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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 207 responses total. |
jazz
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response 83 of 207:
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Nov 2 15:36 UTC 1998 |
Kurt Vonnegut's _Cat's Cradle_. Mostly so I could understand the
phrases a friend uses, which seem to come primarily from Vonnegut. Blasted
English graduates. :)
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mcnally
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response 84 of 207:
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Nov 2 21:07 UTC 1998 |
My big problem with Vonnegut is keeping all of his books straight --
I get the titles mixed up because they don't associate closely with
the books in my mind..
Is Cat's Cradle the one with Ice 9?
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orinoco
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response 85 of 207:
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Nov 2 22:46 UTC 1998 |
I actually read "Illusions" recently, and didn't like it that much. Too
cutesy-philosophical for my taste, I guess. I never read Jonathan Livingston
Seagull. I guess I lead a deprived childhood.
Cat's Cradle is indeed the one with Ice-9.
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mcnally
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response 86 of 207:
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Nov 5 08:08 UTC 1998 |
I really ought to go through and read the rest of the Vonnegut stuff
that I haven't already read (which includes a large percentage of his
"recent" stuff [past 10 or so years]) Damn, you got me thinking about
Vonnegut and now I've got the image of Diana Moon Glampers stuck in my
head.. I love that story..
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orinoco
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response 87 of 207:
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Nov 6 17:18 UTC 1998 |
Most of his recent stuff I've read pales by comparison to Cat's Cradle,
Slaughterhouse Five, and Mother Night. After those three he seems to have gone
downhill.
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sjones
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response 88 of 207:
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Nov 6 21:31 UTC 1998 |
well, i know it's not very recent, but i do love 'player piano'...
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mcnally
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response 89 of 207:
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Nov 7 12:51 UTC 1998 |
Again, I can't remember which one "Player Piano" was..
I think the last one I read was the one where the main character was
an (ex?)professor at some small college in upstate New York that was
taken over by escaped convicts. It was OK..
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jazz
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response 90 of 207:
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Nov 7 13:20 UTC 1998 |
Re #84: Yep, that's the one.
Vonnegut's a good author, there's little doubt of that, but I find
it hard to accept the way that many want to place him head-and-shoulders
above other modern satirists like Stephenson in _Snow Crash_ and Pynchon
in just about anything.
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sjones
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response 91 of 207:
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Nov 7 19:59 UTC 1998 |
hmm... pynchon. i couldn't get *anywhere* with gravity's rainbow... a
lot of it seemed pretty gratuitous to me...)
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mcnally
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response 92 of 207:
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Nov 7 20:16 UTC 1998 |
I never made much headway in "Gravity's Rainbow" either, though there
are some hilarious bits in it. (My favorite from among the ones I made
it to is the English candy scene where Slothrop's girlfriend's mother
hospitably subjects him to a sequence of increasingly horrific English
confections.)
Rather than try to stumble through "Gravity's Rainbow", though, why not
try starting with one of his more accessible works? "The Crying of Lot 49"
is short, funny, and bizarre. I highly recommend it. "Vineland" is also
quite readable, and unfairly denigrated in my opinion. Having re-read it
a couple of times I still find humor that I missed in the first reading..
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sjones
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response 93 of 207:
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Nov 8 17:55 UTC 1998 |
oh, thankyou <and happy birthday!> - you're right that i hadn't tried
any others after being put off by GR; and i'm fairly sure i've seen lot
49 in the library, so i'll give it a go... fingers crossed...) hmmm...
what can i offer by way of a swap? i know - have you read any james lee
burke?
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mcnally
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response 94 of 207:
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Nov 9 02:24 UTC 1998 |
Don't think so.. Don't stress yourself thinking of things for me to
read, though, my "to be read" pile is already about 5 feet high.. ;-)
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sjones
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response 95 of 207:
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Nov 9 14:29 UTC 1998 |
ah, know *that* feeling! i'll leave it at j.l.b, then, who i reckon is
about the best 'crime' writer going - the man's clearly a poet at
heart...
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orinoco
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response 96 of 207:
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Nov 10 00:43 UTC 1998 |
Hmmm...Pynchon....I read V over the summer, and I enjoyed it, but I don't
think I _understood_ any of it.
Ah well...
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mcnally
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response 97 of 207:
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Nov 10 06:43 UTC 1998 |
But at least now you know who "V" is, right... ;-)
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orinoco
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response 98 of 207:
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Nov 10 23:12 UTC 1998 |
:P
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mcnally
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response 99 of 207:
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Nov 10 23:21 UTC 1998 |
Were you surprised when the "visitors" turned out to be snake-like aliens?
(I'm joking.. back when I first was reading "V" the ratio of people who
remembered the bad science-fiction mini-series to people who were familiar
with Pynchon's writing was running about 100:1. I got very sick of people
in the former category asking me about the book I was carrying around..)
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remmers
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response 100 of 207:
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Nov 11 12:22 UTC 1998 |
So that's not who the visitors were? (I've not read "V" and for a moment
thought you'd given away a major plot point.) And the mini-series did or
did not have anything to do with Pyncheon's book? (I'm confused.)
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jazz
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response 101 of 207:
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Nov 11 16:48 UTC 1998 |
Pynchon, so to speak, drained the lizards.
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mcnally
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response 102 of 207:
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Nov 11 20:25 UTC 1998 |
The snake-like aliens were a plot element of "V" the mini-series
(or so I gather..)
Pynchon's "V." has nothing to do with the miniseries, however at
the time I was reading it far more people had heard of the miniseries
than Pynchon's book and many assumed they were the same thing. I have
no idea how they managed that leap since, if they saw the paperback
copy I was carrying around they presumably also saw the cover (which
was not science-fictiony in any way.)
Pynchon's "V." is a strangely-told story, or perhaps several stories
which all involve some person (or rat) with the initial "V.", though
it's unclear who the "V." of the title is (if anyone..)
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md
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response 103 of 207:
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Nov 12 11:37 UTC 1998 |
Pynchon was a student of Nabokov's at Cornell. Nabokov said all
he remembered about him was that he had the worst handwriting
he'd ever seen.
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sjones
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response 104 of 207:
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Nov 12 14:01 UTC 1998 |
now *that's* a fascinating piece of information - nabokov. wow. what a
strange connection. doesn't sound as though nabokov thought much of
him, eh?!
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md
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response 105 of 207:
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Nov 12 15:07 UTC 1998 |
Probably not. Nabokov was very generous with praise for writers
he loved (Updike, Borges, Robbe-Grillet, etc.), but with a few
celebrated exceptions (J. P. Sartre, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound) he
avoided discussing any living writers he hated. If he had found
anything he thought was valuable in Pynchon's books, I'm sure he
would've said so. I'll have to look for Pynchon in the index to Boyd's
biography of Nabokov.
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sjones
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response 106 of 207:
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Nov 13 09:20 UTC 1998 |
ah - well, if he didn't like sartre, which i didn't know, that would put
a stop to me feeling i could just get away with accepting nabokov's
views... so i *will* have to read Lot 49 after all!
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mcnally
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response 107 of 207:
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Nov 14 08:36 UTC 1998 |
He whom we last as Thurn und Taxis knew,
Now recks no lord but the stilletto's thorn
And tacit lies the gold, once-knotted horn.
gotta love "The Courier's Tragedy".. (it's a story within the story
of "..Lot 49") and a pretty funny one at that..
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