September's Studious Search For Sonorous Snippets

[antiloquax]

Listening to "The Planet Savers" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Finished "Catching The Big Fish", film-director David Lynch's book on Transcendental Meditation. A lovely little book, with some nice insights into his films.
After I finish "Swan Song" I might slip in an SF novel before Horror Month begins!

 

[j d worthington]

Conn... I'd suggest going with Orlando. That's quite an impressive work....

 

[antiloquax]

Conn... I'd suggest going with Orlando. That's quite an impressive work....

Yes. I love it. My other favourite would be "Mrs Dalloway" and it's fun to read Michael Cunningham's "The Hours" while it's fresh in your mind.

 

[Connavar]

I can assure you Woolf is up there with Orwell but you need to have read more than just To The Lighthouse to ascertain that. To The Lighthouse is certainly seen as one of her major works but actually The Waves, Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway are arguably better books. I might send you some of her other stuff to check out...

Chesterton is great I agree but you should also check out the superb English prose stylist Evelyn Waugh. The collected short fiction of Sommerset Maugham is also worth reading. Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad are also amongst the best English novelsits of the last century that I have encountered not to mention contempotary authors like Julian Barnes or Amis Snr. as well as Jnr. I could list many others but I'll try to get something else by Woolf for you to try first.

Cheers.

I wont decide what i feel about Woolf until i have read my second novel/book and final tryout. Thats why i said i compared To the Lighthouse to 1984. They are the only reads i have read by the two authors, i cant judge the works i have not read. Thats my rating so far. It can all change if my second Woolf novel is brilliant.

I have read Conrad and i was highly impressed by Heart of Darkness, found his anti-conolism views very interesting. His Secret Agent, sea stories are my next read.

Sommerset Maugham, Graham Greene,Amis, TH Lawrence,Gaskell is high on my brit author read list. I will add Evelyn Waugh to that list since i like prose stylist and want more gender balanced reading.

Those brits have to wait though like Virginia Woolf until early next year because after my latin, german reads its African greats, american modern great outside my fav fields. I want to try William S. Burroughs,Bukawski, Nelson Algren, Hemingway, Faulkner, Wharton, Fitzgerald,Dorothy Parker. To start with. Some of those authors i choosed to read because of their bleak attitudes, wit,satire. Some like Hemingway,Faulkner because of their prose is so hyped.

Im reading, learning to read so called great authors by time periods. I have read many 1800s books and books up to like 1950 but mostly brits. Not american, other european,other continents.

 

[Vertigo]

How can a book with jaunting, set in the future not be SF book ?

Are you one of those fans that think only Hard SF,Space Opera is SF ?
If that classic Bester novel is not SF then no book by Vance, PKD etc are SF.....

I dont mean to rant but i must say there are many great SF that is soft,social SF and is SF mostly because they use the setting, science fictional power,science. You cant dismiss a whole field.

Yeah...The Stars My Destination is pretty much the dictionary definition of Science Fiction.

You've got a space (setting), technological and societal issues, all wrapped up and covered with telekinetic powers, cyber-enhancements, synesthesia, altered realities, powerful corporations, teleportation, and mutant beings, all used to spin one of the most entertaining and fascinating pulp-tales that's ever been spun.

I was a little worried people would misinterpret what I was saying. I did not actually say TSMD is not SF; of course it is and very good to boot and though I like hard SF I also like all other kinds of SF. What I was trying to say is that, at least for me, the story, and message if you like, of the book had nothing to do with SF and really the SF setting, colourful, imaginative and exciting as it is, is largely secondary to that.

Conn you have almost said the same thing about 1984 in another post: "It was not one of the best written SF novels technically...". The SF setting of 1984 is really secondary to the books message. I simply thought the same of TSMD. If I was classifying this book, in my own mind at least, I probably wouldn't make SF the major classification, just like I would classify 1984 as a political book before I would classify it as SF.

Edit: Actually had I thought of it 1984 would have been a much better comparison to have used in the first place.

 

[Connavar]

Setting was secondary to TSMD because it is Count of Monte Cristo in Space.

1984 not being the best written SF i meant it was pretty early dystopian novel and world building wise it could have been better. That has nothing do with SF elements being secondary or not. Its a criticism i would give to any kind of SF books.

