What are you reading now?

[vinteuil]

.

... o, I think you shd read Tolkien for the sex. And the well-developed characterization of the women in the story.


.

[MrGongGong]

.

... o, I think you shd read Tolkien for the sex. And the well-developed characterization of the women in the story.


.

It makes a much better film than a book IMV

[Richard Barrett]

It makes a much better film than a book

I've made two attempts to watch the first film, once in the cinema and once on video, and both times I lasted about an hour before giving up, so if that's better than the book I guess I'll never even try to read it. When it comes to stolen rings and dwarves and stuff I think I'll stick with Wagner.

[french frank]

I've made two attempts to watch the first film, once in the cinema and once on video, and both times I lasted about an hour before giving up, so if that's better than the book I guess I'll never even try to read it. When it comes to stolen rings and dwarves and stuff I think I'll stick with Wagner.

Strange how people divide up on this: devoted or find it tedious. I'm in the 'tedious' camp - not keen on fantasy/science fiction (not keen on Wagner either, pace the music). I like narratives to be anchored in reality, whatever the imaginary, creative meanderings.

[teamsaint]

I've made two attempts to watch the first film, once in the cinema and once on video, and both times I lasted about an hour before giving up, so if that's better than the book I guess I'll never even try to read it. When it comes to stolen rings and dwarves and stuff I think I'll stick with Wagner.

LOTR2 cinema trip was a birthday treat for younger son, who had , as it goes, a middle earth hair style at the time. Sort of like the Elves.

I didn't think that walking out would be polite, though I wanted to, but it did seem to be an almost endless battle , with a disastrous casualty toll for the Orks, mostly.

Actually, Middle Earth personal grooming fashions seem to have taken quite a hold among young men.

Anyway, currently, Stravinsky, Eric Walter White.

[Richard Barrett]

not keen on fantasy/science fiction (...) I like narratives to be anchored in reality, whatever the imaginary, creative meanderings.

I am quite keen on science fiction, which actually is always anchored in reality - witness the differences in the "futures" imagined at different times in the past 60 years.

[french frank]

I am quite keen on science fiction, which actually is always anchored in reality - witness the differences in the "futures" imagined at different times in the past 60 years.

Maybe I'm being more concrete in what I think of as reality - I'm always having it explained to me that Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Discworld &c. reflect very real situations and people. Perhaps. I won't disagree. But I still have no interest in science fiction and science fantasy (and, if truth be told, find their enormous popularity, a bit tiresome ).

[Pulcinella]

Have just dowloaded eight free Gissing works (including New Grub Street) onto my kindle; thanks for the pointer.

Actually just finished the third of the Booker shortlist I'm ploughing through (and The leopard awaits, too!): Exit West.
A disturbing read, but some clever and imaginative writing.
There's a paragraph (starting p104) which, after a sentence of some 30 words, is one long, beautifully composed, single other sentence that goes on till the middle of p106!

I'm not a great fan of LotR either (too many 'cliffhangers' that you know Gandalf will sort out for our heroes, one way or another) and haven't seen all the films, but the one I did see that included huge battle scenes (the second?) was, I thought, very impressive in scale and content. Middle Earth fashion? Did they buy their clothes in Next and Gap?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I still have no interest in science fiction and science fantasy (and, if truth be told, find their enormous popularity, a bit tiresome ).

I thought you'd recommended The Glass Bead Game on the "Nobel Ishiguro" Thread?

[Richard Barrett]

Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Discworld &c.

Hardly a selection of the most intelligent and profound examples of the genre!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hardly a selection of the most intelligent and profound examples of the genre!

Watch your mouth - Pratchett is!

(And Doctor Who shouldn't feature in a Thread on literature.)

[Richard Barrett]

I thought you'd recommended The Glass Bead Game on the "Nobel Ishiguro" Thread?

Well, quite. And indeed Ishiguro Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant himself uses SF and fantasy respectively as media for addressing more immediate concerns. Not to mention Margaret Atwood... it isn't all populist stuff about time travel and magic.

[Richard Barrett]

Watch your mouth - Pratchett is!

Oops. I shall have to admit my complete ignorance of his work and provisionally take your word for that.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, quite. And indeed Ishiguro Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant himself uses SF and fantasy respectively as media for addressing more immediate concerns. Not to mention Margaret Atwood... it isn't all populist stuff about time travel and magic.

"Fantasy" is a genre essential to Literature - Beowulf, the Sagas, The Faerie Queene, Doctor Faustus, Utopia, The Tempest, The Pilgrim's Progress, Gulliver's Travels, Beloved, Sexing the Cherry, The Name of the Rose ... it can be argued that it is the chief generator of Literature before the late Eighteenth Century decided that it should be about the "everyday" lives of the Middle Class readership. Indeed, if Austen, George Eliot, Tolstoy and a tiny few others weren't so irritatingly good, there's an argument to be made that the "sub-journalist" "realistic" novel marks a serious decline in the aspirations and achievement of Literature.


(I put The Pilgrim's Progress in just to show that even a badly-thought, badly-written, and self-satisfied work can still qualify! Pratchett is a much, much greater writer than this.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm currently reading - and greatly enjoying - Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, by the way; and re-reading (and greatly re-enjoying) Richard Ellmann's Ulysses on the Liffey - which is making me keen to re-read Joyce after a fifteen-year gap.