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

[Mr. Budd]

Ezra Pound - ABC of Reading.

Mandatory reading about reading.

[John Jr.]

hell, the net that he wrote about doesn't seem much like the web to me. more like a bunch of different BBS systems and targets, ala computer fun in the late 80's/early 90's.

He wrote that novel on a manual typewriter with a very basic knowledge of computers. Many of those ideas he had from the late '70s. I'm sure you know this...but that makes his imagination that much more impressive...

One of his early jobs was as a antique finder/junk trawler, he would go out and search through garage sales and things like that for items to sell. That's how he supported himself and his family...way before Ebay. You see that and the entire notion of gomi, what society casts off, throughout his novels.

yeah, and he kept up with the trade publications of the day for inspiration: he's said as much in interviews. his description of the cyberdeck looks in my mind almost exactly like a japanese MSX computer, one of the yamahas or the hitbit.

heres a tidbit:

In the 2003 BBC Radio adaptation of Neuromancer, Molly was played by the English actress Nicola Walker. Sometime adult film actress Sasha Grey took on the role in Case, a six-hour dramatic contemporary adaptation of the novel staged in New York City in November 2009.

[Pop1287]

In the 2003 BBC Radio adaptation of Neuromancer, Molly was played by the English actress Nicola Walker. Sometime adult film actress Sasha Grey took on the role in Case, a six-hour dramatic contemporary adaptation of the novel staged in New York City in November 2009.

And it all just comes back full circle, doesn't it?

[John Jr.]

dammit i wish i could find some video of "Case"

[father of lies]

Dawkins - The Ancestor's Tale - 9

There is .75 deducted, because of a stylistic choice. I hate when writers finish a sentence. But add a sentence fragment, instead of using a fucking comma or semicolon. I'll forgive the constant seeping of political opinions and such since the tone is so conversational.

[Pop1287]

dammit i wish i could find some video of "Case"

Hmmm...if it exists I can find it. Remind in the morning when my hangover energy will prompt efficiency.

[neckbeard]

Old Twentieth - 7

payoff took too long or i was too busy to see it coming before it was spelled out for me

[Lord Bored]

FINALLY got my hands on a copy of Gibson's "Zero History." Review in three days? I'm studying Java, dammit...

Hubertus Bigend! References to American Spirits and Austin, TX! Fuck yes...

man, i cant wait to read it .

The references to Norwegian black metal in the beginning were kind of cute.

Not really related...but in an episode of The West Wing when the Secret Service is tracking white power groups in the US one of the characters mentioned the third Graveland album. I guess Sorkin just googled NSBM or something. Sopranos/Ulver? I have no idea...

[Lord Bored]

Recent Time article on Gibson:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 75,00.html

I'm struggling to remember a magazine article/piece written as badly as this one is. The first paragraph alone must surely put it in the Top 10.

When William Gibson was 7 years old, in 1955, his father, a civilian contractor for the military, choked to death in a restaurant. Gibson's mother immediately moved the family to a small town in the Appalachians, where he grew up bright and nerdy and lonely.

This is the 8th grade reading level/Twitter generation bullshit at work, right?

[Lord Bored]

Zero History, William Gibson - solid 8/10. IMO this was the best book of the "Bigend trilogy", and totally blows away Gibson's last two novels. Again, it's not the plot or some crisis of theme/action that's moving (just like the last two books), it's Gibson's entire worldview, his take on technology, cultural theory, etc. and that "ten minutes into the future" technique of his where he looks at our present with the eyes of a science fiction writer. LOTS of great observations here, the usual Gibson alienation/separation from others that I find very relaxing and soothing, the increasingly focused take on multiculturalism (not political, just in terms of culture "technology") and globalism, etc. Great book...although I don't really see how people who aren't completely wired into internet culture/technology are going to "get" half of this thing, but it's not like Gibson writes for people in nursing homes...although if he did it would make it that much more exotic. The density of cultural observations here is rich, exacting...but it's that function of close reading of objects that's really beginning to distinguish his style. I loved this novel...still one of my favorite writers.

The title of this book is also totally badass...when you learn (early on) what it really means, how that theme plays out throughout the novel and what it WILL mean for people in the future.

[father of lies]

Asimov - Foundation - 7.5

Interesting and all, but I'm not going to rush to read the other ones.

