I liked "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by PK Dick. It was really good. It's better than the movie (Blade Runner) in many ways. They left out so much strangeness . . . though the movie has its strengths too. That's my favorite book by him. I didn't like Man in the High Castle either. It's as if nothing was done with the premise. -------------------- I'm on a reading slump right now. I read a zero-star book that destroyed my love for reading. I mean, it's gone. I haven't read anything in a month. This is the longest I've gone without reading in decades. I'd like to dig up the author's corpse and launch it into the sun, because I don't want to even occupy the same planet as his remains. I'm disgusted by him and those "scholars" who declare him a genius when the book was clearly the pointless, long-winded confession of a hedonist. Also, the famous closing line is never discussed in context. It was more vicariousness on his part and what he wanted in a woman, one who would slake his sick lusts. He's just gross. This can be verified by reading the letters from him to various women. (I wish I wouldn't have done that either.) I look at pictures of him and I think that physiognomy may be real. It's like when you see John Wayne Gacy and you just know he has bodies hidden in the crawlspace. It's all so obvious. It's there for all to see. The author kind of looks like Albert Fish with his sunken eyes and sallow face. Yuck. Of the three worst books I've ever read, which I do not deem worthy of even a fraction of a star, this may have been the worst. No, it was. It earns negative stars. It's an anti-book. It is not even worthy of being named. ----------- I think I understand how to come out of this. A long, long time ago, when I was in high school, I picked up this book called "The Lord of the Rings". The author had written this other book called "The Hobbit", which I loved. And so I picked up this "Rings" book I'd never really heard of. In context: I lived in a small town. None of this had been committed to movies or was part of the popular culture. It wasn't like today. I got to the part where Gandalf (he's a wizard) falls off a bridge and dies, and I quit reading it because I was heartbroken. He was my favorite character. I think I might try to rekindle my love of reading by finally picking up this book and trying again. I'll start from page 1, and though I've heard hints of how it ends, I'll pretend it's the old days and the story is new to me. (I'm joking about the ending. I've seen the movies many times.) It'll be about the same word count, I think, and it will cancel out the horrors of unamed.
Norman Mailer? That would check several boxes: uber renowned/praised, sick horny fucker, creepy looking.
im curious, too.... American Literature, British Literature, Other? have you read (and shared on here) another book by this author? Is the title 5 words long?
i’m reading to the lighthouse by virginia woolf. incidentally, it’s the only “new book” i’ve bought for years. I went to Barnes and Nobel…big move. it’s such a lovely book so far. I think it will continue to impress me but that remains to be seem. the effect of woolf’s language is really beautiful. mrs. ramsay reminds me of my aunt. very cool stuff!
I'm not much in the literary sphere but I assumed heptahat there was talking about Lolita by Nabokov.
Took a little head scratching to figure out who heptahat was. I had to look up hepta. Yeah, I don't think anybody would say Nabokov was a bad writer. Humbert Humbert a despicable character, yes, but that's a whole different enchilada, and I don't think there's any indication he was a self-insert.
... and a cherry for good measure? But yes -- I'm also curious. FWIW, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is superb. I was re-reading it the other day, not just for enjoyment, but to think of ways of describing the world that our protagonists pass through (something that I haven't thought about much previously, because I was impatient to "get to the action". But describing the story-world is so damn important. Sigh. I wish I thought about that years ago).
You know, the more I think about it, it seems likely Nor the Landscape was right. Oh, and if he had said Sepatahats I would've got that immediately. Somehow the H on the begining threw me. I was thinking about air filters. The use of the word women made me think it couldn't be Nabokov, but that might have been almost a deliberate mislead—the more accurate word would have given it away immediately. And I don't believe the writing itself was actually impugned now that I think about it.
honestly, the first time I read it, I thought NtT was trying to spell "Hatshepsut" and was wondering what the Egyptian pharaoh had to do with the conversation. and now my brain wont let me read "heptahat" as anything else
Time for some forensics here. 6 books in LotR, the un-nameable is of similar length. That rules out quite a few. Genius, but by scholarly rep only? Hmmm, interesting. Pointless, long-winded and hedonist? Famous closing line? Vicariousness? Sick lusts and letters to women? Has seven endured where so many of us have failed and completed Ulysses? It's got all that and closes with Molly's monologue, a vicarious expression of Joyce's fantasies. Not sure about Joyce's physical dimensions, but could be, and the rest fits. @Seven Crowns, LotR has so much more to offer and will absolutely rekindle the wonder at what written word can do.
You're very clever, Detective Nugent. Too clever. I will not commit any crimes at the country club while you're around!
And he has Defender. Haha. That's perfect. And I love anything that let's me tap or untapped any permanent essentially. Too bad it's only an opponent's action that triggers it, though.
i have ulysses sitting on my coffee table…might be a good time to read it. @Seven Crowns, are there any modernist novels you do like? i casually trawled back through this thread and have seen you almost uniformly revile most of what you’ve read from woolf and joyce and faulkner. no offense hopefully, i’m just curious.
I'd be interested to hear back how you get on. I tried and was determined to just get through it but just had to abandon. At my sister's suggestion I went to Youtube for a reading of it, found one very well put together by an actor named Kenneth Whitacre. I put it on every so often in the car, haven't yet finished the 9 hours of Part 1, but he does put a musicality into the language. Still got no idea what's going on though, but it can provoke some daydreaming about stories I'm writing.
I bought it along with a book explaining what happens in each section—you read a chapter of one followed by a chapter of the other (though I broke it down to a few pages of each at a time. Much more digestable). I don't think I made it through the first chapter. But I never intended to read the whole thing. I don't think it was ever meant to be read for pleasure or as a story. I just wanted to see a well-known example of some very poetic language used in what's ostensibly prose. It was during the Poetry/Romanticism thread on my blog.
stately plump buck mulligan white breast of the dim sea etc. i will i will i will yes yes i will or something ulysses abridged?
Yeah, I don't like Virginia Woolf in the slightest. I always give her 1 star. I don't ever plan on reading more by her. I kind of liked "As I Lay Dying" by Faulkner. Some of it was cool. It was okay on average. I haven't liked anything else he's done. The Sound and the Fury was inscrutable, but had some nice moments. Herman Hesse was so so. I only read Steppenwolf by him, since that's his famous book. I liked parts of Jude the Obscure by Hardy, but I didn't love the book. It was alright. I usually like Hemingway. I've read four or five titles by him. I like all of Kafka's stuff. I just wish those unfinished novels were finished . . . Albert Camus is a genius, and he's always at the top of my lists. I plan on reading everything by him. John Updike is a personal favorite of mine. His "Rabbit at Rest" is one of the best Pulitzers. (That whole series is good.) Borges is sort of a modernist/magical-realism writer. I see he lands in those lists. I consider him one of the best writers of the 20th century. I really think of him more of a magical realism guy (perhaps THE magical realism guy) than a modernist though. If Kafka counts as modernist (he's always in those lists), then Abe Kobo certainly gets to be there too. He's badass. The only problem with Mr. Abe is the weakness of some of the translations. Sometimes they fall apart because of the translator, which is a shame. "The Woman in the Dunes" was really great by him. It was frustrating because of the plot (it was meant to be, it's about being trapped in a system), but was really compelling.
I'm still not sure who or what heptahat is/was. Etymologically speaking, "hepta" is "seven", and "hat" is -- well, "hat" ... but the only context I've heard "hepta" in is the Heptarchy, the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, that flourished until they were partially subsumed by the Vikings (and wholly by the Normans). So what is a "heptahat"? Curious Rath is Curious.
