So let's rant about books

Burlesque · 13-08-06 13:24:11

That was exactly my problem too, and still is to a certain extent. The "Tales of the Black Freighter" mirrors the main plot and seems, to my mind, to provide a gritty id version of the narrative, but the parallels are so incredibly obscure that I - who have read the addiction-causing thing at least seven times - still haven't figured most of it out. Every time I read it, however, a new piece clicks into place, so there is justification for the amount of space it takes up, but it is definitely difficult to find and demands rather close reading - which I find difficult to concentrate on, as I want to return to the actual "Watchmen" story, which as you know is quite complex enough in itself.

There are riches to be mined from the pirate story, though, and my latest suspicion is that you can get more out of it if you know a bit of Freudian or Jungian psychology. It's just a suspicion, and my knowledge in psychological matters is just on the verge of qualifying as "basic", so what do I know? Anyway, it's a place to start.

Burlesque.

Cate · 14-08-06 13:44:22

A friend has lent me Feeding Frenzy by Will Self a collection of his writings from '95 to 2000. I like his recomendations on how to read it 'You can snack, you can brunch, you can gorge until you puke. You can sip phrases delicatley, carefully selecting them to accompany word dishes of more solid fare, or you can relentlessely chomp your way through the book, like a compulsive eater at a midnight fridge-opening. All I ask is that you enjoy.'

Burlesque · 14-08-06 14:57:13

Very well put. To me, that all depends on what kind of book I'm reading: some writers just drag me along in a cloud of dust and make me turn the pages feverishly, while others write in a more intimate and perhaps more thoughtful way that makes me want to taste each sentence separately in order to receive the full benefit of thought and language. I find myself unable to choose between the two approaches - I simply respond instinctively to the style of writing.

Burlesque.

Cate · 24-08-06 09:54:49

Well to continue Will Self's own words I binged on his writings and then had to purge.
I went book shopping yesterday as I was down to three unread books which I didn't want to read. So I picked up Boyhood and Waiting For The Barbarians by JM Coetzee, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway and the graphic novel (comic) Watchmen by Alan Moore. I'm sick at the moment so I've spent all my freetime reading Watchmen which is a great book, I've almost finished it already.

Burlesque · 24-08-06 19:04:06

Yes, Watchmen! Ooooh yes, Watchmen .

Burlesque.

Siobhan · 01-09-06 04:04:39

This piece of "sex advice from a sexy blonde kickball player in Brooklyn" comes from my favorite website (except for IFM, of course! ). I share it here for the libidinally-challenged (well, I wanted to share the book recommendation, but grabbed a bigger piece of the interview, because it was just too adorably mosh-pit):

Q:My boyfriend is a lot better looking than I am. He gets lots of attention and I resent it. How can I deal with this.
A:You make him ugly.

Q:Like cut him?
A:Yeah, you cut him — no. You make him break out. Tell him to wear a bad outfit: "Dude, this is awesome. You can totally work that."

Q:I finally convinced my boyfriend to have sex outdoors, but he was too nervous to finish. How can I get him to relax?
A:I just wouldn't accept it. I think I would take this as an obvious statement that he's not as wild as I am, that he's kind of a pussy. When it comes down to it, it sounds like with that boy, it's going to be missionary every time.

Q:I've been really stressed out lately and it's affected my sex drive. How can I get myself back into sex?
A:What actually does it for me is reading a Bukowski book. I know he's not very nice to women or anything, but Women — that book is a huge fucking turn on. It makes you want to have sex.

Journeyfan · 21-09-06 00:38:45

Hi everyone,

I recently picked up a book that may be of interest, especially given the subject matter.

The title is a bit of a giveaway: " Girl With A One Track Mind"

The book is certainly not "highbrow", but is well written by an obviously well-educated woman, whose absolute frankness about her high sex drive, her sexual exploits and, maybe more interestingly, her feelings and emotions is very refreshing and endearing. It is certainly not a book your maiden aunt would wish to read - but maybe it should be!

The following I have "lifted" from a customer review at Amazon.com which gives a reasonable synopsis.

"I guess I will give this book 5 stars, not because it is a literary classic, but because it is probably the best book of its kind--a sex blog edited into book form.

