Red Mosquito

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:I'd love to read it before the film comes out. What does RM think of Ready Player One? I'm hoping it's like Neal Stephenson's earlier works (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age).

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: Keep me posted on your Baroque Cycle experience. I had a difficult time with the first book, and opted to skip the next two. I keep threatening to pick it back up.

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:

LetMeSleep wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote: Keep me posted on your Baroque Cycle experience. I had a difficult time with the first book, and opted to skip the next two. I keep threatening to pick it back up.

You got my post before I edited.

Will do. I loved Zodiac and Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. I may have read Diamond Age too.

I never read Zodiac. Cryptonomicon was fucking stellar, and you can see its DNA in Quicksilver (Baroque #1) -- it even has the same family lineage (the Shaftoes). But where Cryptonomicon did a great job of making the tech stuff really fun and interesting, and balancing it out with the action, I found Quicksilver to be much too heavy on the history of the science that was going on (though the action scenes were flippin' awesome).

My buddy who has read pretty much every sci-fi book and short story ever written claims Anathem was brutally difficult; I guess there's an appendix of their language you have to return to quite often? And I hear Reamde was a return to form, but never picked it up. Seveneves sounds interesting, but I'll probably just watch the movie.

Of his books that I've read, I'd rank them like this:

1. The Diamond Age
2. Cryptonomicon
3. Snow Crash
4. Quicksilver

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:

LetMeSleep wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:

LetMeSleep wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote: Keep me posted on your Baroque Cycle experience. I had a difficult time with the first book, and opted to skip the next two. I keep threatening to pick it back up.

You got my post before I edited.

Will do. I loved Zodiac and Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon. I may have read Diamond Age too.

I never read Zodiac. Cryptonomicon was fucking stellar, and you can see its DNA in Quicksilver (Baroque #1) -- it even has the same family lineage (the Shaftoes). But where Cryptonomicon did a great job of making the tech stuff really fun and interesting, and balancing it out with the action, I found Quicksilver to be much too heavy on the history of the science that was going on (though the action scenes were flippin' awesome).

My buddy who has read pretty much every sci-fi book and short story ever written claims Anathem was brutally difficult; I guess there's an appendix of their language you have to return to quite often? And I hear Reamde was a return to form, but never picked it up. Seveneves sounds interesting, but I'll probably just watch the movie.

Of his books that I've read, I'd rank them like this:

1. The Diamond Age
2. Cryptonomicon
3. Snow Crash
4. Quicksilver

Zodiac is pretty good, probably my favourite of his.

Wow, really? Maybe I should pick it up, I'm sure my library has it.

tragabigzanda wrote:

contamination wrote:

Notorious poon hound, within pro music circles. Does he mention that at all?

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:

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:finished ready player one...it was mostly fun, definitely a page turner...the references were a bit much at times, and some weren't the most creative
(it's on like red dawn!)

What are the odds that Spielberg's movie will be better?

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:I just need you to tell me if I should wait for the movie, Len!

Let me know what you think of that Lethem book. I really enjoyed The Fortress of Solitude, but was pretty underwhelmed by Chronic City.

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.

bune wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:I'd love to read it before the film comes out. What does RM think of Ready Player One? I'm hoping it's like Neal Stephenson's earlier works (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age).

There's not a lol smiley that fits this. It's not a terrible book, and if you're a child of the 80s you'll get a lot of the references. However, there are a lot of references to get and it may (will) probably overwhelm you.

That said, I do think there's a good story in there and Spielberg can probably pull it out.

tragabigzanda wrote:

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:finished ready player one...it was mostly fun, definitely a page turner...the references were a bit much at times, and some weren't the most creative
(it's on like red dawn!)

What are the odds that Spielberg's movie will be better?

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.