What Are You Reading? Chapter 7

[Dr Dave]

Revisiting:

[Sergio Zamora]

Hi Baksheesh. Haven't seen you here in a while.

One of the things that makes the book so absorbing is the ability to draw the reader into the mind set of that period (in at least as much as we fancy that to be possible),

I was actually bothered a little at first by the way Eco makes the proto-modern Baskerville a little too modern, but as the novel progressed I found it to be much more nunaced and complex and perhaps only a little exaggerated within the confines of acceptable suspension of disbelief.

Lesser authors of historical fiction grant their protagonist a perfect prescient hindsight wisdom because it's an easy to score sympathy points, but if they go too far it becomes cheap sentimentalism. This came to mind last week when I watched the movie "The Help". I liked it for the strong performances, but there's no question it was hardcore liberal porn.

But it doesn't hold a candle to Patrick O'Brien.

I'll keep the name in mind.

Incidentally, on your recommendation I read some Vance. I read this:



Just Suldrun's Garden, not the entire trilogy. I really liked it. Vance knows how to write a sentence. I don't read a lot of epic fantasy because there's a lot of crap derivative of Tolkien and D&D. These works are based on british (and I suppose celtic) mythology.

Its pre-Arthurian setting was a really great canvas for creating a fantastical world. The integration of the complex and plausible political situation reminded me of George R R Martin, who is a big fan of Vance.

At the same time, I really liked the long detours into dark fairy tales. Especially the middle section, a coming-of-age narrative with giants and trolls and lost children, and it reads almost like a novella within the novel.

[Dr Dave]

You didn't really finish the Lucretius, did you??

I didn't, either. A little physics in verse goes a long way. Did read The Swerve, though, which was just okay.

[Sergio Zamora]

I didn't, either. A little physics in verse goes a long way.

I don't know why ancient-timey people would write something like this in verse. I suppose it was to facilitate teaching since there weren't many copies of books and poetry may have served as a mnemonic device.

[baksheesh]

Incidentally, on your recommendation I read some Vance. I read this:



Just Suldrun's Garden, not the entire trilogy. I really liked it. Vance knows how to write a sentence. I don't read a lot of epic fantasy because there's a lot of crap derivative of Tolkien and D&D. These works are based on british (and I suppose celtic) mythology.

Its pre-Arthurian setting was a really great canvas for creating a fantastical world. The integration of the complex and plausible political situation reminded me of George R R Martin, who is a big fan of Vance.

At the same time, I really liked the long detours into dark fairy tales. Especially the middle section, a coming-of-age narrative with giants and trolls and lost children, and it reads almost like a novella within the novel.

I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed that one Sergio! As you say he really knows how to write a sentence. Some of the most enjoyable writing I've encountered in any genre. My other recommendations still stand - his sci-fi stuff is the creme-de-la-creme.

Interesting to hear that Martin is a big fan of Vance. I know Gene Wolfe was also - lifted the inspiration for his setting of The Book of the New Sun from Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth. Incidentally that would be another good one to pick up - the two books about Cugel are some of the funniest stuff I've read.

On a lighter note, apparently the mechanics of magic and its use in Dungeons & Dragons is termed Vancean Magic, as Gygax followed Vance's principles in TotDE.

[baksheesh]

Am in the middle (well a third of the way through) rereading this incredible series. One of the most consistently enjoyable series of books in any genre. Too many strengths to list, but a wry sense of humour is not least among them, and an incredible sense of drama, and ability to write thrillingly engaging action sequences that are cinematic in their vividness.

[bluenoter]

Sergio! Baksheesh! Anybody! I'm dying here. This Jack Vance story/novella is one of my favorite works on earth (and warmly recommended to any member of a jazz message board, let alone a Vance fan).

I hope you'll read it (when you get a round tuit). I'd love to know what you think of it.

I just found The Moon Moth online in its entirety. . . . Maybe the reading conditions are less wretched if one prints it out.

[Uli]

Am in the middle (well a third of the way through) rereading this incredible series. One of the most consistently enjoyable series of books in any genre. Too many strengths to list, but a wry sense of humour is not least among them, and an incredible sense of drama, and ability to write thrillingly engaging action sequences that are cinematic in their vividness.

