|
|
I'm never re-reading Pratchett again because that would be like 40 other books I haven't read before that I could've read instead. I've got like 1000 unread books. |
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 02:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 16:07 |
|
|
|
I read parts of Take of Genji as part of my Japanese lit class in college. While I appreciated it's historical significance and it's usefulness as a snapshot of how the Japanese imperial court viewed itself...man that was a slog. I really liked The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. Just short little journal entries by a rich out of touch court lady and her complaints about just the most insignificant problems. It's just a great snapshot of that class in that era. Bonus fact: she makes an appearance in Tale of Genji as a disgraced courtier living in poverty with no remaining clout on the courts because I guess Murasaki Shikibu was not fond of her. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 05:48
|
|
|
|
SweetWillyRollbar posted:I read parts of Take of Genji as part of my Japanese lit class in college. While I appreciated it's historical significance and it's usefulness as a snapshot of how the Japanese imperial court viewed itself...man that was a slog. I have a decent collection of books on the Heian era, fiction and non-fiction, and I think it's an interesting period (same for T'ang dynasty). The slow pace works for me, as it's atmosphere, not action and one can't expect a minor noblewoman to write a noir detective story or something. My real criticism of Genji is more a criticism of writings about Genji. A lot of them are excellent and very informative about the era and they sort of wriggle around the fact that Genji is a serial rapist, as are other noblemen in the story. Sure, sure, aspect of the times yadda blah. It bugs me. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 06:13
|
|
|
|
xcheopis posted:I have a decent collection of books on the Heian era, fiction and non-fiction, and I think it's an interesting period (same for T'ang dynasty). The slow pace works for me, as it's atmosphere, not action and one can't expect a minor noblewoman to write a noir detective story or something. I dunno. I don't need white knuckle action but there are things that, while interesting as concepts are just difficult to understand as a modern American like references to classic Chinese poetry or people's names changing based on their moving up in the ranks and this only getting a passing reference in a conversation between characters because people of that era and social station were so hyper tunes into those kinds of shifts in power and station because it was their lives. I'm glad people do read and enjoy it because it's such an important cultural and historical artifact. But, much like Charles Dickens I'd probably rather eat glass than have to read it again. Man. I'm trying to remember the name of this book I read in college that was this kind of memoir of a samurai in the late Heian or early Heisei. He basically just goes rogue and starts wandering around and crossing prefectural borders illegally and like getting into bar brawls or whatever. Then he goes home and tries to frame the whole thing as a cautionary tale but you can tell he's remembering the whole thing fondly. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 06:46
|
|
|
|
My brain keeps insisting it's by Miyamoto Musashi, which is obviously wrong, brain, stfu. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 07:23
|
|
|
|
xcheopis posted:My brain keeps insisting it's by Miyamoto Musashi, which is obviously wrong, brain, stfu. Yeah this was later than Musashi when samurai as warriors were pretty much defunct and lower ranking samurai were kind of stuck in a sort of poverty. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 07:43
|
|
|
|
Heather Papps and anyone who uses their library, if you cant find what you're looking for, see if interlibrary loan is available--and I've never been in a library where they didn't do ILL. Currently I'm reading Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix. It's a fun and interesting look at the history of horror paperbacks. It covers things like their original evolution out of gothic romance and their sick rear end cover art. I recommend this book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 11:31
|
|
|
|
SweetWillyRollbar posted:Yeah this was later than Musashi when samurai as warriors were pretty much defunct and lower ranking samurai were kind of stuck in a sort of poverty. That wouldn't be late Heian, which precedes the samurai dominated eras. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 15:56
|
|
|
|
xcheopis posted:That wouldn't be late Heian, which precedes the samurai dominated eras. Fair enough. Despite majoring in it I'm really bad at keeping that stuff in order. It was after the era of samurai dominance but before the dismantling of the samurai system. I dunno. |
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2019 16:04
|
|
| Tang poetry owns | |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 00:16
|
|
| It may be the best poetry written by anyone anywhere at any time | |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 00:16
|
|
|
|
cda posted:Tang poetry owns I'll have to check the package next time. |
|
#
?
