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There's a difference between intertextuality, or different folklores that clearly has a common root, and the concept of "fanfiction". Just because there are some thematics that in a phenomenological way is consistent and keeps appearing accross cultures, doesn't mean that the similar stories were created for the sole purpose of shipping your two fave bishies because that Disney film you and your friends loved wasn't saucy or queer-friendly enough. And stories were mainly kept alive as an oral tradition well into the 1800s, so it's really not that surprising that a lot of mythologies, and a lot of folklores and tales are so similar to eachother. ulvir fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Apr 6, 2015 |
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Apr 6, 2015 09:40
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ulvir posted:There's a difference between intertextuality, or different folklores that clearly has a common root, and the concept of "fanfiction". Just because there are some thematics that in a phenomenological way is consistent and keeps appearing accross cultures, doesn't mean that the similar stories were created for the sole purpose of shipping your two fave bishies because that Disney film you and your friends loved wasn't saucy or queer-friendly enough. I mean yeah but dunno, I think Geoffrey of Monmouth retconning Welsh history so that they're not a bunch of backwards savages (as the English saw them) they're ACTUALLY descended from BRUTUS son of TROY and also KING ARTHUR conquered FRANCE and TOTALLY KICKED ROME'S rear end is at least comparable to weird self-insert fanfic about how Harry Potter was a gay wolf the entire time
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Apr 7, 2015 02:07
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I don't know I think resisting imperialist conquest of your country by intervening in historiographic production is actually a little different from making imaginary action figures late capitalism put in your mind screw tbh
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Apr 7, 2015 04:12
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Random question here. I read the Raymond Feist set Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master a long time ago, but I remember enjoying them quite a bit. I see that the Kindle Chaoswar Saga is on sale for $12 (for three books) and was curious if I would be missing anything starting back up with that. I see it has Pug as a main character, and he even has a kid, which means a fair amount of time has passed from where I left off.
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Apr 7, 2015 18:52
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Ragequit posted:Random question here. I read the Raymond Feist set Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master a long time ago, but I remember enjoying them quite a bit. I see that the Kindle Chaoswar Saga is on sale for $12 (for three books) and was curious if I would be missing anything starting back up with that. I see it has Pug as a main character, and he even has a kid, which means a fair amount of time has passed from where I left off. You'd be missing almost 30 years worth of books. The Magician books are the start of the first series, Chaoswar is the last. There are 11 series in total.
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Apr 7, 2015 19:23
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Ornamented Death posted:You'd be missing almost 30 years worth of books. The Magician books are the start of the first series, Chaoswar is the last. There are 11 series in total. Oh I know there have been a ton of series. I was just curious if I would be lost reading Chaoswar if I didn't read thousands of pages of everything prior. I really wish Magician was on Kindle so I could start over.
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Apr 7, 2015 19:30
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Ragequit posted:Oh I know there have been a ton of series. I was just curious if I would be lost reading Chaoswar if I didn't read thousands of pages of everything prior. I really wish Magician was on Kindle so I could start over. Probably not. I remember just picking random books & trilogies of Feist's, with no concern for chronological or publishing order, from the library and being able to enjoy them as their own self-contained stories even though they had references to all types of prior events, mythology, history, etc. If any of said references were important to the current story, and not just background fluff, they were usually pretty easy to figure out the significance of through context.
