Latest Gene Wolfe book you read (1-10 scale)

[pooptastik]

that's awesome.

[Necrometer]

Sirens of Titan 8/10 My first Vonnegut. I love his style, didn't completely love this story. In the wake of my protracted Karamazov purgatory, this book felt about as taxing as a post-it.

Next up: that third Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun... I couldn't stay away...

[featherboa]

FWIW Breakfast of Champs is the most Vonneguttian in style
IMHO

[Necrometer]

everyone is so keen to recommend their favorite of his stuff

Sword of the Lictor (Book of the New Sun #3) 6.66/10 I think this one is about even with the second book, for which I can't find my rating and hereby award it a 6.66 - first one was a solid 7, maybe deserves a bit better. For all the imperfections of this stuff as entertainment, I love the prose so it's never a chore. Him bedding every single woman he encounters is getting a bit predictable, though. One tough element: times I can puzzle something out and the times we're faced with impenetrable mystery are indistinguishable at the moment of reading, and sometimes can't even be categorized in retrospect. In this way it feels equivalent to Twin Peaks or a less-tacky LOST - mythological and not giving a fuck about loose ends. I'll definitely finish out the series. Fans re-read these books, so I'll probably do the same in time (at least the first book).

[FVBTVS]

i just unshelved those from my book case for the 20th time in my life. im going on a trip these next few days and i'm going to give the first one another chance..

[Necrometer]

I really don't think I have any pro-tips or anything

maybe it's kinda like Phantasm... you're never completely thrilled while in that world but after it's gone a while you definitely miss it

[altars of radness]

I re-read Breakfast of Champions last week. I didn't enjoy it at all this time. I still love the matter-of-factness of the satire, but I found it boring and almost didn't bother finishing it. Slaughterhouse V and Slapstick have always been my favorites.

[Necrometer]

Regarding Gene Wolfe - I just realizing something sort of cool about that series. It makes me feel like I did when I was a kid and watching a movie series (like Star Wars?) where I can't fully understand everything, and it's not even clear what I can or cannot understand. Like, the boundaries of my comprehension are not clear, even though I'm trying to make sense of everything. I think his stuff works because it generates a similar feeling even in a jaded old dude, and it's really charming in that way. I already compared him to Lynch, who generates a bit of that effect, and I think Matthew Barney can do it too, thought it's more blatantly otherworldly and leaning towards generally overwhelming WTF. Basically getting swallowed up in a foreign world where there's a massive mythos but you lack the tools to grasp even half of it. Feels good.

[Necrometer]

Waiting for Godot 9/10... audiobook'd a performance of this (narrator jumps in to describe some action) and I think it worked pretty well. listened to it twice in a row, with a stop by wikipedia in between to see what people make of this. it's heartwarming to see how many different interpretations there are! on my first time, I got a socioeconomic allegory vibe from Pozzo & Lucky, and a more broad extistentialist/absurdist psyche-examination from Gogo & Didi. I like the high/low-brow fusion a lot.

[Necrometer]

Recall that I don't/can't "read" books and am only starting on literature like 1.5 years ago thanks to going audio...

Or is that the jealousy that is induced by imagining yourself exploring his work for the first time?

[BUNGVOX]

'the I-5 killer' by ann rule

lots of robbin and jizzin 7/10

[Raw Ting]

The Things They Carried- 8/10
Catch 22- 9.7-10 I have never laughed out loud as many times as I did reading this book

[Raw Ting]

'the I-5 killer' by ann rule

lots of robbin and jizzin 7/10

i read that a couple weeks ago. that dude is a sick piece of work. made it to the packers but got cut for exposing himself in green bay?!

[Whee of the Dead]

Freaky Deaky - 6

[BUNGVOX]

'the I-5 killer' by ann rule

lots of robbin and jizzin 7/10

i read that a couple weeks ago. that dude is a sick piece of work. made it to the packers but got cut for exposing himself in green bay?!

if you haven't read her book about jerry brudos that's a doozy too.

[featherboa]

blood meridian
still great
lots of questions still
might look into that book about the book
watching a yale lecture now

gonna try suttree next

[Advances>|<MONKEY]

Invisible Cities 7/10 - this was very pleasant. It is so fucking seventies though. It just fucking bleeds seventies. I feel I missed a bunch too but I think I got the point.

Now I'm half way into The Elementary Particles, I think this Houellebecq is going to end up as my favorite writer, but that's probably just the thrill of 'discovery.'

[Necrometer]

I feel I missed a bunch too but I think I got the point.

I think different cities have different levels of gettability. Like, some are allegorical, some are merely whimsical. I audiobook'd it three times in a short span so I had a pretty good chance to revisit the weirder ones. That said, I would be surprised but not incredulous if someone rolled out a definitive official meaning behind each one. Or were you talking about the frame story?

[Advances>|<MONKEY]

I feel I missed a bunch too but I think I got the point.

I think different cities have different levels of gettability. Like, some are allegorical, some are merely whimsical. I audiobook'd it three times in a short span so I had a pretty good chance to revisit the weirder ones. That said, I would be surprised but not incredulous if someone rolled out a definitive official meaning behind each one. Or were you talking about the frame story?

I can't tell you what I missed, because I missed it! The cities where mostly clear about what they meant but I felt there was some sort of overarching structure to the whole thing I was missing. I fully admit to finding the dialog about the dialog itself far less interesting than the cities, but I got a sense there was something important going on between them that I didn't catch, something more than 'let's collect the nice notions?" My interest was sort of flagging by the end and I fully intend to re-read it 'one day.'

[Necrometer]

OK. The frame story was pretty disposable for me, so as long as you were able to focus for the span of each city, then you probably got most of the good stuff. The meaning of the frame story is:

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

basically something about the difficulty and ambiguity of communication, and I guess it's revealed midway through that the two are exclusively communicating via pantomime (non-verbally). Am I allowed to say that these ideas are postmodern? I dunno. That's the "twist", anyway, and it's not all that compelling IMO. I think it's just there to remind you to consider the cities non-literally, which is valuable.

[Advances>|<MONKEY]

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

I suspected(still do) that there is more too it than that. If anything just that khubali 'owned' these cities, which is to say the memory of a specific interaction or element of a city, in his decaying empire. In retrospect it seems the empire is his own memory, and thus he has to continually refresh it with the stories of the places he has been told by some other element of himself.

[Necrometer]

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

That element is explicitly described in the text, if I remember right, but I don't think the interpretation or enjoyment of the descriptions hinges on that idea.

I can't remember if this is stated in the book or only in external sources, but it's also said that every city being described is literally, actually Venice. Again: do with that what you will.

I shouldn't sell short the frame story so much. It adds a lot, but mostly in indirect ways, I think.

[Advances>|<MONKEY]

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

It is, but I felt that it was Venice in the same way that they where Marco Polo and Khubli Khan. The sense I got was 1. He is talking about any city and 2. if you want to nail it down I bet he is talking about Rome, as seen in the Fellini film Roma, but you shouldn't because he is talking about, specifically, individual walks taken in any city. The frame is really intriguing to me though.

[featherboa]

the blood meridian audiobook is good too, NECROMETER

[Necrometer]

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

It is, but I felt that it was Venice in the same way that they where Marco Polo and Khubli Khan.

Oh, definitely. I realize that the way I wrote it, it seems I was intending the opposite, but you wrote what I intended. I mean, they're also literally, actually MP and KK. But not really.