Brave New World is far less depressing, for the most part, and is much funnier. Until the last third or so, and the final image is quite the downer.
Oh yeah. Visualizing that last paragraph still gives me the chills.
Wesley: Feng Shui. Gunn: Right. What's that mean again? Wesley: That people will believe anything. Actually, in this place, Feng Shui will probably have enormous significance. I'll align my furniture the wrong way and suddenly catch fire or turn into a pudding.
'Conviction (1)'
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."
Hil R. - Jul 03, 2004 1:48:54 pm PDT #4506 of 10002
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
§ ita § - Jul 03, 2004 2:02:57 pm PDT #4507 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
World building, world painting -- Salman Rushdie does that for me, very well.
Daisy Jane - Jul 03, 2004 2:13:54 pm PDT #4508 of 10002
"This bar smells like kerosene and stripper tears."
I need to read some Rushdie. I have no explanation for why I haven't except that I tend to get lost in bookstores.
Scanner is broken, but I just took a couple of pics. Lemme put them up.
Daisy Jane - Jul 03, 2004 2:39:36 pm PDT #4509 of 10002
"This bar smells like kerosene and stripper tears."
It may be an earlier edition- there's a dedication on the last page - (something Jones) from his S.S. teacher- 1893
The quote on the front says "May blessings be upon the head of Cadmus, the Phoenician, or whoever it was that invented books."- Thos Carlyle
Jessica - Jul 03, 2004 2:46:27 pm PDT #4510 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
The books have some great set-piece scenes, too - Green Mars features the fall of a space elevator cable.
Unless they rebuild it, that's in Red Mars. (I went to the Strand today looking for the other two, which I haven't read yet, but they weren't there. For a store with 8 miles of books, their sci-fi section is kind of sad. Lots of William Shatner books, and at least two copies of the LXG novelization, no Kim Stanley Robinson at all.)
I did find Singularity Sky, which I'd forgotten I was looking for, and Clouds End, which I picked up because people had been talking up Sean Stewart in this thread. Also a reprint of the 1903 Good Housekeeping Everyday Cookbook and a book called Cookoff! about competitive cooking.
Sean K - Jul 03, 2004 2:48:11 pm PDT #4511 of 10002
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Oooh, very pretty book, Heather.
Jen - Jul 03, 2004 2:55:09 pm PDT #4512 of 10002
love's a dream you enter though I shake and shake and shake you
Elizabeth Bishop is the motherfucking man (I'm fairly sure Jen will back me up on this)
Hells yes.
Then again, I'd back you up if you were walking backwards into a fire, because I dig you like that.
But I really do like Elizabeth Bishop quite a lot.
Speaking of poetry, I swear the recommendations list is coming up. Fair warning that it will be strongly skewed towards 20th century Americans and Canadians.
msbelle - Jul 03, 2004 3:20:38 pm PDT #4513 of 10002
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb
Two things:
On AMAZON, you can remove purchased gift books from affecting your recommendations. And I started getting good recommendations after I rated several books I own and marked all recs that I already owned as such.
I made an earlier post that linked to the Great Books Project of the Great Books Foundations and they list several different lists that have been compiled of "canon". I think Alice Walker - The Color Purple is on there, but I am not sure. If you google Great Books Foundation you can find all the info.
And when people say they think something already is canon, are they referring to an actual list like that or somthing more abstract?
Gus - Jul 03, 2004 3:35:04 pm PDT #4514 of 10002
Bag the crypto. Say what is on your mind.
Apropos of stuff that went down a long time ago …
It becomes clear to me why I don't want to analyze literature. It is like knowing details about an actor or actresses' life. It does nothing to improve my appreciation of Buffy To know that Alyson and Alex were hooked up in real life. Digging into the thought processes of an author? Same deal.
What is on the page/screen is the real deal.
Taxonomy of literature? More of the same deal. I suspect that people who actually commit literature are entirely unaware of the distinctions, having more to do in their lives related to defeating that blinking cursor standing between them and what they need to say.
Connie Neil - Jul 03, 2004 3:36:40 pm PDT #4515 of 10002
brillig
Heather, that book is gorgeous. Is that a slipcase it's in? What edition is it? I suspect that may be worth a few kopins.