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Apr 8, 2015 02:50
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Ragequit posted:Random question here. I read the Raymond Feist set Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master a long time ago, but I remember enjoying them quite a bit. I see that the Kindle Chaoswar Saga is on sale for $12 (for three books) and was curious if I would be missing anything starting back up with that. I see it has Pug as a main character, and he even has a kid, which means a fair amount of time has passed from where I left off. Generally each series stands on its own; you may get more out of it if you've read the earlier ones, but it's not assumed that you have. I didn't even realize he was still writing in the Midkemia/Riftwar setting, the last thing of his I read was the Serpentwar books. (also, Magician doesn't stand alone, it's the first two books of the Riftwar series -- it's followed by Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon.) ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Apr 8, 2015 |
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Apr 8, 2015 16:04
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I know it's kinda old and kinda ... well, okay it's basically the dime candy of the fantasy world, but would anyone be interested in some Dragonlance chat? I wouldn't mind making a thread about the series, but it just feels like it would be pointless if I'd be the only one posting in it. I just re-read all the main series books (the 11 that Weis & Hickman wrote) and most of it's fresh in my mind now. Also, Death Gate Cycle? Those were probably better, but the ending probably ruined a lot of people on it 
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Apr 9, 2015 01:41
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Wodehouse fans might find this hilarious  quote:Allen Hunter, a [PG Wodehouse Society] member in Queensland, who tried to buy a car numberplate for a vintage Bentley that spelt out the Wodehousean phrase “WHAT HO”. Bureaucracy refused his request and slapped him with a $100 fine for “attempting to obtain an offensive plate”. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4403695.ece
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Apr 9, 2015 08:13
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Fenrir posted:I know it's kinda old and kinda ... well, okay it's basically the dime candy of the fantasy world, but would anyone be interested in some Dragonlance chat? I wouldn't mind making a thread about the series, but it just feels like it would be pointless if I'd be the only one posting in it. I read all of the main "Dragons Of" books when I was younger, and a lot of the smaller ones, too. What are your thoughts? What are the "main series books"?
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Apr 14, 2015 06:10
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Fenrir posted:I know it's kinda old and kinda ... well, okay it's basically the dime candy of the fantasy world, but would anyone be interested in some Dragonlance chat? I wouldn't mind making a thread about the series, but it just feels like it would be pointless if I'd be the only one posting in it. I don't know how much I'd participate but I'd definitely be interested in checking the thread/op out. I have a lot of nostalgia for those books from when I was a kid, I remember even playing some of the d&d modules they made for em.
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Apr 14, 2015 18:58
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What are the best books on russian revolution, biographies of stalin, lenin, and trotsky? Preferably I'd like to read a survey of the revolution then a biography on at least stalin and lenin.
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Apr 15, 2015 22:31
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I'm nearly at the end of Annihalation and I'm pretty torn about it. Cool ideas, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Should I stick with the series? Are the sequels worthwhile?
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Apr 16, 2015 06:34
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Howard Phillips posted:What are the best books on russian revolution, biographies of stalin, lenin, and trotsky? There's a biography of Stalin coming out in 3 volumes by Stephen Kotkin, with the first volume already out covering his life through 1928. It ends up doing a survey of how the revolution came to be in the process of explaining Stalin, so you might want to take a look at that.
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Apr 16, 2015 16:56
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Viginti posted:I'm nearly at the end of Annihalation and I'm pretty torn about it. Cool ideas, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Should I stick with the series? Are the sequels worthwhile? I personally wouldn't bother with it. I'm just over halfway through number three and the first book is definitely the best.
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Apr 17, 2015 01:15
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That Kotkin book starts out really great but then slows down a lot in the last few hundred pages when it becomes endless accounts of tedious central committee meetings.
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Apr 17, 2015 01:23
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Howard Phillips posted:What are the best books on russian revolution, biographies of stalin, lenin, and trotsky? A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes is the best book on Russian revolution there is. Isaac Deutscher wrote the best biography of Trotsky and a very good one of Stalin. E:Sebag Montefiore wrote two books about Stalin that are very enjoyable.
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Apr 17, 2015 06:53
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Fenrir posted:I just re-read all the main series books (the 11 that Weis & Hickman wrote) and most of it's fresh in my mind now. Also, Death Gate Cycle? Those were probably better, but the ending probably ruined a lot of people on it Oh? I read the first two Death Gate books and then decided I wasn't really enjoying it, but it was kind of curious about where it was going.
