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pedersencr |
Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:40 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 921
Location: New Orleans
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Well, the mention of Pale Fire hasn't cleared the hall yet!
And I don't even have Sun Chips. |
_________________ What we know is not what we think |
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mitty |
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:48 pm |
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Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 1359
Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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pedersencr wrote: Well, the mention of Pale Fire hasn't cleared the hall yet!
And I don't even have Sun Chips.
There! I heard it again..... |
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bart |
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 11:54 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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My RC Wilson habits have turned into monomania. Just finished The Divide which is his superb take on the Flowers for Algernon theme. Reads like a thriller, and makes good use of atmospheric Toronto. |
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lshap |
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:02 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4246
Location: Montreal
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bart wrote: My RC Wilson habits have turned into monomania. Just finished The Divide which is his superb take on the Flowers for Algernon theme. Reads like a thriller, and makes good use of atmospheric Toronto.
You'd have to be familiar with Toronto for this phrase to make you smile. Nice city. Very big. Atmospheric? Maybe when the clouds are hanging low. |
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bart |
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:53 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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Well, that was sort of my point: he used the city, and its clouds and fogs and snowstorms, to create intense and moody atmosphere.
Being also a Robert Sawyer fan, I feel like I'm starting to know the place, though I've never been up there. |
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Syd |
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:29 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12895
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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As far as Sawyer goes, I liked The Terminal Experiment and didn't like Factoring Humanity. I haven't read anything else by him. |
_________________ I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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bart |
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:48 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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I don't think Sawyer really hit his stride as a writer until his more recent books. His Neanderthal Parallax (a trilogy) is excellent. I also enjoyed his SF/Mystery "Illegal Alien." I've also heard praise of "Calculating God" but haven't read it myself. |
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bart |
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:54 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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OMG, this is embarassing: I HAVE read Calculating God. And it's pretty damn good, all about a dying paleontologist who works at the Royal Ontario Museum and humanity's first contact with aliens -- yet somehow I retained the story but forgot the title.
If you read nothing else by Sawyer, his most recent "Mindscan" is one of the best of the whole copying-your-brain subgenre. If you've ever read John Varley's books on this, The Ophiuchi Line (or similar, I'm not good with titles, as demonstrated above) or Steel Beach, this is definitely worth a look. |
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whiskeypriest |
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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lshap wrote: Bart - 100 pages into The Corrections. The story picks up steam considerably after about 10 pages with the introduction of the son. He's every disappointment in life all rolled into a single, dyfunctional person. I feel for the guy immensely and want to see where he's going...
Whiskey - Your "Bingo" comment suggests you didn't consider the book to be the "Greatest American Novel!!" so many thought it was. Did you actually dislike it, or did it not match up to the hype?
Yeah, I know, why don't I read the damn thing and decide for myself? Fuck you - everyone's sleeping and I'm alone with a bag of Sun Chips. I'll post if I feel like it! I think Franzen is a very talented author who would write much better books if he didn't agree with me. In the dog piss haiku story I wrote on the NYT's Creative Writing forum, I sort of summed up my feelings on The Corrections:
Quote: I put my book down. The author had just spent three pages describing a conversation between a main character and a large, imaginary talking turd, and frankly I was more than a little sick of the book. The author was far too aware of his own talent for my tastes; worse, he insisted in pointing this out to the reader and was constantly – metaphorically speaking – dancing across the page in top hat and tails. I could not even work up much enthusiasm for the book’s promised venture to what my wife refers to as “Used to be Poland” and the rest of the world calls Lithuania.
Of all authors, only Nabokov could get away with the kind of thing. Franzen's good, but he's no Nabokov.
Though I did appreciate the relationship between the older brother and his wife, vis a vis his family. |
_________________ I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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bart |
Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:57 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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"dog piss haiku story"
I have no idea what that means. Refers to a story about a haiku about dog piss??
Gee, I'd like to try writing one.
Snow lies white, stillness
Until golden cascade falls;
Domain marked with pee. |
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whiskeypriest |
Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bart wrote: "dog piss haiku story"
I have no idea what that means. Refers to a story about a haiku about dog piss??
Gee, I'd like to try writing one.
Snow lies white, stillness
Until golden cascade falls;
Domain marked with pee. Actually, it refers to the medium and not the message.
I still have it somewhere. Maybe I'll post it over in the writer's corner. |
_________________ I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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bart |
Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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Go for it. Which reminds me that the novel Snow Falling on Cedars -- its title is supposed to a line from a haiku, but it has six syllables. So do you just say "cedars" real fast, or is the required five syllables if you say it in Japanese, or what?
Good novel, though. His next novel I couldn't get into, it seemed self-indulgent or something. |
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Befade |
Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:21 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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I read The Corrections a couple of years ago. I think I liked it well enough at the time........but it didn't leave much of a memory.
I'm reading Female Ruins by a British author, Geoff Nicholson. For some reason I'm sure noone here has heard of it. It's about a young woman who's a taxi driver with a famous architect father........known for all the buildings he never built. She takes a young California man on a tour of the English seaside and examines the architecture of the area..........which sounds pretty interesting to me. Ever heard of follys? Or doom paintings in churches? Or cheerful, friendly looking nuclear power stations? |
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whiskeypriest |
Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bart wrote: Go for it. Which reminds me that the novel Snow Falling on Cedars -- its title is supposed to a line from a haiku, but it has six syllables. So do you just say "cedars" real fast, or is the required five syllables if you say it in Japanese, or what?
Good novel, though. His next novel I couldn't get into, it seemed self-indulgent or something. Will do.
Best short review of the movie, Snow Falling on Cedars: "Grass growing in lawn." |
_________________ I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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whiskeypriest |
Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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I should also note, by the way, that the story is also another blast on the side of truth in my sadly never-ending battle with Oxenfraudians. |
_________________ I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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