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Death by Black Hole – Neil DeGrasse Tyson
and I recently finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
I’ve also dabbled with a short story from McSweeney’s [Likely Plagiarized] Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon.
Whoah, you finished The Road? That’s been next on my reading list for a while now (I’m slow, as y’know ……my bro?). What’d you think?
I liked it. At first I took great umbrage at the lack of punctuation and use of sentence fragments*, but I talked this over with Jay and a few other friends who’d already finished the book and they convinced me that this works to convey the sense of post-apocalypticism that is the book’s theme. In the end, I agree with this, and accept it as a literary technique. I was mad at Jose Saramago for similar artistic license in his Blindness.
In Blindness I argued that reading quotes and dialogue in the middle of paragraphs with no identification of who is talking at any given point was annoying in the way that epic poetry and Paradise Lost are annoying. I understand that it enhances the idea that people are all blind and it’s chaotic and no one can really be sure who’s doing what at any given time, but I still maintain that voice, demeanor, and character would be enough for blind people to be able to tell each other apart, and as such the lack of punctuation and separation of dialogue is more style than substance. In the end, you get used to it, and the character of the… characters… is enough to be able to tell one speaker from the next. In that regard I suppose the technique was successful after all.
*Having taught Language Arts to 5th and 6th graders for years, I have this terrible hangup about improper punctuation and formation of sentences. I understand that established authors are allowed to do this because they’re “so good” and all, but after nagging kids all day to capitalize and use both a subject and predicate, it’s a real cockpunch. So to speak.
i’m reading “the sportswriter” by richard ford and yesterday, i just started dennis lehane’s “shutter island.” this is the first time in a long time i’ve been reading new fiction.
i didn’t read “the road” but i saw the movie yesterday. i hope the book is better.
The funny thing about The Road is that I don’t think it’s movie material.
I mean, I’m curious to see the movie because I’ve read the book, but if I had only read the book and didn’t already know a movie was coming, I don’t think I’d have expected them to make one.
My guess is they’re just expecting to ride the wave of No Country for Old Men’s success.
Sammy said:The funny thing about The Road is that I don’t think it’s movie material.
I had a pretty good debate about this with a friend of mine (Natalie, Mike Marquis’ girlfriend for those who know her) well before it was announced that a movie would be made. After first reading the book, I was convinced that it would make a great, great movie, but this was probably influenced by the fact that I had just seen and fucking loved No Country for Old Men. Natalie’s argument, and the one that I have since come to fully embrace, was that it shouldn’t be made into a movie because there is nothing visually appealing about it at all.
The book is great because it really conveys the dulled reality an apocalypse would create. Life, and any vibrance associated with it, is almost completely stamped out. It leaves you feeling numb, and it’s awesome. A movie, by its very nature, is going to engage your senses and wake you up a little bit, and in this case I think that’s actually counter-productive. I want to keep the numbness.
As far as my reading is concerned, I’ve been on a serious David Sedaris kick recently. I was actually going to post about it, but I assumed that this place would be filled with a hipster-ish hate for the guy and I didn’t really want to deal with that.
I also just started The Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve set a goal to read all of the HP books before the last movie comes out.
Hipster-ish hate for David Sedaris? Really? If anything, I’d think that dude would get hipster-ish love. I mean, I know plenty of us listen to This American Life and he’s the best thing on that show.
But yeah, I love David Sedaris. I rarely read him, though, as he’s so much better on audiobook.
I read The Road and found it to be an awful waste of time. The sentence fragments and lack of punctuation didn’t bother me, but when I got to the end and felt no emotional attachment to the boy and his father I was let down.
John said:
But yeah, I love David Sedaris. I rarely read him, though, as he’s so much better on audiobook.
lol hutch. this is true though. because of his weird little voice and delivery. let one of us try to remember to post the santaland diaries by sedaris a bit closer to christmas.
Jay said:I also just started The Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve set a goal to read all of the HP books before the last movie comes out.
a great goal!
Matthew said:I read The Road and found it to be an awful waste of time. The sentence fragments and lack of punctuation didn’t bother me, but when I got to the end and felt no emotional attachment to the boy and his father I was let down.
Demanding that you have an emotional attachment to the protagonist in every book you read is pretty limiting, no? I mean, without having read The Road, it seems pretty clear why McCarthy wouldn’t create emotionally connected heroes.
Also, I totally forgot to say what I was reading:
Slavoj Zizek’s _First in tragedy, then in Farce which sort of frames 9/11 and the economic collapse at the beginning and end of the decade as the end of the Clintonian era, and tries to answer the question, “where does the left go from here?”
and, along with Sammy, Neil Tyson’s _Death by Black Hole which is a lot of fun if you’re into horribly gruesome answers to rhetorical physics questions.
You’re right I don’t have to feel an emotional attachment to protagonists in every book, but when I finished The Road and felt nothing towards the book, its characters or its author other than “meh, I guess I can start another book now” that disappointed me.
John said:Hipster-ish hate for David Sedaris? Really? If anything, I’d think that dude would get hipster-ish love. I mean, I know plenty of us listen to This American Life and he’s the best thing on that show.
I just figured that I was late to the game on him and that he had probably run through the cycle of being awesome, then getting super popular, and subsequently being shunned by people who liked him from the beginning.
Also, I can see how his stuff would be great on audiobook, but I have yet to indulge. A couple of essays before bed has been working pretty well for me recently.
