Now Reading

  On 3/5/2019 at 1:54 PM, Drum Up said:

 

  On 3/4/2019 at 10:05 PM, Roo said:

 

I mentioned Mason & Dixon as my most preferred on 19 Feb, and my enthusiasm for Bleeding Edge in this same paragraph.

 

apologies, Roo. Didn't see that. If you make the decision to read GR, I highly recommend this as a companion: http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/gravitys_rainbow_domination_and_freedom

 

I am not a huge fan of academic lit crit, but this book was really good and essential to my understanding of Gravity's Rainbow, which, after two reads, is still very limited. When you consider whether or not to devote the time needed to read it, I also recommend checking out the 'Byron the Lightbulb' chapter first to see if it is up your alley. Great chapter!

Thanks for the recommendations on enrichening my reading experience, I'll certainly keep those in mind. It might be years until I finally get around to GR.

until then:

Just finished Eka Kurniawan's "Beauty is a wound". Quite excellent. The book opens with the body of a dead prostitute coming back to life. It ends with ... well, that would be a spoiler.

In between there's a seven day long fistfight between two gangsters, an execution that gets averted as a result of a steaming sex scene and at one point a girl walks into a school classroom naked, claiming to have been raped by a dog.

Knowing a bit about the history of Indonesia adds to the enjoyment, but it's equally entertaining without it.

Not for weak stomachs, though.

Thank fuck I'm finally done with Mona Lisa Overdrive. Neat ending, I guess, but I'm glad to be done with this universe. Time for something completely different.

It finally dawned on me that I don't enjoy binging authors, with few exceptions. I'm going to consciously avoid trilogies for a while.

Last novel I finished was Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I'm now reading "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. The latter is a non-fiction first hand account of the growing psychedelic/acid movement... probably easiest if you google a description but holy shit... It reads nothing like a non-fiction book, it's absolutely bonkers what Ken Kesey was doing, and sheds light on all of his other novels if you're a fan. 

It's a bit of a difficult read IMO but it's seriously enthralling. By "difficult read" I mean it changes points of view fairly frequently between very descriptive and stream of consciousness (while drugs were taken); it can be hard to understand what exactly is happening unless you've imbibed and have been in that state of mind yourself before... It's really hard at some points to believe it's non-fiction though with all the crazy shit they do.

Can't recommend it enough. I'd suggest reading those two books in that order tbh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test

The ending of ECAAT is so patronising, it shows Wolfe as the southern dandy to the max, still, an intriguing insight into the chaos

Might be time to indulge in some good ol’ Grateful Dead, Snr Yuge, 68-77, before the lifestyle, stress and drugs destroyed Garcia

David Crosby’s PERRO sessions, the few Peter Green/GD jams, there’s so much good music worth checking that could tangent out of that reading period

Equally, The Yage Letters by William Burroughs is a bit of a pre-cursor into psychedelic journeys, just avoid the McKennas on La Chorrea

These sentences could be in a better order, but it’s not a perfect world

Ah, you've read it then! I've not that impression of Wolfe as of yet in the book (about halfway). It almost seemed like he was high with the rest of em' half the time? I was under the impression (from the preface) that it was all written from first hand accounts + him going through the "pranksters" archived material (video etc). If he's not actually blasted, I think he's written the book very convincingly.

The Yage Letters sounds very interesting based on the wiki alone, might check that out - thank you!

Anyone read Annihilation? Saw the movie and a friend gifted me the book, haven't read it yet. Curious how different it is to the movie, was intrigued by concept of the other lifeform

  On 3/18/2019 at 7:07 PM, chronical said:

Anyone read Annihilation? Saw the movie and a friend gifted me the book, haven't read it yet. Curious how different it is to the movie, was intrigued by concept of the other lifeform

I didn't like the movie, book was pretty good. Whole trilogy is, but definitely out of left field with some parts of it. Movie took things a totally different direction in the end, but the book/trilogy is overall weirder no doubt. Good overall, not great, imo. Solid and perfect for that sorta mood i think

  On 3/18/2019 at 7:06 PM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Ah, you've read it then! I've not that impression of Wolfe as of yet in the book (about halfway). It almost seemed like he was high with the rest of em' half the time? I was under the impression (from the preface) that it was all written from first hand accounts + him going through the "pranksters" archived material (video etc). If he's not actually blasted, I think he's written the book very convincingly.

