|
Autopista al sur it top tier. I don't remember any of his other stuff, not that I've read too many of his books. Team borges forever.
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2021 23:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:44 |
|
|
Today i finished Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. Most of the time I was busy trying to translate what I was reading into simpler language. Some of the descriptions evoked amazing landscapes. And what traversing them under those circumstances must have felt like. At other times my eyes just wanted to skip ahead, because you really don't need that many words to describe a sandy plain. I appreciated the non focus the violence got. Like, the same tone was used for the passage where a man is walking around a town, and for the one were two babies get their heads smashed. Serves the point of violence being part of every man's life. I also liked how we never knwo the internal thoughts of the characters (except once i think) or an explanation of why and what exactly they are doing. The text is emrely the description of actions and landscapes. At points it was very confusing, and I didn't understand what happened, I just powered through. I'm thinking of fixing a cart for example, or other daily life stuff. Another example would be when four men are unable to ride, and the enemy is closing in. The text doesn't say "They decided it was better to give them a swift death, than to leave them for the soldiers". It simply goes to Galton putting the ribbons on the arrows, and two of them being murdered right there. (Side note: for a while i thought the Delawares were brothers with that as their last name, my bad!). The use of spanish was good for immersing oneself in the story, probably wouldn't have felt the same if i didn't speak spanish though. My version for some reason didn’t have the 3 opening excerpts, which I found out exist while checking Wikipedia. I also didn’t know that the Glanton Gang was a real thing, apparently the research he did for the book is a whole thing. I 100% didn’t get the epilogue.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2021 03:32
|
|
|
artism posted:OP’s review of blood meridian sort of reads like a Jack Keefe letter "Jack Keefe is a headstrong, gullible, cheap, naive, self-centred, egotistical and uneducated rube—but he has a strong pitching arm." Lmao, a bit uncalled for I'd say. To be honest no, I don't understand that quote, didn't when I first read it, and I don't now. It seems like it may be related to the "theme" of the novel about how the wild west was a wild place, where man was free to release his true nature. And whether the environment created the men, or if all men would be like this in such a context. But then it says "or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay", and I'm lost. I just remembered i liked the scene where the judge goes "if it exists without my knowledge it exists without my consent". I was afraid he'd destroy the dinosaur bones they find at some point, luckily he didn't. Edit: The ending being about how the wild times are over and now is the time of civilization is interesting, thanks for the explanation. Of course as you say one has to decide whether men were as barbaric just because of the landscape they found themselves in, and if parceling the land is enough to change their ways. It reminds of some other western maybe with a similar ending. Unforgiven? Once upon a time in the west? Or maybe it wasn't even a western. But usually civilization arriving is cast in a positive light, BM shows what it relaly means. Edit 2: the yale lecture pt1 ends up with that sentence being put up for analysis, bur part 2 doesn't start with the conclusion, booo Mr. Nemo fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Mar 29, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2021 22:17
|
|
|
If you want my "virgin" opinion then one more post before I continue the lecture and get more biased. But be warned my computer crashed and shut down the first time i started writing this post, it may have been trying to protect you. I was wondering about something, that probably has a simple explanation I missed, why did the judge try to kill the Kid after the Yuma attack. The priest i can get, there never was any love between them. But the kid? I don't remember any bad blood. Just out of pure evil could work, but there has to be something more. Which brings me back to the quote i mentioned earlier "if it exists without my knowledge it exists without my consent". What I gather is that somehow the kid managed to surprise the judge, and that enraged him. I'm coming from the, a bit surprising, fact that he didn't kill Toddvine and Brown. He simply exchanged with them, and let them be. They played the game as he expected, valuing gold, and then they died still playing the game. The kid instead decides to set off with the priest. But what I'm missing is the "temptation" scene with the kid, where the judge tries to make him comfort to his expectations. And it would go nicely with the "Satan" character the judge plays. Satan tempting jesus, etc. So I'm not left