The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[Christemo]

get Bey

[Dullahan]

sorry m8, koga a cute

[Dullahan]

Okay, so I finished it.

it wasn't bad but like i can't figure out why this book exists

[Historia]

it wasn't bad but like i can't figure out why this book exists

You could say that about a lot of books.

[SeiKeo]

Okay, so I finished it.

it wasn't bad but like i can't figure out why this book exists

Because Russia is probably the short answer but I may be able to elaborate?

[Dullahan]

like, did pelevin have some spiritual awakening which he then communicated by dropping acid and writing about an ahri-lolita mashup having kinky werewolf sex while satirising post-soviet russia

[SeiKeo]

like, did pelevin have some spiritual awakening which he then communicated by dropping acid and writing about an ahri-lolita mashup having kinky werewolf sex while satirising post-soviet russia

Probably?

But, knowing some of the rest of his stuff, the primary focus is on world creation, and how information and perception informs reality. Generation P is basically this with a focus on advertising and capitalism. I admit that I don't really have a complete theory of how to work this particular book, but I think it shares the same overarching goal as other New Sincerist writing, which is "how to live in a world that appears to have no more place to stand?" So to speak, wrt stand.

[Dullahan]

fuck me, i need to sit down and read something that predates postmodernism

some decent nineteenth-century novel with all the totalising discourses my palpitating heart desires

[SeiKeo]

Oh, good, now you're a perfect student for Tolstoy.

[Dullahan]

honestly, my favourite nineteenth-century book is The Count of Monte Cristo

wrt Russian stuff, Dostoevsky was always more my style

Lise from Brothers Karamazov: literal 1880s waifu material - and let us not even begin to speak of the myriad wonders of Grushenka and Katarina Ivanovna

At any rate, I'm actually reading Louis-Ferdinand Celine's Journey to the End of the Night at the moment. Bardamu is fucking hilarious. It's becoming increasingly obvious how it influenced Catch-22.

[Skull]

honestly, my favourite nineteenth-century book is The Count of Monte Cristo.

Me too man, great book.

Anyway, i'm reading Raymond Chandler at the moment, I found "The Big Sleep" much too boring so i skipped it for "Farewell, My Lovely".

[Christemo]

Almost finished with Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. This was not what I expected to read, and it's been a pleasant surprise so far. I had walked into it thinking it was gonna be really simple, but the whole theme of Jekyll's elixir not just being a switch to the dark side of man, but also how it basically predicted Freud's entire psychological interpretation.

[Dullahan]

yeah, these really famous horror stories are often a lot more complex than people think they are

probably because they've been absorbed into pop culture in a very simplified archetypal form

also, remind me, is it the original or one of the adaptations which has Utterson's line "If he shall be Mr. Hyde, then I shall be Mr. Seek!"

because that was just perfect

it was exactly the kind of unfunny joke someone like Utterson would make

[Seika]

I'm 99% sure I read that in the original. It's been so long since I read it, I'm surprised it sparks such immediate recognition.

(Yep).

[Christemo]

Yeah I actually started laughing out loud in the middle of a cafe I was reading in because that joke was just so on point. Fucking love Utterson.

[VasilikiHaidee]

Finished Kafka's Metamorphosis and Other Stories. I expected just surreal tales but no. Not the entertainment I expected and it was more personal as I see it.

Enjoyed it that I had, I had a hard time with Kafka.

Now on to Naoya Shiga's Paper Door and other stories, and craving more for more awesome short stories. Can anyone recommend?

[Skull]

@VasilikiHaidee, I would recommend Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. They're macabre and often involve mystery.
Ryuunosuke Akutagawa is another good source of short stories. Especially "Rashomon".
Finally, though they might be hard to find these days, Edogawa Ranpo's stories as well. Especially "Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination".

Hope this helps~ ^_^

[Petrikow]

Poe's short stories are certainly interesting, though to the modern man they might come across as a bit cliche. I like that they are very easy to digest, he put a lot of emphasis on "short" in "short story".

When it comes to horror short stories, "Let the old dreams die" is a collection I liked when I first read it (or rather "Paper walls" as it was released here). Though I imagine some of the references to Swedish culture by Ajvide go lost on foreign audiences.

[Christemo]

Finished Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. and wow. That final confessional letter was easily the best part of the whole ordeal. Great book overall. Not fantastic or mindblowing really, but I could see how this thing became a massive deal when it was released.

Next is Project ITOH's Metal Gear Solid 4 novelization, with the Stevenson short stories that are also in my copy of Jekyll and Hyde (Nicholas Rance's Everyman's Library version) to read on the side when I need a 20-page wonder.

[Historia]

What I've been reading lately are various authors' works collected into, you know, big volume. Whether they be entire short stories, or excepts from certain books. Currently, I'm going through The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. What I like about these things are, sometimes, they translate works that would never have been exclusively for the volumes. Kind of nice.

110 works starting from 1908 to 2010. If anyone wants a list of the titles and authors, I could post it. Might take a little time to do so (since I have to write them all out).