Das Book: the very new reading thread

[Greg Nog]

The only inhabitant of the city the pilot has had any personal contact with was a girl he raped.

But don't worry, she was pretty cool with it in retrospect.

Come on people, we've almost got every Randian plot-point.  Let's keep going, we can do this, folks.

[morgan]

Make sure the pilot and girl are both very tall and thin with blonde hair, by the way.  Lean muscles.  Men of ACTION.  Because any women worth living are really men, anyway.

Also, she was not only cool with the rape in retrospect, she actually thought it was really hot after the first minute or two.

Oh, I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged, by the way.

Edit to say that this --

the whole book is a speech the pilot is broadcasting to the city

-- actually made me laugh out loud.  Applause, indeed!  The entirety of John Galt's 55+ page monologue at the end of Atlas Shrugged was like fingernails on a chalkboard.

[Greg Nog]

Make sure the pilot and girl are both very tall and thin with blonde hair, by the way.  Lean muscles.  Men of ACTION.  Because any women worth living are really men, anyway.

I just tried to find the quote from The Fountainhead where a secondary character describes Roark as masculine rather than attractive, but then I had to start sifting through a bunch of Ayn Rand websites, and I gave up.

Hey, so I was in the bookstore yesterday, trying to decide what to read next.  I thought about All The Pretty Horses, but wanted something less quiet than McCarthy tends to be.  I thought about that Great Chinatown Death Cloud Race 2000 book, but I've been reading a lot of pulpier stuff lately.  I did buy Jesus' Son, but wasn't in the mood for anything skating near modern realism territory.  I decided that what I wanted something huge and violent and ancient.

Then I remembered that I still haven't read The Iliad, so hey!  Score!  I picked up the Fagles translation, and started it last night.

Along the same lines, I also got the Heaney translation of Beowulf, which I've read before, but didn't own.  And now I do.  Sweet.

[milesofsparks]

Then I remembered that I still haven't read The Iliad, so hey!  Score!  I picked up the Fagles translation, and started it last night.

I read that for the first time not too long ago.  I was thinking of moving on to the Odyssey next, but I'm not sure if I want to read it or listen to it. 

EDIT:  yes, yes, we had to read it in school, but only excerpts, not the whole thing.

[slow west vultures]

ah, you guys suck.  the cover's awesome.  in my mind i sort of read the subtext as 'i'm on a crash course with modernity, and i might as well make it at my own speed.'  its a pretty cool visual and metaphor given the book so far. 

[milesofsparks]

it's a futurist artist, right swv?

[martin_van_buren]

It is, says the guy who had that thought earlier and looked it up and indeed it was, though he didn't think to look to see which one of those crazy bastards it was who did it.

[WhereTheSlimeLive]

i finished After Dark...I was confused when I started.  The front said it was a novel, but the back said it was a collection of stories.  Upon further investigation, i see that the back was talking about a different book.  Why they do that...I don't know.  The book was very pretty.  I kept visualizing ridiculous hollywood style plot twists to happen...I'm glad that didn't happen. 

[skittixch]

I'm the last person on the face of the earth to read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence"  I'm halfway through it reading about a chapter a night before bed.

I've also been nibbling on the new Selected works anthology of Mark Strand...and it's fan-freaking-tastic...those of you partial to poetry should absolutely check him out.

[Good Intentions]

I'm the last person on the face of the earth to read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence"  I'm halfway through it reading about a chapter a night before bed.

Every page you read makes you less fortunate. What the fuck makes Pirsig so special that we're supposed to read 200 odd pages of his troubles, anyway?

[Doctor Bob]

It is, says the guy who had that thought earlier and looked it up and indeed it was, though he didn't think to look to see which one of those crazy bastards it was who did it.

Tullio Crali, Nose Dive on the City, 1939.

Apparently he also has Nose Dive on the Airport but I've never seen it.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I'm the last person on the face of the earth to read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence"  I'm halfway through it reading about a chapter a night before bed.

Every page you read makes you less fortunate. What the fuck makes Pirsig so special that we're supposed to read 200 odd pages of his troubles, anyway?

lotta perfectly entertaining books one could say that about, dawg. i just wouldn't advise anyone to read it as if it's a serious text on either philosophy or depression/psychiatric illness.

[slow west vultures]

It is, says the guy who had that thought earlier and looked it up and indeed it was, though he didn't think to look to see which one of those crazy bastards it was who did it.

Tullio Crali, Nose Dive on the City, 1939.

Apparently he also has Nose Dive on the Airport but I've never seen it.

yeah.  apparently he and a couple of other italian artists post WWI were really inspired by airplanes and flight.  i saw a few other pictures of his on the internet, but none were as cool as that nose dive one.  i really need to find more futurist artists because i really like the aesthetic, if not the philosophy. 

[milesofsparks]

they also liked fast cars.  many of them died young.

[martin_van_buren]

They also liked fascism, but that didn't end up really helping them any.

[RavingLunatic]

I've just started reading a collection of Schopenhaure essays on GI's recommendation. I'm only on my second page of Schopenhauer's writing, but the 25+ page introduction was really cool. I think I'll like this.

[das kranke Tier]

I  Schopenhauer

[alistarr*]

well, hello again reading thread.

i can't find the post in which i said i'd started reading infinite jest which shows how long ago it was, but i finished over the holiday and i feel very sad about that. i think i was reading it for approximately 1 year, so it feels very strange to have it not by my bed. it was good.

i also finished Shalimar the Clown[i/], by one salman rushdie, which after an uncertain start (wasn't sure where it was going) turned out pretty much exactly what i'd expected and hoped for - which is to say it didn't go how i thought it would and i was unexpectedly delighted.

[jebreject]

So, I'm still wading through Blood Meridian. Turns out it's a terrible book to read at work, in intervals of a minute or less (usually less). So I'm bringing in something lighter to read at work, and I'll try to force myself to read when I'm home. Or I'll just bring it on the bus with me Sunday.

[elpollodiablo]

I think Blood Meridian's best read in like two or three marathon sessions your first time through.

[jebreject]

Yeah, so I think the bus will be good for that. It was pretty much impossible to read for a minute at a time between calls.

[Greg Nog]

I think I mentioned this before, but I read a lot of Blood Meridian while smoking, which worked remarkably well -- in long sessions and under the influence, the prose has this long, pulsing, overpowering terror about it.

Anyway, I'm reading The Iliad, still, and really loving it.  I shoulda read this a long time ago.

[das kranke Tier]

Oh man, The Illiad is super intense!

[YojimboMonkey]

Hell yeah.  Diomedes is a fucking killing machine.  I love that bit.

[Greg Nog]

I KNOW OH MY GOD WHY DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TELL ME ABOUT DIOMEDES

Just last night, in fact, I was talking to coldforge about this:  "Dude's all, 'Yeah, I think I'll kill Aphrodite because why not she's a pretty lame god amirite?' and then STABS HER IN THE FUCKING WRIST, this guy is INSANE"