Don't I get a cookie?

Spike ,'Never Leave Me'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Volans - Feb 25, 2006 1:17:44 am PST #16 of 28089
move out and draw fire

When I first finished I House of Leaves I didn't know if I'd liked it or not. But it's really stuck with me and has moved into my favorites list, and is a book I don't hesitate to recommend.

My copy walked off with a friend years ago, so I haven't had a chance to re-read.

I also really like the companion CD by Poe (the author's sister). And I like the CD and the book together.


joe boucher - Feb 25, 2006 12:50:27 pm PST #17 of 28089
I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve. - John Prine

I'm reading a book called "Misquoting Jesus" (too lazy to look up author)

Bart Ehrman. He was interviewed by Leonard Lopate last month (streaming audio or downloadable file) and by Terry Gross in December. I don't remember much about either interview except that in both of them he talked about the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story. It's controversial for some reason, but a quick search didn't say why & I haven't had time to relisten.


Jon B. - Feb 25, 2006 1:04:15 pm PST #18 of 28089
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

Let me take a wild guess and say it has something to do with how the Religious Right has a habit of judging and seeking to punish those who they believe to be sinners.


Connie Neil - Feb 25, 2006 5:34:25 pm PST #19 of 28089
brillig

I don't remember much about either interview except that in both of them he talked about the "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story

Because it's not in the oldest manuscript copies of the Gospel, it was apparently a bit of fic that got popular and some scribe thought it should be/was canon and made sure it got copied in.


Kathy A - Feb 26, 2006 8:59:55 am PST #20 of 28089
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil

So, just like the end of Mark, right? I found it interesting that, in the original, Mark ended with the discovery of the empty tomb, and the words "and they were terrified." Talk about your WTF endings!


§ ita § - Feb 26, 2006 3:03:54 pm PST #21 of 28089
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Octavia Butler has died.


sumi - Feb 26, 2006 3:26:55 pm PST #22 of 28089
Art Crawl!!!

Frederick Busch has also died this weekend.


Kate P. - Feb 26, 2006 5:25:32 pm PST #23 of 28089
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Octavia Butler has died.

Whoa. She was only 58! And... I mean, she just published a new book. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right for her to die. That's so sad.


Connie Neil - Feb 26, 2006 5:54:09 pm PST #24 of 28089
brillig

So, just like the end of Mark, right?

The end of Mark, chunks of Revelation, the differences between the Gospels, why do some old manuscripts show Jesus as being angry at some points when other manuscripts show Jesus as being compassionate at the same moment. There are a lot of variants.


Steph L. - Feb 27, 2006 6:24:15 am PST #25 of 28089
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

I'm having a hard time getting through Melusine. I *want* to like it, and the basic premise is enough to make me want to know what happens to the characters, but....150 pages in, and NOTHING KEEPS HAPPENING. It's all

Mildmay: t gritty life of a thief....

Felix: t I am FUCKING NUTS.

Mildmay: t No, REALLY -- gritty life of a thief....

Felix: t Everyone looks like an animal to me. And I see dead people. Did I mention I'm FUCKING NUTS?!?

Plus, the whole system of marking time is so confusing to me that it pulls me right out of the story. I spend about 5 minutes trying to puzzle out what a Great Septad is (I still don't know, though from context I'm assuming it's somewhere between 25 and 50 years), and then I realize I forgot what I just read, and have to go back and re-read it.

I'm serious about wanting to like it -- I really, really do. I want to see what happens, but I'm beginning to suspect that nothing ever will, except the gritty life of a thief and a crazy-ass dude.