what are you reading now?

[versh]

Ballard's the one I remember woops slagging off. He said he writes the same book over and over.

 

[versh]

youre always telling us how shit dick is. (or is that ballard? or both)

 

[woops]

i wait 25 years to be memed then 2 come along in one day.

 

[mvuent]

Please report back

it's one of the best books i've ever read so far. the author starts off by talking about the importance of simple values and family ties in her and janette's family. she discusses how fortunate janette was to be part of a christian heritage whose family tree can be traced back to numerous illustrious ancestors. this list includes fred steves and amy ruggles steves, who were simple folk, and praire farmers like many of janette's characters; heinrich and rachel stief, who immigrated to pennsylvania in 1766; and lewis stief, who was in something called the glanton gang and would do things like hunt for scalps and grab children by the ankles and swing them headfirst into a rock, idk i might be getting some of the details mixed up but it's a lot of family history stuff like that.

 

[okzharp]

Ferrara wanted to do a film where Forest Whitaker was Dr. Jekyll and 50 Cent was Mr. Hyde.

Do you still have ambitions to make Jekyll & Hyde?
I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it with Forest Whitaker and 50 Cent, and if it ever came up I would do it, but… I would do it. I think it’s such an amazing story, and it’s right in the groove of what we’re doing. Stevenson, when they asked him why it was such a short book, he said, “Because my wife woke me up.” You dig? That was, like, one dream he had. It was a short book because his wife woke him up — that’s such a fucking killer line. But it’s such a dream thing. It’s written like the perfect script, and it’s been made a hundred times and no one ever made it, because it’s not one guy turning into the other. Jekyll turning into Hyde, that’s the Wolf Man. Okay? He don’t turn into Hyde; Hyde is another person.
It’s a father-son story, really. He’s younger, he’s just a different guy than the distinguished doctor. He’s not a 52-year-old distinguished doctor. He’s a 30-year-old maniac kid who’s going out to rock-n-roll and fucking hurt people. These are two different people. You dig? You can’t do this with the same actor, and no one’s ever done it with two different actors. But that’s not the only reason I want to do it: I love the beauty of it, I love the father-son thing of it, I love the fact that he wrote it out of a dream. I just love the precision of the fucking book. I would do it line-by-fucking-line.

I would love it.
I would too, but don’t hold your breath. [Laughs] Read the book. Imagine my movie.

😂

!

A good film of Jekyll and Hyde is just not possible.

How about this for a neo-gothic late-capitalist dystopian double drama? J&H for scrolling anthropocenesters

 

[IdleRich]

!

A good film of Jekyll and Hyde is just not possible

Tell that to Borowczyk

 

[okzharp]

Tell that to Borowczyk

Surely Borowczyk proves my point? He had to take such departures from Stevenson's text that it's barely a film of the book.

 

[IdleRich]

Ooh good point, not sure if it's right but it sounds plausible

 

[wg-]

Reading Glass Arena by John Healy

Young kid boxer in abusive irish family ends up street alky/thief in the 60s then prison chess grandmaster (almost) to obtuse yoga practitioner writer etc

Fucking crackers book this surprised I'd never heard of it before

 

[wg-]

There's something about being the child of a drunk where the world can seem a strange elgaic place and the booze can end up your mate too, very easy i think

 

[jenks]

Agota Kristof’s Notebook Trilogy - one of the best things in ages. Each book in the series totally undermines the previous. It’s really about dysfunction caused by extreme events and an inability to tell the truth in a society - Hungary during the war and then soviet occupation - where so much has been repressed and where the people are so traumatised. Brilliant and bleak.

 

[....]

The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. Way more fun than I thought it would be. You who detest pretentious or convoluted language, look here!
The male lesbian character was inspired by Prince Myshkin. Because he looks like an idiot but he's really a saint! I'll say more about the similarities between the male lesbian and Prince Myshkin after I finish the book...

 

[....]

View attachment 15427

I'll have you know I guzzle Dick as much as I can!

 

[Clinamenic]

anthropocenesters

The pejorative term for the Pacific Garbage Patch Culture Mafia.

 

[entertainment]

gravitys rainbow, oscillating between annoyed and amazed

 

[luka]

by the end when you've finished the balance will tilt towards annoyed

 

[wektor]

Also attempted Pynchon, crying of lot 49. Feels like an old man who thinks he’s cool type writing, even though it felt mildly interesting at the start

 

[wg-]

Reading Glass Arena by John Healy

Young kid boxer in abusive irish family ends up street alky/thief in the 60s then prison chess grandmaster (almost) to obtuse yoga practitioner writer etc

Fucking crackers book this surprised I'd never heard of it before

Finished this today. Incredible book that, seems crazy that he managed to survive it and get through the other side.

Also found out it was out of print for 20+ years because he threatened to chop the head off of the Faber & Faber chief editor with an axe

Should probably read his other two now.

 

[IdleRich]

Forgot to mention a book I read called On The Bright Road by Paddy Figgis. A strange and quite difficult book which blurs the lines between a contemporary man dropping out of society - and maybe going mad - in a cottage in the Welsh woods, and a group of post-Roman Welsh warriors waiting for instructions from some kind of tribal leader. There's no real story as such, just loads of vivid and at times hallucinatory descriptions of the woods or hunting mingled in with Welsh myth and the two time-lines overlapping and mingling. Weird book but powerfully written and the mythic stuff may interest some.

Travelling, on holiday now, reading easy books that don't hurt my brain when I haven't slept, something called The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse, never read her before, didn't realise she wrote such page-turner type things. Easy to read, fun, historic thriller thing, reminded me a little of The Accursed Kings but not based on history to the same extent.

Now reading Cop Town, a clumsy stab at noir by Karin Slaughter, and, with hopefully a bit more to it, about to embark on We Have Always Lived In The Castle, maybe afterwards I will watch the film too.

 

[....]

Upon finishing The Idiot, I can confirm, Prince Myshkin is a male lesbian. He is innocent, unassuming, and benevolent to a world that shuns him. His personality is a testament to the good will of people, good will that other do not reciprocate for him. There is femininity in a man with the resilience to remain meek in the face of constant tragedy.