Red Mosquito

Simple Torture wrote: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.

bada wrote:

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.

Steve Albini wrote: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.

Steve Albini wrote: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 wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

bada wrote:

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.

Steve Albini wrote: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.

Steve Albini wrote: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 wrote:

bada wrote:

So far so good.

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

Steve Albini wrote: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.

Steve Albini wrote: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.