 

The Yage Letters sounds very interesting based on the wiki alone, might check that out - thank you!

Shit sorry man, my div, thought you'd finished it ;{

Without spoiling further, it has some superb reporting, the separation in agendas is kinda what i was alluding to. Don't think Wolfe ever believed in the potential psychedelics may have had in the same way an advocate like Kesey & the Pranksters did, but he def had a good time. The irony eh. Dr Hunter Thompson's "Hell's Angels" is similar but far more scathing.

If you can filter the odd pining exchange between Burroughs & Ginsberg (of which there are a few), you get a real sense of the wonder, logistics & mythology of the compounds involved in The Yage Letters. Burroughs was pretty solid w/his previous anthropologial research into the various cultural contexts of mind-altering compounds in the Americas. Def not Castaneda & a world away from contemporary DMT eulogies.

The headfuck that is Robert Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus! Trilogy" might float your boat, but it's marmite for most, love<>hate. Vineland follows up some of the themes around the subject in Wolfe's book. Prob one of my favourite books on the legacy of & fall-out from the '60's.

  On 3/18/2019 at 7:07 PM, chronical said:

Anyone read Annihilation? Saw the movie and a friend gifted me the book, haven't read it yet. Curious how different it is to the movie, was intrigued by concept of the other lifeform

Reading the Southern Reach trilogy was genuinely one of the highlights of last year for me. Get involved.

  On 3/19/2019 at 1:12 AM, tec said:

 

  On 3/18/2019 at 7:07 PM, chronical said:

Anyone read Annihilation? Saw the movie and a friend gifted me the book, haven't read it yet. Curious how different it is to the movie, was intrigued by concept of the other lifeform

Reading the Southern Reach trilogy was genuinely one of the highlights of last year for me. Get involved.

  On 3/18/2019 at 8:33 PM, cwmbrancity said:

 

  On 3/18/2019 at 7:06 PM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

Ah, you've read it then! I've not that impression of Wolfe as of yet in the book (about halfway). It almost seemed like he was high with the rest of em' half the time? I was under the impression (from the preface) that it was all written from first hand accounts + him going through the "pranksters" archived material (video etc). If he's not actually blasted, I think he's written the book very convincingly.

 

The Yage Letters sounds very interesting based on the wiki alone, might check that out - thank you!

 

 

Shit sorry man, my div, thought you'd finished it ;{

 

Without spoiling further, it has some superb reporting, the separation in agendas is kinda what i was alluding to. Don't think Wolfe ever believed in the potential psychedelics may have had in the same way an advocate like Kesey & the Pranksters did, but he def had a good time. The irony eh. Dr Hunter Thompson's "Hell's Angels" is similar but far more scathing.

 

If you can filter the odd pining exchange between Burroughs & Ginsberg (of which there are a few), you get a real sense of the wonder, logistics & mythology of the compounds involved in The Yage Letters. Burroughs was pretty solid w/his previous anthropologial research into the various cultural contexts of mind-altering compounds in the Americas. Def not Castaneda & a world away from contemporary DMT eulogies.

 

The headfuck that is Robert Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus! Trilogy" might float your boat, but it's marmite for most, love<>hate. Vineland follows up some of the themes around the subject in Wolfe's book. Prob one of my favourite books on the legacy of & fall-out from the '60's.

 

All good! Nothing spoiled heh. Thank you for your responses, lots of the context is lost to me (being born in 89'), I can only base it/try to understand as much of the context as possible from reading (I mean, I get it - but the magnitude/essence/feeling of what was happening is so well captured in some of these books).

I did some "google research" today after you name dropped a few authors here and found a ton of books I probably otherwise wouldn't have found out about. I didn't realize (never really thought about it tbh) there were so many counterculture books published that were actually accepted as... I don't know, literary achievements (not the right term but I can't think of a better one ATM?). I've now got about 8 books queued up following EKAAT. Hunter S Thompson is a given, but tbh I thought he was really one of the only authors in this... vein?... Ignorant, I know.

