Candide fits into a couple of those categories. Satire/political commentary/romance(ish).
I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So where does that put you?
Book ,'Objects In Space'
Natter 58: Let's call Venezuela!
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Pix - Apr 24, 2008 5:21:51 pm PDT #3434 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
Kat - Apr 24, 2008 5:23:06 pm PDT #3435 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Dunno. P&P might be a perfect choice to lend itself to the conversation. I mean, if the big question of each unit is "What is a _______? What are the characteristics and how does this book shape our understanding of the genre" then it works.
juliana - Apr 24, 2008 5:23:49 pm PDT #3436 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
I might need another play that is not Shakespeare.
If you need help with that, Kat, let me know.
Kat - Apr 24, 2008 5:24:44 pm PDT #3437 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Someone argued that Siddharta was a romance in that medieval sense because it's got journey, hope, heroism. I was like, "Dude left his wife and kid alone for YEARS. Are you shitting me!?" That's like saying the BIBLE is a romance!
Hil R. - Apr 24, 2008 5:25:01 pm PDT #3438 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
I couldn't get through The Two Towers, either. But I loved the language in King Arthur. At least, in the version I had.
Burrell - Apr 24, 2008 5:25:10 pm PDT #3439 of 10001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!
I guess I think of romance as knights and dragons and long, episodic narratives, not Austen. I may be using a different definition of romance.
Typo Boy - Apr 24, 2008 5:27:08 pm PDT #3440 of 10001
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.
Jorge Amado, though he was lighter on the fantasy and heavier on the sex and romance than most magical realism.
Also very macho writer - very male chauvinist by todays standards, though considered somewhat feminist in his cultural context. Wonderful regional writer - marvelous picture of the society, great warmth, great humanity marvelous characters, marvelous poetic language.
I would compare him on women's issues to Mark Twain on racial prejudice. Genuinely horrified by the injustice of men's treatment of women, genuinely unable to see women as equals.
Like Mark Twain you have to decide if the virtues compensate for the vices - though poetic in a way Twain never was.
Very political. Anti-war, anti-censorship, anti-racism, pro-working class. A romantic in both the best and worst senses of the word.
Susan W. - Apr 24, 2008 5:27:54 pm PDT #3441 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
To me, Austen is the most typically romance of what's been discussed--at least for the modern genre definition as opposed to the medieval sense.
Kat - Apr 24, 2008 5:28:23 pm PDT #3442 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
I'd like a contemporary US playwright who wrote a comedy, juliana. And one that is thought of as semi-canonical. I mean, Sam Shepard is the right demographic but the wrong genre.
Pix - Apr 24, 2008 5:28:45 pm PDT #3443 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.
There's an interesting article about the evolution of "romance" as a genre here: [link]