What are you currently reading?

[lennytheweedwhacker]

[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.

[epilogue]

It's lost a bit of its edge but GIRLS is still one of the smartest and honest shows on tv.

There are plenty of characters in Solondz films that are likable. I'd argue that he's most interesting when he's making his audience feel icky. And I think that's pretty cool.

But I totally understand your aversion to unlikable characters. I have the same thing with fucking rich, self entitled characters. It's why I can't get into Arrested Development. Those fuckers just make me angry.

Uh, aren't all the girls on Girls basically rich (or parent-funded), self-entitled characters?

Uh, no. No they're basically not.

But even those elements (the selfishness and self-entitled-ness) that exists on the show is not celebrated. Those things are a big part of the character's journeys and not something you're supposed to find charming or funny or entertaining.

[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.

[epilogue]

Well, we see the show very differently. And I certainly give the audience, yes, even "teenage girls in the midwest" more credit than you clearly do.

[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]

Anybody have one of these? All-New Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi.

[Simple Torture]

I've got lots to say about Franzen, but not enough time to put it together. TL;DR: he's great at crafting really complex, compelling stories, but his sexual politics are all over the fucking map and it's really troubling. And I agree that most of his characters are unlikable, but that's never been a feature that makes me like/hate a text in and of itself.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I've got lots to say about Franzen, but not enough time to put it together. TL;DR: he's great at crafting really complex, compelling stories, but his sexual politics are all over the fucking map and it's really troubling. And I agree that most of his characters are unlikable, but that's never been a feature that makes me like/hate a text in and of itself.

can you expand on the sexual politics comment?

[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.

[Simple Torture]

I've got lots to say about Franzen, but not enough time to put it together. TL;DR: he's great at crafting really complex, compelling stories, but his sexual politics are all over the fucking map and it's really troubling. And I agree that most of his characters are unlikable, but that's never been a feature that makes me like/hate a text in and of itself.

can you expand on the sexual politics comment?

He's got this thing--and lots of other writers/artists do this too, it's not just him--where if he wants to write a female character who's damaged or "complex," they all have to have been raped, sexually assaulted, or used/abused at some point in their lives. And I think it shows more than just a laziness (although that's part of it): I really think that he thinks that men are just more interesting than women, and that women are defined by their sexual experiences a bit more. It's pretty unsettling.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

Lenny, did you get to the "eating her turds" part of Freedom yet?

i have not, but i'm intrigued

[nyquillyn]

[epilogue]

How is it, t2b?

[nyquillyn]

It's good. The author mixes science, history and some really nice details about what training and life is like for many East Africans runners. It's not as inspirational as "Born to Run", but it's very good.

[epilogue]

It's good. The author mixes science, history and some really nice details about what training and life is like for many East Africans runners. It's not as inspirational as "Born to Run", but it's very good.

I'll add it to the list.

[epilogue]

American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

[The Argonaut]

Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth!

[epilogue]

Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth!

Really?!

I want to read that one next.

[The Argonaut]

Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth!

Really?!

I want to read that one next.

I want to read American Pastoral next!
It's where I'm up to in the Zuckerman books and I think there's a movie in the works, so it's time.