The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: side_show on August 22, 2005, 02:53:28 pm
-
In related author news, apparently Leonard Cohen is broke. (http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/finance/article.jsp?content=20050822_110877_110877)
The local radio stations had a drive encouraging people to go buy Lenoard Cohen CD's. (Even if "Beautiful Losers" is our next selection, I won't be throwing any money Lenny's way, I bought my copy years ago, but just haven't read it yet. Then again, I would want to listen to some of his music while reading his book, so I suppose I could pick up a greatest hits type deal-y)
This poll will close in one week, so get your votes in!
-
After V's hard lobbying for Geek Love last month, how can I vote any other way?
-
Ah yes, Geek Love is the only book on the list which I have already read, twice in fact, but it's a great world to get into. My SO, who reads about 2-3 books a year read it also just before we moved to our new house and enjoyed it. The world of circus freaks is so interesting, and Dunn presents it so beatifully, humanly...
-
I've read it twice and would gladly read it again (as opposed to Franny & Zooey, which the psychosis of August meant I never got around to; sorry). It's been a few years, and what a world.
-
I've read it twice and would gladly read it again (as opposed to Franny & Zooey, which the psychosis of August meant I never got around to; sorry). It's been a few years, and what a world.
It would not have helped your psychosis.
-
Yes, and while Franny and Zooey has been mostly about a sibling getting out of hand with the praying, Geek Love... well I don't want to give anything away for those who've yet to read it, so lets just say its partially about a sibling whose "activities" get way, way out of hand.
It'll be an interesting compairson of the upper class/upper middle-class Glass family to the Benewski's (in Geek Love) who are a family who basically defies explaination, if we do go with this book next...
Anyways, as always I will not vote unless there's a need for a tie breaker, I basically want to read all the books listed above. The poll closes tomorrow, so get your votes in now people!
-
And the winner is: Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn. Go get yer copies now!
-
Ooh, yay. Looking forward to having a reread of this and seeing how it holds up.
-
I've decided to be an anti-luddite and not buy books (well, not novels) anymore unless they're also available in eBook format so I can keep a copy with me in my PDA (even though I'll generally read from a paperback book rather than on my Palm). I'm sick of publishers not putting out decent quality eBooks for common novels.
So no eBook, they can go to hell and DIE.
-
I've decided to be an anti-luddite and not buy books (well, not novels) anymore unless they're also available in eBook format so I can keep a copy with me in my PDA (even though I'll generally read from a paperback book rather than on my Palm). I'm sick of publishers not putting out decent quality eBooks for common novels.
So no eBook, they can go to hell and DIE.
... well... okay? I mean, whatever works for you, I guess. Your loss, in this case.
-
Also, what is it with publishers listing books as being "nominated" for a Pulitzer or National Book Award - there are no nominations for those awards. You send your entry fee and two/five copies of the book, and you're entered into the competition. If you're not from New York City, or at least not loved by those who are, then forget about winning. But for fuck's sake, don't brag about being "nominated" for something that doesn't even really have nominations. Yeah, you had $50 to enter. That's quite a fuck*ng accomplishment.
HEY YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN
-
haha oh man
i'm pretty sure at this point that chris onstad has based pat on jough
-
Also, what is it with publishers listing books as being "nominated" for a Pulitzer or National Book Award - there are no nominations for those awards. You send your entry fee and two/five copies of the book, and you're entered into the competition. If you're not from New York City, or at least not loved by those who are, then forget about winning. But for fuck's sake, don't brag about being "nominated" for something that doesn't even really have nominations. Yeah, you had $50 to enter. That's quite a fuck*ng accomplishment.
HEY YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN
It was a finalist I think.
-
So I'm not done yet, and might not be by the end of the month, as I have mad shit to do, but I'm really enjoying it.
What has everyone else thought?
-
Seriously? I almost made the same post earlier today.
I'm really enjoying it, and will probably be finished by tomorrow night, if not sooner. I'm amazed and frightened for and by most all the characters. I love it.
Seeing as how it's so close to October, should we delay selection of the next book until just before November?
-
Wow, I thought that since I had disappeared that no one would be reading. I am not the warm, pulsing, centre of the universe after all.
Yes, I agree, can we postpone our next selection til' the end of Novemeber? After all Geek Love is awesome, yet long, and we really can't talk about a lot of it without "ruining it" for those who haven't finished.
Without ruining anything, Who'd have thunk a book narrated by an albino dwarf would be so wonderful?
-
Yes please postpone. I haven't even managed to get a copy yet. This whole "job" thing.... what was I thinking?
