/lit/ - Literature

Adherence and dedication to a political philosophy does not mean one need take leave of a sense of humor, nor take oneself so seriously as an author.

With tongue firmly in cheek Smith tells the story of a first contact culture clash. The not so committedly Marxist human mining expedition discovers libertarian capitalist claim jumping aliens camping out on their asteroid.

Smith trots out every classic Science Fiction trope he can cram in, along with his usual bits of preaching libertarian refrains, with zingers aimed at the failings of modern civilization. Wouldn't be complete without some jammin firearm visualizations; he renders the gun descriptions with more care than the gorgeous female love interests bouncing around. To be fair there are more guns than women to describe, and what with the expedition suffering under the unyielding cold dead hand of the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, where every quarter ounce of mass must be accounted and budgeted for, we are treated to the sight of each crew member busting out and strapping on a smuggled handgun at the first hint of crisis. Plus enough ammunition to do a bit of policing, though not quite enough to fight a proper war.

Oh, and cigarettes. Smuggled a ton of them, too.

For the aliens we get plenty of evolutionary paths that might have been. These claim jumpers bear tales of edgy progenitors who fought the good fight that they might gift their children hints of civilization, only to jet off into a distant long night. Somewhere, out there, the progenitors continue on in a grand crusade of hunting down Lovecraftian horrors that are their own progenitors in turn.

For the humans and the aliens both there is no time for disputing property rights, for the progenitor's progenitors have arisen again!

And if that is not enough, we have a nasty tea toting robotic trilobite with a penchant for hanging bodies on the wall, an ironclad mother of hive minded macroscopic single celled organisms here for the chat of a lifetime, and the very spirit of Americana heroically parading on to save the day at the forefront of … the yellow peril?

Oh, uh, don't forget the revealed history of the real Atlantis apocalypse. Bit of Star Trek wedged in there too.

In short, one hell of a humorously fun ride with plenty of surprises and a bit of something for almost everyone.

I'm currently going through a book an old friend gave me for my birthday. It's called Shinehawk, and from what little I've read, it's a story of sin and depravity, as well as salvation. Told through a series of flashbacks. I'll post more if I have time to finish it this weekend.

Other than that, I've been reading poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke. The Swan is my favorite.

Nolan takes us on a journalists eye view of one of the defining moments of the Vietnam war from the American marines perspective.

As I like to approach things as a fiction writer, I find this book useful. Nolan's presentation nails a dryish non-fictional chronicle style he was aiming for, but some of his battle descriptions leave a lot to be desired. They mimic errors I commonly see beginners make in trying to write battle scenes, which makes for a good comparison to fictional styles which use finer techniques. That is not a criticism of Nolan as he was not attempting a novel. I will make use of them though, as examples when I run across writing questions involving this.

Again, to be absolutely clear a fictional novel was not his goal and his writing serves well as an account of the battle. The writing does manage to capture a bit of the feel of being there. He gives a good overview of the tactics, and the kind of weapons in use. Much detailing is spent showing the confusion and friction between the different power players, and their disparate approaches to the same goal. Highlighted is the weirdness the marines experienced, needing to switch gears from their wide ranging and meandering rice paddy ambush lifestyle, to crashing into the claustrophobic Stalingrad-like confines of fighting across Hue.

A solid and educational wartime historic account.

This one. Invisible Cities by Calvino. I liked it a lot. It's a collection of short stories about cities presented as Marco Polo telling Kublai Khan about his travels. It's sort of a dream/fairytale hybrid about symbols and how we think about the world and stuff like that. Very cozy.

Glad this thread is back, its a nice staple of 8chan lit.

Like an extremely abbreviated version of Foucault's Pendulum. Enjoyable, but it left me wanting more. The conspiracy theory about Il Duce seemed pretty convincing.

A beautiful ballet of life among the caged featuring four socialite protagonists trying to sort their passionate combinatorial problème des ménages. The confines of their playground, or sprawling zoo, being New York City and the greater metropolitan area, circa nineteen forty one.

Delia, gorgeous wife married to a lifestyle planned out through to the grave, and paved in bland. Lydia, lithe dark beauty of the vagabond ballet company, always on the lookout for the main chance at freedom – from herself. Pierre, an opportunistic French artist working to launch his career while on sabbatical from the war ravaged continent. And Jonathan, something of a stand-in for the author – recently returned from Europe – and jogging a good five steps ahead of all the wartime troubles.

Jonathan as Prokosch, or Prokosch as Jonathan, on the lookout for making a career as … something. An architect? A master of those safely drafted to be comfortably stuck in stateside logistics? Mostly, as is the privilege of his class, his is a calling of plain looking.

World War Two draws out to a distant nothing as seen from these circles. The only invasions are perpetuated by those few who fled Europe to vacation among the Americans, acting merely as more exotic and self possessed chess pieces. The real battles are fought by the American elites across the fields of cocktail parties and dinner gatherings, barbing and slashing at peers in a game of pure entertainment without goal, or end.

The climax of the promenade comes from the failures of three to flee the caves, or cages, of their existence. One maneuvers into the princely, prisonly embrace of a more affable oriental gilding. A second is ripped free of attachments only to wander on in puzzled confinement to mid-level-high society. A third is convinced by a beneficent player to execute the knight's jump home; a move as correct as it is too late.

Only the fourth gains a real, final, lasting means of escape.

Prokosch makes for a good study in how to inject mood into the story through landscape, showing especially how the static city changes its presentation along with the ups and downs of the characters. His agreeable choice of chapter pacing and length make another choice for the would be novelist to attentively ponder.

I hoped this would be like Accelerando. It's not, but makes up for it by being a good thriller, complete with a explanation of who did what at the end.

The sequel, Rule 34, does try to be more dense by focusing more on AIs and their role in the setting. The result is more confusing, as it isn't clear what exactly happened or why do AIs function the way they do. Why, exactly, do they need a sense of identity? Why does self-awareness pose ethical and legal problems, but an AI's equivalent of pain does not?

The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan is in an unusual place. Most of the books I add to this list I would recommend for most everyone, but I'm not so sure about this one. The setting is easily the strongest element, and Sengoku Japan is brought to life very well. The characters were alright and I admit I basically only picked up this book because it stars Takeda Shingen, and I've wanted more stories about him ever since watching Kagemusha. The story is ok, if fairly predictable. There were a few moments when it seemed like the narration ought to have been more 'in character,' especially during tactical blunders (where, as it stands, the narration seems to suggest that splitting an overwhelming force into two weaker forces than the enemy and putting them on either side of a river is a genius plan), but that may be the fault of the translator more than of Inoue.

The quality of the translation is the biggest strike against it. I'm not sure if it was intentional to reflect the original Japanese, or if Yoko Riley is just not a very good writer, but there were more than a few sentences and paragraphs that were tortuously laid out in English. This extends even to paragraph arrangement sometimes. There were several cases where a paragraph would talk about one thing for 3/4 of a page, then break off for a single sentence paragraph about events and chronology in other areas, then flip back for another single sentence paragraph to wrap up the thought of the original paragraph. It feels like Yoko Riley either didn't have an editor, or that her editor wasn't paying very much attention. There's no editor listed in the acknowledgements, so maybe she just didn't have one.

So overall, it's OK. Not great by any means, but it's not as though I wasn't able to finish it. If you are a big fan of Samurai/feudal Japan, and want a more political sort of historical fiction, you might check it out. Otherwise, there are probably better things to read.

The sound of the mountain by yasunari Kawabata

Book tells of an old withering man who struggles with his memory and the relationships with his family. This all takes a toll on him especially the looming fear of death that the man sees and dreams all the time, adding to it the rumbling of a nearby mountain that reminds him of death.

He finds solace in his daughter in law kikuko which he finds attractive, tender and seems like the only persons in his life that tries to understand him and console him in his old age.

As a young guy it was rather interesting albeit a tad bit perplexing to see through the eyes of an old man, it seems scary to be that age and be scared of every little physical disease or accident might bring upon one's death. The main character the old man Shingo despite his old age is easy to like and understand his fears and his heartwarming moments

I won't give away any more of the story but I really enjoyed it, the book is about ~250 pages long, pretty short but very enjoyable but an awesome read and seeing the complex relationships in his life unfold and hear his struggle with them and his fears makes for a book that inspires a good range of emotions with plenty of food for thought.

I actually finished it today. It's a pretty short read - only about 210 pages with a fairly big fontsize - about Jim Carroll's early teens, in which he played basketball, fucked around and cruised for heroin with his friends. Considering it was written when he was 12-16, the writing is pretty impressive, coming off as very natural while also being fluent and vivid. (That being said, I'm really curious to know just how much of the book was edited by Carroll before publication, because I sincerely doubt it was just spelling and grammar errors that were… corrected, for lack of a better word.) I'd recommend it to anyone who's really interested in learning about people and their individual lives, but it's not something you'll want to read if you're looking for practical information, or escapism.