I only read this by him and really enjoyed it. When you say a series is it with the same charectors and is the ionaian mission part of the series?

[baksheesh]

I only read this by him and really enjoyed it. When you say a series is it with the same charectors and is the ionaian mission part of the series?

It is indeed Uli. There's 20 in the series (not counting an unfinished final book) and they're well worth catching up with if you can get hold of 'em. Sustained brilliance is the only word for it. The Ionian Mission is no. 8 in the series by the way.

@ Rita : I'm currently reading Moon Moth and enjoying it. Very interesting wrinkle re the use of musical instruments. One of Vance's great strengths is how he creates elaborate and fantastical societies, with their own cultures, morals, flora and fauna.

Fave line so far :

Thissell considered the message with dismay. In coming to Fan as Consular Representative he had expected nothing like this; he felt neither inclination nor competence in the matter of dealing with dangerous assassins.

[Sergio Zamora]

My other recommendations still stand - his sci-fi stuff is the creme-de-la-creme.

It appears that his entire oeuvre is now available on e-book, which wasn't true not too long ago. Including his mystery novels.

Incidentally that would be another good one to pick up - the two books about Cugel are some of the funniest stuff I've read.

It took me some time find it because it was re-issued as Mazirian the Magician

[gonzo]

i like walter mosley!!!

[steve(thelil)]

i like walter mosley!!!

what don't you like about walter?

[Monte Smith]

what don't you like about walter?

Boo.

[baksheesh]

It appears that his entire oeuvre is now available on e-book, which wasn't true not too long ago. Including his mystery novels.



It took me some time find it because it was re-issued as Mazirian the Magician

Does that mean you're currently reading it? I'd be very interested as to your opinion. The Dying Earth omnibus, which - as well as the two Cugel books - includes Rhialto the Marvellous (which I also loved) and Tales of the Dying Earth - which was his reputation maker, and still a mesmerisingly atmospheric read - is probably the best buy.

[baksheesh]

Jared Diamond - Collapse. An intriguing, somewhat depressing read. Still on chapter 3, which deals with the remote East Polynesian Islands Mangareva, Pitcairn and Henderson as an example of an interrelated economy which collapsed. The previous chapter dealt with the always intriguing, yet unspeakably grim history of Easter Island.

Interesting he chooses to lead off the book with Montana, for reasons he explains at some length.

[Sergio Zamora]

Does that mean you're currently reading it? I'd be very interested as to your opinion.

Not at the moment. It's just on my to-read shortlist.

[stonemonkts]

This came to me in the mail from a friend.

[clinthopson]

I have been immersed in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri.

Montalbano is a Sicilian cop who uses some unusual ways to investigate crimes. The humor of the writing moves it above the usual police procedural but the thing that makes it special is that Montalbano eats as well as any character I've come across. At least once during a novel a detailed recipe for some Sicilian specialty is given.

If you like to eat, this is down your alley.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Jared Diamond - Collapse. An intriguing, somewhat depressing read. Still on chapter 3, which deals with Mangareva, Pitcairn, Henderson as an example of an interrelated economy which collapsed. The previous chapter dealt with the always intriguing, yet unspeakably grim history of Easter Island.

Interesting he chooses to lead off the book with Montana, for reasons he explains at some length.

I liked Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel a lot better than this later book, which I found overlong although not without interest

But the theories behind GG&S seemed more substantial, the factoids were very much more interesting, and I took away from it many more enduring stories -- the one-time inventions of a phonetic alphabet in the Middle East and the wheel in the Caucasus, the reverse engineering of the QWERTY keyboard, the role agriculture in disease and immunity, etc

Less happening in the later book, I thought

[baksheesh]

I liked Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel a lot better than this later book, which I found overlong although not without interest

But the theories behind GG&S seemed more substantial, the factoids were very much more interesting, and I took away from it many more enduring stories -- the one-time inventions of a phonetic alphabet in the Middle East and the wheel in the Caucasus, the reverse engineering of the QWERTY keyboard, the role agriculture in disease and immunity, etc

Less happening in the later book, I thought

Guns, Germs and Steel is definitely his magnum opus I'd say - one of the most insightful, informative and downright illuminating books of it's kind I've read.

