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[krystal]

I notice some modern American writers tend to quite samey. Don Delillo, Roth, those guys. Not a bad thing though

euumph! we're a book club in here, leurvely

Do you not mean modREN?

I do like a bit of Delillo alreet. You can really see that he influenced Douglas Coupland - White Noise is a buke I bet Coupland aches to write. That's not to say I don't think Coupland isn't fantastic in his own right. For I do.

 

[taubstumm]

i bought austerlitz for my ma before - maybe i'll steal it off her when i go home

sebald's stylistic 'thing' is to have incredibly long sentences.

it annoys me.

i get confused.

i actually ended up counting a few of them: one went on for a page and a half.

his other stylistic preference is to put pictures into the text.

i prefer this. i'm sure the people who are into their semiotics theory and susan sontag essays and whatnot totally dig this shit too.

 

[snakybus]

I do like a bit of Delillo alreet. You can really see that he influenced Douglas Coupland

Yes it's nice to see the modren suit makers are influenced by literature and all

hey brainiacs, watch out for that Dawkins guy, he thinks he's a prophet or something. Stephen J Gould is much less militant and generally more knowledgeable I think, though Dawkins is pretty deadly too

 

[jane]

The Plain People of Thumped: What are they reading?

sebald's stylistic 'thing' is to have incredibly long sentences.

it annoys me.

i get confused.

i actually ended up counting a few of them: one went on for a page and a half.

his other stylistic preference is to put pictures into the text.

i prefer this. i'm sure the people who are into their semiotics theory and susan sontag essays and whatnot totally dig this shit too.

Have you read The Rings of Saturn? Amazing. Melancholic, yet with a narrative style that conveys its power by almost understating the tragedy of some crushingly horrific events. Incredible stuff. The only thing of his I've read, but I will be working my way -- slowly, of course, since he's dead and won't write any more -- through his books.


Currently reading some stuff I'm almost always reading: Collected Dorothy Parker and Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles.

There's a story in the Parker anthology that I almost can't handle. I've never read anything that left me so inconsolable. That woman was -- and still is -- unparalleled. It's not like she went unrecognised, but I just don't understand why she isn't anywhere near as appreciated as she should be.

 

[billygannon]

A Confederacy of Dunces by yer man who killed himself.

Anyone else think that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has become the de facto read for any mid-to-late twenties singleton (but-going-out-with-someone)? Kinda like this year's Life of Pi.

 

[krystal]

A Confederacy of Dunces by yer man who killed himself.

Anyone else think that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has become the de facto read for any mid-to-late twenties singleton (but-going-out-with-someone)? Kinda like this year's Life of Pi.

What, like the book equivalent of a Dido record?
I liked its ways, I read it in about 45 minutes but it was lovely. Like Adrian Mole gone a bit Rainman.

 

[billygannon]

What, like the book equivalent of a Dido record?
I liked its ways, I read it in about 45 minutes but it was lovely. Like Adrian Mole gone a bit Rainman.

Yeah, it is kinda the equivalent of a record from that Dido Armstrong girl.

Looks like it's good but. But everyone is reading it at the moment. Well, everyone on the DART. Once I'm back on the bike, I'll be reading Socialist Answers to Everything or Vegan Protest Recipes.

 

[the bongo]

just borrowed 'the female eunuch' from the library at work, despite years of seeing the barmy greer go off at all angles, mostly nutty, on the late review, i find it quite a reasonable buke.

although, saying that would have pissed her off something terrible.

 

[Unclealo]

year's Life of Pi.

Oh shit. I have to give that back to you

 

[spiritualtramp]

just borrowed 'the female eunuch' from the library at work, despite years of seeing the barmy greer go off at all angles, mostly nutty, on the late review, i find it quite a reasonable buke.

although, saying that would have pissed her off something terrible.

I got a book of collected essays by Mrs Greer recently .

cunt this , cunt that .

yawn .

 

[Lili Marlene]

mary wollstonecraft - a vindication of the rights of women (she didn't have to spell it wimmyn, neither do you)

Not to start a fight but ive read some of that and i found it really unradical, i mean sure it was written way-back-when and all but i felt it was very:

'ok... women aren't as good as men, i accept that.... but we have SOME uses, i swear'.

(not an actual quote obviously)

 

[Super Dexta]

way-back-when

that'd be the crucial point
at the time it was totally radical (in the 'new' sense, not the teenage mutant hero turtles sense)
no doubt if she was writing it today it'd be a bit different. like i said in this essay (that i got a high first in, so I must be right) "to hold (ancient dead pro-woman writer) up to the standards of a feminist paradigm that developed over the centuries since her death would be..." and then i can't remember what i said, but it was something like "unreasonable"
it's all in the context

 

[Lili Marlene]

i guess......

high-first? Fuck!!

 

[Super Dexta]

bow to me, dude
and stay the hell out of linguistics, you anthropologist

 

[Lili Marlene]

I think she pre-dates both disciplines.
Back then they were just thinkers..... who thought.

 

[Jimmy Magee]

Solzers'

Brilliant! You've just turned him into a Dub.

If you like the mad Ruskies and misery, I'd recommend The Truce (sequel to If This is a Man) - after the fun of the camps Levi wound up in Russia for a year or so. That country is so great. So much resources, so much potential greatness. But it's such a farce in terms of how it's run.

 

[Ex-User (250)]

books is for lamers.

 

[Super Dexta]

I think she pre-dates both disciplines.
Back then they were just thinkers..... who thought.

irrelevant dude
your sapir and your whorf can suck it

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Paul Morley - Words and Music [bit of a struggle]

Four Four Two magazine

 

[Jimmy Magee]

on the same theme: 'the blind watchmaker' by richard dawkins. totally the most rocking neo-darwinist book of the decade, peeps

Dawkins is nonsense. It's not science. See Darwin's theory actually made predictions, and could be tested. But Dawkins' stuff is just fairy stories if you ask me.

Of course, I haven't actually read any o his books, but I've heard enough about it to form this opinion. If someone can contradict what I say (concretely, that Dawkins' notions are not testable), please do.