Confessions

dwndrgn

dwndrgn

Fierce Vowelless One
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Help! I'm stuck in the forums!
Ok here goes. I confess. I've never read any of Arthur C. Clarke's works. I never finished 'Stranger in a Strange Land', I haven't read Orson Scott Card, and I tried to read 'A Wizard of Earthsea' but couldn't do it.

Am I a freak? I genuinely like these genres but it seems that for some reason or another I haven't been attracted to some of the most revered authors. I know it is commonplace to not agree wholeheartedly or enjoy all the authors out there, we all have our likes and dislikes. But I've always been of the opinion that the more you experience, the better a person you are. So, I need to prove this theory.

I have always had trouble reading something because I should or am required to by some authority figure. However, I've gotten better since joining in on the Book Club here. So here's what I need you to do. I need someone to give me an assignment. Someone give me a landmark work and if I can get my hands on it, I'll read it and post here my thoughts, any struggles I might have, and perhaps I'll discover whatever it is that makes me not want to read something I should.
 
Join the club...I had that problem with LOTR...I borrowed them from a friend after I saw the first movie, and they sat on my shelf watching me in disapproval as I proceeded to read everything Pratchett has ever written (for like the 20th time)...:D I finally read them just before the second movie came out...and then freaked out at the changes Jasckson had made in the story...Almost the same happened with Neal Stevenson's Snow Crash, I heard all over how I HAD to read it...and by the time I did it was a total anticlimax.

I think a big part of it is a kind of rebellion, at least in my case...The fact that most SF/fantasy fans have this set of 'must-reads' and I haven't read most of them...I get looks like 'my god, and you call yourself a fan?', so I think 'must...not...fail...must...read...these...masterpieces...'. Of course it gets to the point where I view the reading of any one of these books as a chore instead of a pleasure...

I mean...what can I say...I found myself studying for my exams just so I could avoid reading these books...
 
My problem is with LOTR, I just found it unbelievably boring. I loved the hobit, but the trilogy itself puts me to sleep, literaly. If it wasn't so big and heavy I'd keep a copy around for my insomniac nights! Also Azamov. Can't bloody stand him.

When I was going through my Intellectual phase I forced myself to read Orwell but after finishing 1984 and Animal Farm I gave up. To damn depressing.

I've not a problem with it, although when I was younger I was terribly complexed. To help me my mother quoted Dickens (who also puts me out like a light co-incidentaly), apprantly someone asked him how he felt knowing that his works were regarded as clasics, to which he replied that the definition of a classic is something that everyone talks about but no one has read!:)
after that I felt much better about it and now I read for enjoyment only.
 
2001: A Space Oddysey.

One of THE books, in my opinion. Off you go then.

I felt the same when I tried to read the Skylark series. The first is really good, but I just can't get past the second. I'm going to find Triplanetary instead. But don't feel too bad, as Anna Karenina is regarded as one of the greatest books ever written, but I'll be damned if I can read more than fifty pages a month. I've had it sitting on my shelf still only half-read for almost two years.

I think the thing with a lot of "great" books is that they are great in retrospect. There are points of Moby Dick that seem like a textbook, and as I waded through it I couldn't see the book for what it was. Then I finished it, and the entire thing locked together into one big thing of "Wow. I get it." I didn't feel that when I finished the book. It wasn't until I woke up the next morning.

Anyway, I suggest you read 2001 by Clarke. If nothing else the film will make a great deal more sense afterwards. Also, if you want to read Clarke focus on his short fiction. He's an ideas man, not a brilliant novelist. Meeting with Medusa and The Nine Billion Names of God especially.
 
My stumbling block is War and Peace and Gone with the wind. whenever i see them, i feel an irresistable urge to lie down and go to sleep:)
 
There are big names in the genre I tend to avoid for the longest time before finally trying them out - I avoided George RR Martin for quite a while, for instance, more because I simply wasn't interested in yet another endless epic fantasy series, thank you very much. I'm reading it now though, and it seems engaging on a human level at least.

Frankly, I'd rather read another Animal Farm than yet another disposable wish-fulfillment quest which contributes absolutely zilch to my mental life. But I'm kinda earnest that way. And I do read for entertainment as well - that's what all that crank literature is for, right?

2001 is a neat book to have a go at, although I've always prefererred the first volume in Clarke's other major series, Rendezvous with Rama.
 
I actually read only a few books in the genre before trying to write for it - I'd read some Stainless Steel Rat, Dragonlance, some Tolkien, Dune, various horror writers, and a few good short story anthologies. My main reading was general literary classics. I actually avoided reading the sff genre when I was actually writing, as I didn't want to be influenced by it at any level - major mistake.