Collapse I am finding interesting in large part for his ability to paint a vivid picture of the various societies he examines, cramming a huge quantity of information into a brief space, He also drives his overall points home very convincingly indeed. He makes his argument/statement of the case in the introduction and then proceeds to back it up with example after example until one is quite overwhelmed.

It seems that at root of most social catastrophes is sheer human fuckery. The descriptions of the some of the end games to which societies have come is astonishingly grim, and he obviously has a great deal of empathy for the people who lived and died in those times.

[Monte Smith]

This came to me in the mail from a friend.

Let me know how it is. Cormac McCarthy with a sense of humor is something I shudder to chuckle at.

I'm reading a bunch of stuff. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2012, for one thing. I was given that for beach reading for my birthday (THANKS FOR NOT REMEMBERING YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES) which is a great 1500-page magazine on every Anglophile's favorite sport. I didn't really know much about cricket beyond the basics before cracking it, but now I have absorbed articles on the state of the global game, the (shaky) emergence of England as #1 Test team, the scourge of depression among sportsmen, corruption and lethargy in Dubai, match fixing, Five Cricketeers of the Year, cliches, why cricket is not in the Olympics, the West Indies, bouncers, women, and a score of other weirdly entertaining digressions. Plus a hell of a lot of stats, which I begin to comprehend. It is probably the best gift I have gotten since the complete writings of Reverend John Wesley in seven volumes. (AND LIKE THAT I BOUGHT IT FOR MYSELF. YOU FUCKERS! YOU TOTALLY SELFISH FUCKERS!).

Also reading a book called CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE by a Quaker theologian, Richard Foster. I'm reading that one partly for a work project, partly for myself and it is proving to be rewarding on both sides of the equation. It's about timeless spiritual practices. Aum.

Continuing with Shusaku Endo. His VOLCANO is an early one (1959) and so far it is my favorite next to the early, equally readable WONDERFUL FOOL. A central theme of his work is that Christianity has no place in Japan and for "Japan" read Earth. Brilliant, deep writer.

[Dr Dave]

I don't know why ancient-timey people would write something like this in verse. I suppose it was to facilitate teaching since there weren't many copies of books and poetry may have served as a mnemonic device.

That sounds about right.

[baksheesh]

That sounds about right.

Yep.

[walto]

Waugh, Charles Ryder's School Days and Other Stories

[Sergio Zamora]

[Monte Smith]

Terrible book, not as bad as Falconer, but definitely weak shit. I love Cheever for his Wapshot books and for his story, "The Sorrows of Gin."

[Sergio Zamora]

Terrible book, not as bad as Falconer, but definitely weak shit.

I allow the possibility that I just didn't get it, but basically yeah, I agree. There were two parallel stories, one of which was ok and had potential. The other one was weak sauce.

[rollhead]

Waugh, Charles Ryder's School Days and Other Stories

Ordered Decline and Fall because Alexander suggests starting at the beginning.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Let me know what you think about that one, SdcS.

Monte: The premise is that the civil rights movement in the 50s correctly identified segregation's Jim Crow laws as the most important target for their action and attention, because they legalized a caste system, disenfranchised many and prevented further change. The current rights movement continues to focus on maintaining affirmative action, which deals with the upper end of the black community. But the author argues that "Mass incarceration -- not attacks on affirmative action or lax civil rights enforcement -- is the most damaging manifestation of the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement."

Much of book is give to the scope of the problem, some samples:

"The effect of the drug war has been astounding. In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase. The United States now has the highest level of incarceration in the world." Germany incarcerates 93 per 100,000 population, U.S.A. locks up 750 per 100,000. "No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."

She argues that historically there is a tenuous link between crime rates and penalties. "Between 1960 and 1990, for example, official crime rates in Finland, Germany, and the United States were close to identical. Yet the U.S. incarceration rate quadrupled, the Finnish rate fell by 60 percent, and the German rate was stable in that period. Despite similar crime rates, each government chose to impose different levels of punishment."

She argues that the de facto effect of this is a caste system, many ex-cons can't vote, can't get jobs, etc.

Not a scintillating read, but the content is powerful and urgent enough to render that almost irrelevant.

[Monte Smith]

Thanks for getting back to me about this one, SdcS.