The Gamer's Quarter

GSL · Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 12:05 pm Post subject:

I wonder if he ever set out to do that in the first place.

dhex · Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:21 pm Post subject:

sorry i like pyncho de muerte, he makes me laugh.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Me too.

Sergei, what's the best translation for Bulgakov? I've heard Penguin Classics is horrible.

I finally broke down and bought a new copy of Moby Dick to replace my lost ancient hardback last night. I still think The Sermon is one of the finest chapters in literary history.

seryogin · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:36 am Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I'm re-reading A Clockwork Orange because the film is playing at our local theatre next Friday/Sat/Sun at midnight. I haven't read the book in about 10 years now, so I've forgotten a bit of the slang. Outside of animal farm this is the first book that I read in HS for pleasure that I still find to be well written in life after HS. Not that I've re-read a lot of books I read in HS (some that I didn't like I do now like To Kill a Mockingbird for example) but a good chunk of things that I read in HS for fun are just kind of trashy now and I wonder what I saw in them then.

Anyways, yeah, ACO, Kubrick, Theatre!! hell yeah.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I went with my wife to the midnight sale when she got hers, if that counts.

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Michael Moorcock's Epic Pooh, wherein he lambasts the works of Tolkien.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:50 am Post subject:

i feel less stupid now that i'm up to chapter 2 of women, fire and dangerous things. i'm starting to wrap my head around the terminology and all that.

man i'm so glad the wife is done reading the potter book so i don't have to hear about it anymore. (i think her reading some fan community stuff effectively killed a lot of the enthusiasm she felt. and not just the harry's magical pregnancy stuff.)
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ApM · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject:

My library system is all kinds of awesome for having The Fat Man on Game Audio: Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness. The Fat Man is this insane, scrawny nerd from California who pretends he's from Texas, tells massive fish stories, wears Nudie suits, and has been working in videogame music since the Intellivision. I'm finding it startlingly entertaining.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

A friend of mine just bought me The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers today. I started it. It's a nice complement to The Book of Imaginary Beings and, to quote dhex, "the Potter book."

Did I mention it contains lots of illustrations?
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

GSL · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:09 pm Post subject:

i do tell people that they need to read something, but only if i'm really sure they would like it.
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GSL · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

Well yeah, I get that, but when I've got people unfamiliar with my literary tastes telling me repeatedly I need to read something that almost runs contrary to said tastes, I get a little hostile about it, you know?

dhex · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:51 pm Post subject:

to be sure.

what they mean to say, of course, is "*I* am so glad *I* read this book!"
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Although finding it hard to take that they don't share your tastes is a bit, uh, similar?

I mean, I loves me some Moby Dick (I'm re-reading it again); I'm not going to feel like people are heathens if they're not interested.

dhex · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject:

between you and me, that means they are heathens.

and yes exactly in that bad project pitchfork burning sage kinda way.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

I would love to join this persecution party.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

dhex · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject:

find someone writing bad folk songs about norse gods and the death of the christian one and hit them in the head with a guitar.
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helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

dessgeega · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

i am reading nawal el saadawi's woman at point zero (aka firdous). it is harrowing, and i have to follow it with about half an hour of reading through old issues of hothead paisan to keep my mental equillibrium.
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seryogin · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:29 pm Post subject:

I met William Gibson today, who was a slouched over, thin, balding, bored-looking dude with a difficult to place hick accent. The inoffensive blandness of actually seeing him slowly rise up from the escalator in a black parka, green button-down, and cargo pants brought a smile to my face; another legend brought back down to earth. The amused look on his face as the announcer gave the usual speech about him being "father of cyberpunk" was also pleasant. He's been listening to the same shit for twenty-five years and I liked that he looked about as tired of hearing it as I was. I mean, I only like his cyberpunk works and consider everything else that he's written to be trash that's been popular because of the reputation of Neuromancer, but the dude's obviously stopped caring about that all of that long ago and it must be annoying to have everyone bring the same thing up about your past for such a long time.