Abby Lee, subsequently "outed" as a London film technician, Zoe Margolis, is a single woman in her thirties who spends a lot of time masturbating, having casual sex, and thinking about sex. She is very orgasmic and wonders if she is a nymphomaniac.

The book is well written, witty, and contains lots of ruminations and information about sex. The author, like Bridget Jones, likes to compile lists of pros and cons, for example the pros and cons of large penises vs. smaller penises, which make interesting reading and are almost worth the price of admission on their own. I won't state her conclusions here in case I spoil it for you.

The book is not particularly titillating, so readers looking for masturbation fodder probably won't find much here.

Although the author has a great sex life--at least it is great in terms that most man and some women would appreciate, in that she has many partners and lots of orgasms--there is a certain melancholic tone too. She is lonely and wants a real relationship, but while she can find sexual satisfaction with almost anyone, like Grace Slick in the heyday of Jefferson Airplane, she needs somebody to love, and that is what she does not have.

You can speculate, if you wish, as to whether her supercharged sex drive is just evolution's way of telling her to start a family, but perhaps that is just going too far.

Anyhow, the book is a minor classic, and if you are interested in sex--which a lot of people are--and you are not easily shocked,you will want to read this."

I bought the book, quite by chance, on the day it was published and was unaware that the author had been writing her on-line diary for some two and a half years. The blog is worth a visit in itself and is updated regularly. Here's a link to the "Abby Lee's Almost Homepage" which gives her background:

http://onetracktest.blogspot.com/2006/0 … round.html

and the blog itself at:

http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/

Since having her true identity revealed against her wishes by, of all newspapers, The Sunday Times, "Abby" this week made a TV appearance on The Sharon Osbourne Show in the UK and came across, in my opinion extremely well. The clip from the chat show is featured on Youtube via the following link and is definitely worth a look as "Abby" makes several valid points during the six minute interview. I especially agree with her view that "it's 2006 and we should be having an open dialogue about sex" - she would definitely be "at home" on this forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GftD-zJ2rNM

Amazon have the book available for anyone who may be interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Girl-One-track-Mi … F8&s=books

Sorry about the length of the post - for someone who took five months to pluck up the courage to post on the forum - I do go on a bit don't I?

Journeyfan

Last edited by Journeyfan (21-09-06 00:40:18)

Siobhan · 21-09-06 00:54:06

Oh, Journeyfan, I at least am a size queen when it comes to long posts -- the longer they are, the more i like them! (provided they are interesting and well-written, of course, as yours always are -- and i think that's true in gen'l of IFM posters, don't you?

Thanks much for the very interesting post. Sounds like a woman we'd learn a lot from here. I'm going to check out the links. ofd i am!

Dynamo · 05-10-06 14:21:09

I read a book once. It were green.

Cheers. Dynamo.

Nowaysis · 10-10-06 20:30:44

Having been gone for a while, and thus having no idea what books have been discussed, I'll just jump right into the fray and reccommend one of my all time favourites, ignoring the possibility it might have been brought up already:

Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan.
The best damn mystery novel wrapped up in a romantic drama you'll ever read. Or was that the other way round, I'm never quite sure? McEwan takes us for quite a ride of religious stalkers, small time crooks, adulterous university professors and marital strife, and starts of spendidly with a ballooning scene of vertigo, confusion, tragedy and excitement all at once.

The prose is so dense, so thick, so full of all the little tidbits of information McEwan wants us to have, that it's damn near a physical ordeal to get past the opening chapter and into the thick of the story. But once you do, what awaits is so infinitely rewarding, the time spent on that first passage will feel like a no price at all to pay.

Cate · 15-10-06 11:10:41

I'm reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad at the moment. I bought it because of how much I'd enjoyed Heart of Darkness. I just can't get over how rich his writing is. It's beautiful to the point that I don't care about the plot just the words and sentance formations. In that regard it reminds me of Paradise Lost by Milton

The_Elfman · 15-10-06 13:12:26

Cate wrote:

I'm reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad at the moment. I bought it because of how much I'd enjoyed Heart of Darkness. I just can't get over how rich his writing is. It's beautiful to the point that I don't care about the plot just the words and sentance formations. In that regard it reminds me of Paradise Lost by Milton

Although not a practicing Christian I feel the same way about the King James bible. The language is often so beautiful and heartfelt. Corinthians 1:13:
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer … ision=div1

My passion for Shakespeare is principally for his use of language as well of course.