It was only after being persuaded that I needed to actually read the genre to write for it that I've been out and bought some of the sf classics - but even then, my own reading in the genre is extremely limited, and generally limited to books I think I can learn from as a writer.

My big confession is that, until recently, my opinion of fantasy lit has been extremely aggressive and negative. I've actually had to hold off from posting general opinions not because of it, but also because I recognise that it's uninformed.

Really, the attitude was just a byproduct of my rather egotistical attempt to write a modern fantasy masterpeice of literature. Sometimes to prop your confidence as a writer, you tend to look down on other works. But I guess that simply reflects a general crippled approach. The best is humility, and to learn from the best, I suppose.

The fantasy genre is the one I most needed to read for my chronicles writing. After all the hype, I figured GRR Martin would be the one single fantasy author I had to read. So now it's come up in the book club I've made myself read it. Enjoying it, too, and finding it very influential from a writing perspective.
 
I read Rama about thirty years ago. If return to Rama is a sequell, if it is, I'm getting it. That was an excelent book I remember it quite well even after all these years . The inside of that ship was something awsome
 
Maryjane, the Rama sequels, co-written with Gentry Lee, are:


Rama II (1989)
The Garden of Rama (1991)
Rama Revealed (1993)

I've read all of them. They aren't evenly engaging, but there's always a payoff as Clarke mingles philosophical and spiritual themes with a continued exploration of Rama. The Zen Ringworld?
 
Thanks Knivesout, to be sure I'm going to be looking for those books in the bookstores. Been a long time since I read a sci fi book.
 
I've never read LOTR (well, except for about the first third of "Fellowship of the Ring", which I was supposed to read for a class, and I couldn't get through it even then). I find Isaac Asimov's non-fiction a lot more interesting than his fiction. Not necessarily better, understand, but I just like it more. I've never read "Frankenstein". Or "Farenheit 451". Although I recently bought both books and have every intention of reading them.

Of course, I've also always had a huge aversion to "classics" of most kinds. Most of the classic literature I've read, I've only read because it was assigned in classes. The biggest exception to that is "Dracula", which I read on my own. But I would never have read "Madame Bovary" or Dante's "Inferno" or a lot of other classic works if I hadn't been required to.

Maybe we should start working some of the classics of sf and fantasy into the book club, so I'll read some of them.

Oh, and I have to second the suggestion that Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" is a great short story. One of the best, in my humble opinion.
 
I read Dante's inferno when I was in school, that's been a round for a few years and not long ago I read the other two parts Date's pergatory and Dante's Heaven. I found that the description was so vivid I could see it in my mind. I liked all three parts. I like some of the classics not all of them.
 
I now have 2001:A Space Odyssey in my (temporary) possession. This one was published after Stanley Kubrik's death and has a forward written by Mr. Clarke himself detailing the origins of the story and how it all came about. So far it was the only good part. It is slow slogging right now. I detested the set-up with cave men. I don't know why but I just didn't like it. I've just begun the 'meat' of the story so not much to say on that yet. I just wanted y'all to know that I hadn't forgotten my promise :)
 
Princess Ivy said:
My stumbling block is War and Peace and Gone with the wind. whenever i see them, i feel an irresistable urge to lie down and go to sleep:)
Click to expand...
"Gone With The Wind" is actually a good book, for all that it is told from the south's point of view and so is seen by some as not being very progressive on certain issues. I've actually read it three or four times, the first time when I was about 14 years old. In fact, I read a lot of it sitting in my Algebra class, which might explain the "D" I got that semester in that class.:p

I haven't ever had the courage to tackle "War and Peace" though.
 
I'm halfway through 2001 now and finding it extremely dull. Perhaps it is just that the author must explain to the reader how one goes about ensuring that people are safe and protected while away from the 'womb' of the Earth. I can't see how he could have written it without all the explanation but it sure puts me to sleep. I can only read for about an hour before I must move on to something else.

I will say this, however, Clarke has a way with words that make you see the underlying principles or feelings of whatever he's describing crystal clear. He must have a very intelligent and tidy mind.
 
My girlfriend never liked 2001 because it was so impersonal and there was no real character viewpoint to really get involved with.

Would you think that might the similar objection you are having??
 
I confess to never having read 2001... But I have read 2010 and the next one - can't remember the name...

I read LOTR in high school... Read from The Hobbit, through FotR and TT, but when I got to page 98 of RotK I just stopped... Never picked it up since... I think I was bored by all the pointless description...

I have some classics at home, but never been interested in reading them... The Odessey, The Illiad, Frankenstein, etc...
 
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