I'll say the same for Johnny Cash's Man in Black, which I finished only a few days before The Basketball Diaries. Cash was a pretty good song writer, so it makes sense he had an adequate understanding of written communication, but Man in Black certainly has it's flaws, mostly with pacing and fluency. At the same time, there's kind a charm in the fact Man in Black doesn't seem to have been written by a ghost-writer, and it comes off as more natural and honest as a result. Cash also had a pretty interesting life, and there are some pretty hilarious anecdotes in here. (Well, one particularly comes to mind.) Overall, I'd recommend it for the same reason I recommend The Basketball Diaries, but only to a lesser extent. It's pretty good, but there are better books to spend your time on.

>>8593

That's up there, but I think >>8596 swayed me over to the Henriad plays since I never bothered to get into them. Thanks for the recommendations.

The title means Knights and Knights' Orders

It's a book written for the average people. I got it from the local main library's sale, it's almost as old as I am (printed in 1988) and someone used it as a learning book in the past.

Got some really interesting facts from it, like for example that the troubadour wasn't the actual singer or performer of the chasons de geste ("knight tales"), they were the authors, while the jugglers were the performers.

Enjoyed it, and now I know that there was a templar and a St. John's Order house in my city in the XII. or in the XIII. century

Covers various studies on psychopaths. Psychopaths may be either serial killers or highly functionally people, like CEOs, lawyers, special forces etc. In certain situations, they have some advantages over normal humans.

This was recommended at the back of The Empire of the Sun. Unfortunately I remembered seeing the (faithful) movie way back in the 90s almost immediately so the shock value wasn't there.

He didn't seem to quite capture the total abandonment setting Ballard could, but I really liked the parents as characters. The siblings seemed weaker and more like an excuse for musings on sexuality, but I only had one brother who was emotionally independent from us from age 12 so what the hell do I know.

I am curious about his novels (this a short story) but the blurbs are all "shouty".

Here are three I read, but haven't posted yet:

Faust by Goethe

Beowulf, Tolkien Translation

Aeschylus I

>>8990

>>8991

So I know that at least one of our regulars is a big Graham Greene fan. I hadn't read any before this one, but I enjoyed it a lot. I suppose I'll have to read some more of his. Anyway, it was good and I liked it.

I basically only read this one because I saw (and liked) the movie (although I thought it had some pretty serious flaws). After reading it, I'm really surprised at how much was changed for the movie. Honestly I think most of the changes were for the worse, especially considering that one of the big complaints about the movie is how Leo's character survives some ridiculous things. Basically, there's no riding over a cliff in the book, and the only time that he gets in the river and it's really cold out he makes a fire to dry off his clothes right away. Also, Glass doesn't have a kid in the book, which helps the story feel a lot more interesting, and he gets a fair bit of help at the points when he really needs it. There's even a scene where he chases a pack of wolves off a Buffalo calf carcass with a torch, that I couldn't believe was cut because it probably would have looked great on screen.

So if you liked the movie and aren't worried about what reading a more realistic version of the story might do to your experience, I'd recommend it. And if you're like me, you'll probably just enjoy imagining Tom Hardy in all the extra scenes with his character enough to make reading the entire novel worth it.

It's a very good read. Very few long chapters, interesting and complex story, but not too complicated.

Has some scientific gibberish in it, but it's not that hard to understand.

The concept of these uroboros people is really interesting: They are immortal, but not in the sense that they can't die. They do die, but after that, they are reborn again, in the same time, at the same place, as the same person. So their minds are really-really old.

I'm not saying any more, because those will be spoilers, but I do recommend this book!

January 3rd, 2059, the last day of the last lingering human survivor, and the last full day of the old world.

Born in desperation as a means to drag life and civilization past the ultimate extinction, with three hundred years to their credit carrying the world forward. Still, the genetically spliced Creatura remain culturally and religiously adrift among humanity's ruins. Too ready to define their lives and values in terms of their exposure and exploitation of what remains – theirs is a society dedicated to archaeological anthropology.

Shana Feles is a felinoid relic hunter looking for some fast credits earned on the side scouting for a fly by night mercenary company. An easy contract job of bump-and-scare turns into a bloody murder spree, and Shana finds herself on the run in a Maltese falcon hunt across the post apocalyptic cadaver of North America.

A adventurous furry-fictionalized tale of the future by Paul Lucas.

The end is tragic as is the tradition of all biographies.

He dies.

Known as a rising star of literary fame in the thirties, and lauded as a writer's writer thereafter. He lived the lifestyle precariously, and as well as he was able to. Sometimes scraping by, sometimes scamming by. His biography is something of a mirror to Thomas Pynchon's, sliding by life not through obscuring quietude, but a twisted reflection of constant misdirection and aggrandizing lies. He boasted that none knew who he truly was, or the places he had been, nor all he had done. In matters of the truth he saw himself as an alliance of one against the world.

His two earliest best selling novels were often mistaken as being autobiographical, as was his personal memoir thought to be a proper roman à clef. All were proven inventions of the purest form, and no less brilliant for being so.

Some amusing verifiable facts of his life do survive. He had a habit of sending nude photographic portraits of himself to literary idols as a means of introduction. A creatively personal form of self promotion that was not always appreciated, in spite of his remarkable athletic charms.

Robert M. Greenfield manages to put together a coherent guide to Prokosch's life, doing well with what remains verifiable, and mining what could be from those who otherwise knew Prokosch personally – if only in part.

Class science fiction story by the one and only C.S Lewis.

>>9108

might be worth looking in to for >>>/tg/ related ideas.

It is a good read.

You can finish it really fast, and the story is fascinating: What is the purpose of life, what is the meaning of being?

This is aimed at kids in high school, but was written 15 years ago. Today, it doesn't count as shocking, maybe back then, it was. Some of the coming twists are easy to forsee though. It has some shock value of course, but overall you probably start to feel the same things as the narrator girl, while reading it.

It could be made into an awesome movie. Young people should watch/read this, instead of hunger games.

Having an insane protagonist and not caring about realism in the science are what makes The Stars My Destination the kind of book that feels like it was made up as the author went along. Quite the ride, Bester.

>>9250

Man I loved this, it was a wild ride. A blockbuster of words. Was the part in which he gets the ship he's stuck on in the beginning accurate? I'm not all that science savvy, but it came off as sound, everything else was clearly fantasy.Works like this tend to put my head in a spin over what exactly is Science fiction, which weird considering I am not scientifically literate.

>>9258

You mean creating fire with sodium and water? I guess it's correct. I liked how they use antigravity for take-off and combustion in space.

>>9262

>>9263

There aren't any strong rules to how much speculation you need before it's considered science fiction.

>>8992

Hey, BO, would you mind allowing posts to have more than one image? I would really appreciate it.

I recently finished these two books.

Aeschylus II

>>9269

And Morgoth's Ring.

When I started Opus Dei I actually didn't know that you're supposed to read some of his others before this one. That being said, it was excellent, so I'm pretty excited to read some of his other stuff. I'm not entirely sure about all of his conclusions with regard to the genealogy of some of the concepts he pursues, but the actual content was really interesting. So if you're interested in hearing about how Augustine and Aquinas permanently screwed with ethics by introducing duty, then check it out.

When I was a kid, I've heared the title, and thought how cool and mysterious it sounded. Then I've read what's it about, and from that on, it didn't interest me that much, though I remembered my mom saying it's a really violent book.

Then I saw the 1990 movie, and a week after, found the book in the local library's sale of used copies. Cost me like 50 USA cents, a 1966 edition, translated, in a pretty good condition, despite it's age.

I've read that people even in Golding's time considered this as an old story, and even more as the years passed. However, I really liked it.

His description of the island and it's surroundings is very vivid, and the main characters are well written. I knew what was going to happen, but it was much more gruesome in the book, than in the movie.

tl; dr: I like it.

These are what I had read in this order and am about 30 pages from finishing Behold The Spirit; took a while since that one is the most difficult thing I've ever read and so it alone took me more time than all the previous ones put together.

>>9344

Once I'm done there I have plenty more on the way.

Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes. Hitler wakes up in a park in Berlin in 2011 and can't remember anything more recent than hiding out in his bunker. Hilarity ensues. It's sort of a satire and sort of a satire of satire, but mostly it's wonderfully funny.

>>9329

Yeah, I kinda misread it that. My bad. My mind saw "screwed" and must have substituted "with" with "up".

2/4 Greek playwrights

I was expecting the locals to have fun at the foreigner's expense, but no. Marrakesh is a serious place, that simply happens to alternate ridiculous and sad situations.

Just came in the mail.

>>9451

Percy Fawcett is most known for his mysterious disappearance looking for the "Lost City of Z," but what piqued my interest in his memoirs was hearing about his supposed encounters with a ~60 foot anaconda and what he thought was a living dinosaur in the Madidi swamps, and how his wild stories inspired his friend Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Lost World. Although I was disappointed to find no description of the latter incident in the book (from what I recall, anyway– there's still a relevant illustration featured at one point), there are still tales of poisonous spiders the size of dinner plates, a cat-like dog, the Double-nosed Andean tiger hound (sightings of which actually got some media coverage a while back), sightings of white Indians, and even an encounter with a tribe of hostile ape men. Although considered a bit of his crackpot for his Theosophically inspired spiritual beliefs and his zeal in searching for the Lost City of Z, from what I've heard his mapping work was considered pretty accurate. I get the impression that he was genuinely trying to provide a truthful account of his experiences.

