So I wasn't really feeling all the noir tropes I don't really understand due to lack of history with the genre, but that went to a pretty cool place. i should probably read a mystery novel sometime that doesn't end in a massive conspiracy, but i guess if you don't than it's, what, a Christie short or a CSI episode?
Or, you know, Dashiell Hammet or Raymond Chandler.
I was deleting books at the library and ran across what seemed to be a generic-ish looking urban fantasy book by one Max Gladstone called First Last Snow, the seventh book in the Craft Sequence.
I didn't think much of it until I opened up up to stamp Withdrawn on it and noticed that the back flap blurb heralded the series as a "vicious satire of late capitalism" and described them as "loopy, metaphysically minded legal thrillers."
^^ & ^ I need to read these things. Unfortunately, our library account is deep-sixed at the moment, so I'd either have to literally go there to read them or fix my own account issues...
Alexander McCall Smith, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency:
"I said to him that Zululand sounded fine, but that every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map."
I liked it, but it feels like the severed prologue to a much longer story. Which is probably intentional, but it does leave me wanting more. Mieville seems to have switched from disappointing endings to no endings.
This Census-Taker was one of those intentionally vague stories that can either be good or bad. I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. It had some good vibes that I liked, but I would have liked a tiny bit more plot structure to it instead of it just running off of said vibes. It reminded me a little of the shadow world bits of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
"That's absurd," objected Milo, whose head was spinning from all the numbers and questions.
"That may be true," [the dodecahedron] acknowledged, "but it's completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself."
"That's absurd," objected Milo, whose head was spinning from all the numbers and questions.
"That may be true," [the dodecahedron] acknowledged, "but it's completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you'll have to make it yourself."
In an effort to actually whittle down my Goodreads list, I'm reading Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, which is strange in ways I can't really describe but great, based on the first few chapters.
I liked it, but it feels like the severed prologue to a much longer story. Which is probably intentional, but it does leave me wanting more. Mieville seems to have switched from disappointing endings to no endings.
I liked it, but it feels like the severed prologue to a much longer story. Which is probably intentional, but it does leave me wanting more. Mieville seems to have switched from disappointing endings to no endings.
so far one hundred years of solitude is one hundred pages (there happens to be a chapter boundary here) of weird anecdotes/legends with the occasional reminder that whatshisname is probably going to die later
i don't know what i expected but this isn't it. it's not like, bad, i just don't get it. most of them seem kind of irrelevant.
also the sex is so fucking gross, why does literature have to be like this, god
is there a book entitled one hundred days of solitude or are we talking about the book that went a good chunk of the way to getting Gabriel Garcia Marquez his nobel
I forgot to answer this, but it turns out there was a bridge made of birds but it's reason for being was somewhat depressing
Anyway since then I've read Devil in a Blue Dress (noirish novel about a black WWII vet doing nourish things), Goodbye 20th Century (Sonic Youth biography), Persepolis (I think you know that one), and i have The Fifth Season sitting around and will start it as soon as I can pry myself away from the Internet/on Monday when my internship starts.
The change came suddenly, as when a series of bioscope pictures snaps down on the streets of a town and shifts without warning into the scenery of lake and forest. We entered the land of desolation on wings, and in less than half an hour there was neither boat nor fishing-hut nor red roof, nor any single sign of human habitation and civilisation within sight.
It's basically saying "like a smash cut in a movie" but since it's 1907 and there are no movies it uses one of those dozen early picture show things with a weird name.
The change came suddenly, as when a series of bioscope pictures snaps down on the streets of a town and shifts without warning into the scenery of lake and forest. We entered the land of desolation on wings, and in less than half an hour there was neither boat nor fishing-hut nor red roof, nor any single sign of human habitation and civilisation within sight.
It's basically saying "like a smash cut in a movie" but since it's 1907 and there are no movies it uses one of those dozen early picture show things with a weird name.
It really is a delightfully sinister read, that story. And I do like that while he is using a comparison so dated, you still completely understand what he means and can picture it exactly in your head.
next hundred pages seem next beady somehow. maybe it's the war. the sex is still gross. i've heard people sometimes realize they're gay from reading some novel about it, well maybe i just started being asexual after reading shit like this and the cum swapping in dhalgren.
The change came suddenly, as when a series of bioscope pictures snaps down on the streets of a town and shifts without warning into the scenery of lake and forest. We entered the land of desolation on wings, and in less than half an hour there was neither boat nor fishing-hut nor red roof, nor any single sign of human habitation and civilisation within sight.
It's basically saying "like a smash cut in a movie" but since it's 1907 and there are no movies it uses one of those dozen early picture show things with a weird name.
It really is a delightfully sinister read, that story. And I do like that while he is using a comparison so dated, you still completely understand what he means and can picture it exactly in your head.
it helps that the second sentence is practically "by which i mean". also that when i was a kid i had one of those view-master gizmos where you'd flip between pictures fastlike.
Comments
I didn't think much of it until I opened up up to stamp Withdrawn on it and noticed that the back flap blurb heralded the series as a "vicious satire of late capitalism" and described them as "loopy, metaphysically minded legal thrillers."
so, i gave them a Google and http://www.npr.org/2015/06/27/416517818/the-craft-sequence-please-do-judge-these-books-by-their-covers
I am most intrigued!!
Good luck, dude.
I liked it, but it feels like the severed prologue to a much longer story. Which is probably intentional, but it does leave me wanting more. Mieville seems to have switched from disappointing endings to no endings.
a good quote, this is
(The other Jane)
(The other Jane)
i don't know what i expected but this isn't it. it's not like, bad, i just don't get it. most of them seem kind of irrelevant.
also the sex is so fucking gross, why does literature have to be like this, god
Anyway since then I've read Devil in a Blue Dress (noirish novel about a black WWII vet doing nourish things), Goodbye 20th Century (Sonic Youth biography), Persepolis (I think you know that one), and i have The Fifth Season sitting around and will start it as soon as I can pry myself away from the Internet/on Monday when my internship starts.
read the first story, kind of afraid to go further