What are you reading right now?

Lisnaholic · 07-04-2021, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis

In the mid-20th century then?

Aha! Please consider my post edited like this, jadis:-

Quote:

"I read that book way back when "magic realism" was first becoming a popular term to apply to various works of Latin American literature. In England, that began with the paperback translation of "100 years", (1970). I probably read the book in about 1975."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Marquez could've shown a bit less of Jose Arcadio's massive dong imo. At the very least he could have gone into more detail on what the other dicks in the village were like.

I think Kurt Vonnegut did this in Breakfast of Champions, didn't he? At first characters are introduced with quite conventional descriptions, "a tall dark-haired man", but little by little the descriptions become more random, " a woman with an undiagnosed heart condition and a vestigal extra toe" before settling on penis size as the go-to detail to describe the male characters. Very neatly done by KV.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marie Monday

I had erased that from my memory

Me too, I'm happy to say.

**Marie Monday** · 07-04-2021, 03:36 PM

I think vonnegut pretty much immediately goes to dick size lol. He also mentions comments on the dick size of the main character in slaughterhouse five

BloodFoxTK · 07-04-2021, 04:48 PM

just started reading the biography of a fellow countryman.

rostasi · 07-04-2021, 04:59 PM

jadis · 07-04-2021, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Aha! Please consider my post edited like this, jadis:-

"I read that book way back when "magic realism" was first becoming a popular term to apply to various works of Latin American literature. In England, that began with the paperback translation of "100 years", (1970). I probably read the book in about 1975."

Thanks! All I knew is that in an autobiographical essay from 1979, Angela Carter writes about being raised by a larger-than-life yarn-spinning Yorkshire matriarch of a grandmother, and makes a humorous reference to the "family talent for magical realism" - so I gathered the term must have been well entrenched by the late 1970s, especially after Carter's own The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972) and The Passion of New Eve (1977). Thanks very much for this more precise information.

Trollheart · 07-05-2021, 08:34 PM

I concur. Histories of prog rock that aren't just either wankoffs to particular artists or lists of albums are damned hard to come by.

Edit: And now I have it. Thanks Rostasi!

http://libgen.gs/ads.php?md5=4a90e69...596790b9509e98

Reading at the moment for research:
Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man who Wrote Dracula by David J. Skal. Though I think the description of who he was is a little superfluous in the title. I mean, if you somehow don't know who Stoker was, why are you reading a biography of him? Good so far though.

rostasi · 07-05-2021, 09:21 PM

Yes, you’re welcome. It’s a good 600+ pages with smallish type
and, yes, with something as detailed as this there are going to
be some mistakes, but overall, it’s a great read!

The Batlord · 07-06-2021, 11:12 PM

Quote:

"Do you see anything?" Cali screamed at me as everything turned a faint shade of green from the flare.
"****, man, I don't know!" I yelled back staring over my rifle.
"Should we start shooting?" Cali asked.
"If you do, I will."
"Let's wait for someone else to start first."

I've been meaning to pick this up for awhile now just cause I love the author's podcast, Lions Led by Donkeys, and it's just as funny as I was hoping. His less than stellar experiences in Afghanistan.

Lisnaholic · 07-07-2021, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marie Monday

I think vonnegut pretty much immediately goes to dick size lol. He also mentions comments on the dick size of the main character in slaughterhouse five

Is that right, Marie? Good for Vonnegut! Slaughterhouse 5 is another book that I have largely forgotten - unless that is the one in which numerous paragraphs are concluded with the irritating sentence, "So it goes." Because of that one stylistic trick, I've avoided reading him ever since.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis

Thanks! All I knew is that in an autobiographical essay from 1979, Angela Carter writes about being raised by a larger-than-life yarn-spinning Yorkshire matriarch of a grandmother, and makes a humorous reference to the "family talent for magical realism" - so I gathered the term must have been well entrenched by the late 1970s, especially after Carter's own The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972) and The Passion of New Eve (1977). Thanks very much for this more precise information.

You're welcome, jadis! I'm not familiar with Angela Carter, and certainly had no idea that she was part of some early Yorkshire tradition of magic realism.
Thanks for the info.
___________________________________

Quote:

"Do you see anything?" Cali screamed at me as everything turned a faint shade of green from the flare.
"****, man, I don't know!" I yelled back staring over my rifle.
"Should we start shooting?" Cali asked.
"If you do, I will."
"Let's wait for someone else to start first."

That quote is a great indication of what I imagine is the real-life muddle of war, so often left out of the movies and history books.

Mucha na Dziko · 07-09-2021, 12:40 PM

Ken Wilber’s „Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life of Treya Killam Wilber”

I’ve had a hard time finding the english title, as in Polish it’s called „The Mortal Immortals” (or whatever you’d translate it to)

As most of things I do or read or write I started reading it through sheer luck, and then immediately saw the coincidence (in my life) in that I’m reading it now.

I’m having quite the hard time in my relationship currently, and this book really gives me he creeps on how accurate it is in describing the different aspects of thought of both people in romance (in the book you have the diaries/written notes of Treya, and commentaries and diaries of Wilber)
Though you could say the cancer is slowly eating up our relationship (certainly not her...[though one could argue]).

07-04-2021, 04:48 PM	#7283 (permalink)
BloodFoxTK the only one you need! Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: South Island, Mobius Posts: 227	just started reading the biography of a fellow countryman. __________________ https://card.psnprofiles.com/2/BloodFoxTK.png

07-05-2021, 08:34 PM	#7286 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	I concur. Histories of prog rock that aren't just either wankoffs to particular artists or lists of albums are damned hard to come by. Edit: And now I have it. Thanks Rostasi! http://libgen.gs/ads.php?md5=4a90e69...596790b9509e98 Reading at the moment for research: Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man who Wrote Dracula by David J. Skal. Though I think the description of who he was is a little superfluous in the title. I mean, if you somehow don't know who Stoker was, why are you reading a biography of him? Good so far though. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

07-04-2021, 04:59 PM	#7284 (permalink)
rostasi . Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,007

07-05-2021, 09:21 PM	#7287 (permalink)
rostasi . Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,007	Yes, you’re welcome. It’s a good 600+ pages with smallish type and, yes, with something as detailed as this there are going to be some mistakes, but overall, it’s a great read!