i'm about half way through Nocturnal Butterflies.... very dense. almost like the more you read, the slower the pages turn. the story has a very hallucinatory quality to it, the protagonist being often disconnected in time and place, so that may have something to do with it.

a quote on the back jacket by a Francisco Goldman states NBofRE offers the most hilariously wounded and obsessive narrator since Pale Fire's Charles Kinbote...
i have never heard of PF, but i don't find anything at all hilarious about the, indeed, wounded and obsessive narrator. is something being lost in the translation i wonder.

i've not read a lot of translated works, but every one seems to have the same dense, robust quality of the prose despite being completely different stylistically. (it could be the authors i've read, too, in fact that's probably most likely)
is there a correlation between readability and translation or is it just coincidence in my case?

(translated authors i've read: Dostoyevski, Cervantes, Hesse, Dumas, Murakami, Petronius, Dante, and a very small handful of others i can't recollect right now.)

having said that, i'm enjoying NBotRE very much. the narration often catches me with high-tech and scientific vernacular from out of nowhere that never overdoes itself. i'm also a sucker for Eastern Bloc atmosphere, especially concerning such things as smuggling surplus Soviet nightvision goggles and Turkish harems.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: charmakarmacat,

quote:

Originally posted by Kradlum:
I had to check Morgan's site to see if he had lived in London and not just picked places out of the A-Z.

The ending didn't fall into the pattern that I was expecting which improved the overall read, but the characters were so unsympathetic I can't say that I cared who lived or died at the end.

he has a site? need to look into that, the last time i did a search for one i didn't find anything.

i have to say i don't think any of his characters have been particularly sympathetic, they all fall into that bastard mode to some degree or other.

i'm currently reading "the clay machine gun" by victor pelevin, i read some comments which made comparisons to gibson and murakami and the general descriptions of his work sounded interesting. only 50 pages in so far, but i'm that arnold shwarzenegger isn't going to be an ongoing character....

Just finished rereading Pattern Recognition yet again. It was a lot of fun comparing the F:F:F forum Gibson created to the real online community he's fostered on the WGB.

BTW, some forum handles still up for grabs:

• apophenia
  
• lombard
  
• footagehead
  
• Keiko Judy
  
• Billy Prion
  
• EVP
  

Parkaboy already seems to have been taken but never really got active as near as I can tell...

last night on The Simpsons, Thomas Pynchon made an appearance. at first i wasn't sure i heard correctly, but then he said 'Gravity's Rainbow' and a pun on Crying Lot....
he was wearing a paper bag on his head. why?
(it was him, too, as revealed in the credits)

after spending so much time in front of a computer over the weekend i found that pelevin wasn't the best way of chilling out. so instead i finally got round to reading the Sin City trade paper backs i've been meaning to re-read since they were mentioned here months ago.

so that would be Frank Millar's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Sin City: The Big Fat Kill. both have an extreme noir feel, and millar was going through a particular stark phase with his art in the sin city material that really compliments the idea. however of the two A Dame To Kill For is certainly the better of the two, Big Fat Kill tending towards a more self-indulgent approach. there are some great full page pieces of art in big fat kill, but there are just as many appalling ones.

still really took me back, 10 years since i read any of that stuff, interesting to see how the film version will bring the material to life.

oh, and i've also still been reading short stories from the Best SF vol16 as well - last couple were "singelton" by greg egan, which was a bit of a departure for him in delivery though not themes, and "VAO" by geoff ryman, which i found particularly timely and relevant, dealing with oldies in an old folks home who find that the system is letting them down and they aren't being cared of properly, so they hack the systems they designed in the first place in the name of "age rage".

I'd assumed Pynchon's paperbag was a reference to his famed reclusiveness.

Does he have a famed reclusiveness?

For reasons best known to myself I am back to reading six books at once:
The Cassini Division - Ken MacLeod : Veniss Underground - Jeff Vandermeer : Attack Poodles & Other Media Mutants - James Wolcott : Heathern - Jack Womack : The Battle for God - Barbara Armstrong : Neutrino Drag - Paul di Filippo

Just finished Me Talk Pretty and started Diary

Rob, I would like to hear your opinion on Veniss, although I enjoyed much more Ambergris, City of Saints and Madmen. But I love metaliterary effects.