I couldn't recommend it enough if you have an interest in adventure stories, early 20th century exploration, or the just plain bizarre.

>>8441

I like Pound's poetry a lot, but wow does he have high expectations of the reader sometimes. I guess that just means I'll have to make another pass at Cantos at some point.

Home

To a new and a shiny place

Make our bed and we'll say our grace

Freedom's light burning warm

Freedom's light burning warm

Neil Diamond, America

Pynchon's epic tale ringing in, or a wringing out of, what was the final years of the nineteenth century.

The American ship of state sails across the sky, ever expanding. Balloon boys manning her as throwbacks to some idealized adventure of Horatio Alger. High-teching their meandering ways invisibly, mostly. Their escapades intangible and unknown to the ground bound regulars below – save as reported through the imaginative titles of various adventure books. That, and the rumors of battles misfought with their mirror image: masonry dumping Imperial Russians more intent on the polite after battle accusatory chat. Who bombed or torpedoed what archway, inadvertently? Yes, yes, a quiet agreement to call it a whoops, live and let live. Fly on. Let the land-bound natives ponder and leave the lawyers no wiser.

All of which is in contrast to the professionalized, immense, and far more intense battles between the contenders of Europe at large. Battles fought at, more-so fought under, the peripheries of Empire. A subdesertine visage of destruction presaging the full dress regimented catastrophe to come (and best viewed from above).

See the lives of those inheritors to cowboy tradition chasing lusty cowgirls to the ends of the wild west, while an Asmimovian net of Cartesian legal constraint lays down a mortgaged finale to their land. We even follow the occasional wayward travails of a cowboy turned mathematician. All pursue their means and meanings across the Americas, across Europe, with a dodge through Asia. Plenty of work to be had in their varied part time stints between the pursuit of justice as anarchist assassins. They swim through a world corrupted via commerce, hunting and hunted by the human condensers of its universal carrier wave, money.

The characters skip across scenes of a world hacking its way toward a final conquest of photonic nature. It is a search for the keys to the mixing of time and reanimation, of splitting as creation, new forms of communication, and weapons; the fears of each potential discovery and technological application holding in silhouette the characters, places, history, and the readers themselves.

Of our novelists, a claim to the artistic title of America's biographer is held firmly by another, a writer of an earlier generation. Yet the title of America's encyclopedist remains unclaimed. To Pynchon the glory of such is deserved.

Jugend Ohne Gott from Ödön von Horváth

I liked it. On the first level, it's a criticism of the Nazis, where everything is in contrast with Ancient Rome. On another level it's about a couple of young boys, and their lives. On the thrid level it's about "love", and secrets and violence. It's also a nice "detective story" and it's very short. I've finished it in like 4 hours

Read 'Further and further away' some time ago, it was nice but pushes absolute defeat on the character by the end. The description of the mustard gas made me realize that the Yellow Devil in Megaman is probably an allusion to it.

So I think a while ago (not sure how long, maybe lewe had a thread about Karl Knausgaard where William Vollmann's name was mentioned (I think an anon called him 'the most interesting writer today'). Anyway, it took me this long to finally read one of his books, but it was excellent. 'The Rifles' is a strange (I think amazon calls it 'hallucinatory') story about Sir John Franklin, an explorer in the 1840s looking for the Northwest Passage who is also Subzero, a tourist visiting the Canadian islands during the 1990s (and who also might be one of the characters in an Inuit myth). Its a weird and wonderful story (if a story that ends with cannibalism and the destruction of the Inuit can be called wonderful).

I read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

The whole thing is overall a mixed bag but very good for a fanfiction.

Pros:

- A delight to every Frodoposter ( >>9594 ), Harry thinks of a lot of things his magic can accomplish that you wouldn't see in other stories of this type

- Very funny in the first few chapters

- Great quotes, both for humor and inspiration

- Contains some good Humanity Fuck Yeah

- Protagonist is smart, at least in some respects

- Hermione Granger is a qt

- Fun and creative action sequences

- Mostly real science instead of technobabble

Neutral:

- Alternative Universe story, there is no single point of departure from the originals but a bunch of changes in setting, characters and worldbuilding

- Tends to bash the originals for their sometimes illogical events, which some appreciate and some find annoying

Cons:

- You can often feel the authors opinions projected through his characters, especially a certain disgust towards normal humans

- sometimes preachy

- Harry can be annoying

- Every explanation has at least a paragraph about some scientific subject, study or experiment, often rather unrelated to the actual events

- Harry is pretty Marty Stu

- Neither protagonist nor other characters act anywhere near 11 year old

- Tons of references, mostly to anime and always very unsubtle

- Author forgets about a few plot devices along the way

- Ending feels rushed

- Certain characters feel like cardboard cutouts

All in all, I can recommend it, but it's not without it's flaws.

A speculative survey of future technological developments in the field of construction.

If you are an active consumer of modern SciFi RPG source books, or addicted to study of encyclopedic world building websites, such as Orions's Arm, this might not be of much use to you. For others, Lucas provides an excellent guide to an array of ideas of things to come. Recommended for someone looking for suggestions of what to use as an unusual setting, scene, or backdrop to their own story.

Just read pic related. It's a weird book, but I liked it. It's got a nice, slightly philosophical narrative, and somehow manages to have an emotional impact despite reading like a history textbook. If you want to read some truly grand sci-fi, I can only recommend it.

Three books:

War of the Jewels by Christopher Tolkien

Euripdes I & II.

Medea and Phaedra are cunts. That is all.

A Miltonian take on the fall from paradise, redux. Set in the modern and deeply fallen world, with players and allies rearranged in lockstep with the times.

Satan passes the time as a teacher incautiously preparing for his secular pension. He promotes his view of the humanity inherent in what others see as animals, for which he is taken to task, and put under watch for such blaspheme.

Chagrined, he must lead his rebellious charges through their welcomed worship of the state, and guard the garden from the excluded fallen while perversely observing others in their own assigned watches for just the same. A detour through a town of hate, of hell, fails to raise his spirits. Nor does an occasional bender with his odd drinking companions offer much solace. JC is one, one of the few referred to directly by a name, and an alias at that. Yes, this aliased fisher of men is now slumming around with death and sin as companions. Having committed an affair of fundamental transgression against the modernized rules of the world, his ministry is constrained to the down and out crowd. Another drinking session with a priest rounds out our teacher's view of Christianity today, painting a picture of the church in exclusive service to the social hierarchy.

Adam and Eve make their appearance. Here Eve never needed to be enticed to knowledge, having it forced on her long before, curtsy of the world itself. Adam is Adam, ready made to be led astray, though a few generations removed from and farther down the scale of alphabetical order.

A murder is committed, and our Father of Lies teacher is tasked with God to tell the truth. Justice miscarries in spite, the teacher is thrown from paradise, and must mount a fishing expedition of his own for the perpetrator.

And as seen in Paradise Lost, in the end his triumph is transformed to a mere sojourn among the animals, though this time as a guest of the church.

Horvath's work is a short and fast read. Both for his magnificently modernized allegorical storytelling, and what may humorously flash with chan goers as something of an echo of our own memes, this comes highly recommended.

:^)

A political thriller of a play overlaying a civics lesson in the American primary system.

There are several versions of this play. This review refers to (and suggests for reading) the revised edition produced by the Center Theater Group in 1987. Comparison to the original produced in 1960 is a bit spooky. Names dropped and references made have changed, being updated to a better fit. The dialog is a bit more pithy, and the characters feel more real in losing most of Vidal's parenthetic obsession. The essence of both plays remains exactly the same.

William Russell and Joseph Cantwell vie for the nomination clinching endorsement of the ex-president and elder statesman Authur Hockstader. Russell and Cantwell assume Hockstader will support the other, both are forced to sidestep Authur though the use of an ultimate weapon. For his part, Hockstader serves as a purveyor of wisdom, and especially as a living expression of the all too human motivations to power. He is an aficionado of the means, by any means, and is forced to vacillate between. The poetry of power is his art, and his ultimate lesson answers the question, "Which is more important, the means or the end?" Such a question is not even wrong, masking as it does a third answer most people fail to glean. Authur is disgusted with the fundamental flaws of both candidates, his judgment is harsh. His endorsement withheld to the very end, appearing again in service to the theme of another option.

Yet, the convention has a life of its own and, like life, will not wait for such plodding maneuvering before moving on. Russell and Cantwell continue to grapple their way through to the climax. In the end we are left with truism, "to the victor the spoils," while knowing full well that the victory belongs to ….

When one knows thee,

Then alien there is none,

Then no door is shut.

~Rabindranath Tagore

1970s era science fiction in a collection of nine short stories centering around themes of friendship, or understanding, or a bit of both, between humans and aliens.

