What are you reading?

[coldbrightsunlight]

And The Ass Saw The Angel - Nick Cave

I loved that book. There was a kind of nagging "do I just like this because it's Nick Cave?" doubt for a while, but no it's just a good book. Not hugely original *cough*Faulkner*cough* but enjoyable and well written.

His other book, The Death of Bunny Munroe, is also worth a read imo.

[phantasmagorovich]

Reading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. Halfway through book 2 so far. It's good but has frustratingly long slow parts.

I lived this when it came out. You madme revisit and I totally see what you mean b saying slow. But on the other hand it can also be very beautiful despite the pace.

[jfrey]

Reading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. Halfway through book 2 so far. It's good but has frustratingly long slow parts.

I lived this when it came out. You madme revisit and I totally see what you mean b saying slow. But on the other hand it can also be very beautiful despite the pace.

If you want to read a beautiful fucking book read "The Dreaming Tree" by C. J. Cherryh. I highly recommend it.

On the subject of Tad Williams though, he did a Google Talk recently.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2bNYAFUsc[/youtube]

[Eric!]

[sonidero]

Elric and Corum books again...



He said Moorcock...

[The4455]

I've been on a Beat Generation kick, in the last month I've read:

Junky - William S. Burroughs
Women - Charles Bukowski
9 Stories - J.D. Salinger
The Judgement and In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka

and

I'm currently reading: "Queer" by William S. Burroughs.

[D.o.S.]

Ditch the early burroughs and go straight to naked lunch.

Also none of those dudes are really Beat writers.

[The4455]

Really, what would you call them then. I've already read Naked Lunch and seen the film, that's why I'm going back and reading his other books, which I enjoy.

[D.o.S.]

Well Franz Kafka was born in the wrong country, during the wrong time period, and doesn't really share any stylistic similarities with the Beats at all. Bukowski is likewise in the wrong era. The Beat generation is post-war proto-hippie--Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg, and so forth. So there, Salinger fits the timeline, but not the scene, or the style. The Beats were very much a scene (and very much a marketing presence for Allen Ginsberg to utilize).


Burroughs is often counted in with those guys, and definitely had significant relationships with Kerouac and Ginsberg (hence his inclusion in On the Road and his influence on Dr. Sax), but I've always felt that stylistically he was a lot more interesting with his literary ideas--especially later on, with his forays into Cut Up. He wasn't just droning on and on ala Kerouac or post-Howl Ginsberg.

Burroughs' older stuff, especially Queer (as it sat unreleased from the 50's, when he wrote it, til the 80's when someone offered him a ton of money), is interesting as a footnote to the rest of his career. It's worth reading, but not because it's particularly good--it's the Bleach to Lunch's Nevermind.

Full disclosure: I own Queer, Junky, Naked Lunch, and The Soft Machine (and I gave away my copy of The Hippos were Boiled in Their Tanks, the book he co-authored with Kerouac), and my last ever giant research paper for my alma mater's terminal English class was 30(?) pages of glorious academicizing about the differences between Burrough's decidedly straightforward style in his early work and his Naked Lunch/Soft Machine/Cut Up work. I'm a total Burroughs nerd, and so I'm stoked that you dig his stuff.

[The4455]

Thanks, that's all very good to know. It's a bit like putting labels on music as far as genre goes. But I enjoy them so it's not an argument to have. Thanks for the information, I look foward to reading some of Burroughs' favorites like "Confessions of an English opium Eater" and some "Alexander Pope," I really like rhyming!

[RR Bigman]

inb4 boring conversations about why the Bond novels aren't politically correct.

[jfrey]

Haha. I remember when I first read some of the Bond books and being like... holy shit this is racist...

[RR Bigman]

Haha. I remember when I first read some of the Bond books and being like... holy shit this is racist...

that's the smell of British imperialism

[jfrey]

God damn you Tad Williams. Every time it gets to a good part you switch character perspectives.

[fiddelerselbow]

Ditch the early burroughs and go straight to naked lunch.

Also none of those dudes are really Beat writers.

I liked Junky a lot but it pales in comparison to his later stuff.