 

[GOLLUM]

I want to try William S. Burroughs,Bukawski, Nelson Algren, Hemingway, Faulkner, Wharton, Fitzgerald,Dorothy Parker. To start with. Some of those authors i choosed to read because of their bleak attitudes, wit,satire. Some like Hemingway,Faulkner because of their prose is so hyped.

You're certainly covering many of the best writers. For contemporary American short fiction in particular may I suggest Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, William Trevor, Cynthia Orzick, Flannery O'Connor, Tobias Wolff, Donald Barthelme, Joyce Carol Oates and Dennis Johnson (esp. Jesus' Son collection).

For 'British Isles' short fiction also add to your list Frances Wyndham, Frank O'Connor, Julian Barnes, Kingsley Amis, Sylvia Townsend Warner, V.S. Pritchett, Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress), Katherine Mansfield and Arnold Bennet.

That should keep you busy for a little while at least...


Nelson Algren is a name not familiar to me, although I've since noted that The Man With The Golden Arm is an American classic.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

And I'm done with The Lost Symbol! That was quick. Barely 4 days. One thing I gotta hand to Dan Brown - his books are easy to rip through. I don't think I've read a novel in this short amount of time in ages. The last that I remember was back when I was really into Harry Potter. I remember when Order of the Phoenix came out, I finished that in a few days as well (and that was a much larger book than this).

Not a bad book. Somewhat typical Brown (covert brotherhoods, a crazed 'zealot' for a villain, centuries-old secrets that, if revealed, will stun the world, etc.) but a quick and enjoyable read. Brown isn't a particularly talented writer (in terms of his actual writing) but the guy does, to his credit, know how to create a fun plot. I found the end a bit disappointing (the grand 'secret' that was threatened was really anti-climactic; I can't imagine any scenario in which its revelation would be considered significant, unlike The Da Vinci Code whose ultimate secret, if you buy in to it, was at least a big deal). But hey, any book that can keep me interested and move fast enough that I finish it in 4 days is eligible for a bit of a free pass.

So now I'm wondering what to read. I will either read Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second in Scott Lynch's The Gentleman ******* Sequence, on ebook and continue with The Illearth War on paperback (still no progress on that...) or, in order to ensure that I don't get sidetracked by a more engaging Fantasy (as has been the case for months now) I might supplement Donaldson with The Girl Who Played with Fire, so I have a straight-forward thriller to go with a slow-paced Fantasy.

 

[GOLLUM]

Yes. I love it. My other favourite would be "Mrs Dalloway" and it's fun to read Michael Cunningham's "The Hours" while it's fresh in your mind.

Yes I agree with you and JD on Orlando or Mrs Dalloway as being the next Woolf novel Conn should tackle. The Waves is Woolf's most experimental work, so it may not be the ideal second work although I have always felt it was possibly Woolf's greatest work and an absolute masterpiece. Has anyone else read The Waves? or is it only me?...

 

[Vertigo]

Setting was secondary to TSMD because it is Count of Monte Cristo in Space.

1984 not being the best written SF i meant it was pretty early dystopian novel and world building wise it could have been better. That has nothing do with SF elements being secondary or not. Its a criticism i would give to any kind of SF books.

I guess what I was trying to get at is that I see TSMD as a book set in the future but not about the future. Just as I would see 1984 as being set in the (then) future but not about the future, rather it is a book about dystopian politics that could be applied to any age in which there are totalitarian governments. In the end I suppose it just comes down to semantics

 

[j d worthington]

Oddly, no, Mr. G. I haven't... and I really should....

About through with my reading of Bierce's fictional efforts. I must say that, despite his abilities with the form, I find his "tall tales" (as they are called in the Bison edition) to be the portion of his fiction I am the least taken with. There are some which are quite brilliant, but too many seem contrived. The tall tale itself is a difficult form enough, as it is essentially an extended joke, and it takes a certain amount of the fabulist to pull it off successfully; this Bierce more than does at times, but at others it strikes me that his interest in the absurdity itself (for the sake of its pointing up the absurdities of human beings in general) is so much Bierce's focus that it actually loses its impact; it becomes too much "all on one note" in such cases. There is some of this in even his supernatural fiction now and again, and these are his weakest entries in that field of endeavor, too; but here, when one takes these tales in a concentrated form, this sort of thing seems to predominate....

