What books are you reading now?
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Psychic Robot
- Prince
- Posts: 4607
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 10:47 pm
By Reason of Insanity. Man-hater mother abuses child so he becomes a woman-hater. Has a tendency to sleep around, murder women, cut off their breasts, and have sex with their skulls.
Count Arioch wrote:I'm not sure how discussions on whether PR is a terrible person or not is on-topic.
Ant wrote:You do not seem to do anything.Chamomile wrote:Ant, what do we do about Psychic Robot?
very much in that gothic style with a little bit of pseudo horror from the time.Nicklance wrote:How is it so far?Cynic wrote:I'm just finishing up with this book. Probably wont get to.Nicklance wrote: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
I like it better than any of Jane Austen's books. But read those too.
It's good for the soul. Oh yes, it is.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
I'm reading the Chronicles of Conan.
That is, all the Ron Howard Conan stories in about a thousand pages.
It's allright. I can see why Conan's a popular character.
I can also see how far the genre has moved since then. And I can tell you that, yes, Howard definitely got along with Lovecraft.
I tried to plow through that fictional history of Hyperborea and it kept on bringing up bloodlines and how Pure Blood Is Good!!!1
The Scarlet Citadel was actually pretty good, up until it essentially went, "And these fools went up against the men of Gunderland, whose tall grim-eyed pure blood was unstoppable!1!" Even then, it was allright after that.
edit: Other bits of wisdom from Conan:
-Being tall and strong means Crom likes you and you win any fight against anyone who's stocky/wide-shouldered and strong.
-Being fat is a death sentence.
-No matter if you're good or evil, you will find exactly what or who you need in the most unlikely of circumstances.
That is, all the Ron Howard Conan stories in about a thousand pages.
It's allright. I can see why Conan's a popular character.
I can also see how far the genre has moved since then. And I can tell you that, yes, Howard definitely got along with Lovecraft.
I tried to plow through that fictional history of Hyperborea and it kept on bringing up bloodlines and how Pure Blood Is Good!!!1
The Scarlet Citadel was actually pretty good, up until it essentially went, "And these fools went up against the men of Gunderland, whose tall grim-eyed pure blood was unstoppable!1!" Even then, it was allright after that.
edit: Other bits of wisdom from Conan:
-Being tall and strong means Crom likes you and you win any fight against anyone who's stocky/wide-shouldered and strong.
-Being fat is a death sentence.
-No matter if you're good or evil, you will find exactly what or who you need in the most unlikely of circumstances.
Last edited by Maxus on Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Howard Zinn's relatively recent death prompted me to dig out my copy of People's History of the United States and finally read it.
It really is a fascinating and passionate book that does its best to present a different set of events (and, more importantly, the reasoning behind those events) than what you get in 8th grade social studies class. And, for the most part, Zinn's writing style is quite good.
My only problems with it so far:
1) He sometimes tends to overidealize certain oppressed groups, particularly Indians. He briefly mentions that he may have done this early on, but that still doesn't really excuse him.
2) His book can't really be considered an "objective" history text in the sense that he is writing from a very clear bias. Now, a lot of his argument is that pretty much every other history book ever written is suffering from some sort of bias, whether it be conscious or unconscious, but one might have hoped that he could have at least tried to be a bit more objective.But I'd say that, for example, John Garraty's The American Nation does a better job of presenting a more "complete" history experience and Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact is better at just examining bias in history sources.
It really is a fascinating and passionate book that does its best to present a different set of events (and, more importantly, the reasoning behind those events) than what you get in 8th grade social studies class. And, for the most part, Zinn's writing style is quite good.
My only problems with it so far:
1) He sometimes tends to overidealize certain oppressed groups, particularly Indians. He briefly mentions that he may have done this early on, but that still doesn't really excuse him.
2) His book can't really be considered an "objective" history text in the sense that he is writing from a very clear bias. Now, a lot of his argument is that pretty much every other history book ever written is suffering from some sort of bias, whether it be conscious or unconscious, but one might have hoped that he could have at least tried to be a bit more objective.But I'd say that, for example, John Garraty's The American Nation does a better job of presenting a more "complete" history experience and Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact is better at just examining bias in history sources.
Out beyond the hull, mucoid strings of non-baryonic matter streamed past like Christ's blood in the firmament.
If you know the bias, it certainly allows you to be more objective than if you don't (like many other books/documentaries).
We had to turn off a documentary about 'Hillbillies' because it kept glossing of things in really useless ways. It screwed up the battle of King's Mountain by not mentioning that the majority of the Redcoats force were conscripts and Fergusson was a marksman, and then completely skipped the civil war then mentions (but doesn't describe why) the Hatfield-McCoy feud, then went onto the unionizing fights without giving background of who was fucking who.
And it pissed off Sammi to no end that any of the film they produced themselves had completely the wrong weapons in the dramatizations and wouldn't ever mention the confederate/racist divide which powered many of the things they flashed pictures of, but never mentioned!
Grr. Bias is everywhere, but often you have to 'have some familiarity' to see it - it's not like they tell you.
