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interesting overview of "the scene" although for whatever reason, the writers are reluctant to name group names despite giving you enough details to just wiki who they're talking about. that becomes a little annoying since you have to keep going back and forth to get better betwix book and .net to get more details

finished down and out in Paris and London by Orwell.

reading David Graeber's book on debt, thoroughly enjoying. also reading The Master and Margarita before bed/whenever I feel like fiction and its a really good read.

  On 6/27/2019 at 4:06 AM, Nebraska said:

interesting overview of "the scene" although for whatever reason, the writers are reluctant to name group names despite giving you enough details to just wiki who they're talking about. that becomes a little annoying since you have to keep going back and forth to get better betwix book and .net to get more details

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why on earth would they do that lmao

also i tried to read Blood Meridian earlier this year but I genuinely think it triggered a depressive episode. the book is fucking gruelling.

  On 6/30/2019 at 1:10 PM, MadellisTheSixth said:

finished down and out in Paris and London by Orwell.

reading David Graeber's book on debt, thoroughly enjoying. also reading The Master and Margarita before bed/whenever I feel like fiction and its a really good read.

Both (Graeber and The Master and Margarita) are excellent. Really enjoyed them ( for different reasons, obviously). 

The first half of the twentieth century has been very unkind to Russians, but damn did it make them produce a lot of good writing.

I’m currently reading The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Jevgeni Petrov, also from roughly the same period. It’s about the antics of a former nobleman who tries to hunt down twelve chairs (hence the title) that were confiscated from him after the Revolution. Very entertaining.

Graeber's other joint Bullshit Jobs is also q good.

Finished Lem's Fiasco. The inundation with real and imaginary science was a bit much but otherwise it had some interesting ideas and imagery. 

Now reading some PKD as a palate cleanser. 

I read Blood Meridian about a decade ago when I was bingeing on McCarthy. It’s the kind of book that I’m glad I read but won’t revisit for probably another decade. Same with a lot of McCarthy -  they stay with you for a long long time.  Child of God is another one of his that sticks in the brain. 

I’m reading Ballard’s short stories at the moment.  Hit and miss for me but mostly hit. He has a gift for playing with jargon and when he gets the tone right it’s brilliant. 

Master and Margarita: haven’t read it in many years - isn’t there a scene at the end where one of the clownish characters is revealed to be solemn knight in his true form?

  On 7/6/2019 at 1:18 AM, petsim said:

I’m reading Ballard’s short stories at the moment.  Hit and miss for me but mostly hit. He has a gift for playing with jargon and when he gets the tone right it’s brilliant. 

One of many reasons I admire Ballard is that he does straightforward SF stories & fragmentary antinarrative pieces equally artfully. Also the fact that just hearing/reading his name instantly fills my mind's eye with glassy sand dunes & skeletal skyscrapers—the man painted with a truly magic palette of imagery.

Gonna borrow Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire (pretty sure that's the title) from my brother tomorrow; gave it to him a few years back but never actually read it myself.

  On 7/6/2019 at 8:27 AM, doorjamb said:

One of many reasons I admire Ballard is that he does straightforward SF stories & fragmentary antinarrative pieces equally artfully. Also the fact that just hearing/reading his name instantly fills my mind's eye with glassy sand dunes & skeletal skyscrapers—the man painted with a truly magic palette of imagery.

What would you recommend? I read High Rise a while back and really enjoyed it, but then I tried to read some of his short stories - I vaguely remember one about music therapy for plants - and was pretty bored.

High Rise is one of a 'thematic trilogy'. The other two are Concrete Island and Crash. Read them.

Went on a Ballard binge around a decade ago, liked most of it, but found Crash all but unreadable. The mid-20th century avant garde has not aged well. Luckily most of his other work has, so I'm not complaining.

I’ve read High Rise and Concrete Island - both excellent. I like this kind of “mundane” speculative fiction: making the commonplace or humdrum surreal/alienating.

Crash unreadable?!

  On 7/7/2019 at 11:51 AM, petsim said:

I’ve read High Rise and Concrete Island - both excellent. I like this kind of “mundane” speculative fiction: making the commonplace or humdrum surreal/alienating.