 

[Connavar]

You're certainly covering many of the best writers. For contemporary American short fiction in particular may I suggest Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, William Trevor, Cynthia Orzick, Flannery O'Connor, Tobias Wolff, Donald Barthelme, Joyce Carol Oates and Dennis Johnson (esp. Jesus' Son collection).

For 'British Isles' short fiction also add to your list Frances Wyndham, Frank O'Connor, Julian Barnes, Kingsley Amis, Sylvia Townsend Warner, V.S. Pritchett, Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress), Katherine Mansfield and Arnold Bennet.

That should keep you busy for a little while at least...


Nelson Algren is a name not familiar to me, although I've since noted that The Man With The Golden Arm is an American classic.

Raymond Carver i know mostly thanks to Elmore Leonard who hailed him as important writer when interview asked him about fav authors.

Most of those american short fiction authors is old news to me but british isles you mentioned i know only Amis,Barnes,Mansfield.

My trouble is not only the lack of reading time thanks to ironicly reading lit classes that make me read more theory books than actual fiction literature. Also since im not born in western part of the world i feel a responsibility to give more focus to Asia,African classics and modern literature. I will read Rushdie for modern novel class but i want to read Aravind Adiga and nigerian hailed authors like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Somali pride Nurudin Farah who is African great with many awards.

 

[Diggler]

I finally got around to reading it in 1983 for obvious reasons.

I was not old enough to have appreciated this book in 1983. It looks like it's going to have to be 2011 for me, which just doesn't have the same ring to it.

1984 is such a legendary book that i avoided for years but it is really a book you must read and you cant skip. Not because you are SF fan but because you are a fan of great books that say something real.

I must admit I have avoided it for quite a number of years. I really don't know why though? Anyway, you have given me the push I need to finally pick it up. So that will be my next book after I have finished The Stars My Destination.

 

[GOLLUM]

My trouble is not only the lack of reading time thanks to ironicly reading lit classes that make me read more theory books than actual fiction literature. Also since im not born in western part of the world i feel a responsibility to give more focus to Asia,African classics and modern literature. I will read Rushdie for modern novel class but i want to read Aravind Adiga and nigerian hailed authors like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Somali pride Nurudin Farah who is African great with many awards.

I've read Aravind Adiga and wasn't that impressed. Well...OK better than average but not in the same league as other authors I know.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is certainly deserving of the tag modern classic Conn. Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is highly admired here and a book I really enjoyed. Farah I'm not familiar with I'm sorry.

Some of the controversial V,S Naipuls' work is quite good as is that of Rohin Mistry (esp. A Fine Balance), Rushdie certainly in particular the 'Booker of Booker's" Midnight's Children, in fact I have all of Rushdie's works translated into English. Anita Desai is another Indian of note and of course two of the greats inlcude Tagore and probably the best novelist that I am aware of to have come out of India in R. K Narayan. The South African Nardine Gordimer is a very fine writer and been acknowledged as such by being presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature (Yes I know this award does not always go to the best candidate but she is really good) and of course there's J.M. Coetze whose novel Disgrace I'll be reviewing at some stage. From Northern Africa we can't go past the superb Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, another recipient of 'that prize'. The Zimbabwean Patina Gappan whom Nesa introduced me to is another fine talent. Of course I can't not mention the Sudanese great Tayeb Salih, whose novel Season Of Migration To The North which I've read and was voted the 'most important Arabic novel of the 20th Century' a big call I know and I can't comment for that but I enjoyed the book greatly. OH and I simply cannot finish here without mentioning two of Turkey's greatest novelists in Orhan Pamuk and Yashar Kemal...world class the both of them. To close I strongly recommend the best Englsih anthology I know of featuring the works of 'modern Arabic writers' called The Anchor Book OF Modern Arabic Fiction. It features 79 authors of note ranging from Syria to Egypt to Lebanon to Iraq to Morocco to the Sudan and all places in between.

I could continue with more Arabic and African notables and I haven't even started on Asia (in terms of Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Japan etc. ) BUT in fairness to this thread we're probably going a little off-topic, so I'll continue posting items/recommendations to you via PM if that is OK?

Anyway, thank you for bringing up this topic of discussion as it's not that often I get to discuss works from these parts of the world.

P.S., You should also ask Nesacat about Asian authors, her knowledge in this area is extensive.

 

[Fried Egg]

Right, finished Hal Clement's incredibly dull "Mission of Gravity" and now I'm going to get started on my October month of horror reading early...