“late to the game” in books is the same thing as late in the game on music. as long as you acknowledge and realize the fact that you are, in fact, “late to the game,” then it’s all good.
there’s NOTHIING worse than someone being like “yo, have you read this david eggers guy? or, have you heard this animal collective band?” THAT’S when i personally get snobbish about music or books or even movies.
there are some authors you’re gonna miss. i read constantly and am just starting my first dennis lehane book – very late to the game indeed.
Jay said:
I just figured that I was late to the game on him and that he had probably run through the cycle of being awesome, then getting super popular, and subsequently being shunned by people who liked him from the beginning.
I was about to comment that no one on this site would think this way, but then I read Christina’s repulsive comment and realized I was wrong. Sad.
Perhaps, instead of people being hesitant to post things people might get snobbish about, we should instead bait them and then make fun of them relentlessly. Like how Christina is a stupid stripey-shirt, white-belted, tights-wearing, be-scarfed hipster with giant sunglasses and questionable taste in everything ever.
The last book I read was Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. I probably only got about 60% of the jokes and references, and will totally read it again in a few years with some kind of Pynchon wiki open at the same time. (I didn’t want to use a guide on the first read.) Anyway, I really enjoy historical fiction that’s written through a bit of a humorous/sci-fi lens, and it was well written, so I liked it a lot.
I’ve been so steeped in art projects that I decided to delay starting any more books until my workload decreases (January).
what?? i don’t think that way at all. i very much enjoy the fact that jay is getting into david sedaris. maybe you took what i said the wrong way – as you usually do.
what i don’t like is when people are like “YO EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. THEY RULE!” that deserves a “yeah, okay, we know, we’ve known for several years.”
i am admitting the fact that we are all gonna miss stuff. but i’m also saying if you’re smart and don’t want to get chastised, then you pick your friends brains about it, inquire about it, rather than go on a rampage and act like you’re the first one who thought of it.
and, a good friend won’t chastise you for getting into something “late in the game.” i love that jay is finally reading sedaris. shit, he’s just reading harry potter now! good for him. now, shut up hutch.
by the way, the new thing is to hate dave eggers, you’re so late to the game dude
Christina is right. The very foundation of aesthetic experience is the perception of other people upon what you are experiencing. That’s why I spit all over those people at the Gorky show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fucks had the nerve to not be hanging out with André Brenton in the early 1940’s, they should fess up and admit it. Then I dug up Arshile Gorky’s corpse and pulverized it into a fine powder for ripping off Cézanne even though he wasn’t yet alive to attend his initial Impressionist showing at Provence in 1874. Asshole.
christina said:
what i don’t like is when people are like “YO EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ANIMAL COLLECTIVE. THEY RULE!” that deserves a “yeah, okay, we know, we’ve known for several years.”
You have the wrong idea about so many things. I bet real life christina would argue with internet christina here. Internet Christina is 100% wrong about 99% of all debates.
John said:You have the wrong idea about so many things. I bet real life christina would argue with internet christina here. Internet Christina is 100% wrong about 99% of all debates.
Such bold statements being made here. I am amused that my literary ignorance somehow morphed into a Christina bashing thread. I think the tendency for this to happen is why I consider myself a die-hard fan of hers.
No, I love Christina. This is an internet-Christina bashing thread.
Still, I’d rather just talk about books.
Like how Maggie’s first comment reminded me of when I tried to read Ulysses. First without the guide, then with the guide. Both were completely fruitless efforts.
The toughest part of M&D for a lot of people will be the language. It’s written in [semi-accurate] 18th century English.
Obviously the best part is when they visit George Washington and smoke the weed with him
Jay said:I think the tendency for this to happen is why I consider myself a die-hard fan of hers.
we should have dated at some point in our lives.
i see what you’re saying. i think my initial statement sounded snobby but it wasn’t intended to be. i don’t advertise the stuff i like very often – maybe that’s why people feel the need to tell me stuff i already know.
anyway, onto the books thing…the only james joyce i ever read was “portrait of an artist as a young man” and even THAT was hard to get through.
Funny thing about Portrait is that it let me know, in very plain language, how advanced a reader I am. Specifically, I am at the reading level of toddler James Joyce. Once Stephen starts getting older and the writing style changes, it gets too hard for me to read. I must preferred him talking about MooCows.
I’ve not read Joyce, but kind of meant to. I like the idea of Portrait – it’s like a video game! The levels get harder as you go on!
Keep in mind, though, that Joyce actually tried to write as he did at that age — flaws and all! So the 4th part is particularly insufferable because he, like most adults, thought himself a huge idiot in his teens and wrote like an insufferable, overly-poetic teen idiot. Soooooo hard to read.
That actually sounds funny.
A totally fun read was “Shadow of the Wind” which definitely ranked on my “I would buy because I know I’d read it again.” Currently I’m reading “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” — a true story about growing up in Africa. I also read Isabelle Allende’s “House of the Spirits” which was fiction, but still had some good bits of history, special powers, and romance in it. I attempted “Don Quixote” got the gist and bailed halfway through.
I finally read Pride and Prejudice. Compared to everyone here, I feel really lame but I don’t have a ton of time to read AND comprehend what I’m reading (thanks, Metro, for your bite sized train reading). About that book, it amazed me what a semi blatant rip-off the movie/book Bridget Jones Diary was, down to the perfect Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth).
Also, David Sedaris reading his stories makes them so much funnier than they already are…when I read them I try to kindof hear his voice reading them in my head.
Now you can get excited about Pride and Predator: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/17/pride-and-predator-to-give-jane-austen-extreme-makeover
Or you could give Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a shot: http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347