with much. Once the judge finds him in prison he even helps free the kid! My take there was that once the kid was at his mercy killing him wasn't fun, it was more entertaining for him to show him how much power he has. And then the priest disappears. Is there any significance to this? It's not like the priest was a moral character, riding with the gang and all. But once the kid becomes "good", or at least "better" by returning to civilization this character disappears. And a couple pages later the kids travels with a Bible and gets mistaken for a priest. There has to be something there. Did the judge kill the priest? Edit: I really really wished i could remember what i thought of the road when i was about 15, with a poorer grasp of english and when plot was even higher a priority than it now is for me. Those takes probably were scorching hot. At some point the book reminded me of 2666, but it's probably just superficial, regarding the repetitive descriptions of violence in a mexican landscape. Mr. Nemo fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Mar 29, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2021 23:53
|
|
|
Segue posted:Echoing for Seven Killings that yeah I was partway through the book when I started the audiobook and it's amazing. His follow-up fantasy novel is a bit of a mess unfortunately, but at least he tries to branch out. I'm more of a reader of sci-fi rather than serious lit, so I appreciated that he at least tried to bring a fresh perspective to the fantasy genre. Very unique world building (come at me) based on sources not frequently seen. I've had seven killings on my radar ever since, but every time i look at the page count i put it off a while longer.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2021 01:00
|
|
|
blue squares posted:I just read the first (of what I assume are many) bonkers chapter in Blinding (the part with the visitors to the village) and wow. That was nuts and amazing. RIP the angel that got a boner
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2021 05:11
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:What was in your opinion the most bonkers chapter? The village gets...evicted by zombies is up there, the elevator scene is up there, I really really liked the story of his mom going to the funeral as well. But the New Orleans thread, as it weaves back into the final chapter, whew I finished it a couple of days ago, it was a good book, but didn't blow me away like it did so many others here. It had some nice, trippy scenes, but little else going for it. Like reading a description of pink floyd's the wall. Some parts even got a bit repetitive. Stuff that got boring: A number of beings each with their own flaw that made them unique, past and future versiones of oneself, being consumed by a blinding light until nothing remains. The fractal view of infinite details (very Borges?) never got old, it was always great. The whole church scene was great, the circus and of course the entire new orleans sequence. In non trippy stuff I really liked when the mother described she fell in love with her husband because sometimes his eyes seemed like they belonged to a different person, very beautiful. I may read the others as they come out (or if i find the spanish translation) just to feel like I belong here, but I'm not in love with the book.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2021 01:46
|
|
|
immolationsex posted:what the hell, man? I know, I understand, God's truth, this rhetorical gimmick got old real quick. Tell me I missed something obvious because all I see is a garden-variety story of war-time atrocities and some poo poo about how tight the protagonist was with his war buddy back in the day. I liked it, I preferred another of the nominees, but I won't get too upset about awards. The prose IS nice, it feels very poetic/rythmic. Maybe you are more well versed than I am in WW1 (or was it 2?) history, but to me at least the african perspective was fresh. Not sure how poignant it is, but it's a new POV. The Iliad, Lattimore's translation. It's very good (duh). I do feel like I'm owed a wooden horse though. I got Fagles' Odyssey on the way, do you all think there's a noticeable difference? Once again when reading ancient works I'm surprised by the humanity of them, I really should start to expect it. The little biographies given for each dead soldier, the final scene. Learning about the Epic Cycle, and then learning they are all lost was a roller coaster of emotions.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2021 22:05
|
|
|
LionArcher posted:Okay. I've been meaning to read Gravity's rainbow for awhile anyway. https://discord.gg/xJsHdGWd Join the discord and defend your honor
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2021 23:59
|
|
|
Anyone have some good complementary material to Paradise Lost to read? Ideally as a reading companion, I'm finding the footnotes provided by my edition to not be ideal. They include too many "word definitions" that aren't needed. They do remark on specific references which I find useful, but I'd also like something of a broader chapter "review".