Yes that's exactly what I liked about High Rise. Sounds like Concrete Island is the next one I should check out.

Yeah that’s a really good one.

Was the first Ballard I ever read. After reading WIll Self writing about it, gushingly.

  On 7/7/2019 at 12:33 PM, hello spiral said:

Crash unreadable?!

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*all but*

Repetitive, formless and overly descriptive.

  Quote

As she peered through the window at Vaughan's camera her canny eyes were clearly aware of his real interest in her. The posture of her hands on the steering wheel and accelerator treadle, the unhealthy fingers pointing back towards her breasts, were elements in some stylized masturbatory rite. Her strong face with its unmatching planes seemed to mimic the deformed panels of the car, almost as if she consciously realized that these twisted instrument binnacles provided a readily accessible anthology of depraved acts, the keys to an alternative sexuality. I stared at the photographs in the harsh light. Without thinking, I visualized a series of imaginary pictures I might take of her: in various sexual acts, her legs supported by sections of complex machine tools, pulleys and trestles; with her physical education instructor, coaxing this conventional young man into the new parameters of her body, developing a sexual expertise that would be an exact analogue of the other skills created by the multiplying technologies of the twentieth century. Thinking of the extensor rictus of her spine during orgasm, the erect hairs on her undermuscled thighs, I stared at the stylized manufacturer's medallion visible in the photographs, the contoured flanks of the window pillars.

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Whilst I was reading it I had a scooter and drove all over London, I knew the city like the inside of my tiny house, but there’s areas which still seemed difficult to reach. I did write below the Westway comes to mind but a simple google search has shown strong evidence this is what Ballard had in mind. It’s really not difficult to imagine such a place existing.

  On 6/30/2019 at 1:38 PM, rhmilo said:

Both (Graeber and The Master and Margarita) are excellent. Really enjoyed them ( for different reasons, obviously). 

The first half of the twentieth century has been very unkind to Russians, but damn did it make them produce a lot of good writing.

I’m currently reading The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Jevgeni Petrov, also from roughly the same period. It’s about the antics of a former nobleman who tries to hunt down twelve chairs (hence the title) that were confiscated from him after the Revolution. Very entertaining.

 

 

 

 

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that sounds up my alley, ill sus. thanks!

  On 7/9/2019 at 11:23 AM, rhmilo said:

*all but*

Repetitive, formless and overly descriptive.

 

 

:cums tho:

Have been slowly churning through UNSOUND:UNDEAD

https://www.urbanomic.com/book/unsoundundead/

"A brilliant multi-disciplinary, multi-genre exploration of reality as perceived and unperceived. Unsound:Undead exists at the intersection of fact, fiction and philosophy. It weaves these together into a collection of short essays that are both intriguing and thought-provocative. An absolutely fascinating compendium into audio research and audio intelligence and its application into physical and metaphysical realms."

I’m finally caught up with The Expanse and was hankering for more sprawling epic scifi. Did I find a new book, you ask? Nope, I’m just reading Dune for the zillionth time. 

  On 7/18/2019 at 10:22 PM, Lada Laika said:

I’m just reading Dune for the zillionth time.

I’m just about to read it for the first time. I’m guessing by your comment that it still stands up. 

And I am coming to it cold: I have a vague, probably incorrect, notion of what it’s about (dynastic power struggles over resources on a desert planet?)  but have not read it, discussed the narrative with anyone or seen the film version. 

  On 7/18/2019 at 10:34 PM, petsim said:

I’m just about to read it for the first time. I’m guessing by your comment that it still stands up. 

And I am coming to it cold: I have a vague, probably incorrect, notion of what it’s about (dynastic power struggles over resources on a desert planet?)  but have not read it, discussed the narrative with anyone or seen the film version. 

Honestly, it might be colored by the fact that I first read it when I was barely a teen, but yeah it holds up. Herbert’s prose can be stiff but it’s nowhere as obtuse as say, Tolkien could be, and his worldbuilding is just as intricate and detailed. Going in cold is the proper way to do it. I wish I could read it for the first time again.