faetal on 4/10/2013 at 10:30
Well of course there's no evidence, it was destroyed.
Malf on 4/10/2013 at 16:33
I'm re-reading William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy for the first time in 20 years. They've lost a little of the "WOW!" factor thanks to a lot of his predictions being slightly wonky, but they're still great explorations of what AI could mean and how they would interact with people. Currently on Count Zero, which is nothing like I remember it, so almost like reading a new book again.
And after 20 years of reading Gibson, I'm finally beginning to appreciate his relatively cold style.
To explain, I always enjoyed the concepts and characters he explored, but when I initially started reading him I was a lot younger and found his relatively passionless prose quite jarring. But now I can see past it and I've found the character he writes in, the unseen observer that notes every detail. It's actually quite voyeuristic.
My signed copy of Idoru is still one of my most prized possessions :)
One series I would highly recommend to someone looking for something gloriously pulpy is the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey. I discovered them and tore through every last one in a couple of weeks.
They're nothing serious, but they move at a helluva pace. Kinda like Scott Sigler but with more humour. And demons. And angels.
Volitions Advocate on 15/10/2013 at 02:01
Had to take a break from WOT. 2/3 through book 10 and, its not that I'm not interested, It's just reading 8 or 9 thousand pages of the same story is starting to get fatiguing.
So thanks to Dethtoll and his constant freaking out about Frictional stuff. I've started to read some Lovecraft. Not what I expected. To be honest, I always had him a bit confused with Crowley because of the era, and I never had a desire to read him, and thus this is the first time I've ever had any direct exposure.
I'm enjoying it a lot, so far I've read Dagon, and Call of Cthulu, currently on Horror of Dunwich. I like the short length of the stories, makes for easier reading in chunks.
Yakoob on 15/10/2013 at 03:21
Well I finally wrapped up
World War Z which I aboslutely loved. Probably due to my studies in Ethnic Conflict, it felt like just another case study of a torn nation, but with, you know, ZOMBIES. Very well researched too, reading about Isreal and Palestine and how it was affected, having studied it extensively before, was fascinating.
Also have this on my reading list:
Inline Image:
http://koobazaur.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/nolo-quick-llc.jpgWhich basically boils down to: "Oh you live in California? Well FUCK YOU!"
Quote Posted by Volitions Advocate
So thanks to Dethtoll and his constant freaking out about Frictional stuff. I've started to read some Lovecraft. Not what I expected.
Ah I liked the stories, but the problem is, once you read one you read them all. Each one is basically the same exact thing in slightly different context. Bit disappointing :/
june gloom on 15/10/2013 at 07:38
Yeah that's kind of an issue with him. Though I highly recommend "The Colour Out of Space." "The Dunwich Horror" is interesting because it's one of the few stories with a generally positive ending where the protagonists successfully defeat the monstrosity. And they do it with SCIENCE!
faetal on 15/10/2013 at 08:28
Lovecraft isn't good because he's diverse, he's good because his stories drip with atmosohere. He provides something particular. One of my personal favourites is (
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/iwe.aspx) In the Walls of Eryx. Such despair. I think he is best read on occasion - mostly I recommend just buying a compendium of his stories and picking one out every now and then. He's mostly a one trick pony, but that trick has decent longevity if it's your thing.
On a side note, I'm noticing a trend on TTLG that if Dethtoll shows disdain towards something, people seem to get the motivation to immediately try it out (Fez is a notable recent example). With this in mind, can I please send you my next album Dethtoll? You're guaranteed to hate it and I could use the promo ;)
Volitions Advocate on 15/10/2013 at 09:14
to be fair. I didn't start reading Lovecraft because Dethtoll said he hated it (he didn't). I'm reading it because I want to understand his argument about Amnesia and Penumbra better, because I literally know nothing about Lovecraft other than "Cthulu Mythos" which is about as informative as labelling coffee .... coffee. er.. yeah. :D Plus, y'know. I want to know what all the fuss is about (in general)
oh and. GODDAMIT DETHTOLL. I'm not finished Dunwich yet! :P
Muzman on 15/10/2013 at 09:48
Yeah you kind of have to read him regardless. Anything you've ever seen or read that involves forbidden libraries or books, aristocratic secret societies of cultists and that sort of thing: despite some real world examples it's pretty much all his doing. Which is pretty remarkable.
Colour out of Space is a good twist on the formula. Mountains of Madness is a nice change of setting. Shadow out of Time is better read after getting those others under your belt. The Outsider is a pretty cool Poe-alike that's not really connected to anything else as well.
For all the complaints about his prose he has written a couple of really good academic essays and things on the history of 'the uncanny' in fiction. Stating from the Gothic all the way down to himself and his Weird Tales pals. They're interesting if you like that sort of thing.
demagogue on 15/10/2013 at 09:56
I put a ton of pdfs on my phone. I tend to browse read, like a cow meandering from grassy patch to patch and munching as he pleases.
But the one I'm actually tending to stick with is Joyce, Ulysses. Wanted to get to it sooner or later. Also part of wanting to kick through the "100 greatest books ever" list. And ... more & more I'm wanting to write my own novel, and I don't want it to read like genre fiction but a legitimate piece of literature, and I'm trying to remind myself just what the difference between genre fiction and literature fiction is supposed to be anyway.
One thing is that I have something of an agenda with what I want to write... It's not just about entertaining people. That's part of what literature is for (which BTW genre fiction can do too; I don't think they're mutually exclusive). That's not to say I want to lecture to people; more like inviting people to consider a way to see the world & where we're going, but up to them whether they want to take the plunge. I'm also fascinated by all the "isms" that scatter history -- the good ones I mean, Romanticism, Pragmatism, Modernism, Surrealism, Existentialism... -- and think it's high time our era had one that isn't stupid. I've already claimed ownership over a title for my philosophy too, cyberealism. I fully expect it to flop like a lead zepplin because our culture is dumb. But my responsibility is not to make up other people's minds for them anyway. I feel it's to craft the most compelling invitation that I can, and let the ideas do their own work crafting their way into people's minds and how they see the themselves and the world.
But the question is how one packages a worldview.
Malf on 15/10/2013 at 10:07
There's also a crossover with R. E. Howard and Lovecraft.
They were pen-pals, and Howard even wrote some Cthulhu stories which were really good. Indeed, reading Conan alongside Cthulhu stories, you can see there's a lot of cross-pollenation, with the monsters feeling pretty similar. That sense of the unknown, of terrible things from the Stygian depths of time and space.
If you're enjoying Lovecraft, I strongly recommend some Solomon Kane or Conan after you've finished.
As long as you can get past all of the steely thews and panther-like grace that is ;)
Thanks to the Eighties Arnie Conan, people have a misconception of the Conan character. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the movie, but Arnie just isn't Conan. Arnie plays him as the big, dumb barbarian, where Howard's Conan is wiley, intelligent, stubborn and mistrusting of civilisation. It's also fascinating to read those stories with some idea of Howard's background and his history of mental health problems.