-Crissa
We had to turn off a documentary about 'Hillbillies' because it kept glossing of things in really useless ways. It screwed up the battle of King's Mountain by not mentioning that the majority of the Redcoats force were conscripts and Fergusson was a marksman, and then completely skipped the civil war then mentions (but doesn't describe why) the Hatfield-McCoy feud, then went onto the unionizing fights without giving background of who was fucking who.
And it pissed off Sammi to no end that any of the film they produced themselves had completely the wrong weapons in the dramatizations and wouldn't ever mention the confederate/racist divide which powered many of the things they flashed pictures of, but never mentioned!
Grr. Bias is everywhere, but often you have to 'have some familiarity' to see it - it's not like they tell you.
-Crissa
Well, it was pretty horrid treatment. I'm not sure how you could cover it without it seeming heavy-handed.
On the Fergusson point, why wouldn't you point out that your gaggle of sharpshooters beat Britain's best? It's like, dumb. And then try to cover over the over the hillers' story they desecrated the corpse with 'well, he fired his pistol once, so we were totally in our rights to shoot him sixteen times point blank and urinate upon him.' They won, they were on our side, but they weren't heroes, so why try to trump them up like they were?
-Crissa
On the Fergusson point, why wouldn't you point out that your gaggle of sharpshooters beat Britain's best? It's like, dumb. And then try to cover over the over the hillers' story they desecrated the corpse with 'well, he fired his pistol once, so we were totally in our rights to shoot him sixteen times point blank and urinate upon him.' They won, they were on our side, but they weren't heroes, so why try to trump them up like they were?
-Crissa
What I don't understand is why "The Indians were treated like shit" is something that you would put in a book about how high school history classes are baised/wrong/whatever.
High school history books devote a good chapter or four to the noble savage vs ravenous industrialist conquerer assholes conflict. If you wanted to be fucking counter culture to high school history, the way to do it would be to claim that the NAs were not idyllic perfect saints martyred by the coming of the devil men.
High school history books devote a good chapter or four to the noble savage vs ravenous industrialist conquerer assholes conflict. If you wanted to be fucking counter culture to high school history, the way to do it would be to claim that the NAs were not idyllic perfect saints martyred by the coming of the devil men.
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
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CatharzGodfoot
- King
- Posts: 5668
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
- Location: North Carolina
Just a guess, but the high school history books you're talking about were probably written after The People's History.Kaelik wrote:High school history books devote a good chapter or four to the noble savage vs ravenous industrialist conquerer assholes conflict. If you wanted to be fucking counter culture to high school history, the way to do it would be to claim that the NAs were not idyllic perfect saints martyred by the coming of the devil men.
The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor from stealing bread, begging and sleeping under bridges.
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
-Anatole France
Mount Flamethrower on rear
Drive in reverse
Win Game.
-Josh Kablack
Because many high school books skip the 'indians were treated as shit' because it's unpleasant and not part of their personal history. Most of them died, after all.
There's a reason at the two highschools my highschool split into, at one Columbus Day is a un-noted day off and at the other one is a day of mourning and of remembrance (with fry bread).
-Crissa
There's a reason at the two highschools my highschool split into, at one Columbus Day is a un-noted day off and at the other one is a day of mourning and of remembrance (with fry bread).
-Crissa
Well, some of them. But one of the ones I used was 74, and it features the requisite two chapters of noble savage wank. Maybe it was just really liberal for it's time. The other ones I have are all late 80s/early 90s, so I only have one test case for before that.CatharzGodfoot wrote:Just a guess, but the high school history books you're talking about were probably written after The People's History.
But damn, the books 30 years old, maybe you should have mentioned that somewhere without me having to do a google search.
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
A lot of it is the whole "manifest destiny" national dream. The idea that TEH SOOPER DOOPER SPESHUL AND "plucky" (whatever the hell that means) AMERICANS managed to settle one of the world's largest countries in a comparatively short time. That national story doesn't have room for what is essentially genocide in it. I mean, we like to bitch at Turkey for what they've done with Armenians, but what we done is probably a lot worse. The only difference is that there aren't enough Indians or Indian land around for anyone to notice that they're not around.
It's the same reasoning behind the "American" consumption of national resources. Even though we have the highest GDP in the world by a lot and, as Frank is always quick to point out, we're the second oldest nation in the world, we're still a "frontier" nation populated by hardy woodsman who do Manly things to the environment and master it and build a cabin with their own two hands and bring their wives out and lay on top of her and have her pop out babies to help on the farm. Which is clearly a ridiculous assertation. But it's still there, unconsciously.
It's the same reasoning behind the "American" consumption of national resources. Even though we have the highest GDP in the world by a lot and, as Frank is always quick to point out, we're the second oldest nation in the world, we're still a "frontier" nation populated by hardy woodsman who do Manly things to the environment and master it and build a cabin with their own two hands and bring their wives out and lay on top of her and have her pop out babies to help on the farm. Which is clearly a ridiculous assertation. But it's still there, unconsciously.
