Lorne: Take care of yourself and ah, make sure fluffy is getting enough love. Gunn: Did he have anything? Fred: No. And who's fluffy? Are you fluffy? Gunn: He called me fluffy? Fred: He said make sure…wait. You don't think he was referring to anything of mine that's fluffy, do you? Because that would just be inappropriate.

'Conviction (1)'


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."


JZ - Jul 10, 2012 1:16:15 pm PDT #19287 of 28348
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

I don't think there's much of either in Thursday (and I'm pretty sure that if he saw how his working class hero stuff was being used by the current far right, he'd first throw up and then start punching heads).

My whole life, I only ever got one person to read it: a Jewish SF geek who called me the next morning to say, "God damn it, I stayed up all night reading it, and this is the novel I've been wanting to write my entire life." He tried to get his probably-identical twin brother to read it, and the brother got three pages in and shoved it back with a scornful remark about how it redefined twee.


Anne W. - Jul 10, 2012 2:13:22 pm PDT #19288 of 28348
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.

JZ, it's one of my very favorite novels as well.


Dana - Jul 10, 2012 2:24:23 pm PDT #19289 of 28348
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

I read it, and it completely went over my head.


Polter-Cow - Jul 10, 2012 2:33:08 pm PDT #19290 of 28348
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Did you read it on a Wednesday? It's a common mistake.


JZ - Jul 10, 2012 2:34:44 pm PDT #19291 of 28348
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

I think it's one of the all-time classic examples of "If you like this kind of thing, this is just the kind of thing you'll like."


Dana - Jul 10, 2012 2:38:07 pm PDT #19292 of 28348
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

But I tried! I remembered how much you loved it.


erikaj - Jul 10, 2012 2:42:32 pm PDT #19293 of 28348
Always Anti-fascist!

Raymond Chandler can be just as sexist as Hemingway...I'm not sure why I like him better...Maybe because Philip Marlowe doesn't take himself very seriously. Also, I never had to take a test on "The Long Goodbye" or "The Lady in The Lake"(Which is just as well...I read someplace that, Chandler, in alcohol's grip pretty much full-time by then, forgot to reveal who killed the Lady in the first place.)


JZ - Jul 10, 2012 2:43:28 pm PDT #19294 of 28348
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

I totally don't fault anyone for trying and not liking it. It's literary cilantro -- either you utterly groove on it, or it's soap, and there's not much in between.

And now I'm wondering what else is literary cilantro. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, probably. Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, possibly. Some Virginia Woolf. All the stuff with an incredibly distinct flavor to it, that's going to be right from the first paragraph either entrancing or gag-worthy, and once that first reaction hits there isn't much that's going to make the reader change hir mind.


Typo Boy - Jul 10, 2012 2:55:42 pm PDT #19295 of 28348
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Erika, I think the not taking it too seriously is a big part. And another things is that it is one thing to have the prejudices of your day. Another for them to be fundamental to your world view. If Chandler had learned not be a sexist he could have written essentially the same books - with significant tweaks, but completely recognizable. If Hemingway had stopped being a sexist, he would have had to change his books fundamentally. His view of what a woman was and what a man was were fundamental to his writing and world view. My 2 cents.


EpicTangent - Jul 10, 2012 3:04:17 pm PDT #19296 of 28348
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty

And now I'm wondering what else is literary cilantro.

Unless it's just me - Thomas Pyncheon. I read The Crying of Lot 49 after we name-checked it here. I read the whole thing, but it was mostly Not Enough Huh? In the World for me.