Yakoob on 7/10/2012 at 22:30
We got a movie and game version, so why not book?
I got prompted to start this thread after my morning as I felt compelled to skip my usual breakfast to bike to nearby cafe, have a moffin and sip on a coffee while reading 75 pages of Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind. I don't think I can deny I am hooked. Interesting opening, a bit of a lull after (the whole "traveling troupe" was zzz, but I did enjoy his explanation of magic), and things picking up after Kote's troupe dies (YAY!) and he spends 3 years surviving in the city.
That's how far in I am now, only ~200 pages; while it does feel a little cliche ("growing in a traveling band", "parents killed", "lonely kids learns to steal and beg on streets etc.), it's still keeping me engaged, and I am finding his descriptions of the world/setting more engaging than I normally have patience for (I lauded The Witcher books exactly because of how succinct the descriptions were). Also likes the little allegory of new Testament and Jesus.
At the same time I am some 50 pages into Jetter's Infernal Devices which hasn't quite grabbed me as much as the other one, but I like that it is more action rather than description based. The mystery of the coin continues...
So, what are you reading?
catbarf on 7/10/2012 at 23:29
I just finished reading a compilation of HP Lovecraft. I found it very interesting to read the stories that the Cthulhu mythos is based on, but also all the other fiction completely or at least somewhat unrelated to the Cthulhu theme or inbred New Englanders. I think The Colour Out of Space or Dunwich Horror are every bit as memorable, and could make for some good films (apparently there was a Dunwich Horror movie, apparently it was bad). I'm especially interested in the new movie based on At The Mountains of Madness, that has some real promise.
june gloom on 8/10/2012 at 00:01
The Colour Out of Space is perhaps my favourite Lovecraft story, though Dunwich is a classic as well.
Lovecraft has fallen out of favor, with me, though, over the years -- the dude was a xenophobic shut-in with social views that were outdated even for the time. I still love some of his stories but his early ones -- some of which are otherwise his very best -- are rife with racist sentiment.
catbarf on 8/10/2012 at 01:01
Yeah, I didn't read Lovecraft for deep psychoanalysis or colorful characters. Most of his protagonists are projections of himself, his other characters (especially women) are flat cliches or even caricatures, his prose is pretty formulaic and predictable as far as horror writing goes, and like you said there's a lot of uncomfortable elements. What the guy had in spades, though, was imagination, and that's why I think it's great movie fodder, because the things that make his writing memorable nowadays would translate pretty readily to film. Doubly so now that CGI is about at the level to do justice to his monsters, which is why I am very excited for the Mountains of Madness film I mentioned.
Angel Dust on 8/10/2012 at 01:14
That At the Mountains of Madness film has been shelved. Del Toro is still keen to do it of course, but getting buy-in from the money men is difficult.
catbarf on 8/10/2012 at 02:04
Well, fuck.
Don't mean to derail the thread topic, but that's pretty disappointing. I'd think that a reasonably-popular IP like Lovecraft combined with Del Toro wouldn't have a problem securing funding.
Angel Dust on 8/10/2012 at 03:13
The producers and such were extremely keen on the pitch but not for the amount he wanted/needed. $200 million for what would essentially be, the current market place, an art/horror film isn't really going to happen. Maybe if del Toro's next few films make big bucks then he'll get the greenlight for this obvious passion project (much like Nolan got for Inception).
In the interest on keeping the thread on track:
Just finished the Denis Johnson short story collection Jesus' Son, a loosely connected series of tales concerning a heroin junkie only ever referred to as 'Fuckhead'. Less concerned with wallowing in the gory details of drug dependency as they are about chronicling some strange and aimless encounters in the margins of society, they've mostly got a slightly rambling and chaotic structure which, of course, fits with Fuckhead's occasionally tenuous grasp on just what the fuck is going on. They're not really concerned with conventional story beats but it's not so avant-garde that it's hard to get into. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad and almost always interesting, it's been my first exposure to Johnson's work and I rather liked it.
Currently, tossing up whether to start Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem or finally dive into Gaddis' JR. The latter is 700+ page satire of capitalism, consisting of mostly unattributed dialogue with no chapter breaks. I really liked the party scenes that were written this way in The Recognitions, and the way characters would 'emerge' from the flow, and Gaddis also writes really fucking good dialogue but the no breaks for 700 pages might be a killer. If only there was something like a 'chapter break' mod. :p Seeing how crazy shit is around my place at the moment, I'll probably get into Fortress of Solitude then.
demagogue on 8/10/2012 at 03:26
Right now I'm reading Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children.
Thirith on 8/10/2012 at 05:36
Quote Posted by demagogue
Right now I'm reading Salman Rushdie,
Midnight's Children.
Midnight's Children and
The Satanic Verses are the two Rushdie novels that I enjoy pretty much unconditionally (even after spending ~3 years of working on Rushdie's novels). None of his later works have recaptured the wit, intelligence and compassion of those.
I've just started reading Iain Sinclair's
Lights Out For The Territory, a sort of hyper-acute psycho-geographic travelogue of London (no, I'm not entirely sure myself what that means). So far it's a fascinating if extremely dense read; however, I'm not sure it'll keep my interest for 300+ pages if the rest of the book is like the first 40-50 pages.