What are you currently reading?

[Simple Torture]

It's been a while since I've read Dubliners, but my favorite stories were "An Encounter," "Eveline," and, of course, "The Dead." But these come off to me as playful exercises for Joyce--they're well-crafted tales, but there's nothing adventurous or thrilling about them. Maybe I'll revisit them someday.

[epilogue]

Ulysses has everything that Joyce was interested in: the tension between how the mundaneness of everyday life somehow contains the same themes, ideas, and struggles as the greatest epics; the elasticity and utter meaninglessness of language and how, yet, we are burdened with trying to express our thoughts and feelings with these imperfect tools; and, of course, with "the gap," the impossibility to ever truly know or understand another person. But--and maybe this will help with your reading--this is not a cynical work, despite how these ideas may sound. Rather, it's a celebration of the meaninglessness and apparent un-profundity of human existence, about the games we can play with each other and with language to pass our time on earth. The two main characters can be sad-sacks at times, yes, but I don't think we're supposed to come out of this work feeling depressed or cynical. It may sound like a FB post from everyone's aunt, but I think we're supposed to laugh, cry, and be moved by it, and to be reminded that this--and having a good meal and/or a good wank/fuck--are really all we're here for.

But, of course, in the tradition of all the works of "high modernism," the book is demanding and difficult. I wish I could tell you that it gets easier or that you'll get into a rhythm as you read, but I can't. But there are parts of this book that are just the fucking balls (sometimes it's whole sections, sometimes just scenes or even sentences that bowl me over). So if you're not enjoying it, there's no need to keep going--although, there may be another time you pick it up and read it quite differently (I started 3 times before getting close to finishing). I often fall back on Bolaño's conception of a great novel as combat, and Ulysses was like that for me.

This is super helpful, actually. Thank you. Especially the part in bold. That's what I needed to access this thing, I think. That's going to be key moving forward.

I'm going to stick with it for a while longer. It's not that I'm hating it. It just feels like I'm reading it through a sheet sometimes. I have already laughed out loud reading it. And there have been more than a few sentences that have stopped me. I'v noted them and re-read them over and over. So there's already been value.

But maybe I'm not quite in the right place for it just now. It's encouraging to hear that you struggled it with it a couple of times before getting through it. That's very helpful as well.

Thanks for the response, by the way. And I'll probably have more questions/comments. I'll post them here as I do.

[Simple Torture]

[bada]

It was OK. A fast read. Kinda felt like something Aaron Sorkin would come up with. Everyone is incredibly smart and diligent. They know exactly what to do in every circumstance. The only difference is at least Sorkin would add some human flaws. All these people are saints. A year and a half alone on Mars...no biggie. No bad feelings no moments of despair. Problems comes up...problem solved here's all the minutia on how I did it. Getting tired of potatoes and 70's TV seemed to be the worst part.

[bada]

So far so good.

[Simple Torture]

It was OK. A fast read. Kinda felt like something Aaron Sorkin would come up with. Everyone is incredibly smart and diligent. They know exactly what to do in every circumstance. The only difference is at least Sorkin would add some human flaws. All these people are saints. A year and a half alone on Mars...no biggie. No bad feelings no moments of despair. Problems comes up...problem solved here's all the minutia on how I did it. Getting tired of potatoes and 70's TV seemed to be the worst part.

Yeah, I had some bad things to say about The Martian when I read it, and B almost banned me. The issues you describe make sense when you find out it was originally published serially--problems were almost certainly introduced at the end of an installment, to leave it at a cliffhanger, and they had to be solved by the middle of the next one, so something could be introduced as a cliffhanger by the end of that...and the problem repeats itself. The book is a mess structurally, but, yeah, the characters are also totally flat and the language is like 10th-grade level. I've avoided the film because of the sour taste this left in my mouth.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[bada]

It was OK. A fast read. Kinda felt like something Aaron Sorkin would come up with. Everyone is incredibly smart and diligent. They know exactly what to do in every circumstance. The only difference is at least Sorkin would add some human flaws. All these people are saints. A year and a half alone on Mars...no biggie. No bad feelings no moments of despair. Problems comes up...problem solved here's all the minutia on how I did it. Getting tired of potatoes and 70's TV seemed to be the worst part.

Yeah, I had some bad things to say about The Martian when I read it, and B almost banned me. The issues you describe make sense when you find out it was originally published serially--problems were almost certainly introduced at the end of an installment, to leave it at a cliffhanger, and they had to be solved by the middle of the next one, so something could be introduced as a cliffhanger by the end of that...and the problem repeats itself. The book is a mess structurally, but, yeah, the characters are also totally flat and the language is like 10th-grade level. I've avoided the film because of the sour taste this left in my mouth.

One of the rare instances when the film was a big improvement over the book.

It reads more like a script to me. He even names the pretty girl Johansson. It felt like he was already wish casting. I still need to see the movie. The only book that I can think of that the movie was way better was Jaws. I could imagine this being better too.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[LoathedVermin72]

The Shining will always be the most obvious example.

[bada]

I plan on reading the Shining this winter. The Godfather book is really good. Godfather 1 and 2 follow it very closely.

[bada]

I've heard the Princess Bride book is shit. I've read Jurassic Park but I don't remember what happened.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

i thought the princess bride book was great

[nyquillyn]

Outstanding.

[bada]

So far so good.

Nice. I read this a few months ago, keep me posted on your thoughts.

I was really good but I'm also a fan of the western/pioneer genre so I was an easy target. I can imagine the ending might seem a little anticlimactic to some but I thought it hit all the right beats. My only problem with the ending was it seemed rather abrupt. I would have liked some POV from Fitzgerald towards the end there. I thought ending the novel with Jim Bridger was a odd choice. Over all I liked it.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[bada]

I've yet to see the movie too. From the trailers it seems to have made a number of different choices.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.