What Do you Read

Wade_Wilson said:
I do not understand your fascination with Harry Potter. Though I've only read several of the books (and watched the movies) I've yet to see anything that distinguishes him from every other archetypal "coming of age" hero. His friends seem to have more personality than he does.
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Keep reading.

moonmaster said:
Jokes aside, I'm assuming that you understand that I think pop culture has kind of ruined Shakespeare for me. It's just that he's been so influential that nothing he does seems all that original.
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Don't worry, I gotcha.:wink:
 
Just finished reading Tokyo Cancelled, a 'story cycle' novel in which a severe blizzard forces a Tokyo-bound plane to land and its stranded passengers decide to pass the time by telling each other stories. The stories that come out are like modern day fairy tales, imbuing the 21st century culture with a kind of fairy tale like sensibility.

A taxi driver masters the art of transubstantiation after playing around with a bunch of magical Oreos; a young man takes up a job archiving the memories of London; a mute girl explores the eccentric residence of an obsessive German cartographer and a Tokyo-based entrepreneur risks losing everything to his obsession with a computerized doll.

The book was written by Rana Dasgupta, who I first stumbled upon when reading essays in which he details the social benefits of smoking or deconstructs the development of Third World cities. Some weeks later I decided to see if he had any published work I could acquire and that is how I learned of his novel.

I guess one could 'encapsulate' this book by saying it's a Canterbury tales for the transnational age, but it's also a look at how mythology can still exist in an age of globalization and consumerism or dislocation and uprootedness.

Definitely recommended if you have any interest in the kinds of things and themes that Warren Ellis briefly lingers upon in his non superhero work.
 
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ourchair said:
Just finished reading Tokyo Cancelled, a 'story cycle' novel in which a severe blizzard forces a Tokyo-bound plane to land and its stranded passengers decide to pass the time by telling each other stories. The stories that come out are like modern day fairy tales, imbuing the 21st century culture with a kind of fairy tale like sensibility.

A taxi driver masters the art of transubstantiation after playing around with a bunch of magical Oreos; a young man takes up a job archiving the memories of London; a mute girl explores the eccentric residence of an obsessive German cartographer and a Tokyo-based entrepreneur risks losing everything to his obsession with a computerized doll.

The book was written by Rana Dasgupta, who I first stumbled upon when reading essays in which he details the social benefits of smoking or deconstructs the development of Third World cities. Some weeks later I decided to see if he had any published work I could acquire and that is how I learned of his novel.

I guess one could 'encapsulate' this book by saying it's a Canterbury tales for the transnational age, but it's also a look at how mythology can still exist in an age of globalization and consumerism or dislocation and uprootedness.

Definitely recommended if you have any interest in the kinds of things and themes that Warren Ellis briefly lingers upon in his non superhero work.
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Sounds pretty good, but how did the mute girl tell her story?
 
Ulysses is such slow reading.

I sat down and read intensely for an hour and a half today.

I got 15 pages read.

10 pagers per hour seems to be my mileage.

But I'm enjoying it, nonetheless.
 
moonmaster said:
But seriously, I think Shakespeare is overrated. I thought I was alone in this opinion until my awesome English teacher from last year brought it up in class. We also both think that Romeo and Juliet is not intended to be an inspiring, grand romance, but a commentary on how impulsive and stupid teenagers are.
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That was the main theme I got out of it as well. That and "Love is fatal, why do people do that stuff?" :?

Planet-man said:
Yeah, and that "Rose by any other name" line.... what a cliche! They've said it a hundred times in TV shows and movies alone!
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My nomination for biggest Shakespearean cliché is "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (from Hamlet), which gets trotted out every time something inexplicable happens in roughly one half of the all science fiction or fantasy TV shows, books, or movies ever produced.

I agree with Dr. Strangefate about the fact that Shakespeare really was meant to be seen as a performance, rather than read as a script. Seeing facial expressions and body movement, as well as hearing tones of voice, adds a whole new dimension to the story. If you get a chance to see a live cast performance of one of his works, try it out.
 
Seldes Katne said:
My nomination for biggest Shakespearean cliché is "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (from Hamlet), which gets trotted out every time something inexplicable happens in roughly one half of the all science fiction or fantasy TV shows, books, or movies ever produced.
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I've never heard that one in any show ever. I do know the line, but I haven't seen any show ever use it. Must be rare.
 
Seldes Katne said:
I agree with Dr. Strangefate about the fact that Shakespeare really was meant to be seen as a performance, rather than read as a script. Seeing facial expressions and body movement, as well as hearing tones of voice, adds a whole new dimension to the story. If you get a chance to see a live cast performance of one of his works, try it out.
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I saw King Lear earlier this year on a field trip. It was very well done.
 
Planet-man said:
1984 is even better.

And I don't even need to have read Animal Farm to proclaim that.

...

Read 1984. Now.
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My library never has 1984, and I want to read it, but I think you should read Animal Farm. It's that good.
 
Seldes Katne said:
My nomination for biggest Shakespearean cliché is "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (from Hamlet), which gets trotted out every time something inexplicable happens in roughly one half of the all science fiction or fantasy TV shows, books, or movies ever produced.
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Well, now that is going to go into Blairwood

As for Planet-Man's biased proclamation.

Animal Farm and 1984 are two different types of stories. If you liked 1984, you should read Animal Farm, it's really good.
 
As everyone who read it knows, animal farm overshadowed stalin and the communists etc... whereas 1984 was a somewhat grim outlook on a future run by a government ruling with fear and confusion.
 
Ultimate Houde said:
As for Planet-Man's biased proclamation.

Animal Farm and 1984 are two different types of stories. If you liked 1984, you should read Animal Farm, it's really good.
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I was joking.;) I look forward to it.

Hibiki said:
As everyone who read it knows, animal farm overshadowed stalin and the communists etc... whereas 1984 was a somewhat grim outlook on a future run by a government ruling with fear and confusion.
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Even more than that, 1984 was Orwell's prediction of what the world would literally be like if Stalin won the war.

This is also why it drives me nuts when people use 1984 comparisons in today's world for ridiculously petty things. For example, Michelle Rodriguez, after endangering innocent lives by drunk driving, was still allowed to attend a glamourous movie premire dressed to the nines - but had to wear a tracking braclet on her ankle. She showed up having written "Big Brother 1984" on the braclet. Yeah.... your situation is really the same as getting tortured, brainwashed and shot for thinking or falling in love, which is what Orwell was genuinely terrified the world would be like when he wrote the book.

In addition, all **** like that does is trivialize the actual, real similarities so they stay below the radar of serious conversation and the book and vitally important ideas in it all become nothing more than a pop-culture reference. Congratulations! You've made what you claim to hate even more powerful by watering down its greatest opponent.

[/paranoidanarchist]
 
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