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Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

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Albion

Quote from: House of Usher on 28 December, 2009, 11:07:10 AM
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories was £3 in the HMV sale.

I hadn't even heard of this until I read it here, thanks.
Mrs Albion went shopping today so got it for me in HMV. I'm a fan of Tim Burton so hopefully it will be £3 well spent.
Dumb all over, a little ugly on the side.

das

id like to suggest anyone who has a deviant sense of humour to read 'crooked little vein' by warren ellis. really funny, really messed up, really dirty.
Confusion is Better Than Sex

Mike Gloady

Already on my list.  Yet to read anything by Ellis I didn't like.  Can't say that about many other writers....
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das

Quote from: Mike Gloady on 29 December, 2009, 07:43:54 PM
Already on my list.  Yet to read anything by Ellis I didn't like.  Can't say that about many other writers....




i believe it's his only book, (not a comic)
Confusion is Better Than Sex

I, Cosh

Quote from: O Lucky Stevie! on 29 December, 2009, 02:07:30 AM
Quote from: The Cosh on 28 December, 2009, 05:55:23 PM
Read Ringworld on Boxing Day. Starts out great but sort of fizzles out at the end. I know there's at least one follow-up, but do we ever find out who or what built the Ringworld?
Loved Ringworld when I was  all of 12, but it's not Orbitsville or Rendezvous with Rama, is it Cosh?
I've not read Bob Shaw (or even seen any of his books, come to think of it) for years. Time to have a rummage around perhaps.
We never really die.

Roger Godpleton

I found Crooked Little Vein to be spectacularly tedious and predictable. All Ellis characters speak the same way and there aren't massive pictures to look at.
He's only trying to be what following how his dreams make you wanna be, man!

das

Quote from: Roger Godpleton on 29 December, 2009, 11:18:35 PM
I found Crooked Little Vein to be spectacularly tedious and predictable. All Ellis characters speak the same way and there aren't massive pictures to look at.


how about brion gysin then ???
Confusion is Better Than Sex

amberkraken

I have read 'Crooked Little Vein ', but don't remember it...I think it had something to do with dinosaur sex, but now that I've written that I'm not sure I've gone mad!
I may have liked it...

Mike Gloady

Quote from: das on 29 December, 2009, 07:56:28 PM
Quote from: Mike Gloady on 29 December, 2009, 07:43:54 PM
Already on my list.  Yet to read anything by Ellis I didn't like.  Can't say that about many other writers....




i believe it's his only book, (not a comic)
I know. 
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Peter Wolf

I have been reading Brave New World again which was written by our favorite Eugenicist/Humanist Aldeous Huxley.

It is a work of fiction but its also a political model or a kind of political manifesto rather like 1984 which was also written by another insider by the name of Eric Arthur Blair.If you understand the subject matter then its clear that these books are not just works of fiction but are predictions of sorts.
Worthing Bazaar - A fete worse than death

TordelBack

#835
Quote from: Peter Wolf on 30 December, 2009, 03:18:06 PM
IIt is a work of fiction but its also a political model or a kind of political manifesto rather like 1984 which was also written by another insider by the name of Eric Arthur Blair.If you understand the subject matter then its clear that these books are not just works of fiction but are predictions of sorts.

I'm not sure if you're joking there, Peter, but Brave New World is an attack on/warning about the type of society it describes - not a manifesto for its creation.  Huxley is highlighting the role of conditioning rather than coercion in controlling a population - through bland mass production and ordered lives, and the dulling effect of ubiquitous sex and drugs.  This is pretty clear from the very outset, where it's described as being set in "the year of Our Ford 630".  

As to being a eugenicist, Huxley had a long and varied intellectual life, and ditched eugenics fairly early on it it.



Dandontdare

#836
"dystopian" (the opposite of "utopian") novels such as Brave New World and 1984 (and indeed huge chunks of sci-fi in general) are not so much predictions of what the author thinks the future WILL be like, or manifesto for what it should be like; but an allegorical reflection of, or a satirical comment upon, the times in which they were written. Orwell called his novel 1984 as it was an anagram of the year in whcih it was written, 1948.

Peter Wolf

#837
Quote from: TordelBack on 30 December, 2009, 04:09:03 PM
Quote from: Peter Wolf on 30 December, 2009, 03:18:06 PM
IIt is a work of fiction but its also a political model or a kind of political manifesto rather like 1984 which was also written by another insider by the name of Eric Arthur Blair.If you understand the subject matter then its clear that these books are not just works of fiction but are predictions of sorts.

I'm not sure if you're joking there, Peter, but Brave New World is an attack on/warning about the type of society it describes - not a manifesto for its creation.  This is pretty clear from the very outset, where it's described as being set in "the year of Our Ford 630".  

Thats very true in the same way that 1984 is a warning.Theres different ways of looking at these works.


However if you research the background of the Huxleys and the orgainisations that they were connected to then you will see that there is truth in what i am saying.My poinion here is based on the background of the Huxleys rather than just the book itself.
Worthing Bazaar - A fete worse than death

COMMANDO FORCES

I have just started reading 'If chins could kill: confessions of a B movie actor' by Bruce Campbell and already I am hooked. I hope to get quite a lot read tonight whilst at work.

wild-seven

Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 30 December, 2009, 05:56:14 PM
I have just started reading 'If chins could kill: confessions of a B movie actor' by Bruce Campbell and already I am hooked. I hope to get quite a lot read tonight whilst at work.

Oooh I got that for Xmas, it's next on my 'to read' list
I was going to procrastinate but I think I'll leave it till tomorrow