Steph, tell him you didn't like the book because it was poorly edited. You know, technical stuff that a layperson wouldn't notice.
Now, I can hold a note for a long time...actually I can hold a note forever. But eventually that's just noise. It's the change we're listening for. The note coming after, and the one after that. That's what makes it music.
Host ,'Why We Fight'
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Tom Scola - Apr 21, 2005 5:14:56 am PDT #2070 of 10002
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
Frankenbuddha - Apr 21, 2005 5:15:49 am PDT #2071 of 10002
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
"Throw me the Grail, I'll throw you the rope!"
OMG, I'd completely forgotten about that. Bwahahahahahaha!
Steph L. - Apr 21, 2005 5:19:20 am PDT #2072 of 10002
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Tom, good idea! I need you to craft all my excuses to weasel out of things!
Fred Pete - Apr 21, 2005 5:23:35 am PDT #2073 of 10002
Ann, that's a ferret.
But how do you tell someone who loved a book that you couldn't read it because it was written so badly that it made your eyes bleed?
"Just not my cup of tea." Especially if you can find something positive to say about it.
JZ - Apr 21, 2005 5:25:21 am PDT #2074 of 10002
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
Curse you all. You're now making me perversely interested in at least attempting that book, just to see how painful it is. Bridges of Madison County has been my bad-book gold standard for ages upon ages; I read it at the behest of a relative who was just swoony over it, and actually finished the whole thing because it was so painfully astounding. At the end of every chapter I'd think Well, that's got to be as bad as bad could possibly get, and then the very next chapter would prove me wrong. Around midbook it started getting visibly worse paragraph by paragraph. Then the epilogue broke me, every sentence exponentially worse than the one preceding it.
And now I feel the need to check out DaVinci Code to see how it measures up.
Curse you all.
Jon B. - Apr 21, 2005 5:27:01 am PDT #2075 of 10002
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
I finally saw Napoleon Dynamite last night on DVD and... it was charming. I suspect my opinion of it will grow in my memory as I recall various bits over time.
Has anyone linked to this? - [link]
My favorite:
WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of Their Lives!"
Steph L. - Apr 21, 2005 5:31:12 am PDT #2076 of 10002
I look more rad than Lutheranism
JZ, let me save you some pain. (I found a post I wrote a few months ago about Angels and Demons.)
Four pages in, and he's already using paragraphs to describe Our Hero, rather than letting the reader figure it out by how Our Hero acts.
I've made it to page 6 so far, where I found this sentence, and I quote (Our Fair Hero has received a Fax with Shocking News): "Instantly the breath went out of him. It was like he had been hit by a truck."
I swear to you I'm not making that up.
How does crap writing like that make the bloody best-seller list? HOW?!?
erikaj - Apr 21, 2005 5:37:21 am PDT #2077 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
Photos of the publisher with that goat in Tijuana. JZ is me, in re "Bridges"
Steph L. - Apr 21, 2005 5:40:32 am PDT #2078 of 10002
I look more rad than Lutheranism
I loathe Bridges of Madison County for its content rather than its form, because not only does it glorify and romanticize adultery and lying, it makes it seem like PINING AWAY for 40 YEARS is a good thing, a romantic thing, a desirable state.
Feh. Either leave your husband and go be with the other dude, or Get. Over. It.
erikaj - Apr 21, 2005 5:46:59 am PDT #2079 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
Wrod. Totally. (And he probably wouldn't have looked so great if she wasn't ABSOLUTELY FUCKING MISERABLE in the first place.) Answer to AFM should never be a man, right? Uh, I guess I'm not over it yet...maybe I need the lecture about the pining, huh?