions of the items.

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I'm currently reading a compilation of some works by Slavoj Žižek.You can probably find many of his works online and I almost order you to try him out. It's amazing!

Slavoj Žižek talks on the national TV about the world after the Iraq invasion (in slovenian)

Uh..

It starts with a discussion on US-Europe relations (in time of celebrating the Normandy invasion anniversary) - where dr. Žižek states that the attitude of Europe towards US is in his terms 'appropriate: ambivalent, as is ambivalent America itself'. He further warns we shall not forget that in WWII the nazis were defeated by an alliance between democratic capitalist forces AND communism. The future of the civilization was therefore decided (also) by Stalin troops in russian steppes. Discussing EU-US relations historically is therefore not appropriate without mentioning the Soviet Union (perhaps he wanted to make clear he does not want to continue in a hegemonic capitalist discourse?).

The rest goes in Q&A style but note the ad-hoc distilled translation could miss the point:

Q: After 60 years things are quite different - could you comment on the anti-american attitude spreading over Europe - or should we rather call it anti-bushism? Is anti-bushism only a long-suppressed and inert hatred towards US?

A:Žižek answers it is innapropriate to formulate this conflict in geografic terms, as the only conflict is between two global political visions with no connections whatsoever with national identities. As an example, most of the americans are now opposing the invasion of Iraq.

Q:Which are these two political visions?

A:After the end of the cold war the new world order is not yet established and we now live a 'most dangerous moment', not even being sure what we are searching for. A sympomatic example is EU. As Žižek says, the freudian enigma 'Was will das Weib?' could be translated as 'What does Europe want?' 'Should EU be some kind of christian spiritual community or a union with a common ideal of a social state and quality of life, or just another economic force as a counterweight for US and the rising eastern economies? The cards have not been dealt yet.'

Q:Are we witnessing a confrontation in the US between ultraconservatives and liberals?

A:Žižek answers by explaining his viewpoint of the recent brutal tortures in Abu Ghraib: he spent quite some time in US, and as he says he found these images 'quite familiar', since one could come across similarly violent imagery regularly in the US media, depicting e.g. the initiation rituals in fraternities or in the marines. 'If you want to be accepted as part of the (US) society you have to pass a humiliating ritual - the paradox being that it is not true what Bush exclaimed 'these images do not represent America' but rather the opposite - they depict precisely the introduction of Iraqis people to the (dark side of the) american culture.'

Q: US now slowly turns back towards the UN institutional practices. How do you foresee the end of the Iraq crisis?

A: US has to make its interventions in middle east somehow legitimate by applying a democratic logic to its actions, as democracy (the export of human rights etc.) is THE ideology of the moment. On the other side, it is clear that the US can not afford democracy on the Arabian Peninsula. 'Just imagine democracy in Saudi Arabia - as it happens in Iraq right now, the muslim parties would come to power', which would be unnaceptable for the US. EU was therefore right in warning the US that by getting rid of Saddam Husein with a total war, a grounds for the formation of a united fudamentalist islamic front will be made.

Q: In light of tomorrow's G8 meeting, what is your opinion on the growing divide between the rich and the poor countries?

A: All the excessive talk about how this divide is purely rhetoric and contributes to nothing but an even greater divide. 'It is the same situaton as when in socialism ... repetitive calls for a more democratic socialism produced less and less democracy'. Despite some success stories (e.g. Singapore, Malaysiya), one can not avoid the fact of a huge world explosion of poverty going on - 'today nearly 1 billion of people live in slums, as in favelas in South america or Lagos in Nigeria'. These people live not only in material poverty, but also outside of any political process - they are de facto excluded from society and as the american (here Žižek corrects himself: 'sorry, italian - symptomatic mistake') philosopher Giorgio Agamben said - they have the position of 'Homo Sacer'. So this as a basic fact, any empty humanistic rhetoric only enables the 'brutal capitalist logic to continue'.

.. and yes, it is twice more lucid in slovenian language...