Of the nine stories, these three stand out:

1. Dream Done Green by Alan Dean Foster. What is the point to being a sentient equine poet?

2. The Stones Have Names by Mildred Downey Broxon. Sympathetically incompetent planetary governor befriends an up an coming liaison for the locals. Both commiserate in a mutual plight of finding their leadership constrained through the willfully shortsighted.

3. What Friends Are For by John Brunner. Where parenting fails, there is left the profession of last resort.

A traditional fairytale rewoven into a cyberpunk Gothic romance.

Linh Cinder is held to a life of working her way though indentured servitude in the dense ghetto of New Beijing. Her reputation as an android mechanic and general technology tinkerer holds her in good stead with the owner she supports, and her family of sorts.

A charming new client makes his appearance, requesting she repair his bricked robotic servant. This straightforward task launches her into a swirling cascade of interrelated events. From a prince to the plague, a candy orange car, unethical medical experiments, the spectacular – and vile – queen of warmongering monsters on the moon, and her own plans of escape.

Oh, and between all this she finds the time to crash the coronation ball in classic style – one worthy of Hunter S. Thompson.

The story is plot heavy to conform to its inspirational roots. Yet, Marissa Meyer adds enough twists and surprises to keep her modernized tale fresh.

>>8441

on the last pages,

before this was the right stuff by wolfe

The original novel from which both the film and the hit TV series were derived.

Here is the collected stories of a trio of surgeons managing their army medical careers through a method of pushing everyone's buttons, and undermining all forms of regular army command hierarchy.

In comparison with the TV series, the tone is far more mean spirited, and far less politically correct. The comedy is all there, with a better and more realistic feel. The protagonists trash their hapless opponents in short order, and with finality. None serve as worthy foils.

The most interesting character to echo though later adaptions would be the dentist, Captain Walter Waldowski. His depiction in the novel belies the somber interpretations of the series iconic theme song: Suicide is Painless. Not surprising, as the lighthearted aspect of this musical creation failed to transfer over from the film as well.

With the novel as the exemplar, the film is a decent adaption, and the series something else again.

Țiganiada, epic based on the war betweed Vlad and Mehmed. Breddy gud. It has footnotes for words and concepts the reader might not know about (some of which were made up) and it acknowledges that, to paraphrase, subjugated people are not worse off because of how the world changed since the time of heroics until today (early 1800s), but that their freedom is for themselves to attain.

Vlad GET

>>10000

>>10000

the last audiobook (which is how i consume 95% of my books) i listened to was silence of the lambs, which i finished this morning. it needs no introduction but my review is that i love it. the characters are as 3 dimensional as you could want, hannibal lecter is creepy as hell, its atmospheric and grimy, the story is engaging.

if you mean the last book i actually read with my eyes, that would be welcome to the NHK. easily one of the most genuine story and characters i've ever known, there is not a single letter in it that feels artificial. the author wrote it from straight from the heart with no filter, and it shows. if you've ever been through a period of loneliness and depression in your life then it will get under your skin. the most meaningful thing i can say about it is that i read it all in one go, finished it at 4 AM, put the book away, and cried myself to sleep.

"You know, you seem to be leading a rock star life, and if you were Keith Richards or Mick Jagger, no one would bat an eyelid."

"Right."

~An interview with Charlie Sheen.

Or even, one might say George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron. Byron serves as an exemplar of modern wild celebrity and fame. He has inspired a number of pseudo-biographic novels, and outright fantasies with his character featured as the star.

Facing the depressing prospects of slumping literary fame, Frederick Prokosch tried his hand at the tradition of Byronic reenactment. The reception of this novel helped stabilize his career. Sadly, what recognition he received was not to last, with Prokosch later resorting to the crudities of self forgery for financial gain. That is tale for another time; here, his ability to forge Byron's poetic ghost made for one of his best works.

The writing is presented as a rediscovery of copies of copies of Byron's last three diary notebooks. Prokosch takes us though a tour of Byron's past in a series of flashback scenes rushing toward the future, each paired with a diary entry in the present day as he winds his way to destiny at Missolonghi, Greece. The effect is one of sitting down with a chatty Byron reminiscing of his life, his triumphs and tragedies, in between bitching about his current state of affairs in search of battle and glory at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Here is found a final adventure as the last great surge of irresponsible freedom is recast into virtue, and of irrepressible youth racing ahead of the seething consequences of a life inoculated with vice.

Consequences both unsurprising and expected, that is to say, such was life in a pre-antibiotic age.

Lady Caroline Lamb's epic epithet phrase and the coining of the term Byromania highlight his seductive allure. Physicality aside, Prokosch shows Byron taking stabs at philosophy and touching on religion to seek deeper meanings in life. Of claiming him as simply being a study in devilish temptation, Byron may have said in response: "Say not it was Adam whom the Devil first tempted. Say the Devil fell to Adam first, instead."

Earth Abides.

It was a post-apocalyptic book written in the 50s.

The story of a loner that survives after what is assumed to be a plague. He travels across the country to find nothing till he settle back in his home town. He meets a woman and a few others and tries to rebuild civilization.

I really enjoyed it. If you're into post-apocalyptic stories, you should read it. Not to go off topic, but is The Road worth reading? I've never seen the movie, so I don't know anything about it.

>>10011

>welcome to the NHK

Interesting. 2002 - I guess it would have been one of the first novels dealing with/documenting/acknowledging hikikomori

>>10145

>lolbergs

>ancaps

>not batshit crazy

I haven't played Warhammer Fantasy in years, so while I heard about the Age of Sigmar shift I didn't have any huge reaction to it other that "Look at Games Workshop making dumb rules." Anyway, one of the things I did not imagine is that by virtue of Sigmarines existing now, a bunch of the novels are going to be about Sigmarines, and they're going to feel a lot like Space Marine stories. It isn't that I hate Space Marines, but it goes change the interesting balance that the novels had. In Warhammer Fantasy novels the humans and weak and vulnerable and always on the edge of annihilation whereas in 40k the humans are still sort of like that, but now they have the tools to deal with those problems. And for better or worse writing stories about Sigmarines changes that dynamic.

So while I thought Warbeast was alright (kind of par for the course as far as Warhammer novels go), I am a little sad that it feels so 40k.

Strange Airplanes by Walter G. Scott

The guy is Hungarian, and he took up this better sounding name, but still, there's a part in the book where he refers to Hungary as his home country, which is a mistake. If I want to look like a British/American person, I won't refer to my real home country like that.

Also he added some unprofessional comments in some cases, which really confuses the reader, because the rest of the texts sound like coming from an expert.

The publisher does a really low quality job with these books - there's at least 200 different types of them, all of them around 200 pages. The text obviously shows that it was written around 2009, but the copyright information states that it was published in 2015 - which is a reprint, probably, but they didn't bothered with showing the date of the original publication or saying "Second Edition". Of course it's possible that the manuscript waited like 5 or 6 years to be published, but that made it outdated.

The most frustrating thing about these little reading materials though is that the authors never refer to any kind of source, and these are sort of monographies, about "scientific" or "historical" research, and if you want to read further, they don't give you any starting points.

But at least they are very cheap, you can get one for less than 2 USD.

I (tried) reading Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, until I got lost around 65 pages in and could barely understand what the fuck was going on despite it being his 'easiest to read' book.

I think I might be retarded.

Yankee Stargazer, the life of Nathaniel Bowditch

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035469678

The book did well explaining the world Bowditch grew up in, but not what exactly he worked on or why it was important.

>>10003

It's not really about Vlad, much of it is plain comedy with references to other epics and questions of what to do with freedom once acquired.

>>10258

>I think I might be retarded.

I think that makes 90% of the world retarded, bruv

Post-modernist literature really does ooze the definition of pretentiousness. Y'know, "I understood it, you didn't, that makes me a better human being, even though I am just faking it"

I've never read his stuff, because I have enough trouble with "See Spot Run"

I figure most of the anons here probably already know about Name of the Rose, and if I remember from the thread we had abut Eco at least one anon has already read some of his stuff. Anyway if you haven't read it, I heartily recommend it to just about anyone (except that anon who doesn't like philosophy in his novels).

There's gold in them there natzis!

Tunisia, May, 1969. As a high level foreign service functionary dutifully minding the shop relinquished by the late, great, French overseas empire, George Russell finds himself burdened with the additional honor of overseeing a group of young exchange interns. For him it is an additional drain on his meager resources, of time lost that was better spent in pursuit of quazi-westernized wayward Bedouin women. Sharon Hoyt becomes his biggest problem of this group, as a fully modern westernized girl, a teacher, and an "innocently" serious devotee of free love. Keeping her safely idle proves to be an impossibility, and George must hold his peace with her appointment to teach a very select group of local boys. The remainder of Sharon's attention is taken up with an amiably shady Prussian gentleman – merely a dabbler in archaeology, a stereotyped facade of a Jewish phosphate-jobber working undercover to help his brethren safely emigrate, and the Arabic Chief of Police driven mad by her free loving ways.

