Books You Should Like But Don't

[soulsinging]

Sorry about that folks, but it was a compromise between leaving people who had contributed wondering where the thread had gone (no redirect), and leaving things open too long. Hence, a temporary redirect. It should disappear in about a week's time....

No worries, I was just joking because it seemed funny.

 

[j d worthington]

That wry sense of humor will get you every time....

 

[kole]

I don't like LOTR at all, neither the book nor the movies. I liked The Hobbit, though.

 

[RichF]

Well unfortunately I've come across my first sci-fi book I should like but don't. Neuromancer. After 100 pages I can't relate to the protagonist (or any of the other characters), the contorted writing style makes it hard to follow and the constant barrage of slang, whether in English or Japanese, has killed off my best attempts at seeing it through to the end. I may come back to it at some point but not in the foreseeable future.

A friend has recommended Stephenson's Snow Crash as similar in ideas but better realised, so I think I'll give that a read.

 

[J-WO]

I never saw what all the fuss was about with the opening line of Neuromancer. You know, the one about 'The sky above the harbour was the colour of a de-tuned television.'

When has the sky ever looked like the screen of a de-tuned television? Huh? Are people in the area like- 'Yeah, when there's an easterly wind the sky sometimes picks up CBS.'

I think its one of those lines where the themes of the story are being expressed through a simile that simply isn't accurate. (Well, ok, a modern de-tuned tv is blue, but...)

 

[J-Sun]

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

The sky was gray, like the black/white snow on a TV appears gray from across the room. And I'd guess it's given praise because it uses a technological metaphor with a cynical or depressed slant rather than comparing it to something naturalistic or otherwise trite. It also illustrates the superceding of reality by virtual reality. The television isn't the color of the sky - the sky is the color of television.

"The color of television".

"The color television" has probably been said a trillion times. "The color of television" was probably the first time.

I don't think it's the greatest line, but it's got its merits.

-- Plus, it probably makes lit critters happy for recalling Eliot's

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;

in the sense of bringing a crashing sense of cognitive dissonance with a modernistic/naturalistic unusual simile (here).