What are we reading?

Started by edison, September 21, 2003, 11:20:03 PM

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Newtron

Quote from: budgieI just listened to the latest audioblog from Chuck's Diary tour, which may make a difference to the way you read him. It shouldn't, but oh, how it will.
For real.

SoNowThen

Pilgrim's Progress - by Bunyan
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Weak2ndAct

Re-reading "You Shall Know Our Velocity" by Dave Eggers and ready to dive into the Motley Crue book (it's been passed around amongst every male member of my family as if it were one one of V. Neil's girls).  Keep meaning to finish "Infinite Jest," I don't know how many times I've re-read that first 300 pages.

RegularKarate

Quote from: budgie
I just listened to the latest audioblog from Chuck's Diary tour, which may make a difference to the way you read him. It shouldn't, but oh, how it will. Juicy for all the FC lovers.
http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/blog.php

are you referring to him coming here to Austin?  Are you saying I should hurry up and do some readin' before he hits here?

or did I miss somethin' else?

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

No, Mr. Regular Karate, I don't quite get it myself...

But I enjoy his writing a bunch anyway.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

Gold Trumpet

Agee on Film, by James Agee. I like it and his approach to reviewing movies. Smiliar to Kauffmann, but Kauffmann has learned from Agee and delved where Agee only can finely touch due to the severe limits of films in the 40s coming out of Hollywood.

I've also been getting into the magazine (thick and expensive, though), Foreign Affairs. Seems to be in abudance of knowledge on specifics where other political magazines just write with slant mostly. I like how it is specific experts commenting on their specific field only.

~rougerum

The Silver Bullet

About a quarter of the way into On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

QuoteI think everybody in here likes Palahniuk!
I think he's extremely overrated.
RABBIT n. pl. rabĀ·bits or rabbit[list=1]
  • Any of various long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae.
  • A hare.
    [/list:o][/size]

ono

I just finished this:

What can I say, I like Harry Knowles.  He doesn't seem to be too popular here, though.


(This one will take a while.)  And this just looked damn interesting, plus I read some Pinker earlier for a Linguistics course I took about five years ago.

This one looks interesting, too:


And, Diary, Chuck Palahniuk's new book.  I really need to read Fight Club, as it's one of my favorite movies.  I don't think Palahniuk is overrated, but I still don't know what I think about Lullaby.  Some parts were inspired, while others were way over the top.  Whatever.

Oh yeah, and a whole bunch of college texts I'd rather not touch with a sixty-foot pole, lest they indoctrinate me any further.  Or actually, probably just bore me.  :roll:  Leisure reading is always more fun than what's required of you.

Ghostboy

Hey, I'm down with Knowles. I wasn't too interested with his book, though...it provided some pleasant skimming, but not much else.


penfold0101

I got the Rum Diaries as i have big respect for the writings of Hunter and in anticipation of the film. But i just haven't had time to get into it, I've started it twice, had things to do and will have to start again when i next pick it up!
"There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high - water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." - Hunter S. Thompson.

budgie

Quote from: RegularKarate
Quote from: budgie
I just listened to the latest audioblog from Chuck's Diary tour, which may make a difference to the way you read him. It shouldn't, but oh, how it will. Juicy for all the FC lovers.
http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/blog.php

are you referring to him coming here to Austin?  Are you saying I should hurry up and do some readin' before he hits here?

or did I miss somethin' else?

Take down your pants, Mr. Lebowski, I'm going to slap your thighs.

Seriously, RK, I'm sensitive to your own need to attempt a wind up rather than deal with your own ambivalence and anxiety, but shame on you. Don't you agree that this kind of avoidance and laughing it off could be very damaging for other members of the board who might be struggling with issues of sexual identity and the problem of talking about their experiences and concerns with other men in particular? Some of the younger members have looked to you for advice and as a role model before now and you have been admirably supportive. What you are doing here is only encouraging people who might need you to repress their feelings, and we all know how miserable and screwed up that kind of behaviour is. Exactly what Chuck tries to fight with his novels. I hope by reading them you'll be encouraged to loosen up.

edit It seems the blog is gone, so you mayn't have heard it. In which case, I apologise a bit. (I'd still like to slap your thighs whatever. That fucking beautiful avatar is bewitching me.)

AK

Quote from: The Silver Bullet

QuoteI think everybody in here likes Palahniuk!
I think he's extremely overrated.

I think his work was overexposed(looked) but in the end of the day i still wish more people (writers, directors, composers and others from art) were as creative and gutsy as he is

edison


RegularKarate

Quote from: budgie

Take down your pants, Mr. Lebowski, I'm going to slap your thighs.

Seriously, RK, I'm sensitive to your own need to attempt a wind up rather than deal with your own ambivalence and anxiety, but shame on you. Don't you agree that this kind of avoidance and laughing it off could be very damaging for other members of the board who might be struggling with issues of sexual identity and the problem of talking about their experiences and concerns with other men in particular? Some of the younger members have looked to you for advice and as a role model before now and you have been admirably supportive. What you are doing here is only encouraging people who might need you to repress their feelings, and we all know how miserable and screwed up that kind of behaviour is. Exactly what Chuck tries to fight with his novels. I hope by reading them you'll be encouraged to loosen up.

edit It seems the blog is gone, so you mayn't have heard it. In which case, I apologise a bit. (I'd still like to slap your thighs whatever. That fucking beautiful avatar is bewitching me.)

Whoa...  ouch...

um... all I heard was him mention that he was in Austin and another where he said to ignore Entertainment Weekly and to take it easy (what was that about?)

Now I feel like I really missed something... does he want to be a chick or something?

P.S. your av looks like it's all sorts of ready for some thigh slappin'