But yeah, I've got my next couple years of reading charted out I think - next up will be the Illuminatus material. 

Thanks again!!

Hail Eris!

Read about 6 of those Jack Reacher books in a row, sure book snobs will snort at this. Snort all day long!

I'll probably finish this book up (Die Tryin') then I've got either Imajica (Barker) or H.P Lovecraft lined up next.

Finished Blindsight (Peter Watts) the other day. I enjoyed it. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys beardstroking sci-fi on the boundaries of consciousness.

Loved Illuminatus! in my early twenties. Read it a few years ago again. Idk, it's a product of it's time.. I wouldn't call it "good literature" but it's entertaining at least. Maybe it now works again better with all the post-truth shit going on? It's really an amalgamation of conspiracy theories written into a novel form with some Timothy Leary style psychology and Discordian philosophy dropped on top. Compared to some of Wilson's other books the Leary fanboyism doesn't come through that much though.

"The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington".

You'd think a volume of short stories written by a surrealist painter would be interesting throughout.

Unfortunately, no.

Yes, son, I too was disappoint. I dig some of her paintings, though.

RLStevenson for me today

on a scifi binge and just finished alastair reynolds' revenger. now onto [see below, p sweet cover]

also playing deus ex and watching x-files inbetween. gonna go crazy

currently on the second book of the Southern Reach Trilogy, and I finished The Invention of Morel last week which was pretty interesting. Also trying to hype myself up to read more Bolaño but after 2666 I'm a bit burnt out.

  On 4/2/2019 at 11:05 PM, flexbert said:

on a scifi binge and just finished alastair reynolds' revenger. now onto [see below, p sweet cover]

also playing deus ex and watching x-files inbetween. gonna go crazy

 

og deus ex? was really disappointed with Mankind Divided.

^

man i've have 2666 on my shelf for like 5 years and i just can't begin. it's a mastodont piece. had a period of reading thicker books, with the first part of the man without qualities being the culmination. after that it's most often been 3-400 pages maximum with a couple of exceptions

regarding deus ex, it's MD. never played any of the other ones so i can't really compare. but am having fun nonetheless :)

how's the southern reach trilogy? wanted to read annihilation after having seen the movie, but decided not to. can't remember why though.

  On 4/10/2019 at 11:53 AM, flexbert said:

^

man i've have 2666 on my shelf for like 5 years and i just can't begin. it's a mastodont piece. had a period of reading thicker books, with the first part of the man without qualities being the culmination. after that it's most often been 3-400 pages maximum with a couple of exceptions

 

regarding deus ex, it's MD. never played any of the other ones so i can't really compare. but am having fun nonetheless :)

 

how's the southern reach trilogy? wanted to read annihilation after having seen the movie, but decided not to. can't remember why though.

2666 is worth the time imo. pretty harrowing to get through around the middle but it's a fkn beautiful novel in the end.

ah wicked, I thought the art in MD was pretty amazing at times and Ed Harrison's work on the soundtrack is absolutely stunning. felt like the story was pretty weak in the end but i did still have fun. HR was pretty fantastic so def recommend it if you enjoy MD.

really loved the annihilation book! I was also a bit sceptical going into it for some reason, but it was a really rewarding read after watching the film.

I honestly had never read anything like it before, even just the descriptions of the world around the character's was really interesting haha. The second book is meant to be a bit of a drag to get through, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Just finished Tess of the D'Urbervilles, holy shit that ended up getting crazy towards the end

For the most part the story is relentlessly tragic which made me think of Grapes of Wrath (which I hated for that reason) but the sense of closure and of reprieve for the lovers towards the end of the book was beautiful.

Also beautiful descriptive imagery of the English countryside through the changes of season

Finally reading Watership Down, reading the book is nowhere near as traumatic as watching the film.

Disappointed. Still a very good read though. *insert pancake bunny emoji here*