And I'm thinking maybe that was the point.
I think you're right there Hil. Sometimes the fantastical is much better than fact.
Wash: Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion. Kaylee: 'Cause I'm pretty? Wash: 'Cause you're pretty.
'Heart Of Gold'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
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."
Megan E. - May 28, 2004 5:00:03 am PDT #2956 of 10002
Fred Pete - May 28, 2004 5:03:28 am PDT #2957 of 10002
Ann, that's a ferret.
Another Dickens fan here. He was brilliant at creating memorable minor characters.
The Veneerings in Our Mutual Friend....
Hayden - May 28, 2004 5:54:10 am PDT #2958 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
You are so insane. Best. Book. Ever.
I wear it with pride, Plei. Bored me to tears. I gave up 100 pages in, making it one of the very few books I hated enough to not finish reading (the only other one, in fact, that I can think of offhand was Where The Heart Is, which my mother-in-law insisted I read -- I'm not sure how far I got into that one before my brain threatened to turn off my pleasure center forever if I didn't just stop).
So, I've almost finished a re-read of Pynchon's Vineland, which, while not his best book, is criminally underrated. Although it's his most linear book (despite the fact that it switches back-and-forth through time and across perspectives with slippery ease), it's a dead-on prescient parody of Ashcroft's concepts of justice and a sharp look at the fascism of desire and the legacy of the 1960s.
Angus G - May 28, 2004 6:06:06 am PDT #2959 of 10002
Roguish Laird
I should re-read Vineland too--the only thing I remember about it is "The Italian Wedding Fake Book by Deleuze and Guattari".
Hayden - May 28, 2004 6:11:24 am PDT #2960 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
That cracked me up. Actually, I'd forgotten how generally funny Vineland is. I've yet to read a long stretch without finding a hilarious little gem.
deborah grabien - May 28, 2004 6:56:27 am PDT #2961 of 10002
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
I love Wharton like a mad thing, but I do think Ethan Frome is more effective than sominex for sleep-making. Dull and dreary.
I'm a Dickens heretic; I have the feeling he was ruined for me forever because I read him while I was reading James Joyce and boy oh boy, give me Joyce any day, with the linguistic stoner freefall and the poetry and the glayvin...
Amy - May 28, 2004 7:00:46 am PDT #2962 of 10002
Because books.
Deb is me -- I love Wharton (The Age of Innocence is one of my favorite books) but Ethan Frome, to be blunt, sucked. On the other hand, I loved Bartleby. Something very endearing about him.
Consuela - May 28, 2004 7:19:26 am PDT #2963 of 10002
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
My sister loves Ethan Frome. Loves loves loves. Of course, she also adores Henry James.
I suspect sometimes that we are not actually related, our identical eyes and voices notwithstanding.
Katerina Bee - May 28, 2004 7:58:17 am PDT #2964 of 10002
Herding cats for fun
Re: Life of Pi, thanks to Hil and Megan for articulating the feeling the book left me with. I preferred one version over the other, and I do think 'twas the point. I really did enjoy the bit about Pi's triple religion. It seemed such a Buffista approach to understanding the spiritual.
Ginger - May 28, 2004 8:13:18 am PDT #2965 of 10002
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I am not certain that someone who loves Ethan Frome and Henry James could be the same species as I am.