At first, the story moves toward the promise of an Indiana Jones treasure hunt as Sharon is introduced to the local legend of the lost treasury of the the Africa Corps. Gifted a hagiography of Rommel to whet her appetite, she discovers a misplaced and forgotten photograph between the pages. She thinks of it as evidence supporting the legend, but to those with sharper eyes the photo clearly shows a political officer overseeing Rommel's fidelity. The photo identifies that officer as a member of the Schutzstaffel, as also a particularly enthusiastic supporter of the final solution (even among that select group), and that he is currently living with them – and living well – in Tunisia.

An attempt should be made, quickly and quietly, to bring him to justice. Yet, the world is wholly focused on the current round of Egypt's and Israel's trading of blows. The phosphate salesman can not wait to hear back from Tel Aviv, so he and his team choose to go it alone. Their effort succeeds in part, while also disrupting what appears to be a very real search for the gold. All too late the survivors learn the legend is only the means to bring about a brutal end, an ending made not from some cinematic treasure running adventure but, instead, what will be a battlefield shaped from the tools of social change smuggled in.

>>8441

I await my evisceration.

>>10410

I don't remember discussing graphic novels or fan fiction.

It'd be hard to give a summary for this book because it's part of a series, but basically shit just gets weirder in this installment

>>10410

Sounds pretty reasonable, tbh.

Almost 'too' reasonable…

>40k novels

What d'ya'll think of the Horus Heresy then, or would it be faux pas to discuss it here?

>>10444

Eisenhorn definitely does, and it builds into Ravenor which is really good too, at least from a 40k perspective. Thing is, my taste is probably tainted because I generally like most of Dan Abnett's non-HH works because I love the universe of 40k but the vast majority of the fluff doesn't have any nuance to it. People say 'bolter-porn' and other autistic buzzwords from out of their shit forums, but there's a grain of truth in there.

For instance, you see a lot of space marines' battles novels where it's just designated heroes doing heroic shit and breaking internal consistency because space marines aren't allowed to lose. It's always fanfiction man vs gods and man wins because HFY-tier masturbatory fantasies. Dan Abnett's stories are always of man vs man, where half the time the other man represents the protagonists if they were from another place and/or time.

His Gaunt's Ghosts series is particularly great, to me at least, because of that, where in the later books, as they fight the Sons of Sek and the Blood Pacts, the Ghosts barely scrape by in their victories and learn more and more that the enemy is a lot like them, just on the darker side of the galaxy. A good example of that is when they learn from a captured enemy commander that calling them traitors is erroneous because they never were part of the Imperium in the first place.

And on the other end, as with Eisenhorn and Ravenor, you see sides of the Inquisition where the stories are like detective noir, or Call of Cthulu, hardboiled urban fantasy, or spy thrillers, instead of just Witch-Hunters kicking down doors and declaring Exterminatus over a single cult, or Grey Knights fighting all the daemons like a horrid knockoff of the DOOM novels (somehow).

I was hoping people would wanna discuss the HH though because I find the biggest issue with 40k's lore and discussion on places where it's more appropriate, like /tg/, are majority populated by people that think the Imperium's the good guys, are space marine fanboys, or like the Eldar unironically without knowing their faults. The HH turns that all on its head but no one ever discusses its specific missteps or the twists of its re-characterizations, instead it's either balk and fury about how the series is all bad all the time and its not worth dissecting or 'filthy traitor IDF go home.'

But whatever, I'm just bitching.

What did you like and dislike about Xenos?

>>10452

>>10453

>are they not?

They are in the books where they're the main characters, which is like 90% of them, so by that logic, I guess. But the thing is 40k is so grimdark that there are no real good guys. All the characters on the ground are basically slaves to those with power beyond whatever the book's main conflict is and those up top are usually irredeemably stupid or evil by any measure. Most space marines commit what we would consider atrocities in most other settings, and pretty much all the 'bad guys' are created by the 'good guys' making stupid decisions.

For instance, the Horus Heresy:

Literally all but two of the traitor primarchs turned because the Emperor or the other primarchs were complete fuckwits and of those two exceptions one was Alpharius Omegon, where we don't actually know really why because SECRETS, and Mortarion where it was because Calas Typhon fucked with their warp route and basically sent them through Nurgle's Plague Garden.

The biggest issue is, the overwhelming majority of the fluff is written from the perspective of Imperial Propagandists, and with the majority of players/fans being Space Marine fags or Imperial fans they don't push back against that and instead double down on the Imperial stories so it's just this vicious cycle.

>it has all the ingredients for being not that great

I wish you had read them because I'd really like to discuss this point. Not that I think you're wrong, it's just that a lot of people's issue is with how some authors seem to screw up what other authors had done beforehand, and yet, some of the most egregious stupidities in the fluff were from the best writers.

>i guess i went in with maybe my expectation's too high, since i've heard everyone talking well about it.

Eh, that's not your bad really. Xenos and the rest of the Eisenhorn series broke new ground as no real, subtle stories had been told about the day to day of the Inquisition or any other sector close to the Imperium's civilians and the stories from the series went on to shape the modern interpretation of those slices of life for this current incarnation of the universe, like a bigger and better Necromunda or something. They also really created the 'flavor' that Black Industries and FFG built Dark Heresy and the rest of their RPGs on.

It's just an issue of legacy. Like if you read Dune or Starship Troopers for the first time today, not from a thematic or symbolic angle, mind you, but the aesthetics and kinds of stories those books told are very run-of-the-mill these days, but at the time they were something that had never really been done and forged the archetype for many, many works after them.

>>9743

The Peoples of Middle Earth by Christopher Tolkien

Euripides III-V

Almost done with the last one.

For the fourth time.

I've read two books over the past couple of days: A Search for the King by Gore Vidal and The Ice Shirt by William Vollmann. If I remember correctly Vidal's novel was recommended here some time ago. I enjoyed it, although I expected something a little different, because the only other Vidal I've read was Creation. Both are historical fiction (to some degree), but it turns out that A Search for the King is essentially an adventure novel set in the period of King Richard the Lionhearted at the end of the 12th century (for comparison, Creation is more like a travelogue and a depiction of life during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, almost like a retelling of Herodotus). Anyway it was pretty fun, although unfortunate for A Search for the King's sake that I read Eco's Name of the Rose earlier this summer and Vollmann's The Ice Shirt just before. As for The Ice Shirt itself, I have nothing but good things to say about it. I loved Vollmann's The Rifles when I read it a few months ago and I feel the same way about this one. I heartily recommend it to anyone who things they might enjoy a weird (but excellent) history/myth hybrid about the Norse settlement of Vinland (although the anons who don't like philosophy and/or significant ambiguity in their novels might want to stay away).

This (A Perfect Vacuum by Stanislaw Lem) is an ultimately disappointing collection of book reviews for books that don't exist. There are three principal reasons that the book is disappointing. The first is that like much average to mediocre satire the book comes to exemplify many of the flaws in similar literature that it wishes to condemn. Rather than a beautiful denouncement of postmodern self-indulgence, the book becomes another self-indulgent postmodern work making all the generic shortcuts that bring those flaws about. The second cause of disappointment is that Lem clearly owes a major debt of Borges, but his stories aren't nearly as good. A number of the stories even cover very similar ideas to other, better Borges stories, and one wonders why anyone would read "Being Inc." when "The Lottery of Babylon" exists. Finally the greatest disappointment is that some of the story ideas would probably work pretty well, and it seems obvious that Lem could have written a better book by turning one of those ideas into a full novel rather than writing "A Perfect Vacuum."

Made out of three stories:

The first one, Road to Charing Cross, is boring except for the beginning, final battle, and a few moments Flashman takes the initiative. The other two have him mostly in control as he outsmarts his enemies: easily, in the second, barely, in the third.

The beginnings are well-written, and so is the book in general, but the plots don't always make sense.

Lila: An inquiry into morals by Robert M. Pirsig. Its a philosophy book presented in the form of a journey and sequel to a similar book from the same author. The author sails on a boat from Kingston to Florida in the Hudson river with his traveling companion - a girl named Lila. He gives his thoughts on his experience and he tries to lay out the foundations of a Metaphisics of Quality to make morals and value judgements easier to understand.

Personally, I think his analysis and writing style is superb, but the theory he lays out feels lacking, understandably as creating a metaphysics is a huge task.

Also his social skills are abysmal and thats coming from me posting on an imageboard, and often you will cringe at his interactions with his girl companion.

>>10936

> I felt that the entire story was a critique on young women's fiction, and how most of it is trite nonsense.

Shit. That sounds cool. My fat feminist cousin owns this book. I might have to pay her a visit now.

So is this book considered a classic just because it was the only half-competent African novel of its time? Because I did not care for it.

Half the book is a series of unconnected episodes that go nowhere. I get that the author was trying to humanize tribal culture, but he could at least have worked the "tribal life" episodes into the plot and used them as an opportunity to develop the characters more deeply, as opposed to dumping them on the reader one after another and then, halfway through the novel, switching to the actual conflict of the book. The prose is so plain and the characters are so underdeveloped that they do little to make the book interesting.

