Most writers have similar veins they(we?) mine a lot but that doesn't mean they write the same book all the time. Except maybe Tom Robbins, but I love him, anyway, damn it. He just loves life and women's bodies so much...what? I have layers. One can't live on David Simon all the time. Austen: Phase started when I was about sixteen, am still a fan, but maybe not as passionately. Should read her now, see what's different. Hardy Bummed me out. Melville: Haven't really attempted him in long form, despite being one of DS' big faves and inspirations. I admit it, I think of that huge book full of whaling stuff and punk out.
Willow: You know what they say. The bigger they are... Anya: The faster they stomp you into nothin'.
'The Killer In 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."
erikaj - Apr 24, 2009 12:36:11 pm PDT #8979 of 28413
Always Anti-fascist!
Polter-Cow - Apr 24, 2009 12:45:46 pm PDT #8980 of 28413
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
erika, the whaling stuff was my favorite part of the book, to my surprise.
erikaj - Apr 24, 2009 12:53:20 pm PDT #8981 of 28413
Always Anti-fascist!
Huh. Well, maybe someday.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Apr 24, 2009 12:58:48 pm PDT #8982 of 28413
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
OK, I was being a bit flippant with 'all the same'. Also, also, I was about 19 when I last read Austen. Should maybe try again, it being over ten years later.
I think that to appreciate Hardy, it helps to know the area he's writing about. It's all about Dorset and Hampshire (bleak, depressing places, but with a certain charm that grows on you. Like mould). Well, that, and about society and the Industrial Revolution. But mostly the heaths and the locals.
very different similarities between the older, more emotionally painful ones she wrote much closer to her death (Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion)
In fairness, it's the stylistic similarities in Austen that grated. But I'll try her again. Recommend me one?
Polter-Cow - Apr 24, 2009 1:02:17 pm PDT #8983 of 28413
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Well, if you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you get pride, prejudice, and zombies, all for the price of one. Normally they sell pride and prejudice as a package deal, but in a special recession deal, they're throwing in zombies for free.
Sheryl - Apr 24, 2009 1:12:46 pm PDT #8984 of 28413
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"
Thomas Hardy? :shudders:
(Sorry, I still remember having to dissect Return of the Native in high school. Not pleasant)
JZ - Apr 24, 2009 1:17:41 pm PDT #8985 of 28413
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
Just one? Persuasion. Old, sad, wise, meditative and thoughtful, with secret letters and dark pasts and regrets and quiet kindnesses and sidelong glances and selfish assholes who don't get nearly enough comeuppance and a great older couple and Jane Austen hating on Bath.
YMMV, but I'd avoid the illustrated version with drawings by Hugh Thomson -- he somehow makes Captain Wentworth, who ought to be handsome in a nice scruffy Wesley-without-the-giant-scary-insanity-issues way, look kind of domesticated and cute. Bleh.
eta: Okay, to be fair, I went and Googled it up, and the last picture of Wentworth looks all right. Still not my favorite set of Austen illustrations.
Laga - Apr 24, 2009 1:40:31 pm PDT #8986 of 28413
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
So am I hearing correctly that if one has never read Austen one might start with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and get a proper feel for the original material but with bonus zombies? I was under the impression that it was for folks who had already read the original.
Polter-Cow - Apr 24, 2009 1:43:20 pm PDT #8987 of 28413
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Laga, I think 80% of it is the original text, so it will definitely give you a feel for the original.
Amy - Apr 24, 2009 2:09:10 pm PDT #8988 of 28413
Because books.
Part of me thinks I loved Emma as much as I did *because* I read it in a class with a fabulous teacher, and the discussion was great.
Same with Tess -- I did a paper on it junior year of high school, and then made my teacher cry in class because she was losing an argument with me about it. (I wasn't trying to make her cry, though. That was actually a little unsettling, much as I disliked her.)