Elfman.

Burlesque · 15-10-06 14:54:22

Cate wrote:

I'm reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad at the moment. I bought it because of how much I'd enjoyed Heart of Darkness. I just can't get over how rich his writing is. It's beautiful to the point that I don't care about the plot just the words and sentance formations. In that regard it reminds me of Paradise Lost by Milton

The funny thing about Joseph Conrad is that, as far as I understand, he never learned to speak English properly - I've heard that he made extensive use of dictionaries and so on in all his writings, but I think that sometimes one can achieve great things with a language as an "outsider" looking in and seeing it fresh.

Burlesque.

bodyhead · 16-10-06 04:41:57

Burlesque wrote:

Cate wrote:
I'm reading Nostromo by Joseph Conrad at the moment. I bought it because of how much I'd enjoyed Heart of Darkness. I just can't get over how rich his writing is. It's beautiful to the point that I don't care about the plot just the words and sentance formations. In that regard it reminds me of Paradise Lost by Milton
The funny thing about Joseph Conrad is that, as far as I understand, he never learned to speak English properly - I've heard that he made extensive use of dictionaries and so on in all his writings, but I think that sometimes one can achieve great things with a language as an "outsider" looking in and seeing it fresh.

Yes, Conrad's spoken English was never great because he learned English mostly from the written word. The story of his complex relationship with Polish, French and other languages is fascinating - I've read that he writes in a kind of 'Polish-English'.
I find his use of language quite hallucinogenic. The way he describes and re-describes the same thing in different ways seems to take you to a different level of reality. "Lord Jim", "Typhoon" and "The Shadow-Line" have some of the greatest writing I've ever come across.

Last edited by bodyhead (16-10-06 04:45:41)

bodyhead · 16-10-06 04:44:55

Are Tove Jansson's books popular in Sweden, Burlesque?

Burlesque · 16-10-06 09:13:58

bodyhead wrote:

Are Tove Jansson's books popular in Sweden, Burlesque?

Yes, very much so. Some of them have become TV series and stage plays.

Burlesque.

Cate · 16-10-06 11:01:30

Nice to see there's a few Conrad fans here.

On a similar note to how he never became fluent in english but still managed to write in it beautifully. I always wonder about translated texts especially those with attractive and rhythmic language. Max and I were talking about Foucault the other day* and something I rememberd was the mention that he is suprisingly for a philosopher an interesting and talanted writer but I at least have only ever read english translations of his work. How much would it differ, I remember a friend saying that it is a disgrace to read his work in english as it is so much better in the original french.

Has anyone here seen or read Lost Girls by Alan Moore? It's grabed my interest (porno comic by Alan Moore how could you ignore it) but I haven't been able to find many pictures from it and those I have have varied dramatically in quality though the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive and I thought Watchmen was great. So anyone here have any opinions?

Today I've just been reading The catalogue of an English Exhibition from 200 called Apocalypse, some great contemporary artists were in it.

*sorry Max I had your book in my bag all day then forgot to give it back

Dynamo · 16-10-06 12:22:45

I rarely read books these days. I think the main reason for that is that I always seem to have something better to do, be it watching telly (porn included) or going to the pub or trying to better my limited skills on the guitar. When I do read something its usually a magazine like Nuts (where theres lots of nice pictures ) or the footie sections and the problem pages in the tabloids.

Books I have read include virtually everything that Tolkien has written, Tom Sharpe stuff, my fave being The Throwback, David Eddings and Spike Milligans war memoirs trilogy of six books.

Cheers. Dynamo.

bodyhead · 16-10-06 18:18:52

Cate wrote:

Max and I were talking about Foucault the other day* and something I rememberd was the mention that he is suprisingly for a philosopher an interesting and talanted writer but I at least have only ever read english translations of his work. How much would it differ, I remember a friend saying that it is a disgrace to read his work in english as it is so much better in the original french.