An exploration of a mind as a city, and of an authorial journey through the burning process of pure written creation. The creator's tour of the war Art can be.

Delany's own collection of writing advice, About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, & Five Interviews, is not intended to be a guide to dhalgren. It works well though as an adjunct, an extended preface that highlights the interplay between literary theory, and application.

What of the plot?

Our unnamed (or unnameable, as they often are) narrator arrives in a city known as Bellona. A city made of urban landscapes ever changing, displaced in both space and time, which also maintains a bizarre unchanging taste of post-apocalypse. He tours this ragged diorama while getting to know the people and societies remaining, and who now take in jaded stride every manner of insanity made commonplace — such as their own enchainment in points of view.

I haven't explored any thriller genre novels, as I was looking for recommendations, I came to know of the Hannibal series. I haven't watched the show yet, but after finishing this series, will consider. I had too much expectations from this book, but it turn out to be just average.

The part I really like about this book, is character build development of dolarhyde. The paranoid schizophrenic psychopath, portrayed in the story. In certain parts of the book, we get to experience the intensity of abuse dolarhyde suffered in childhood, from his sadist grandmother and overall rejection of his existence by society. And the Interaction of Graham with the killer, although indirectly, was fascinating to read.

But I will only read this series to understand the character of Hannibal Lector, among all he is the one that strikes my curiosity. Protagonist in the book, Will Graham, is exceptional character as well, keeps the flow of the story smooth, build up to be dynamic.

Over all, I am still familiarizing myself with the writing style of Thomas Harris, because it strikes me as little odd. As the situations are presented as is, rather than expanding them with descriptions. I can't comment much on writing though, as I am still quite unsure. Already started silence of the lambs, let's see. How this series unfolds for me.

THE CONTINENTAL CLASSICS are a twenty volume collection of outstanding European literature, published circa 1920. Well worth anyone's time to peruse, though understandably a collection made of vintage selections.

CONTINENTAL CLASSICS INC. was a 1960's era fly by night flea ridden attempt to ride the wave of loosening obscenity laws, into a brave new world at two bucks a pop (including tax).

Care to guess which collection Shooting Star belongs to?

Rod Bradley is a down and almost out wannabe actor. He drifts into town, looking for something to tide him over until the big break. An acquaintance introduces him to Olga Innstrom's mansion (Riverdale Ave, #1337 … 'leet as 'leet can be, no?) of ill repute; he is invited into the trade as a male prostitute. A chauvinist's paradise form of trade, servicing women exclusively.

There is a stab at a plot of sorts. Rod finds his time impossible to split between attempts at landing a part, and his ruptique duties of deflowering bouffant styled maidens, all the while messing the percales something fierce. We are treated to a touch of philosophy: "A true artist's bound to be impatient with dull ordinary pursuits, he's not concerned with such petty things as bills to paid, dental appointments, a new suit or pair of shoes, or even the supposed responsibilities and obligations the world's constantly trying to foist off on him." We also have a go at literary name dropping; Rod finds a potential escape through the made for TV special: Murder Off Broadway (an adaption of Henry Klinger's work I suspect — was Teddy Arnold his pot-boiling pen name?)

Through the parade of boners and bewbies Rod finds his true love, faces the foreshadowing of murder as a means to obtain her, only to be blindsided by the convenient murder of his employer in turn. Oh, the possibilities for story telling! And then …

And then we hit chapter eleven. The Continental Classics format restrictions appear to be absolute across their product line. 160 printed pages, no more, das it mane! Rod seizes the opportunity, wraps things up neatly. Chapter twelve we are treated to one final victorious sex scene with his beloved, sail off into the sunset, good night. Happy ever fucking after.

The artistic highlight of the book is to be found in the introduction. One of the most creative meshing of marketing titillation, and plausible deniability boilerplate I have ever witnessed.

"The reader should find the knowledge of perverted sex behavior described in this novel useful in avoiding similar unwholesome situations. It is from this point of view that Continental Classics presents this complete and unexpurgated version. It is recommended only for the graduate student and the mature adult reader. A.L. Saunders, M.A. New York City, June, 1969."

Thanks for the heads-up brother, and Amen.

>>11080

>>11082

>>11084

I like the first part, full of suspense.

I like the second part, with its weird alien sex.

I found the third part to be anticlimactic.I mean, what? The thing is resolved off-screen? That's bullshit, Asimov.

And The Trees Crept In (The Creeper Man in the United Kingdom'') by Dawn Kurtagich.

Teen horror novel with timeless class. Scary stuff. The plot wasn't as perfect as her last novel The Dead House, but still I had to wait till it started getting light out to go to sleep.

Just finished the first part of LOTR. Started pretty slow, but was a good read altogether.

Did anyone else get the feeling that Tolkien's storyline mirrors something like the French Revolution? The rings seem to symbolize power, and the way it corrupts. The One Ring is absolute power (which corrupts absolutely) while the lesser rings (like the one the elves in Lothlorien have) can be used for good. Sauron seems to symbolize some sort of evil dictator, while the elves are ruled by romantic European monarchs. The elves say that when the One Ring is destroyed, their ring will lose its power, and their realm will fall. This seems to reflect some idea of Tolkien's that the French Revolution (or some similar event I haven't thought of) may have been justified, or even necessary, but that it also destroyed the great kings that fostered the beauty shown in the elves.

In this way Tolkien may have been just as apprehensive of the journey as his protagonists were. It also explains why he devoted himself to fantasy: he sees the world under modern democracies as safe, but dull.

Hell, it could also be talking about WWII, which I suppose is more likely, though it would mean Tolkien was a fan of fascism. Maybe he admired it because, just like the elves are the scattered remnants of something greater, he might have seen fascism as some small remnant of ancient royalty. Sauron, then, would symbolize Hitler, who Tolkien must have thought evil enough that he had to be stopped even at the cost of losing fascism (or any sort of return to a traditional government).

Or maybe I'm just thinking out of my ass, I don't know. This doesn't quite explain the different races each fantasy race represents, or why the evil version of power isn't represented by Germans or Frenchmen, but by what seems to be mongols or muslims. Then again, if this is a simple battle against the forces of the evil mussies, it doesn't make sense that destroying their source of power would also destroy the power of the distant Welshmen

Little orphaned Henni journeys about Europe and America as he is passed around relatives, some distant, some engaging. The theme of love is explored and presented throughout as seen from Henni's young eyes. A theme occasionally sublime, and mostly twisted.

Provided a modest stipend, Henni, now the adult Henry, returns to Europe in pursuit of Stella his own cousin, who is the one remaining connection to his childhood. She appears the only anchor to his drifting life of disconnect, as they tour Europe ahead of a looming world war in a dance of love orchestrated through nihilism.

Mitch Courtenay lands a dream account, a project of two parts. First, to convince humanity the worthiness of a tremendous expenditure of resources needed to colonize Venus. A fait accompli, this is the easiest task by far, as the transport ship is nearing completion and the shortages caused are already apparent. He need only deflect the ire of dispossessed consumers, and hey, it's not like they're going to stop consuming, right? Consumers express their frustrated needs through a desire for greater consumption. But, what to sell in a market so deficient in goods? A new religion should do the trick, perhaps. Mitch is enthusiastic with such opportunities for old-school creative shilling. Success is guaranteed. It's all been done before.

His second task: to recruit fourteen hundred volunteers who will live the terraforming dream. Mere reality—continuous body breaking dangerous work, under insanely claustrophobic conditions for the rest of their lives—must not be allowed to tarnish the dream. These details matter, but to the company, not to the public. After all, dream and all, this is a one way only adventure.

Threats to his life are to be expected in such a high profile position. Formalized corporate competition remains a full-contact sport, to be taken in stride. Managerial details accumulate, pushing other considerations aside. Mitch has the unpleasant task of cleaning out a threat to progress in the form of an incompetent outlying office, after which comes the inevitable meeting to smooth things over. To Mitch's surprise, the department head expresses his objection through physical confrontation. Mitch is pronounced dead; his identity changed to a low-grade nonentity, and he finds himself on his own one-way trip as a contracted slave laborer. He is confronted with a world of office buildings renting their stairways out for the transient bulk of the population, of food products cynically laced with attenuated forms of cocaine, and of absolute corporate domination. Mitch must find his way back past wage credit scams, mind numbing addictions, vile communistic environmental terrorism, and whoever wanted him out of the way to begin with.

An advertising executive's journey toward redemption and a second-chance. Both for humanity, as for himself.

A sampling of the sights and streets of modern Venice, and the history of The Serene Republic. All as seen through the eyes of our host, Gore Vidal.

Most of the tour is a journey across time, with pithy observations on the honest application of power. A few excursions are made in search of Vidal family history. A few less than witty puns are thrown in at the expense of a city gone to the Doges (ahem), as are occasional rueful comparisons made to a certain less than serene modern republic.

In spite of the self indulgent tour guide, Venice remains the star and focus of this grand tour in book form.