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2021 16:42
|
|
|
Yes, Penguin Classic's which is the one I have also does. They were apparently written by Milton to help readers, and they do. I wasn't clear, my bad. I'm not looking for an edition with good footnotes. Having to stop every 100 verses to go to the end of the book, read 2 pages of footnoes of which only half are relevant and the rest are "cited. summonedm roused" or "serve. suffice" is annoying. Not sure why, I found Chicago Press' Illiad to be quite good, even though it also has notes at the end of the book. I think they were fewer and of better quality. I'm looking for an online resource I can consult after each chapter. Literally this https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/paradise-lost/summary-and-analysis/book-i, but maybe someone has a specific one they can recommend.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 11, 2021 19:57
|
|
|
Read Paradise Lost and Beowulf. One was way more Christian than I expected, the other one met my expectations. I think Book IX was my favourite of PL, but maybe I was just hyper focused while reading and they are all just as good. Now I guess I should read about the civil war the english apparently had, I think I’d never heard of it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 15:46
|
|
|
Sham bam bamina! posted:I know American education is a joke, but this is really something. What? I'm not american. Not sure if you are british or american, but please, don't overestimate how relevant that kind of event is to the rest of the world. Edit: some quick reading tells me that it was about how the english king should rule. Why would other countries teach it? mdemone posted:Milton was no Dante. I do have the divine comedy coming up next. Mr. Nemo fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Nov 28, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 20:03
|
|
|
Eh, I guess I will disagree, and the local education board body or whatever too. As i remember it my european history went romans, quick overview of medieval stuff and then french revolution, and that's where we got into monarchy vs republic and it's impact on a global scale. Maybe we covered one of the oter wars with the dutch and spanish involved. I'd make a bet cromwell never came up.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 20:33
|
|
|
Famethrowa posted:how can you disagree when you didn't study it?? Yes, it’s a funny situation. To change my mind I would’ve had to be exposed to it during my schooling, which is a bit impossible now. Ras Het posted:I don't care who knows about what, but the idea that someone who didn't know England had a civil war wanted to read Paradise Lost is funny to me. Like how do you develop that kind of interest without exposure to the history I do agree that it probably that it makes a different reading experience, but i don’t agree that it’s that bizarre.it’s a major work of literature. Sham bam bamina! posted:The English Civil War is how you get from "medieval stuff" to "French Revolution". Yes, and apparently it was decided it was less relevant that other stuff. I have to admit I can’t tule on whether it was the right call or not, due to my own ignorance. We did touch upon the Magna Carta for that “limiting the kings” stuff. Edit: to get back to it, any shortish read about why the English civil war is relevant to PL? The footnotes touches a bit on it, but I could read some more Mr. Nemo fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Nov 28, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2021 22:38
|
|
|
Heath posted:If someone wasn't aware of the English civil war and its impact on society, I don't see the point of taking them to task for it. You can't help what you don't know, which it sounds like the guy was motivated to try and correct? I WAS. But now posting rules indicate I have to defend “the English civil war was globally irrelevant” to the death. It’s a shame really. If only we hadn’t repelled the attempted British Invasions then perhaps local education would include their local history such as the civil war. Up next, how Yugioh taught me about the war of roses.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2021 20:42
|
|
|
Read Ovid's Metamorphoses. It's wonderful. It's brutal and sweet and funny. No wonder it's still read centuries later.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2022 00:11
|
|
|
Segue posted:
Short or long version? The seventh function of language It was very fun, even though I only recognized about 15% of the names. A more literary Snow Crash (come at me). Binet is amazing, all three of his books are homeruns, but my favourite is still the first one, HHhH.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2022 15:33
|
|
|
Third policeman by O’brian. It was okay, it didn’t blow my mind. I wasn’t expecting it to be that surrealistic at all, so that was a nice surprise. It had some fun parts, but overall it didn’t make me want to keep reading, even though it’s short. I also wasn’t a fan of Swam when I read it a couple years ago, so maybe I just don’t like the dude.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2022 14:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:44 |
|
|
Just finished Nostalgia's "Mentardy" by Cartarescu. People weren't kidding when they said one could tell this was a more "immature" Cartarescu. So many elements that would be perfected later on in Blinding or Nostalgia. Descriptions of the apartment, the child storyteller. The Roulette Player was amusing. Excited for his reading this Friday.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2023 13:43
|
|