I remember one actual mistranslation near the beginning of 'Madness and Civilisation' when Foucault was supposed to have said of the middle ages - "Madmen then led an easy wandering existence" which apparently was extremely misleading and suggested a Romantic image which the original French did not. So much of Foucault is in the manner of writing - he's been accused of letting aesthetics take over at the expense of empirical truth.
There's a site where you can compare Baudelaire translations next to the original. It's very interesting.
http://fleursdumal.org/

Cate · 10-11-06 12:22:03

Books my one true fetish the love before anything else. Due to a recent milestone birthday (21) I've just received mountains of them. I couldn't be happier though the shelves in my bookcase are begining to sag in a worrying manner. So recently I got
Jim Dine the drawings
Rembrandt the Printmaker
Van Gogh drawings
Philip Guston Retrospective
Henry Moore's shelter drawings
Oscar Wilde the complete short fiction
Charles Bukowski Love is a dog from Hell
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
James Joyce Portrait of the artist as a young man

and I just orded Lost Girls Alan Moore's new pornographic comic based on Alice of wonderland, Wendy of peter pan and Dorothy from Oz.
I am an absolute glutton of the highest order

polarchill · 10-11-06 20:51:03

Cate wrote:

Books my one true fetish the love before anything else. Due to a recent milestone birthday (21) I've just received mountains of them. I couldn't be happier though the shelves in my bookcase are begining to sag in a worrying manner. So recently I got
Jim Dine the drawings
Rembrandt the Printmaker
Van Gogh drawings
Philip Guston Retrospective
Henry Moore's shelter drawings
Oscar Wilde the complete short fiction
Charles Bukowski Love is a dog from Hell
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
James Joyce Portrait of the artist as a young man
and I just orded Lost Girls Alan Moore's new pornographic comic based on Alice of wonderland, Wendy of peter pan and Dorothy from Oz.
I am an absolute glutton of the highest order

Pretty much the healthiest thing to overindulge in. Don't worry; read 'em all, they'll make more. Oh, and happy belated birthday.

Nowaysis · 10-11-06 21:51:09

And remember, gluttons have all the fun.

dyslexius · 11-11-06 12:35:22

Cate wrote:

...
Jim Dine the drawings
Rembrandt the Printmaker
Van Gogh drawings
Philip Guston Retrospective
Henry Moore's shelter drawings
Oscar Wilde the complete short fiction
Charles Bukowski Love is a dog from Hell
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
James Joyce Portrait of the artist as a young man
...

Happy 21st, Cate. It's truly the weight of masterpiece that sags your shelf! I envy anyone who comes to the Beckett for the first time (although you didn't say that was your case). I'm not sure Beckett intended Godot to jump straight off the page, as it is a play, after all. So, if you're coming to it for the first time, may I just say keep that in mind: Catch it on stage if you can, for it is a towering masterpiece (and a beauty is it requires neither a big stage nor hi-tech stagecraft -- I've seen mind-blowing performances of it in tiny, 30-seat, shoestring theaters).

--dyslexius (The early Joyce is not trash either, nor is anything else on your list, I'm just on a bit of Beckett kick at the moment)

antiface · 11-11-06 12:42:03

Currently enjoying the hell out of Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex". After that, it's:
Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano "The Sandman: The Dream Huntress"
Orson Scott Card "Pastwatch: The redepemption of Christopher Columbus"
Graham Harvey and Charlotte Harmad "Paganism Today"
JD Robb "Naked in Death"
in queue

Cate · 15-11-06 13:54:19

dyslexius wrote:

Happy 21st, Cate. It's truly the weight of masterpiece that sags your shelf! I envy anyone who comes to the Beckett for the first time (although you didn't say that was your case). I'm not sure Beckett intended Godot to jump straight off the page, as it is a play, after all. So, if you're coming to it for the first time, may I just say keep that in mind: Catch it on stage if you can, for it is a towering masterpiece (and a beauty is it requires neither a big stage nor hi-tech stagecraft -- I've seen mind-blowing performances of it in tiny, 30-seat, shoestring theaters).
--dyslexius (The early Joyce is not trash either, nor is anything else on your list, I'm just on a bit of Beckett kick at the moment)

I haven't seen Waiting for Godot performed only some of his short plays. I love reading plays though. I've been hooked ever since I read Woyzeck by Georg Buchner.

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