With more difficulty than expected I have finished Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The first 300 pages were quite upslope reading, and once it starts picking steam there were still a few slow down moments. Interesting but not something I will reread soon. Probably if it had half the size... But it is not a good sign when you enjoy the footnotes more than the main text.

I was going to start with Mary Gentle's Ash, a secret story, but I think I will take a break from big alternate history books to reread the Fifth Head of Cerberus, By Gene Wolfe. I want to check if the supposed links with the Book of the Short Sun are there. Usually that means I will spend a few weeks rereading others of his books, tracking elusive prey.

José

I'm reading the optimistically titled Collapse, by Jared Diamond. Best Valentine's Day gift ever!

quote:

Originally posted by charmakarmacat:
last night on The Simpsons, Thomas Pynchon made an appearance. at first i wasn't sure i heard correctly, but then he said 'Gravity's Rainbow' and a pun on Crying Lot....
he was wearing a paper bag on his head. why?
(it was him, too, as revealed in the credits)

I NEED to see that episode.

I went ahead and bought the new Bester collection, Alfred Bester: Redemolished. So far it's wonderful. There's some new-to-me material (though not much, I'm pretty Bester-obsessed) and the foreward is actually strikingly frank about his life and writing career. I think it may well be the best bio-brief I've read yet on Bester. At the end, when it discussed how he died (1987) it felt like a blow to the gut. I really love that man, and I hope he was satisfied when he died.

Anyway, this collection has a bunch of the interviews he did with Holiday (magazine he worked for), which I'm really excited to read, they're purported to be his best non-scifi work. I think this book may well turn out to be the book I get people as an intro to Bester. Starlight is great, but Redemolished is more timely.

I feel like something Bester-related is building within me. I think I feel an essay or a comprehensive fan site coming on.

Hah, I told you in page 3 Httf would like that book for everyone...

José

Reading about City of Saints and Madmen at the site I found the Ligotti interview I was sorely tempted to get myself a copy. I guess I should see if I like how Vandermeer writes first - I'm only two chapters into Veniss.

But the whole pile might get shunted if I decide to first read Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 which I picked up today, having previously only read extracts.

quote:

Originally posted by JRE:
Hah, I told you in page 3 Httf would like that book for everyone...

José

Oh my. So you did. I missed it. Am I so predictable?

quote:

Originally posted by hurtstotouchfire:

quote:

Originally posted by charmakarmacat:
last night on The Simpsons, Thomas Pynchon made an appearance. at first i wasn't sure i heard correctly, but then he said 'Gravity's Rainbow' and a pun on Crying Lot....
he was wearing a paper bag on his head. why?
(it was him, too, as revealed in the credits)

I NEED to see that episode.

Thomas Pynchon: These wings are "V-licious"! I'll put this recipe in the "Gravity's Rainbow" cookbook, right next to "The Frying of Latke 49".

The Simpsons - All's Fair in Oven War

More of a summary, since it's near the end of the month.

Dirt Music, Tim Winton. Beautiful prose. I do get kinda annoyed with authors who don't use quote marks.

Jennifer Government, Max Barry. Funny, scary and true satire.

The Sea Hunters II, Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo. There's nothing like a good Cussler. It's like a hearty home cooked meal. This sequel to the first Sea Hunters is a bit disappointing, as they don't find many of the wrecks and artifacts they're looking for, but still good nonetheless.

I'm proud to say I made it through Neal Stephenson's 'quicksilver'.

Although I was quite taken with it, especially book 2, with Jack Shaftoe, my final impression is one of disappointment.

I did a degree in english lit at uni, read all the classics, and I think rebellion against that lead me to the cyberpunks. I'd rather read interesting ideas, poorly written, than well written books about history or about nothing at all.

