Now Reading

He Who Shapes by Roger Zelany.

It's good, Zelany is a talented writer, but seems to be a little too 60's sci-fi: a dog who talks, trippy 'mind exploration' sequences, blindspinning (going out in a car that drives itself, setting a random coordinate for it to go to, getting drunk in-car...), witty urban suicide jokes, all sorts of kind of cliché shit. But it's good no matter, about halfway through.

I'm hoping work gets quiet later so I can continue reading Catch-22. Took me too long to get around to reading it. Clever, funny and dark. Fantastic characters and dialogue (then again it should be, the book is 90% dialogue).

  On 12/30/2014 at 5:45 AM, VIII said:

 

  On 12/26/2014 at 8:55 PM, Aces said:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's my second attempt at reading it.

i like the part about the junkie, without punctuation.

 

... "and everything like that"

 

I really like it, I've found it to be very funny a lot so far. The only reason I gave up the first time was I left it a bit too long between readings and lost the flow. It's the kind of book that requires attention. I can't wait for the pay off.

  On 12/30/2014 at 5:30 AM, jellyrajah said:

 

  On 12/23/2014 at 1:34 PM, mokz said:

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

This is a good one - have you ever read any Borges?

Yeah, I've read the Imaginary Beings. Enjoyed that.

Just finished Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. I think Spiral said he was reading it?

I'm a huge fan of Banks-style sci-fi, so this was instantly one of my fav books. It hilariously pitches a "conventional", Star Wars style military force and ideology against a civilization that's utterly incomparable in every way. All against a background where superluminal travel and communication almost inherently invoke time-travel paradoxes (which kinda makes sense from the modest physics I studied).

Wonderful stuff that really transcends the derivative Napoleonic space-operas that litter the genre

finished The Last Policeman, was OK, enjoyed

reading Heart of Darkness now, bleak opening.

I'm on to John Langan's The Wide, Carnivorous Sky. It's a short story collection, horror/weird type stuff. Good so far. Decent takes on zombie and vampire stories, but goddamn am I nonetheless bored with those no matter.

Sent using magic space waves

^ I hear that. Reading Peter Straub's Lost Boy, Lost Girl and despite it not being terrible I'm feeling that ennui with the pulpy horror genre.

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart

A very odd novel. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. The concept is interesting to me, and I respect the author's decision to practice what he preached (he let a die determine major aspects of his writing, and it shows). But having a tone that veers from philosophy to soap opera to satire to greasy porno to horror story makes for a schizophrenic experience. It's never entirely clear if he's condoning or condemning the dicelife, and in fact I came out of it feeling as if the case had been made equally for both.

The title character did come across as a psychopath, though. I was expecting a slow decay, but nope, very first question he puts to the die is "hey should I go rape this lady??". He consistently manipulates people for his own gain, and seems wont to give the die an abundance of socially destructive options to choose from.

Gotta catch up on non-fiction literature, I've read fiction almost exclusively over my 20 years in this plane of existence. Gonna start with Nietzsche's Zaratustra book... Let's see how that goes

Some longer articles about this and that.

NYTIMES: The Wreck of the Kulluk

BBC: The Twisted World of Sexual Organs

VICE: Chopping Houses - Fears of Witchcraft Leave Trail of Dismembered Bodies in Buenaventura

New Republic: My Terrifying NIght with Afghanistan's only Female Warlord

The New Yorker: The Mission - A Last Defense Against Genocide

Austin Osman Spare/The Occult Life of London's Legendary Artist - Phil Baker & Alan Moore........proper! not too many of his illustrations, but the complete break-down of his techniques and their provenance

The Magical Universe of WIlliam Burrough - Steven Levi.......bit like the above, very well researched & teases out the roots of Burroughs's's's obsession w/Control.

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy .....3rd reading and its like a whole other universe unto itself. My favourite book, ever.

Would recommend The Man In The High Castle by Philip K Dick, along w/A Scanner Darkly (ignore the film), VALIS & The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch if you havent read already. Makes Arthur C Clarke (sp?) & every other sci-fi boffin look like a kid playing with its own shit (imho).

  On 1/8/2015 at 5:32 PM, cwmbrancity said:

A Scanner Darkly (ignore the film)

No way dude! Both the book and film are amazing. The book is possibly my #1 and the film might be in my top 10.

Still not read Cryptonomicon and I just found it in a 'to read' pile, so here goes...

  On 1/9/2015 at 11:56 AM, QQQ said:

 

  On 1/8/2015 at 5:32 PM, cwmbrancity said:

A Scanner Darkly (ignore the film)

No way dude! Both the book and film are amazing. The book is possibly my #1 and the film might be in my top 10.

 

Yes!

The film is a perversion of the book. It doesnt even come close to capturing the absolute sadness of the story, the desparate paranoia and the betrayals that lead to Arctor's fall. Neither does it get at the cosmic irony at the very heart of the film, or relate to the casualty list that PKD included in the book. So theres no context, no depth and PKD must've turned in his grave. RDJ's character is a case in point. Instead of being the complete c*nt the book describes, he lampoons this wise-arse quick-talking stereotype. And how can you justify Keanu in the lead.....WTF???????? This wasnt the Matrix, where the special fx underpin the story. Its an absolute disgrace of a film.

Shame on any1 for liking this "adaptation" ;)

and i only argue this because the book is in my own top-3.

this is sacrilegious material and while i can accept it took some balls and love of the story to even want to try adapting it....i'm sorry but the end result is some stoner joke slap-stick-fest.

Just imagine if David Lynch had made it......or consider what Ridley Scott did w/Blade Runner which was adapted ffrom 1 of PKD's weaker books,

see what i'm getting at?

The Quran

What a piece of shit

i think you alluded to yourself there mate

i will slay you, infidel

I finished Dune by Frank Herbert and it was stupidly ridiculously good. Way better than I hoped, and I had high hopes going into the book. Some of the best sci-fi I've read in a long time.

yeah dune is amazing

picked up david lynch's "catching the big fish." patton oswalt recommended it as a primer to transcendental meditation on the "you made it weird" podcast. of course it's awesome.

  On 1/11/2015 at 6:20 PM, very honest said:

yeah dune is amazing

 

picked up david lynch's "catching the big fish." patton oswalt recommended it as a primer to transcendental meditation on the "you made it weird" podcast. of course it's awesome.

cheers for the heads-up on this, ta

Finished up Langan's The Wide, Carnivorous Sky. It was good, I especially liked the 'story notes' he included at the end. I wish more authors did that sort of thing.

Starting on Catherynne M. Valente's Myths of Origin: Four Short Novels. Her style of writing borders on (occasionally crossing over to) pretentious wankery, but it's at least unique. Each of the stories/novellas are a retelling of some myth or another, and I love that sort of stuff, so I had to pick it up (only $2.99 on Kindle!). Just barely into it, but it's keeping me interested. Curious how it's going to go from here.