A crazy thing about reading works of a previous generation is the disjointed sense of deja vu inflicted. Parts of this play read like a synopses of a Star Trek episode, or two. The alien may as well be the exemplar of Q. Even the alien's mannerisms are a recognizable echo from episodes to be.

A small disclaimer on the title page states this play is: "A comedy akin to a vaudeville." The characters are more humorous caricatures than believable as people, making such a disclaimer important to keep in mind. This production is no serious attempt at Scifi.

As for the plot, a wacky bored alien tourist shows up to explore the American civil war. Unfortunately, the year is 1961 with nothing of historical import to entertain the visitor (being produced in 1956, the Cuban missile crisis was a no go). No matter, with the right display of parlor tricks backed with a touch of leverage, he can have a war of his very own. Prodding the humans to fight is the simplest of tasks. What must be managed with care is to remain hidden from his peers paternal.

"Over the years I have spoken about politics to quite a few audiences and I'm continually struck by their collective ignorance—or perhaps lack of memory is a more tactful way of putting it. They don't know who did what last week much less ten years ago, and they don't want to be told. This of course, plays into the hands of the politician. He can reinvent himself every morning." ~ Introductory note by Vidal.

A sketch of Nixon's professional arc, ending just prior to that final career killing series of events in 1972 (and which birthed a plague of scandalously cliched name-gates we pass through with wearisome regularity to date).

A play's lifeblood is found in its dialog. Here, life stirs through dialog made of quotes mined from what the principals actually said. What makes it fly is the peanut gallery banter between the ghosts of George Washington (serving as master of ceremonies), Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. While the specific events of Nixon's life no longer hold much interest, the general historical flow holds value as a study in presidential means. The triumphs and tragedies of Nixon and his near peers aside, the most poignant story is told through the puzzled observations from the first in line. Today, Washington would say with justification, he was both the first, and last president of an American republic.

>>11589

The 13 1/2 Life's of Captain Bluebear, or however you would translate it. Was a fun read, and maybe the single most creative thing I've ever read. Just a bit "banana lol do randumb" at times, and I couldn't detect an overarching theme. Still, for a fun read, it was very good.

The Rise of Rome (History of Rome Books 1-5) by Livy

Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust

Rome's Italian Wars (History of Rome Books 6-10)

The books 1-3~ of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita Libri were really interesting and then became rather with the repetitive factional battle between plebeians and patricians with a war with neighboring tribe thrown in almost every instance, but books 6-10 revived my interest, esp. with the feats of soldiers against Gallic and Samnite enemies alike.

Mill offered some very valuable insights and arguments and his account of utilitarianism actually had a lot of clarity to it. It's like an analysis of morality on the atomic level. I think he's got a few jumps of logic in it and dismisses or ignores some contrary views that would've deserved far more attention.

I'm not impressed with his writing style. It has all the dryness of his father, but with more platitudes and redundancies and without his impressively stringent chains of thought.

Continuing my foray into the 2nd German Reich, I've been reading the first volume of a biography on Kaiser Wilhelm II by Lamar Cecil. This follows a biography of Otto von Bismarck by Jonathan Steinberg, which was thoroughly enjoyable, although the writing style made it a bit of a slog.

I have a habit of supplementing my main reading with some Politics or Philosophy, of which I am starting Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola. I will say its a little out there, but certainly interesting.

I'll add the books I read these past few weeks too just for the hell of it.

>Disrupted Cities by Graham

A set of case studies about major catastrophes where infrastructure was completely overwhelmed and where and why it failed. An example is Katrina and how the inability of being able to separate clean from unclean spaces wreaked havoc on the police force which struggled to keep themselves afloat let alone take charge of the situation. Fascinating but holy fuck was this one of the wordiest books I've ever read.

>Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz

Written by a Mexican thinker in the 50's, Paz tries to work out the Mexican condition. It's hard to really summarize this but what I took from it is that mexicans are still experiencing a culture wide aftershock due to their origins which are set in a metaphorical rape(spaniards conquest of the indians) that they haven't come to terms with.

>Coming Up Short by Jennifer Silva

A phd student interviews 100 people with working class origins and attempts to make sense of the way millennials seem to be handling adulthood now that the traditional markers(marriage, stable employment, moving out) are more or less gone. Very fascinating read and it hit very close to home. It has a bit of a liberal tinge but overall it was fair to every party involved and simply tried to make sense of things.

>Dumbing us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Set of essays by 30 year veteran teacher Gatto as he criticizes the educational school system of k-12 that we have in the US. It's a bit idyllic on the part of Gatto but I agreed with several of his arguments. Ultimately, the question is of delivery. Who do you trust more to educate children, their parents or big daddy government? One thing I have to mention that was eerie to me of how different the world is today was how he basically advocates for segregation at one point. Keep in mind this book was first published in 1991. Take that as you will. References Paz funnily enough.

CURRENTLY READING

>Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers by Kriegel(currently reading)

A business book about culling Sacred Cows(i.e. outdated business practices). I picked it up because one of my college textbooks for quality management mentioned it. It's pretty funny so far, the paper cow so far is my favorite. I have felt the pain at work so it really hits close to home.

>Emperor of All Maladies by Mukherjee

Book about cancer. Only read the preface so far.

>Sapiens a Brief History of Mankind by Harari

Really good so far, it's basically chronicling the history of humanity as best we know of it. Currently on ch4 The Flood. He's trying explain how we may have spread to Australia and I'm going to assume that he's going to delve into why the flood motif pops up everywhere in human lore. Very fun and entertaining read.

The Dispossessed - A scientist from an isolationist Anarchist society living on a moon visits the earth-like planet it orbits, in part to see if the "propertarians" are really as bad as everyone claims. Some people might find it a little slow, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Grapes of Wrath - The Dustbowl story of the Joad Family fleeing to California after their Oklahoma farm is seized by a bank. The narrative is interspersed with beautifully written interludes which give insight and broader context to the main narrative. The Grapes of Wrath is my favorite book, by far.

Just finished this, great read.

It's pretty much a biography of cancer, historical origins, key people and dates, basically the progression of how it used to be considered an automatic death sentence and the slow crawl to extend living time in those who went remission from a few days to decades. It also went through how our understanding of cancer change dramatically over time from being thought as a random change in blood to knowing how it starts after cells mutate in such a way that they use the very same processes that make us live into processes that are perverted for the clump of cell's own self preservation.

Very gratifying to see how far we've come. Also gave insight into just how devastating the "cures" were and sometimes are. For example, surgeons used to have much more invasive mastectomies for breast cancer. Instead of just removing the breast they went as far deep as the chest muscle, ribs, lymph nodes, sometimes even the lung itself which left their survivors with extreme deformities. Unfortunately it didn't really matter since cancer could travel around the body and would metastasize elsewhere.

Again, very good read that I'd recommend to someone who wants a broad overview of cancer.

>>8990

>>8991

>>8992

>>9269

>>9270

>>9428

>>9743

>>10505

>>11995

For a sense of continuity.

I finished the rest of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita Libri. By far the best book is Hannibal's War. I now detest that this was not preserved, and the Periochae which provides synopses of each book, excluding the lost/missing books 136 and 137, is not enough to satiate my appetite for Livy.

Now onto Aristophanes and Menander.

>>12390

Me again, man what a disappointment. Dropped it at chapter 8. I should've known better than to trust a jew. It starts out with a reasonable thought on how we may have started out before the agricultural revolution and even highlights how biologically we were given the short stick with it and I'm inclined. Then he goes on to say that our systems are imagined and things like racism are just prejudices such that poverty and ignorance begets the same. Again, I buy that as /pol/ is full of "race realist" hypocrites.

Then he gets to women v men and goes full sjw saying how there's no real difference and that they can do all the same jobs me can etc etc. I saw the writing on the wall so I bailed. Overall it was just too much opinion, speculation, and popsci that I would not recommend this. I really regret buying it.

Just finished the autobiography of Malcolm X. If ever there was a good use for redpilled Malcolm X was it.

Finished pic related some time ago, but might as well post about it.

For starters, the author cannot build suspense to save his life. If someone is suspected of being evil, or somebody suggests that someone did something, then rest assured that it is so despite Lay trying to pretend like there's any semblance of mystery when everyone and their mother basically knows who the culprits are before the first 1/3 of the book. Don't bother trying to look for red herrings or unexpected plot twists. because there are none.

The main characters are insanely stupid and reckless with the only exception to the general stupidity was the main, MAIN character, who goes from being an ordinary shmuck to super-badass in the blink of an eye. By comparison, the bad guys are hyper-competent and lucky, the the point of breaking disbelief.

The world-building sucks, it's basically not-Middle-Ages-Britain plus not-Ottoman-Empire-circa-1500-AD with incredibly lazy naming.

And to top it off, it goes on for about 200 pages too long.

On the plus side, at least I didn't pay for it.

>The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Man, I love Russian writers. Their writing teleports me into Russia.

Solzhenitsyn tells the story of his imprisonment in the Gulag (prison system) in Soviet Russia. Alongside his recounting, we get a historical rundown of the politics and prisons of Russia from the turn of the century all the way up to his eventual liberation.