-
Sounds good. Let's skip the poll anyway and read American Gods in November. I'm dying to read it again.
-
I read it early in the month. It was OK. I didn't love it. I thought it was very reminiscent of John Irving's style.
-
I read it early in the month. It was OK. I didn't love it. I thought it was very reminiscent of John Irving's style.
Why do you say that? I'm curious, because I love Geek Love dearly and hate Irving a lot.
(pontification on why snipped pending further conversation)
-
I'm not sure that I can exactly put my finger on it. It's been quite a while since I read any Irving, so I could be mistaken. It just that while I was reading it, that's what kept coming to mind. I don't know, maybe I read a review to that effect and I'm subconsciously plagiarizing. But I do see some similarities.
Irving wrote about disfunctional families whose members had odd characteristics. This book takes odd to another level, at least as far as physical aspects go, but essentially the theme is the same. Both use semi-comic plots to develop their themes. Both write clearly using a straightforward narrative style.
I'm certainly not knocking the book. I liked it -- it certainly deserves credit. And I'm not saying that it's derivative of Irving, just influenced.
One of the main problems I had was I didn't feel like the characters motivations were sufficiently justified or explained. I never had a strong grasp on why everyone had such a strong reaction to Arty. You either worshipped him or wanted to kill him (or both at the same time). It sort of rang false that he would elicit such strong feeling from the other characters because nothing in his portrayal elicited such a strong feeling from me.
I most certainly enjoyed the book and I'm glad I read it. But it's one of those books that just slightly missed the bullseye for me. I was always somehow slightly discomfited while I read it -- but by the writing, not by the freaks.
-
One of the main problems I had was I didn't feel like the characters motivations were sufficiently justified or explained. I never had a strong grasp on why everyone had such a strong reaction to Arty. You either worshipped him or wanted to kill him (or both at the same time). It sort of rang false that he would elicit such strong feeling from the other characters because nothing in his portrayal elicited such a strong feeling from me.
Hmm. This is actually an interesting question. I think part of it might be an indication of Olympia as an unreliable narrator; given that the entire book is told through the lens of someone who did worship Arty, as strongly as anyone in the book did, things might be colored towards fanatic opinions. I can't give you a chapter-and-verse argument for it, though.
Another reason, I think, is keyed into the general attitudes of most of the characters in the book. Most of the Binewskis, and most of the people around them, are remarkably and bizarrely sanguine about all of the weirdness that surrounds them; a crucial part of the plot, I think, is that most of the characters are so trapped by the weirdness or have no other paradigm and thus end up just drifting through with it. The Arturans are the phenomenon writ large -- people with so little in their lives that they become hypnotized by a carnival freak. About the only characters in the novel who are introspective and forceful about their lives are Arty, Olympia (later on), and Electra (also later, and to a lesser degree). Arty is the first one to really think and speak about the condition, and so he's a catalyst for obsession.
(The only character who really competes with Arty in this regard is Miss Lick, who in many ways is his opposite... but saying any more would be spoiling, I think.)
-
OK, so I finished it. I liked it.
I agree with AW's point that everybody's reaction to Arty is hard to grasp. I understand, I think, the family's reaction to him, and how this might be exaggerated by Oly, but as the Arty worship becomes more fanatical and widespread, I was a bit lost.
-
Argh. I FORGOT to read it.
It's been a tough month.
-
Where've you been, Wombie?
More to the point, HOW have you been?
-
I haven't been anywhere, honestly. I check the boards a hundred times a day and whine to myself that youall aren't posting enough amusing messages - but I guess youall can't hear me. Hmm.
And I guess it's wrong to do that when I'm not posting any amusing messages myself. My lame excuse: I quit half my job to take another part-time job that I hoped would be better and would turn into a full time job so I could quit the remaining half of the original job (are you lost yet?) But it just gave me worse migraines and was a worse commute and to make a long story short, we came to a parting of the ways after just a few weeks. I am now down to two days a week at the original, increasingly intolerable job and trying to figure out what to do next. So I have plenty of time to post amusing messages, no excuse really except for being too distracted.
I will try harder.
-
I will try harder.
Man, seriously... try harder to be good to yourself, Wombat. Don't worry about us; we'll be here once RL settles down again.
Seriously.
-
No, no.... See, it's good to have a goal I can actually accomplish on my own. That doesn't depend on the decisions of unknown strangers in an uncaring world... I can post any time I want! No matter what anyone else thinks of my resume! Or my writing! Whoo hoo!
-
Yeah, speak for yourself, V. I demand lots of posts (amusing or otherwise) from Wombat on a regular basis.
-
Fair enough. I mean, I'm not gonna complain if you post.