[Mr. Budd]

On about 1400 now of the Search. A bit of a slog at times but he's aging as he writes and his prose is really starting to take flight. His frequent asides are the enemy of progress but I'm learning fast that reading this for "progress" is a vain activity. I could probably live with a few volumes of Jarry, Rabelais, Pound, Turgenev and Proust for the rest of my life - rereading with pleasure and continued discovery.

It's like a few years ago when I had a case of Liefman's Gluhkriek. I wanted to drink it all in one massive gulp because cutting off small portions at a time was aesthetic LengTche. The Search doesn't help my need to mature by letting go - not yet at least. If anything it's made me cling to preferred experience with greater quixotic abandon.

[Mr. Budd]

I'm starting to notice the strong influence of Nerval over Proust. This second volume reads much like Aurelia.

[Bored777]

Nerval was one of Proust's favorite writers. Not the poetry, though.

Edit: here's another fun fact...if you contact Richard Sieburth, the English translator of Nerval, he'll talk your ear off. He's lonely.

[Mr. Budd]

Proust's prose is definately a combination of Baudelaire and Nerval. Imagine if Proust read Schulz and Walser.

You're an extremely well-read man U, but I will mock you incessantly if you don't read Schulz asap.

[Bored777]

Okay...but uh, which books am I supposed to be reading, again?

[Mr. Budd]

There's only two - both are short - Street of Crocodiles first - then Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.

[Mr. Budd]

his drawing are worth your attention as well

[Bored777]

Okay, I'm on it...

[Scumfucker]

You Bright and Risen Angels - William T Vollmann. 10/10 This is his first book. A sort of sci-fi/ allegory about nature(bugs) v technology(electricity) as warring factions. Beautifully written. One of the most unique books I've ever read. Inspired by the time Vollmann spent living with the mujahedeen.

[ibn Horowitz]

Stardust - Neil Gaiman - 4/10
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway - 9/10

[takeasneededforpain]

Right now working on Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. So far, about 6.5/10...

[SAUSAGES!!!!!!!!!!]

http://ia341227.us.archive.org/3/items/ ... /mohb.html

[danox3]

The Family - Ed Sanders While not the best written book, tons of great information, by a member of the Fuggs. Polar opposite of Helter Skelter.

Just started The New Dead, first story "Lazarus" is amazing.

[Bored777]

First As Tragedy, Then As Farce - Zizek - 8.1/10. He pretty much says what he needs to and although it's yet another call-to-arms one can tell he knows he's writing for a different audience these days...he's also just improving as a writer. You can sense his frustration in this book but he maintains his usual good cheer...I don't know how...probably because he's nuts.

http://www.amazon.com/First-As-Tragedy- ... 390&sr=1-1



Plenty of the usual nice Zizek passages in this one. Like from the beginning:

In the good old days of Really Existing Socialism, a joke popular among dissidents was used to illustrate the futility of their protests. In the fifteenth century, when Russia was occupied by Mongols, a peasant and his wife were walking along a dusty country road; a Mongol warrior on a horse stopped at their side and told the peasant he would now proceed to rape his wife; he then added: "But since there is a lot of dust on the ground, you must hold my testicles while I rape your wife, so that they will not get dirty!" Once the Mongol had done the deed and ridden away, the peasant started laughing and jumping with joy. His surprised wife asked: "How can you be jumping with joy when I was just brutally raped in your presence?" The farmer answered: "But I got him! His balls are covered with dust!" This sad joke reveals the predicament of the dissidents: they thought they were dealing serious blows to the party nomenklatura, but all they were doing was slightly soiling the nomenklatura's testicles, while the ruling elite carried on raping the people...

Is today's critical Left not in a similar position? (Among the contemporary names for ever-so-slightly smearing those in power, we could list "deconstruction;' or the "protection of individual freedoms:') In a famous confrontation at the university of Salamanca in 1936, Miguel de Unamuno quipped at the Francoists: "Vencereis, pero no convencereis" ("You will win, but you will not convince")-is this all that today's Left can say to triumphant global capitalism? Is the Left predestined to continue to play the role of those who, on the contrary, convince but nevertheless still lose (and are especially convincing in retroactively explaining the reasons for their own failure)? Our task is to discover how to go a step further. Our Thesis 11 should be: in our societies, critical Leftists have hitherto only succeeded in soiling those in power, whereas the real point is to castrate them .. .

Etc.