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oZHDMkD4dks

5_Y2UDoms5g

oU3Xip612vI

jRhU1cj3JWA

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Edited by Sleepdance

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Yep, Žižek is an amazing dude. He visited my college lots of times and held lectures...last time, it was...last year, while the University was under occupation by the Independet student initiative that was fighting for the right to free education for all. So they organized daily public lectures and plenums etc.

good one, Sleepdance! :)

btw, did you check out a book of his, called "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema"? I had a course called "Etnography of Popular culture" and the professor told me I should definitely check that book out because it was kinda related to a seminar I had on that course...I never picked that book up in the end, but I had to read a book by John Fiske for the seminar, called "Television Culture" and the chapter I had to focus on was called "Pleasure and Play"...it's about the psychoanalysis of television etc. So I was wondering what you think of Žižek's book "Pervert's guide...", if you read it? :)

Edited by tm_drummer

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I remember that guy from a DVD that came with The Believer magazine. He pronounces "film" like "fillum."

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he pronounces "film" like it is written, like i do (and sleepdance does): "film". we tend to do that. lol. but besides that, Žižek has a...kind of a..."speech disorder"....as you could have heard. i don't know how to describe it....maybe because i'm drunk right now and it's almost 4 a.m,. here...so...i'm sorry. lol. i'll try that again sometime, when i wake up tomorrow and get sober.

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I disagree.

Fair enough :)

Sorry, i was pulling sh*t out of my ass (as boost remo would say), i was drunk. but what i wanted to say is that, not only that english isn't his native tongue (although he actually speaks it very fluently, despite it being "broken" english), he also has a sort of a speech defect, so it sounds weird-er no matter what language he speaks in....having said this, i didn't say anything that everybody didn't know...so....this post (and with it, my previous one, to begin with) has no point, actually. :)

EDIT: and also, i found the video where he says "fillums", hehehe :grin:

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He can't pronunce 'r' as a sound. I see this more and more with little children, but as far as I'm avere they are trying to fix this problem as soon as they can.

Also, as far as I know The Pervert's Guide to Cinema was a movie done by Žižek. I haven't watched it, although I remember seeing some clips on youtube.

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I'm working on Team of Rivals by francis kearns goodwin, biography of lincoln and his cabinet, focusing on the lives of those other men and their interactions with lincoln before, during, and after the civil war. Lots of great info about the cabinet's decisions during the war, some good, some bad. Also a lot of history about the beginnings of the republican party and the shifting attitudes during the abolitionist movement.

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I'm working on Team of Rivals by francis kearns goodwin, biography of lincoln and his cabinet, focusing on the lives of those other men and their interactions with lincoln before, during, and after the civil war. Lots of great info about the cabinet's decisions during the war, some good, some bad. Also a lot of history about the beginnings of the republican party and the shifting attitudes during the abolitionist movement.

Interesting stuff. What have you learned so far?

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I have no idea if these have been said already (I'd be rather sad if they haven't) but. . .

Gardens of the Moon, Books of the Malazan Fallen by Steve Erikson

Starts very slow, very politicky but picks up and stays interesting for most of the series. Does a lot of interesting things with a lot of old conecepts.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

There's a quote on the back of the book that says Oceans Eleven meets Robin Hood, or somesuch. That's rather accurate. It's also stupendously written (with a few problems here and there. It stays "safe" for instance), a good romp through a new world and the second book has pirates. What more do you need?

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Read it. Right the hell now. This is not negotiable. READ IT.

Shadow Company (and accompanying 8 books) by Glen Cook

I'm really not sure how to describe this series. I'm a great many years late to the party, but it's excellent character based fantasy with a hint of "WTF" Plenty of twists, turns and an interesting style to the whole thing. I loved them.

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Can anyone suggest an interesting (and preferably good) novel that has something to do with archeology? It can be pretty light on actual archeology since my sister already studies the field. The book would be for her birthday.

Or perhaps something anthropology related...

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