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[Bozack]

I've read some Pynchon already, but after two tries to read "Tropic of Cancer" including, actually, about two weeks ago, I think I just can't do it.  I got to page 3, I believe, before the line "I am fuck*ng you so you'll stay fucked" appeared and I was overwhelmed by the realization that one could extrapolate an entire Women's Studies dissertation out of those few words.  I really really want to like Henry Miller, but he's proved himself to be one of the few authors who's just too offensive for me.

My brother read the entire Tropic trilogy. I then asked him if he liked it.
He replied, "No, I think somewhere in the middle of the second book I realized that Henry Miller was an asshole."

[wombat]

Confidential to Andalucia: You wouldn't have found that line offensive if you've ever been fucked so good you stayed fucked.  I'm just saying.

This isn't offensive to me so much as mysterious.  Why would it be a good idea?

What did you do at meetings? Speak to each other -- in English?

Yes!  They love speaking English very much!  They love it a thousand times!  Completely!  It is a love story!

[V-Adore]

Confidential to Andalucia: You wouldn't have found that line offensive if you've ever been fucked so good you stayed fucked.  I'm just saying.

This isn't offensive to me so much as mysterious.  Why would it be a good idea?

You know, I have no idea. Personally, I think it sounds uncomfortable. In fact, don't they send people to the hospital for that?

[jough]

I didn't name the damn club.  We put out two literary magazines with crappy poetry and short stories and stuff.  There was already a Literature Club that never met, and that couldn't take on new members, and had no budget - so rather than try to get around the paperwork, they just made a new club.

In any case, I've met people who have stayed fucked, and they can live completely happy lives.

[AugustWest]

I didn't name the damn club.  We put out two literary magazines with crappy poetry and short stories and stuff.  There was already a Literature Club that never met, and that couldn't take on new members, and had no budget - so rather than try to get around the paperwork, they just made a new club.

So, you're saying billiard balls weren't involved?

[jough]

Well, it wasn't so much about the direction as the distance.

[Bozack]

In any case, I've met people who have stayed fucked, and they can live completely happy lives.

I wouldn't call the life my parents lead "happy."

[side_show]

in the English Club office (I was pres. and he was also a member, so I had "office hours" where I'd man the office).

First off, it's quite cool that you had a "Gravity's Rainbow" -war a la the Risotto War.

Secondly, I was all up and ready to mock you about the English Club thing, but then I remembered that I was briefly a member of both the English and Theatre clubs at university.  We actually shared the same student lounge/meeting room.  I remember going to meetings where the English majors complained to me about how noisy the Theatre people were, and meetings where the Theatre people complained about how much the English students complain.  Few words were exchanged, just the annoyed glances and sighs of some dud reading Balzac.  The English students were a highly passive-aggressive bunch, the Theatre students were, well, they were Theatre students.

Last but not least, I've read about 100 pages into of "Infinite Jest" twice.  Both times I've just had to stop and analyze the situation, and realize that I'm just not enjoying the experience of reading it, and the only reason I would carry on is to prove to myself that I could read a book that damn huge.  The content doesn't make it worth it for me.   But it looms large on my bookshelf, and sometimes I hear it whispering, “You haven’t read me yet, Melanie.  I’m waiting for you….” I'm the same way with Henry Miller: I worked in a used bookstore/comic book shop for several years, and picked up "Tropic of Cancer," "Tropic of Capricorn," "Black Spring," "Sexus," and something else, all is a box set, and I've failed to get beyond a few pages in any of them.  I liked Anais Nin, so I thought, being connected in life, that I'd like Miller too.  No go.

[V-Adore]

in the English Club office (I was pres. and he was also a member, so I had "office hours" where I'd man the office).

First off, it's quite cool that you had a "Gravity's Rainbow" -war a la the Risotto War.

Now I am all picturing Jough coming into his office, finding the word P Y N C H O N spelled out in hole-puncher residue on his desk, and screaming. Thank you.

Secondly, I was all up and ready to mock you about the English Club thing, but then I remembered that I was briefly a member of both the English and Theatre clubs at university.  We actually shared the same student lounge/meeting room.  I remember going to meetings where the English majors complained to me about how noisy the Theatre people were, and meetings where the Theatre people complained about how much the English students complain.  Few words were exchanged, just the annoyed glances and sighs of some dud reading Balzac.  The English students were a highly passive-aggressive bunch, the Theatre students were, well, they were Theatre students.

I think this sort of thing is just emblematic to too-much-alike college departments sharing space with one another; while my father was doing his Ph.D. work in history, he would talk about the endless battles between the History and Philosophy graduate departments, who were on adjacent floors of the same administrative building and had personality clashes near-constantly. I'm surprised they never just settled their differences in a giant Humanities-Off, no holds barred.

Last but not least, I've read about 100 pages into of "Infinite Jest" twice.  Both times I've just had to stop and analyze the situation, and realize that I'm just not enjoying the experience of reading it, and the only reason I would carry on is to prove to myself that I could read a book that damn huge.

Good on you. Life is too short to read books that you don't enjoy (or are forced to by academic expectations, but you get the point).

[PinkStainlessTail]

Good on you. Life is too short to read books that you don't enjoy (or are forced to by academic expectations, but you get the point).

OTOH, sometimes it's just not the right time to read a certain book. I picked up and put down Tristram Shandy three times before I finally read the whole thing. It turned out to be quite good, but I wasn't up for the density the other times I tried. I'm having a similar experience now with Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In fact, I've got a stack by my bed right now of books I previously failed to finish, that Iwant to give another try:

-Dos Passos' USA: I got throught the first two volumes but was tired of his style by the third. On the other hand, I was sixteen and now have a few more years under my belt.

-Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach: I am probably still too stupid to understand this book past the fourth chapter or so.

-Fuller's Synergetics: not optimistic at all, but I feel like a poser having the thing around if I don't occasionally try to read it.

-Everything E.R. Eddison wrote after The Worm Ouroboros: I love TWO, but have never gotten into the rest of the series (well, it's not really a series, exactly, sort of). How could I own a book called A giraffe Dinner in Memison for this long without having read it?

-Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner: I started this, thought it was really good, put it down, and then never picked it up again for some reason. I've read other great stuff by Brunner, but never this, which is supposed to be his masterpiece.

On the other other hand I tried to read Everything is Illuminated three times and am finally secure in my belief that it's a precious and precocious piece of shit that I don't need to waste my time on.

[Bozack]

-Dos Passos' USA: I got throught the first two volumes but was tired of his style by the third. On the other hand, I was sixteen and now have a few more years under my belt.

Oh, man, I keep almost starting this, and then going into one of my "I only read comic books now" phases. But ONE DAY!

On the other other hand I tried to read Everything is Illuminated three times and am finally secure in my belief that it's a precious and precocious piece of shit that I don't need to waste my time on.

Ha, yeah, suddenly, everybody wants to be Dave Eggers.