Out beyond the hull, mucoid strings of non-baryonic matter streamed past like Christ's blood in the firmament.
Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay
Tolkienish fantasy with a little bit of an urban twist. I actually liked it quite a bit even if his writing is slow. but damned beautiful. Arthurian myths, celtic myth, and tolkien influences
Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
historical fiction set in a fictional world that resembles early spain.
ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
continues the Fionavar tapestry story 20 years later but in our world with only two of the original protagonists appearing as side characters. set in provence and uses provencal myths. nicely done.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
fantasy novel set in a fictional italy. story about a nation whose name and history gets erased by a wizard-king. and the story to get back that name by the people who still remember it.
The first two first law trilogy books by Joe Abercrombie.
It's rough and the fights are nice and the pacing is okay. It's not the best. not the worst.
Tolkienish fantasy with a little bit of an urban twist. I actually liked it quite a bit even if his writing is slow. but damned beautiful. Arthurian myths, celtic myth, and tolkien influences
Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
historical fiction set in a fictional world that resembles early spain.
ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
continues the Fionavar tapestry story 20 years later but in our world with only two of the original protagonists appearing as side characters. set in provence and uses provencal myths. nicely done.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
fantasy novel set in a fictional italy. story about a nation whose name and history gets erased by a wizard-king. and the story to get back that name by the people who still remember it.
The first two first law trilogy books by Joe Abercrombie.
It's rough and the fights are nice and the pacing is okay. It's not the best. not the worst.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
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Count Arioch the 28th
- King
- Posts: 6172
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Chris Rock made a mention of that in one of his stand-up shows. He said something along the lines of: "When was the last time you saw a family of Indians chilling at the Red Lobster?"Blicero wrote:. I mean, we like to bitch at Turkey for what they've done with Armenians, but what we done is probably a lot worse. The only difference is that there aren't enough Indians or Indian land around for anyone to notice that they're not around.
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angelfromanotherpin
- Overlord
- Posts: 9691
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
I just finished Maledicte again, and its sequel, Kings and Assassins. The sequel was good, but not as good as the first, which has taken the top spot as my favorite book.
I'm having a long-distance relationship with Higher Creativity: Liberating the Unconscious for Breakthrough Insights because it's on inter-library loan for only a week and my husband stole it. I'm probably going to have to borrow it from someone who owns it.
In retaliation for stealing that book, I started reading Why We Believe What We Believe. I found it after the author was cut off by Bill Maher in Religulous. I'm very interested in the biology of belief, so this book is proving to be very fascinating.
Ess also picked up a couple of throw-away romance novels on discount at the grocery - Dr. Yes, which was cute and quick, and A Girl's Guide to Vampires, which is absolutely infuriating.
I loathe the modern "heroine" - that whiny, semi-incompetent, self-conscious, ignorantly stubborn, completely presumptive piece of human flesh that no man should ever be attracted to. But somehow, the universe conspires to find some totally awesome hunky guy who loves her despite the bullshit. It's supposed to be funny, but after two pages, it's old... So very old.
That Woman gives all women a bad name. Not to mention destroys the environment by filling page after page of vivid, ink-laced descriptions of how much she is a desperate piece of garbage that no one has really loved up to now because she's so pathetic she couldn't even get a barrel of cocks to suck.
I'm having a long-distance relationship with Higher Creativity: Liberating the Unconscious for Breakthrough Insights because it's on inter-library loan for only a week and my husband stole it. I'm probably going to have to borrow it from someone who owns it.
In retaliation for stealing that book, I started reading Why We Believe What We Believe. I found it after the author was cut off by Bill Maher in Religulous. I'm very interested in the biology of belief, so this book is proving to be very fascinating.
Ess also picked up a couple of throw-away romance novels on discount at the grocery - Dr. Yes, which was cute and quick, and A Girl's Guide to Vampires, which is absolutely infuriating.
I loathe the modern "heroine" - that whiny, semi-incompetent, self-conscious, ignorantly stubborn, completely presumptive piece of human flesh that no man should ever be attracted to. But somehow, the universe conspires to find some totally awesome hunky guy who loves her despite the bullshit. It's supposed to be funny, but after two pages, it's old... So very old.
That Woman gives all women a bad name. Not to mention destroys the environment by filling page after page of vivid, ink-laced descriptions of how much she is a desperate piece of garbage that no one has really loved up to now because she's so pathetic she couldn't even get a barrel of cocks to suck.
Been reading the new revised version of Stephen King's The Gunslinger . It's definitely an improvement and ties in better with the rest of the series, and the wording is tightened up some. I'll keep my old copy seeing as it has full-colour pictures.
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Damn thing. Doublepost, sorta.
Last edited by Meikle641 on Sun May 02, 2010 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shit. Does this mean I need to read the whole series again?Meikle641 wrote:Been reading the new revised version of Stephen King's The Gunslinger . It's definitely an improvement and ties in better with the rest of the series, and the wording is tightened up some. I'll keep my old copy seeing as it has full-colour pictures.
Game On,
fbmf