Solid 9/10. He drags on a bit at times, but he tells the stories of prisoners that will blow the minds of readers.

Finished Reading: Steal like an artist.

I was put in charge of the creative design of something for work, so I needed to know how artists think. Apparently, they're thieves.

I avoided Confessions of a Mask for awhile because people said it was an accurate representation of what it's like to be a gay man, and I have absolutely no interest in the kind of preachy bullshit that kind of book would certainly be.

Now I know that either those people never read the book, or they believe that gay people are demented sadomasochists. Which is especially worrying when you consider how many gay people themselves said it was accurate. That's the kind of thing you might want to keep under wraps if you're trying to convince people that homosexuality is normal.

The book is really a Lolita-style challenge to make you sympathize with a naturally unsympathetic character. His possible homosexuality is not a good thing, but simply another one of his many flaws. I say possible homosexuality because he never actually fucks a man, nor does he even dream about fucking a man. What gets him off is the idea of killing men, not fucking them. How the hell do people miss this

It's a good book. It captures the conflict going on inside the man's head, and actually makes you feel sorry for him.

The last two books I finished:

The New Empire by Brooks Adams (1902) Excellent history of the dynamics of empire in the making with particular reference to Japan on the eve of the Japanese Russian war and the occupation of Manchuria but also a roadmap for the USA twentieth century. Surveys the entire history of civilization much as does Toynbee later, though Adams focus is on the impact on Empire building of trade routes and the changing geographic importance of cities resulting from resource depletion and new transportation efficiencies. Very highly recommend.

Room with a View by E M Forster (1908) Can't believe I've never read this before, but I don't believe so. The last five years I've been (re)reading through all Forster's novels, classic Edwardiana for which I've a taste and enjoy greatly. In this class, Forester is very top shelf.

* *

OK homo here

I've read both Confessions of a Mask and Lolita several times over the years. Of Mishima's works translated into English I do not think Confessions is all that significant a novel. It's a story of a boy's emergent consciousness, semi-autobiographical I imagine, but without much clear definition. Other than the allusive title it's not a gay book if that's what one's seeking although it has a slightly homoerotic scene in which the adolescent boy is watching a wartime parade of passing firemen … rather slim pickings.

Having spent a year in Japan it's my view Japanese are far less obsessed than westerners about the role of sex in one's self definition. It's very low key in their society which is probably the reason most young adults can't be bothered these days, according to what one reads.

Much of Mishima's greater works focus on power, and the role of tradition, religion and social prestige in projecting control over others. His book Forbidden Colours tells of how a handsome young man is subverted by an old author to destroy both women and men through sexual treachery. Of his translated books, this is the only one portraying the Japanese gay world.

Mishima is a very bleak writer reflecting the bitterness of the ugly cold war period, in which for many there was no future. His final four volume work, The Sea of Fertility, I consider one of the greatest works of twentieth century literature and is a summation of his life's thought and disappointment.

Lolita is Nabakov's most compelling novel. As it happens I'm about two thirds of the way through his Ada just now and it's interesting how this ephebophilia for the female sex is a theme through his other works, too. I feel though the whole legend Lolita has gained (like Confessions) is largely misplaced as the focus of the former is on post-War Americana and it's trashy values (sort of like Warhol) rather than fodder for the prurient. I couldn't more highly recommend the Kubrick movie Lolita starring Peter Sellers (Dr Strangelove) which although the book is wonderfully funny, the movie is one of these unusual ones where it's a finer work than the book.

First post here in /lit/ hope it posts OK

and actually I regard exclusive heterosexually as a form of mental illness

>>12624

I saw one I thought was interesting. Don't take it for gospel, but use it as a rough guide as to where to start and where to go if you want to know more.

If you're more fiction oriented, the third has a lot of good ones. You could start anywhere you like but I'd recommend at least checking out the author's works before you jump in.

Oh geez, I didn't even realize I not only uploaded these out of order but also that there's a two image limit.

>>12626

I wouldn't either. That's why I said don't take it for gospel.

>>12627

>Leviathan

>Tier 1

Then why do I have a feeling no one has more than a superficial understanding of the book? I disagree on pretty much everything with Hobbes, but damn if his philosophy isn't fascinating.

Also, sorry, no big fan of these infographs. Telling anyone to read Marx and Keynes, but not even mentioning any of their critics is dangerously irresponsible.

>>12636

Having read the manifesto, the critique of the gotha program and a good deal of the capital, I think there's no good summary of marxist thought. And judging by the secondary literature I've read, there's a reason for that: Marx was a complete fucking moron who gave the air of immense complexity by using an intransparent methodology, endlessly discussing small and petty details, and having no consistency at all. Fuck him.

Book of the New Sun. Excellent setting, excellent characters, shit pacing and rambling language. Would not recommend.

Don't agree completely with the guy's political beliefs but it's still nice to learn a bit about how the country was day to day and the general attitude from someone who wasn't a tier one Selous Scout oper8or or a politician. Feels bad man, hope he is happy in Ausfailia.

Since my first /lit/ post

>>12592

I've continued to follow this board and been surprised at the dearth of discussion about books, let alone actual literature. It always amuses me when I come across tourist brochures or other marketing spin referred to as "literature", however, I expect feeling an emotional need for defined meaning behind word usage is altogether passe in the post-literate era.

In this six weeks I completed Nabakov's novel Ada (mentioned above) and the three books shown. Not much comment to add about Ada … Nabakov's usual Russian prince libertine, teenage girls, incest, butterflies and arboreta.

Palimpsest (1995) is the first volume (to age 39) of Gore Vidal's memoirs; a brilliantly witty, entertaining and brutally honest take on himself, family, celebrity and politics in the times from FDR through to the cold war. The ultimate insider, Vidal spills the beans (and the juices) on everyone who counted over these years. Bought it when it was first published, loaned it to someone who understandably never returned it, and found a cheap paperback of it recently in a secondhand shop. Third time I've read it and fresh and sparkling as he first time. Couldn't recommend more highly. As it happens, just finished watching my way through Ken Burn's The Roosevelts and the two works were remarkably complementary. Almost all the movie footage from the roaring twenties, the great crash and following depression, and then WWII was new to me and gave an excellent background for Vidal's times. Couldn't recommend more highly.

The Imperial Capitals of China (2007) by Arthur Cotterell was particularly interesting to me as it was a dynastic survey from Shang times of Chinese civilization, focusing on successive capital cities. This was a particularly interesting perspective for me having not too long ago spent almost a year in Kyoto, the town planning of which in the 9th century was based on principles adopted from Tang Chang'an. It has numerous location maps of both empires and cities. Much of the late Qing times I'd previously not understood much about and this book explained clearly the complex 19thC relationships in China between the Japanese and European powers and the Manchus. This volume is not too specialised and provides an excellent historical canvas of China.

Syria: an Historical Appreciation (1946) by Robin Fedden is unusual for "travel" books in that it describes the authors travels in Syria in order of the times of the archaeological sites he was visiting. He is a very well informed narrator on a land of immense importance throughout history. The book, which I came across at the thrift shop in the free bin, I brought home because of my interest in some background to current events and places there, as it has endpaper maps and many pages of B&W photos of places of interest.

It's amazing though some parts in the economics and philosophy sometimes got a bit advanced for me, I'll probably have to re-read it a few more times after I do some extra readings in those areas.

>>12844

Beautiful! I also found this book great. I think I understood most of it, but it's quite advanced stuff, yeah.

this like it a lot

It's alright, it's just that a whole chapter and the ending were about Otto's love and felt pointless.

>>8441

stoner, loved it

This book sucks big balls

Not a single good haiku

not recommended

>A life by Italo Svevo

Pretty pretty good, felt connected with the idiot mc, Alfonso and his shitty job but especially with his love-hate relationship with life.

Mrs Carolina is best girl

>>12435

Here are the books I've read:

Birds and Other Plays, Frogs and Other Plays, and Lysistrata and Other Plays by Aristophanes

Plays and Fragments of Menander

The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Although the definition of ancient comedy is inequivalent to that of modern comedy, elements that can be construed as characteristic of modern comedy can be found in Aristophanes with his puns and his, often crass, jokes, but in consideration of his high ranking—the highest place he held that I can recall is second place—in the Dionysian Festival, it makes one reflect upon whether society has ever changed. Later, in Alexandrian era in which Menander lived, I found that archetypes, storylines, and themes that are still "relevant" were present in his works. Amusingly, after I recognized this, I read the review on the back of the book confirming it. Because of this, Menander, in comparison with Aristophanes and his wit, seemed quite banal, besides the few differences found in the ancient lifestyle, i.e., slavery and such.

I've sixty pages left of Thucydides and am more and more coming to the conclusion that man is primordial. We have dissembled our nature quite successfully in these last two to three hundred years, however, believing that by partitioning the world between the poles of antiquity and modernity we'll efface it from reality. From this the only conclusion I can arrive at is modern man is an illusion.