Nov 5, 2019 02:45
|
|
|
|
cda posted:It may be the best poetry written by anyone anywhere at any time I don't know what the original was but the Finnish translator of an Oumpah-Pah album wrote quote:Kaunis squaw juhla-aterialla so I disagree. *) Beautiful squaw at the feast / Fills my belly with head cheese matter
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2019 16:20
|
|
|
cda posted:It may be the best poetry written by anyone anywhere at any time rumi wouldn't fight you but i will
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 14:31
|
|
|
death sext posted:Heather Papps and anyone who uses their library, if you cant find what you're looking for, see if interlibrary loan is available--and I've never been in a library where they didn't do ILL. ontario is weird cause our provincial government is run by a maniac of the worst kind. other provinces do the interlibrary stuff but ontario DOES NOT it is nutz. i finally did the smart thing and checked wikisource for on human bondage and of course the whole dang book is up there. it's good, so far. sad but good!
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2019 14:33
|
|
|
book haver checking in to the book threa.d i bought 4 books today. I am going to start a masters in finance and they're all related to that. I suppose might will be a while before I read any more fiction, sadly
---------------- |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 03:22
|
|
|
|
I stopped buying books because I have books. Its worked out really great but only because I'm also broke so I literally cant buy more books 
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 03:27
|
|
|
I'm setting the type for one of my favorite books, for my typography class. Does that count?
Queen-Of-Hearts fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Nov 12, 2019
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 14:37
|
|
sig by Prof. Crocodile
BYOB spells: Mutually Assured Kindness
Six-Of-Hearts posted:I'm setting the type for one of my favorite books, for my typography class. Does that count? hell yes and plekase talk all about typesetting. i like the history of the book, and i recently got to use a 18th c letterpress to make broadsides and it was cool ---------------- |
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 15:58
|
|
|
for instance what is the font for the "A Novel" thing on that page? also why did you decide to go with the pen name rather than the real name?
---------------- |
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 15:59
|
|
|
also, "wuthering" totally sounds like a typesetting term. "there's something off about this line, dude, i think you need to adjust the wuthering. if the wuthering is too high, it's going to distort the letters"
---------------- |
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 16:00
|
|
|
cda posted:also, "wuthering" totally sounds like a typesetting term. "there's something off about this line, dude, i think you need to adjust the wuthering. if the wuthering is too high, it's going to distort the letters" yer kerning is all off lemme wainscott it real quick.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 16:03
|
|
| Your problem is, you remembered the kerning, but you forgot the wuthering. never forget the wuthering | |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 18:07
|
|
|
I'll post screenshots and outline the process tonight when i get home. Assuming my car's wuthering springs keep me on the road in this ice and snow. |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2019 20:20
|
|
|
cda posted:for instance what is the font for the "A Novel" thing on that page? also why did you decide to go with the pen name rather than the real name? Good news, my car didn't go wuthering off the road. or it did and this is some bizarre afterlife thing. The font for "A Novel" is Goudy MT Std. I found pictures of an edition from 1857 that used a blackletter font for only A Novel on the title page. The assignment is "set the type in a book how you want, so long as it makes sense and is easy to read." I decided to do "close to period correct for a first edition, but with some personal liberties." I'm not yet sure if the pen name stays or if I'm going to use Ms. Bronte's actual name, but from some half assed googling I'm to understand it was originally published in her pen name. The first thing I did was decide on a body text font. I went with a personal favorite I've been trying to find excuses to use called Geographica. It's a "legible modern serif family based on 18th century cartographic materials." I think it's beautiful. And yeah, if you squint the right way, it's "period correct" enough. The first order of business is to determine what point size the font looks best on actual printed paper. So you use a random text generator to give you a couple paragraphs in mangled "latin" as placeholder text, or you go to the Slipsum website and have it generate random quotes from Samuel L Jackson movies, motherfucker. You set 4 or 5 block of text on a page, with only the point size changing and print it off on a laser printer. There's no scientific way to determine which one is right, you just have to compare and see. I found that Geographica works best at 8.75pt with 130% leading (line spacing). Here's a type test I did for another project using Caledonea:  So now you set how the pages will look in indesign. There's ratios to follow that have been around since books have been around that are aesthetically and functionally The Best. I went with 6" wide by 9" tall because I'm an adult and then set up a 9x9 grid to set margins so that each line would be no more than 65 characters long. Optimal is between 45 and 65.  