The Books/Reading Thread

[Einherjar86]

Out of curiosity, have you ever read Moorcock's essay, "Epic Pooh"? It's available online, and it's worth a look if you're into fantasy.

New reads for the week:

Edith Wharton's House of Mirth:

Eudora Welty's Collected Stories:

William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying:

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Am I the only person out there that doesn't like As I Lay Dying? Fucking hated reading the book.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm about fifty pages into it. I love it so far.

"It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end."

Fucking epic.

 

[rms]

I gotta read Pride and Prejudice next, 100 pages in and its quite gay.

 

[unknown]

as much as I liked As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom is still my favorite Faulkner work.

I had to read House of Mirth for one of my American lit classes in college. I actually thought it was really sad. Normally I'm not overwhelmed by books, but that one did it.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm excited to read that. I'm teaching a short story by Wharton, "Afterward," in my class this week. It's a fantastic short story; I love her voice, she has an incredibly modern tone for someone writing in the late nineteenth century.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

I gotta read Pride and Prejudice next, 100 pages in and its quite gay.

Pride and Prejudice rules, bro. All the feminine bullshit aside, it's wonderful.

Reading George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss" for class right now. Big zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of a book but I don't hate it I guess. I think I don't really enjoy reading Victorian-era prose, but damn I love the poetry.

I also read a random page of A Dance of Dragons last night. Felt good to read something that wasn't dull Victorian or Alexander Pope writing in heroic couplets. Love him, but fuck, he's such an asshole.

 

[Einherjar86]

Only read the first chapter, but fascinating stuff (Dak, this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about w/ regards to understanding new media):

 

[wandering_taco]

Just started reading The Magus by John Fowles. About 60 pages in so far, I love his voice, but so far the story is so-so. I'm sure it gets better.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Reading Matthew Arnold's dramatic poem "Empedocles on Etna" for a informal "report/present" in my class. The goal is to read the poem and discuss with the class why Arnold "censored" the poem after publishing it. It is my belief given the direct connection to Byron's "Manfred" poem and the general Romantic nature of the poem, that Arnold thought this long poem was "too Romantic" and emotional and not Victorian enough. Those Vics hated Byron...

Really digging the poem though. It's difficult, but I've always enjoyed the story behind Empedocles' myth.

 

[The Butt]

Got a novelization of Star Trek: Voyager "Endgame". Will rock the shit outta that when I get time to do so.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Just started reading some passages from Moby Dick and whoa Mr Melville had some major problems. Some fucked up shit.

 

[Einherjar86]

Can you elaborate? I'm curious as to what you're considering problems of possibly the greatest American writer of the nineteenth century.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

The opening is gloomy, like a depressed teenage blog post (not that I'm comparing it to that directly, it's just the feeling I get) Ishmael is like a goth lol. and that's the intro to the dude haha and this is the stable guy, everyone else is crazier than him.
Ahab who collects these religious weirdos down in the hold, it's sick. and what are these people doing down there? I think he hints at it but I dont remember

Just some haunting shit imho. And I think the dude had some problems, but I'm saying that as a kind of loose expression.

 

[Einherjar86]

Haha, well he's a fantastic writer, so it makes sense that he can evoke many different responses from readers. The beginning has a sense of foreboding, and his description of the painting in the Inn is just incredibly terrifying.

Also, we shouldn't equate Ishmael with Melville. In many ways, Ishmael is an ironic figure through which we can view the novel's subject matter in a critical light (and not just whaling, but Western civilization in general). If things are portrayed in an odd way, or humorously, or dementedly, it's because the text is telling us something; not necessarily about Melville's state of mind, but about the cultural context in which it's being produced.

Melville had some problems, but they were purely economic.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

about Melville's state of mind, but about the cultural context in which it's being produced.

I'll keep this in mind while reading. I don't know if I can get through this book but I really want to.

What would you recommend as to the best edition?

 

[Dak]

If things are portrayed in an odd way, or humorously, or dementedly, it's because the text is telling us something; not necessarily about Melville's state of mind, but about the cultural context in which it's being produced.

I see this perspective particularly problematic when drawn from one, at one point, obscure and solitary writing. Sounds like a lot of interpretive projection. It is entirely more likely to be primarily issuing from the writer, particularly when the writer is uniquely enigmatic.

 

[Einherjar86]

Well, the authorial decisions are clearly being made by the writer; I'm just saying we shouldn't immediately associate these decisions with a disturbed mental state, which is what I thought Jimmy was suggesting. Melville was an incredibly perceptive writer, and he saw the hypocrisy and contradictions of the society around him. His choices to portray things in a certain way are only partially his own choices; they also must be influenced, to some degree, by the context in which he's producing them.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

If anything I meant it more as a compliment. Whenever I watch my favorite absurd stuff like Lynch or some Louie episodes I say it. It's not that I think they literally have problems but that their perspective is unique and persuades me to think the writer is on another level.

Look at it as slang.

 

[Einherjar86]

Ha, well I would agree with that.

I don't think that saying his texts reflect the culture in which they're produced is interpretive projection, especially in light of all the scholarship that has substantiated this.