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Apr 17, 2015 14:29
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So I've tried to post a review on Amazon for the first time, and it got rejected. I'm wondering why. It's for The Gift by Dave Donovan. --- "First, I confess I didn't finish the story, and I don't plan to any time soon. Which would have been rather unexpected to the potential-buyer past me, who was immediately won over by the Kindle sample. And a potential me would have probably given this book a great review in the universe where it didn't go much further than the sample. Let's unwrap this. The story begins as the prototypical hard sci-fi, with little character to every character, most of them working in a team on a highly realistic sci-fi project, more cogs in a well-oiled machine than people. Unfortunately, at perhaps 10% in, the machine completes its purpose, the project gets finished, and more importantly, the whole conceit of the rest of the book (series?) is more or less completely exposed. What's left is in essence a lot of manual labor for the characters. Mind you, the conclusion of the project comes with apparent great stakes, but I realized quite early on that they wouldn't play any role in this book. So what could carry the story on? The author went with a personal story, and you may already see a problem with this based on a point earlier in the review. The characters came with little characterization. I felt that a good solution would have been to slightly alter the narration, adding more details and going more into the inner world of the characters. This didn't occur to the writer who continued plowing on in the same dry and superficial style completely failing to make me care about the person whose personal story the book became. Potentially character-developing conversations were substituted by painfully detailed in-character exposition of the world-building, I guess, from details of alien biology to minutia of characters' itineraries, which could be fine if it weren't all the characters talked about. The personal conversations usually hid behind "they made some pleasant small talk". And the last part of the problem, and my last gripe - lack of real conflict. There's a great big conflict in the setting, but it's irrelevant for this particular story, because (without giving away spoilers) it could have only two outcomes - either the heroes would be successful, or there would be no more story. And by "no more story" I mean there couldn't be any struggle and sacrifice, it'd simply be over, which is set out quite early in the narrative. With that, the author tried really hard to provide some motivation. Unfortunately, for me it didn't work at all. I'm not sure what exactly was the author's main thrust: demonizing the military, I'm not into that; turning a character into a villain half-way through the story, you can't do that while portraying him as faithfully doing his job. In fact, perhaps the author wasn't confident in this aspect himself, because every difficulty thrown at the characters was soon easily resolved, and about halfway through I realized that there wouldn't be any surprises or twists. Now, none of that was the deal-breaker that made me put down the book for good. I had to give up when with all these problems, the author added romance into the mix. There's something about it - for me you don't just half-rear end romance in another desperate attempt to resuscitate the narrative. Which is exactly what I think the author did." --- As a way of explanation, Amazon links their review guidelines. I'm torn between "Ideal length" which my review exceeds by a few dozen words, but from reading other reviews I'm sure it's not a dealbreaker. "Spiteful remarks"? I mean, do they want an honest opinion or polite opinion?  At least I don't have any profanities. What do you think?Oh, it's also occurred to me that it's because I didn't finish the story? I mean, are you not allowed to be so dissatisfied as to abandon a book? Ninja-edit: Or is it my aside in the introduction? It is, isn't it? I thought this way it would be more fun to read...
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Apr 18, 2015 05:50
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I just started reading House of Leaves. I really like the Navidson story, but I am bored to tears by the story in the footnotes. Does the Zampano story get better? Do you need to read the footnote story? Do they come together at some point?
Raccooon fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Apr 20, 2015 |
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Apr 20, 2015 00:09
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I would say that the footnote story gets better later in the book, but it's never quite as interesting as the Navidson Record. They sort of converge thematically but Johnny never, like, appears in the House or anything like that. You don't HAVE to read Johnny's story, but part of the fun of the book is how Johnny's mental state starts to correspond to the things that happen in the manuscript, so you'd be missing out on the metatextual experience in favor of a more conventional ghost story.
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Apr 20, 2015 20:36
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supermikhail posted:So I've tried to post a review on Amazon for the first time, and it got rejected. I'm wondering why. It's for The Gift by Dave Donovan. To be honest, it seems fairly amazing (and dumb) that they rejected you considering that you spent a non insignificant amount of time writing that out especially because "ideal length" seems to suggest a flexible word limit.
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Apr 20, 2015 20:42
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Who the hell wrote a story I can't locate? I'm almost certain it was a South American author, but at this point I have no clue. I could have sworn it was Borges or Cortazar, but I've loaned out (given) most of those and I cannot for the life of me remember, nor google well enough, to figure it out. The content of the story is especially fitting. The main character is driving a motorcycle in a major city when he is involved in a car accident. He experienceashallucinations (alternate realities/previous lifetimes) in a Mayan/Aztec sacrifice. He wakes up and experiences a reprieve from the dream. Whenever he passes out he returns to the dream in sequence and it involves him running through the jungle. Anyone know what short story compilation this one is in?
