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Thread: What’cha Reading?

  1. #271
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Okay, I laughed at this part. An objectively inebriated Geoffrey Firmin, referred to here as the consul, is walking down Nicaragua Street, contemplating life when:

    But suddenly the Calle Nicaragua rose up to meet him. The Consul lay face downward on the deserted street.
    It reminded me of a T-shirt I saw a guy wearing once:

    I don’t have a drinking problem
    I drink
    Get drunk
    Fall down
    No problem
    Anyway, Geoff just lays there in the street for a while, continuing to think about Yvonne, Hugh, and life in general until a motorist happens by and asks him if he’s OK. A short conversation ensues that culminates with the motorist offering Geoff a drink from a bottle of Irish whiskey:

    “I always keep a bottle of something in the car for an emergency .*.*. No. Not Scotch. Irish. Burke’s Irish. Have a nip? But perhaps you’d—”

    “Ah .*.*.” The Consul was taking a long draught. “Thanks a million.”
    I don’t hold out much hope for Geoffrey ever getting sober.
    Uhhhh...

  2. #272
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Neither do I. But I am astonished how I forgot that whole story .I just very vaguely remember the name Yvonne.
    Just finished an Australian novel, Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. A superb novel about Australian Aboriginal people that live in a sort of shanty town at the edges of a fictional town called Desperance in the (real) gulf of Carpentaria. The people living in the shanty town are in permanent contact with the spirits of the dead and of nature.
    It would therefore fit nicely into our thread of nature writing, except that I don't know, where it is.
    Some quotes:
    Normal Phantom,the protagonist, is in his boat on the sea:
    "The sea now a divine limbo under a membrane of whiteness, undecided how to create a new day"
    In another moment:
    And when the sea was mad, dead man's spirits got caught up in these phantom places


    Will connects the phantoms to a 'dead man's spirit'. As such, there is a clear link between the spirits in the text and the afterlife, and to describe this belief system as magical is subjugating Will and Normal's spirituality

    "And when the sea was mad, dead man's spirits got caught up in these phantom places"
    The next quote sums up part of the story, just part of it because there is also the implacable war of the white Uptown people against the black
    fellas of the Prickl
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  3. #273
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Danik, you’ve got a keen interest indigenous people, eh?

    I don’t know if I’m going to finish the Volcano book. Usually I look forward to the end of day when I can sit and read for a while. Lately I’ve been dreading it.
    Uhhhh...

  4. #274
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Sorry for recommending that book. But I told you that I didn't remember the story. Maybe it's better you turn to something else.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  5. #275
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Awe shucks. No worries Danik. In fact, as they say — nothing ventured, nothing gained. And there’s still time to find something to like in this book. For instance:

    …The Consul, an inconceivable anguish of horripilating hangover thunderclapping about his skull, and accompanied by a protective screen of demons gnattering in his ears…
    There’s a word I don’t think I’ve heard before: horripilate. I had to look it up. It’s when you’re cold or scared and you get chicken skin, or goose pimples. I’m thinking it’s a reaction our bodies get because way back when we were covered with hair. The skin puckers up and all the hairs stand endwise so as to make us look bigger or to give us more insulation. My dog horripilated at the park the other day when she saw another dog, who also had a horripilation event.
    Uhhhh...

  6. #276
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Lol! In Portuguese we have the adjective "horripilante" which possibly exists also in Spanish and the author maybe knew it.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  7. #277
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    That makes sense. It sounds like a latinate word. More than half of modern English words have a Latin root and most of those words came into the language by way of the Norman Conquest in 1066 — so, French, Norseman style.

    So far in the Volcano book (half way through) Yvonne hasn’t played much of role. She’s mostly been a reflection of Geoffrey’s desire to put his life back together. With any luck she’ll be more developed as a character later.
    Uhhhh...

  8. #278
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Woo-hoo. Done with Volcano! By the end I think I was blindly flipping pages while doing a reading-rate to pages-remaining calculation — Jaysus! Hour and a half to go. Please make it stop! Anyway I’m not saying it wasn’t a great book. I’m just saying it wasn’t a great book for me. It was like watching a Fellini film after watching a string of good old Hollywood action/adventure movies.

    Presently reading Devil Makes Three, by Ben Fountain

    It’s historical fiction set just after the (first) ousting of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991.

    I enjoyed Fountain’s first novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, so I’ve got high hopes for this one.
    Uhhhh...

  9. #279
    Registered User bounty's Avatar
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    i just finished a semi-long slog through a ralph Compton western called the bandera trail. a little epic story that would probably make a good tv mini-series.

    I thought the book I started last night was worth mentioning because of its world (or universe as it were) building characteristics.

    in star trek: deep space nine the writers introduced a quasi federation entity called "section 31." its a collection of people who act for the betterment of the federation but who arent formally recognized by them. so as you might imagine, they employ questionable and controversial methods that the federation doesn't condone and which they disavow.

    after the ds9 episode(s) star trek authors created a book series under the section 31 heading. more or less, the next generation and voyager took place contemporaneously with deep space nine but star trek: the original series took place a longish generation prior. the section 31 authors retrofitted section 31 back to the times of the original series.

    the book I started last night is the section 31 entry for the next generation, which is neat enough on its own, but what makes it extra special is that the book picks up the story from the ending of the movie star trek: first contact.

    the trailers not bad, but I don't think it gives a good view of the story:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEz4Guub9_U

    I might have mentioned this elsewhere here, or even posted it, its picard's knowledge of moby dick that proves to be the movies turning point that saves the day:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeGMHbK4NlA

    to make it even more fun, Patrick stewart (picard) had played Ahab in a moby dick production.

    and to make even more fun than that:

    https://gizmodo.com/nycc-2024-star-t...eoh-2000512765
    Last edited by bounty; 10-19-2024 at 05:39 PM.

  10. #280
    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    MOBY! Well, shiver me timbers.

    Ahab cuts a wide swath in this world, and evidently in other worlds too. I could read Moby Dick again and again. I was totally absorbed by it on my last reading. Melville stuck the landing. Lowry by contrast (Under The Volcano) bounced. IMHO.

    I’m not sure I can picture Patrick Stewart as Ahab. He seems a little too refined in his mannerisms. Ahab was a rough-around-edges type.

    I’m thinking I may have to go with a SciFi novel for my next read. I’ve got a copy of Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson around here somewhere.

    Yo-Ho-Ho.
    Uhhhh...

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