I mean, sometimes quicksilver has relevence to today, Daniel waiting for the apocalypse...but I don't really agree that 'things are actually getting better'... it seems to be a viewpoint held more by myopic americans, than say endangered animals, or starving children in the 3rd world...

I mean the guy can write that's for sure. IN BULK...but do I really believe that eliza is more than a male fantasy of a woman? Would I rather read of the turkish siege of venice from the turkish point of view for a change?
Am I desperately trying to get beyond the world of newtonian physics to understand what comes after?

I don't know, my favorite chapter by far is the minutes of the royal society meeting, where along with the beginnings of science like the invention of the level, there are wisdoms like 'if you are bitten by a spider you have to dance once a year.'

that's priceless. But like cryptonomicon, I came away thinking it could have been done in fewer words, and a ruthless editor might help...

I'll get to book 2, but probably not right away.

quote:

Originally posted by hurtstotouchfire:

I went ahead and bought the new Bester collection, Alfred Bester: Redemolished. So far it's wonderful. There's some new-to-me material (though not much, I'm pretty Bester-obsessed) and the foreward is actually strikingly frank about his life and writing career. I think it may well be the best bio-brief I've read yet on Bester. At the end, when it discussed how he died (1987) it felt like a blow to the gut. I really love that man, and I hope he was satisfied when he died.

Anyway, this collection has a bunch of the interviews he did with Holiday (magazine he worked for), which I'm really excited to read, they're purported to be his best non-scifi work. I think this book may well turn out to be the book I get people as an intro to Bester. Starlight is great, but Redemolished is more timely.

I feel like something Bester-related is building within me. I think I feel an essay or a comprehensive fan site coming on.

I read The Stars My Destination back in 9th grade or so. Lost my copy, things went out of print for a long time. 5yrs or so found re-issues of TSMD and Demolished Man. I'll have to check out the book you rec. Thanks.

i've been taking a little break from my normal, hyperactive reading habits this month. Mostly it's due to the fact that I owe the library some $$ over a butthole surfers cd i'd thought i'd returned in december, but hadn't.
So I've been reading an old collection I was given a time ago called "Modern Irish Short Stories" edited by Ben Forkner. Some really good stuff in there, by the likes of Joyce, Beckett, Yeats and quite a few others.
...Gettin' in touch wit me roots...

I'm about halfway through Ken Macleod's Cosmonaut Keep. I find the writing a bit sloppy compared to the later series, but maybe I'm just not follownig it properly. The explanations (he seemd to take to tries) of how the various timelines of humans got to the 2nd sphere were confusing. Also, the text seemed to indicate that the Cairns character in 2050 was "old" but then he phoned his mum and said she was 35 at the time, so I had to rapidly revise my mental picture of him.

But anyhoo, that's not why I decided to write about this book before finishing it. Having just read Morgan's Market Forces I notice both these books have a similar view on Capitalism. In Market Forces there is a rant (I think from the UN Ombudsman guy) about how Capitalism cannot keep growing. In Cosmonaut Keep the 2050's Cairns talks about the sustainable society and the fact that Capitalism cannot continue when all the markets are capitalized. Macleod (via Cairns) attributes this thinking to John Stuart Mill. Strangely, I'd been pondering this line of thought for a while before reading either book.

It reminded me of the old thread here about communism/socialism in science fiction and reinforces my thoughts that British writers tend to see a more Socialist future.

[edit: Just after posting this, my name was appearing in an orangy-yellow colour next to this post. When I clicked on Edit to post this edit, my name changed back to black. I've never seen this happen before. Anyone know why? Have we had a UBB update?]

quote:

...reinforces my thoughts that British writers tend to see a more Socialist future.

Is it that, or is it simply that a lot of British SF authors actually are socialists of one stripe or another? MacLeod, Mieville*, Banks (thanks dayliner) &c. BritSF certainly doesn't seem to have the right-wing libertarian or "high-frontier fascist"** strand you get in US SF. (Sure, USSF has a leftist/leftish libertarian strand just as strong... )
_{* I promise to stop linking to this site.
** anyone know who coined that label for the Baen Books writers and their ilk? I should probably just google it.}

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RobW,