 

[Ian Whates]

Right, finished Hal Clement's incredibly dull "Mission of Gravity"

Can't agree with you there, FE. The book has dated, certainly (it originally appeared in serial form some 58 years ago), but this is one of those 'landmark' works that actually changed the way SF was written. This was the first time an author had taken the trouble to get the specifics of the world they were creating as scientifically accurate as possible, involving a huge amount of manual calculation (no computers or even calculators back then); yet none of that intrudes on the story, which is still portrayed as action adventure, merely set against an unusually plausible background.

 

[Fried Egg]

This was the first time an author had taken the trouble to get the specifics of the world they were creating as scientifically accurate as possible, involving a huge amount of manual calculation (no computers or even calculators back then)...

No doubt he used a slide rule like the protagonists in the story.

...yet none of that intrudes on the story, which is still portrayed as action adventure, merely set against an unusually plausible background.

I don't doubt the plausibility and the careful attention to detail the author obviously put into this book. No doubt he deserves some credit for bringing scientific rigour to a field in which this was often woefully lacking. Ultimately though, good science fiction must be more than this and, in my opinion, by every other measure, it as very poorly written.

 

[bluespider100]

I'm now reading VALIS by PKD... so far so good haven't been able to put the book down til halfway through. It's incredible how PKD keeps surprising me in each book that I've read.

Finished reading the Shoal Trilogy a while back it was a good read although the ending was kind of anticlimatic.

 

[antiloquax]

Listening to audiobook of "The Moon Pool".
a

 

[Connavar]

I've read Aravind Adiga and wasn't that impressed. Well...OK better than average but not in the same league as other authors I know.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is certainly deserving of the tag modern classic Conn. Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun is highly admired here and a book I really enjoyed. Farah I'm not familiar with I'm sorry.

Some of the controversial V,S Naipuls' work is quite good as is that of Rohin Mistry (esp. A Fine Balance), Rushdie certainly in particular the 'Booker of Booker's" Midnight's Children, in fact I have all of Rushdie's works translated into English. Anita Desai is another Indian of note and of course two of the greats inlcude Tagore and probably the best novelist that I am aware of to have come out of India in R. K Narayan. The South African Nardine Gordimer is a very fine writer and been acknowledged as such by being presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature (Yes I know this award does not always go to the best candidate but she is really good) and of course there's J.M. Coetze whose novel Disgrace I'll be reviewing at some stage. From Northern Africa we can't go past the superb Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, another recipient of 'that prize'. The Zimbabwean Patina Gappan whom Nesa introduced me to is another fine talent. Of course I can't not mention the Sudanese great Tayeb Salih, whose novel Season Of Migration To The North which I've read and was voted the 'most important Arabic novel of the 20th Century' a big call I know and I can't comment for that but I enjoyed the book greatly. OH and I simply cannot finish here without mentioning two of Turkey's greatest novelists in Orhan Pamuk and Yashar Kemal...world class the both of them. To close I strongly recommend the best Englsih anthology I know of featuring the works of 'modern Arabic writers' called The Anchor Book OF Modern Arabic Fiction. It features 79 authors of note ranging from Syria to Egypt to Lebanon to Iraq to Morocco to the Sudan and all places in between.

I could continue with more Arabic and African notables and I haven't even started on Asia (in terms of Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Japan etc. ) BUT in fairness to this thread we're probably going a little off-topic, so I'll continue posting items/recommendations to you via PM if that is OK?

Anyway, thank you for bringing up this topic of discussion as it's not that often I get to discuss works from these parts of the world.

P.S., You should also ask Nesacat about Asian authors, her knowledge in this area is extensive.

Nurudin Farah has won multi african,italian, english language awards. He is one of those one in million chance Nobel Prize potential winners from Africa. Anyway he comes from my own country and he tells stories that is personal to every modern Somali who knows anarchy, dictatorship, ancient traditions...

We have Nordic African library in town that has African lit experts who help me out with names less famous than Coatzee.

Can you me PM arabic writer names so we dont go too much off topic here ? I can find africa, western authors, central asia ones like Turkey but arabic literature outside Egypt is practically unknown to me.

Arab history,culture is close to my people where arabic is almost national language. I wish to learn arabic again so i can read arabic lit. Its is a singing, beautiful language of old.

As always im grateful to your input, i dont know many people who knows world literature as well as you offline or online. I borrow information gladly from readers like you