Next you pull that .txt file into indesign and hope its a decent copy. Indesign will prompt you with some formatting options for it to do right off the bat. After that it's a matter of fine tuning starting with page breaks for chapters and how each chapter start is going to look, AND THEN making sure its consistent. for example: each new chapter will start on the right side page, and lets say 1/4 of the way down the page. You can hit apple+F, type chapter, and skip to each chapter and set the chapter start font, size and spacing manually, OR you can set up some master pages and style sheets to not only make life faster but guaranteed accurate so all you have to do is skip to the next chapter and apply the formatting templates.  Beyond that, it's a matter of further fine tuning farther and farther down the details list. Next for me is to fine tune the paragraph formatting, then cleaning up stray typos and any weird stuff that shouldn't be there.  There's an unbelievable amount of detail and effort and formatting options, and styles and and and... That I'll probably never really learn cuz I'm a photographer and not a graphic designer BUT I find this typography thing fascinating and it's required for my degree. I Feel a little overwhelmed with a few of these type projects, and they're safe and easy projects/absolute tip of the iceberg. It's WAY more fascinating and fun to do then I imagined it would be. And useful! properly setting text in resumes and websites and business cards and all that now makes 1000% more sense and it's nice to know I'll at least be doing it right from now on. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this and I hope I didnt get anything wrong. |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 04:45
|
|
| That was super interesting to me, thank you for writing it all. The reason I asked about the "A Novel" thing is I recently went to the American Printing History Association annual conference and one of the talks was about how blackletter came to symbolize "germanness" during the 18th-20th centuries and I was wondering about the import of putting "a novel" in that font, if it sort of highlights the seriousness and the Sturm und Drang of the story, like, y'know, this isn't just a novel, it's A NOVEL. | |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 20:20
|
|
|
|
cda posted:Your problem is, you remembered the kerning, but you forgot the wuthering. never forget the wuthering A lot of people wuther the widths but forget wuthering heights |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 20:56
|
|
|
|
wuthers originals
https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2019 21:59
|
|
|
|
This thread is now making me think of that Kate Bush song and, by extension, my former housemate and overall wonderful person and friend. So thanks. |
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2019 01:58
|
|
|
i ever talk crowley here cause i read the book of lies a lot and uh it's good i mean also dune, sure
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2019 02:07
|
|
|
|
beer pal posted:whereas dune is a claustrophobic thriller where the protagonists are menaced by just a single dune, the sequel, dunes, has us on the dunes' home turf, surrounded by dunes on all sides i still think about this post regularly. |
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 23:53
|
|
|
|
glad u like the post
https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 01:33
|
|
|
|
im just about finished reading roadside picnic (yall heard of htis one?) and i think its really good. i like whenever theres aliens and they jsut like dont give a gently caress about us at all. then im gonna finallly finish reading moby dick after i read the first third several yeards ago and forgot my book on the air plane
https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 01:35
|
|
|
|
also i read the body snatchers which was fun and very 'of its time' in a really charming way. four out of five stars from me
https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 01:37
|
|
|
beer pal posted:glad u like the post i also very much enjoyed this post also, uh, brandon sanderson may be a weirdo mormom but damned if he isn't good at writing good books
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 01:46
|
|
| You know what's a good sci fi book, is The Day of the Triffids | |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 06:17
|
|
|
|
I have not been reading. I should be though. Dang. For sci fi I liked most Philip K. Dick, minus Man In the High Tower. But I burnt myself out on sci-fi a while ago. |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 13:08
|
|
|
|
My favorite book of all time is "The Collector Collector" by Tibor Fischer, it is about a vase that can change shape and it collects people who collect vases. |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 13:16
|
|
|
cda posted:You know what's a good sci fi book, is The Day of the Triffids wyndham is so good. they made us read the chrysalids in school and i was blown away by 1, how good it was and 2, how much my classmates groaned at any and all reading - even if it's a great book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 13:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 16:07 |
|
|
|
sorry i just really need to get this nerd poo poo off my brain for a long time: suum queequeg
https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2019 16:42
|
|