Busytown: Holiday reading lust
615 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 21 22 23 24 25 Newer→ Last
-
The baby has not quite made his appearance yet, Sofie. And no, you can't have my Pixies ticket.
For tonight then (or tomorrow)..
-
A big big love is right, Sacha. I'm the size of a house!
-
Any chance of linking to the guy? Just want to see how this argument goes.
Here.
-
Thanks for fighting the good fight in the thread comments over there, Gio, but all I want to say is that you are way too charitable, because oh GOD, I hate that guy. I hate the way he frames his arguments, I hate the WTF-ness and ridiculous contrarianism of the conclusions he draws about character and motivation, I hate his wilful misreadings of the most obvious scenes. There are about two good points in his whole schtick, and the rest of it makes me want to take a hostage. BAH.
-
A big big love is right, Sacha. I'm the size of a house!
Waaaaay back when, we discussed effective methods of inducing labour.
Far be it from me to comment (here's where I stop, right?), but I'm guessing any list on inducement worth its salt would have 'PIXIES CONCERT' in large WELLYWOOD sized letters somewhere in the top 5.
I'm just saying.
-
Which is why, Jack, my hospital bag will be in the car. :)
-
Yeah, was gonna suggest that, but if it's the Vector concert, you might want it under your seat. Although, leap forward fifteen years and teenager says 'Where was I born again?' 'At a Pixies concert.' 'Awesome!'* Hand pump.
*Apparently 'awesome' is the new 'awesome', but I forget where I read that ;-)
PS. Sent note to Russell already, but 'Still Crazy' is getting crazier by the minute, in case no one noticed.
-
I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage
OK, so we have a guy who thinks it's racist. And this is how he starts his argument.
here we have a little bit of the dark continent tucked away in the American city, as you can see by the predominance of black faces.
And at that point, someone handed him a big tall foaming glass of cool and refreshing FAIL.
-
Sent note to Russell already, but 'Still Crazy' is getting crazier by the minute
Same. Some people just don't seem to learn. Sad.
-
double shot macchiato
Now you're talking..
-
Thanks for fighting the good fight in the thread comments over there, Gio, but all I want to say is that you are way too charitable
Maybe, but the discussion spilled over in other posts of his, and of mine, and while I still fundamentally disagree I must say I can see a lot of merit in what he has to say, and some useful challenges. It will take me a while to put together a coherent response however I suspect.
-
Oh, merit, schmerit. What it boils down to is 'if I deliberately misinterpret every single scene and character, this sure is conservative and racist!' :)
-
Philip:
Might check [ Parrot and Olivier ] out on your recommendation. I've found Carey to be surprisingly hit and miss this past decade -- True History of the Kelly Gang was excellent but both My Life as a Fake and His Illegal Self were pretty disappointing, I thought.
Just finished the book and was quite impressed - did have to reread a little to get the full impact out of it, but that's always the way. I see from your blog you've also read Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem - any thoughts on that one?
Oh, merit, schmerit. What it boils down to is 'if I deliberately misinterpret every single scene and character, this sure is conservative and racist!' :)
Funny, I was thinking the other day of how Shutter Island (warning: spoilers) might read from a Scientologist perspective...
-
I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage
The Wire is "racist" and "reactionary" if that's a fancy way of saying the show is very short of model minorities, but actually pays people the respect of assuming that people -- even the black ones -- are sentient beings who make bad choices with even worse consequences every damn day. Those people also exist inside social, cultural and political contexts that don't easily reduce to simple or comfortable soundbites.
Meanwhile, I look forward to Qlipoth's penetrating analysis of the rancid racism, internalised homophobia, misogyny and not at all covert heterosexist body fascism in the work of Baltimore's least wanted: John Waters.
-
I see from your blog you've also read Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem - any thoughts on that one?
I had a review in Your Weekend, which is a newspaper magazine that goes out in The Dom Post, Press and Waikato Times on Saturdays. There's no link and I haven't got a copy at home, but my very short response is that it was superb. I was a fan of his Fortress of Solitude but this seemed a leap beyond that: much less realist, much more paranoid in the best (Pynchon-esque) sense and written with real flair and energy. You can tell he enjoyed himself.
I don't know a lot about Lethem's other books but I think there might be a loosely SF/parallel world feel in some of them as well. He appears as a Philip K Dick expert on the commentary track of Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, which makes sense. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys Pynchon and PKD -- and David Foster Wallace. I must read more of his stuff.
-
Sam -- I had a feeling I saw your review of Chronic City in the Listener a little while ago, but can't find it now. You were largely positive?
-
Sam -- I had a feeling I saw your review of Chronic City in the Listener a little while ago, but can't find it now. You were largely positive?
Yes, really enjoyed it; hadn't read anything by Lethem previously but loved the energy in the writing, and the sense of characters scrabbling for grip on a world somehow shifted just out of sync with reality.
I reviewed it as a Short Takes piece with Joshua Ferris' The Unnamed. I don't think the Listener puts Short Takes online anymore unfortunately (or at least not mine), so despite the printed magazine I have on my desk, for all internet intents and purposes the piece never existed...
-
Just as well, otherwise you'd be outed.
-
Just as well, otherwise you'd be outed.
As a what now? (Sorry, Monday afternoon brainmush...)
-
A found otter?
-
A found otter?
Haha, the wonders of Google. Gio was in fact referring to my barely-a-pseudonym which isn't in effect on the Listener website...
-
I can reveal that Sam's surname is not actually "F". I know, shocking!
-
I've finally got around to reading The Gathering by Anne Enright.
I'm finding it a strange combination of sentences that are so lyrically amazing they make me go "ZOMG that's beautiful and haunting and my life is changed" and sentences that are so pompously overblown they make me go "ZOMG teh many large words they hurtz mah brain". Many of the second kind have involved ...um... peenage. Peenage and pompous don't go together.
-
This looks like it could be rather good.
-
No Fretful Sleepers does look good.
However, Bookiemonster, was it you who read Tender Morsels? I have just finished it and I didn't really like it. I must lack a fantasy gene or summat. I should have reacquainted myself with the fairy tale it was based on?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.