ah but that's the fun part of being lit discussion online... you can seinfield as much as you want.
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ah but that's the fun part of being lit discussion online... you can seinfield as much as you want.
You're right. You know, dictionaries can really restrict a discussion.Quote:
Originally Posted by emily655321
That's funny. I can picture him doing that. I wouldn't mind listening, but only if he does the good old helmet's voice.Quote:
Originally Posted by JediFonger
It's not meant to be read as one story. If you read the Silmarillion before, like I did, you would learn several things that spoil the main story later on. The literary style, the character depiction and treatment, the themes, they're all an improvement with regard to the other books, so that's why I think it's better. Besides, your comparison seems out of place to me. And who cares about the Mona Lisa anyways? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by JediFonger
What isn't meant to be read as one story? The Lord of the Rings is, because it is one story. I don't think you'll find many people to debate that. Did you mean Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion aren't one story? Because you're right, they aren't, but that's not what JF was referring to.
Emily, I was referring to the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and LotR.
crisaor, as levar burton says in reading rainbow, "don't take my word for it"
here is JRR Tolkien himself in letter#124:
[regarding LOTR-JediFonger] And now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion.
...
Worse still: I feel that it is tied to the Silmarillion.
...
Ridiculous and tiresome as you may think me, I want to publish them both- The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings-in conjunction or in connexion. 'I want to'-it would be wise to, say, a millions words, of matter set out in extenso that Anglo-Saxons (or the English-speaking public) can only endure in moderation, is not very likely to see the light, even if paper were available at will.
[end exerpt-JediFonger]
it is only too sad that he did not live to see Silmarillion published.
ah, but perhaps he read it later.
amuse, who read it later? about what?
i just believe in many bodies for our one life (i.e. reincarnation). that's all.
Man, I wish I could do that kind of "disaster".
The famous "Earthsea" four-books trilogy. Or does it now have six parts? I am not very sure....
Earthsea now has Five parts with The Other Wind being published compartively recently.
Paul Scott's Raj Quartet begins with "The Jewel of the Crown". He describes the conflicts in India during their struggle for independence, from the point of view of characters who differ in age, gender, ethnic background, and social class. I found it somewhat slow going in places; but his ability to capture different perspectives was remarkable, and a reminder that the same events can be experienced and understood quite differently.
I'm a fan of Diana Gabaldon;s Outlander series (mentioned earlier) as well; I loved her feisty heroine (but her occasional descriptions of torture were too graphic for my taste).
In high school, I read and loved Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandrian Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea" That was 40 years ago. In the mid 1990s I found a copy of Balthazar and re-read it. The setting of the novels is Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1920's I believe. There is a lot of steamy sex throughout the books, which I enjoyed as a teenaged boy. The novels describe life in a Muslim country. This was my first exposure of any sort to Islam. In one scene, some Egyptian businessmen hire a blind Muzzine to recite portions of the Qu'ran. It said the men wept from the beauty. I ran out and bought a copy of "The Meaning of the Glorious Koran" translated by Muhammed Marmaduke Pickthall. I spent my summer before leave for freshman year in college, reading that translation of the Koran cover to cover. I forced myself to do it, as an exercise. I found it rather repetitive and boring.
Oh, the other thing I got out of reading Durrell was that he often mentioned the poetry of Constantine Kavafy, and called him "the old poet of the city." I bought a paperback selection of the poems of Kavafy, translated from Greek.
I want to share with you my favorite poem of Cavafy:
http://www.geocities.com/billiedee2000/anth-cavafy.html
The City
You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.
Another city will be found, a better one than this.
Every effort of mine is a condemnation of fate;
and my heart is -- like a corpse -- buried.
How long will my mind remain in this wasteland.
Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever I may look
I see black ruins of my life here,
where I spent so many years destroying and wasting."
You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas.
The city will follow you. You will roam the same
streets. And you will age in the same neighborhoods;
and you will grow gray in these same houses.
Always you will arrive in this city. Do not hope for any other --
There is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you have destroyed your life here
in this little corner, you have ruinded it in the entire world.
-- before 1911, transl. Rae Dalven
We also remember Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" quartet. Excellent work by our humble opinion. has anyone else read it?
Reading "Hyperion" at the moment, more precisely "The water of Lethe is bitter" (was it named so?)
It's just so damn sad. :(
Sleepwalkers Trilogy by Hermann Broch.
Personally, I feel The Anarchist is the best of the three, but not by much.
The best quartet is Shostakovich's 15th.