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Apr 21, 2015 05:16
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Paper With Lines posted:To be honest, it seems fairly amazing (and dumb) that they rejected you considering that you spent a non insignificant amount of time writing that out especially because "ideal length" seems to suggest a flexible word limit. The letter said that I could resubmit after editing, but since they didn't say what their actual problem was I didn't feel like guessing, and maybe guessing incorrectly and getting rejected again. I think I'll stick to Goodreads from now on.
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Apr 21, 2015 08:36
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supermikhail posted:The letter said that I could resubmit after editing, but since they didn't say what their actual problem was I didn't feel like guessing, and maybe guessing incorrectly and getting rejected again. I think I'll stick to Goodreads from now on. Every time I had a review rejected by Amazon it was due to profanity somewhere in the review. Maybe it's because you took a dig at Kindle Previews, I dunno.
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Apr 21, 2015 12:51
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I'm not sure how many six year olds they think engage in e-commerce, but maybe they didn't like 'half-rear end'?
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Apr 21, 2015 13:44
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Ceebees posted:I'm not sure how many six year olds they think engage in e-commerce, but maybe they didn't like 'half-rear end'?  Oh, no! Oh, no!  I didn't even consider this as possible profanity!Okay, what am I supposed to do if I wanted to write a review of "The Golden rear end" (which would be a bit odd, but that's the best example I could come up with at short notice)?  Censor the title?
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Apr 21, 2015 15:23
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supermikhail posted:The letter said that I could resubmit after editing, but since they didn't say what their actual problem was I didn't feel like guessing, and maybe guessing incorrectly and getting rejected again. I think I'll stick to Goodreads from now on. lol that you got an r&r from an Amazon review.
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Apr 21, 2015 16:00
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Does anybody know, maybe they've switched to a pay-per-review model? 
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Apr 21, 2015 16:51
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I think the way their system works is automated scan for bad words plus review by actual humans when a flag is triggered. Half rear end probably tripped the flag.
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Apr 21, 2015 17:36
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Is there a thread where I can read more about the entire Sad Puppies drama?
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Apr 21, 2015 21:23
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I've been trying to read The Crying of Lot 49. I'm midway though chapter 3 (The characters get stranded on some island) and it just feels like the whole thing is going over my head.
BigRed0427 fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Apr 22, 2015 |
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Apr 22, 2015 02:38
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BigRed0427 posted:I've been trying to read The Crying of Lot 49. I'm midway though chapter 3 (The characters get stranded on some island) and it just feels like the whole thing is going over my head. That is the intended effect of the book. Just keep reading and don't worry about understanding everything. Focus only on the current scene.
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Apr 22, 2015 16:21
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Yeah, just roll with it and you'll enjoy yourself.
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Apr 22, 2015 16:23
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I thought this article was cool http://medievalbooks.nl/2015/03/27/dirty-medieval-books/ It shows some of the stuff that ends up in old books. My favorite is definitely the cat paw marks.
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Apr 24, 2015 01:32
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SquadronROE posted:Is there a thread where I can read more about the entire Sad Puppies drama? No, thank god.
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Apr 26, 2015 04:28
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Borneo Jimmy posted:No, thank god. Can we please keep it this way
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Apr 26, 2015 07:09
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SquadronROE posted:Is there a thread where I can read more about the entire Sad Puppies drama? Grrmge GRRM GRRM Grrmtin's livejournal has quite a lot about it: http://grrm.livejournal.com/tag/hugo%20awards
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Apr 26, 2015 07:16
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Hedrigall posted:Grrmge GRRM GRRM Grrmtin's livejournal has quite a lot about it: http://grrm.livejournal.com/tag/hugo%20awards I have no idea what that is talking about but it contained the words 'Puppygate' and 'The Hugo War' so I know it's bad
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Apr 26, 2015 15:27
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