He seemed pretty uninterested in being in B&N and read from his new novel without enthusiasm. He made a few amusing jokes that I can't remember, mostly making fun of the stupid questions that the audience threw at him.

The only thing that that seemed truly interesting was when he said that the ad agency in Virtual Light was described from his memory Ridley Scott's agency in London. "It's basically RSA with another logo in the lobby and new carpets."
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GSL · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:51 am Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Due to Bioshock's foot being based in Ayn Rand objectivism I picked up the only book by her on my shelf: the fountainhead. Is it terrible that I'm kind of enjoying it?
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

dhex · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:51 am Post subject:

yes.

(no i mean we all have weird tastes. i get funny looks when i mention that the godfather is a great book. it's not as good as fools die, which i recommend to anyone who ever wanted to write anything.)
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Yes.

I burnt that book once I was done with it.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

It's probably not as bad as Anthem.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Started a short story collection by Nathanial Hawthorne called Mosses from an Old Manse. I love the title. I do not love the contents.

"The Birthmark," one of his more famous stories, feels as though it were outdated the minute he published it. It's about a "man of science," a boring, underdeveloped caricature, really, who wants to fix a blemish (the birthmark) on his wife's face. It's a little bit sci-fi, and a whole lot heavy-handed moralizing. It's also completely devoid of the humor that makes his introduction to the collection (fittingly called "The Old Manse") so engaging.

I'm going to stick with it for a little while longer since I inherited the book, but I'm running out of patience quickly.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

seryogin · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:16 pm Post subject:

Rand has always been on my list of really good bad writers.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Ugh, I kind of hate this book at this point, but can't stop reading it. I mean, Rand has to be one of the most neurotic people/writers ever. I don't like being inside the heads of people. These "heroes" are so unwilling to compromise it's disgusting. It's compelling a little because it's like watching a trainwreck over and over again. I don't know if I'll be able to finish it, but I'm still reading. I can see why you would actually dispose of the book when you were finished with it Dracko.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

dhex · Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 10:08 am Post subject:

man valis must have been kinda rough on you shapes.

hey for fun read death on the installment plan next.

no scratch that have you read black spring by henry miller?
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

This Adam Gopnik essay on Philp K. Dick has apparently been causing a stir of sorts.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 10:36 am Post subject:

yeah i read that. didn't seem very crazy. i disagree with him on the value of valis and all that but i am a connoisseur of the paranoid fringe.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Oh, shit, I realized why you said that about Valis dhex. Probably because of this right?

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject:

you should read black spring.

if i find one i'll send you an extra copy. i should have one lying around here somewhere.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

I am just done reading Vladimir Nabokov's Mary. It's a peculiar novella, to me, in light of its solemn tone. But Nabokov manages to deal with matters of obsession and nostalgia without falling into melancholy. It's almost sobering.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

seryogin · Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:12 pm Post subject:

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

The name change is very telling. Supposedly the name, in one of its forms (or one like it) was the name of his real-life first love, long before Vera ever came into the picture. He uses the inspiration again for his Tamara Gardens in Invitation to a Beheading, somehow.

I'm reading Henry James's The Golden Bowl. It feels like Anna Karenina. James uses an awful lot of commas.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Blowtorches and drills for everyone and everything!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

dhex · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:16 am Post subject:

i'm reading the satanic verses. it came in remarkably handy on monday, when crazy preacher dude decided to make his appearance in the incarnation of the very angry haitian man no one can understand.

thank you mr. rushdie.

i have a weird history with this book, as i first read it when it came out (i was 12 at the time) because i thought hey this book is making assholes crazy and therefore must be really good (or really filthy, which when you're 12 is the same thing). instead i was deeply, deeply, deeply confused, and didn't really clear that up until i was 18 or 19.
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seryogin · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:05 am Post subject:

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

I'm with Sergei here. His writing is so heavy-handed that it's just tiresome, and Satanic Verses really loses any of its focus about a hundred pages in.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

dhex · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject: