what are you reading today?

[benriya]

[Baeyer-Drewson]

If this is what it is, have you ever seen the movie?

WOW is all I can say.

Even though the film was directed by Cronenberg (who's work I usually like) it pales in comparison to the richness of the book. Naked Lunch is just one of those surreal books that is not adaptable to film at all in my opinion.

[femelle]

I'm too afraid to see what they did with it on screen. I don't want it to be ruined! Is it worth seeing?

Even though the film was directed by Cronenberg (who's work I usually like) it pales in comparison to the richness of the book. Naked Lunch is just one of those surreal books that is not adaptable to film at all in my opinion.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

I'm too afraid to see what they did with it on screen. I don't want it to be ruined! Is it worth seeing?

In my opinion, no. If you consider it as an entirely separate entity to the book, rather than an adaptation, then probably yes.

I just finished the road, by mccarthy. damn. i haven't been so moved by a book in a long time. i had tears welling in my eyes for the last 15 pages. i honestly can't remember the last time a book had that effect on me.

continuing with the survivalist theme (but infinitely less emotionally draining) i'm reading this:

[femelle]

^ I love it.

Haven't read the road, however been told to several times. I'm going to have to pick it up, aren't I

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

Haven't read the road, however been told to several times. I'm going to have to pick it up, aren't I

Yes. Yes you are.

[redgrail]

Yes. Yes you are.

Might as well pick up all works of Cormac McCarthy. Or at least the Border Trilogy. It's worth it.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

So regrail, are all of McCarthy's works as bleak as The Road, Blood Meridian, and No Country For Old Men?

[redgrail]

The Road is by far the bleakest thing he's written, but none of his books are exactly cheery...

[NESK]

Funny you said this.

I was just reading back through this thread, and that's actually just what I've done. Finished Clockers 2 nights ago, and jumped right into Lush Life. I gave it a shot when it came out, but only got 50 pages in. I'm halfway through as of now, and I'm enjoying it, though it feels a little hollow to me. Like, perhaps in "inventing" Dempsy, New Jersey, Price avoided some of what i feel are the pit-falls of writing about a contemporary LES that i'm so familiar with.

I don't know. This is probably better discussed elsewhere, but I've got some issues with Price in general, though i think he's a pretty excellent writer.

i had no idea until this thread that price wrote for the wire. ive never even seen an ep of that show. ima have to rent them season by season now. you just cost me a few hours of my life and i might come looking for you to get them back if im not satisfied.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^It is impossible for you not to be satisfied by the wire. Au contraire, you may be so satisfied that when it ends (inevitably) you find yourself insatiably itchy. This is known as withdrawal. It happens so seldomly with television that you may not immediately recognise the symptoms. If the problem persists see your doctor.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Because I can't get enough of The Wire, and Price wrote a few episodes, I'm reading this at the same time as Zombie Survival Guide:

Thanks to the people in this thread for the heads-up! I'm loving this book like Winehouse loves rock.

[femelle]

One of the original dirty books

[automaton]

I just finished the road, by mccarthy. damn. i haven't been so moved by a book in a long time. i had tears welling in my eyes for the last 15 pages. i honestly can't remember the last time a book had that effect on me.

I had this exact same reaction finishing the Road, I mean, it was really fucking sad when he goes back to check on his dad at the very end

Like you I don't have this sort of reaction very often, if in fact, ever, to books that I read. Not that I don't read some tragic shit now and again, but damn McCarthy nailed it on this one.

I kind of don't want to see the movie whenever it comes out because I know that no matter how good it is, it will never compare to how beautiful and sad the book was. Knawmean?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

I know what your sayin. The movie, no matter how good, will fall well short of the power of the novel.

I read mostly what would be considered disturbing/tragic/confronting/subversive literature, but I almost never cry from reading. I think this book (in the context of the rest of his body of work) puts McCarthy in contention for a Nobel Prize down the road (no pun),

[DJ_Flame]

Nazi Literature in the Americas. It got a couple of chuckles outta me.

[redgrail]

I know what your sayin. The movie, no matter how good, will fall well short of the power of the novel.

I read mostly what would be considered disturbing/tragic/confronting/subversive literature, but I almost never cry from reading. I think this book (in the context of the rest of his body of work) puts McCarthy in contention for a Nobel Prize down the road (no pun),

+rep.

I have nothing to add.

McCarthy consistently blows me away, but this left me speechless and crying.

That never happens.

Nobel.

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

Yeah, I was against the movie version of The Road, until I looked on IMDB and saw that Omar from The Wire is in it. Plus Viggo is pretty G himself.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Yeah, I was against the movie version of The Road, until I looked on IMDB and saw that Omar from The Wire is in it. Plus Viggo is pretty G himself.

Just finished Season 4 of The Wire. When I saw "Omar Little" on the IMDB page for The Road I was instantly psyched too. Definitely the hardest gay stick-up kid character I've ever seen in a hyper-realist police drama.

[Brienneoftarth]

This is my second book by Gibson, the first being Pattern Recognition.

I'm about 20% in...I am pretty sure I won't be reading other fiction until I finish everything Gibson has published.

i have to admit that I was a big William Gibson fan, but when I go back and read his stuff, it just seems very dated and childish. Maybe because I think a ot of scifi is very childish. Going to get Savage Detectives this week.

[Charlie Delta]

If I missed any of you mentioning the Road in the previous pages let me know, have some rep to give.

Also now making a The Road thread as i had already planned...

edit: thread here!

[NESK]

Just finished Season 4 of The Wire. When I saw "Omar Little" on the IMDB page for The Road I was instantly psyched too. Definitely the hardest gay stick-up kid character I've ever seen in a hyper-realist police drama.

someone put me onto a site that streams the wire from season 1 up to present. im 3 eps in and i need a more consistent source. thanks in advance.

as for the road, i was into it, and am curious about what the film will be like since theres minimal dialouge. theres ample opportunity for bleak post apocalyptic cinematic landscape with lingering long takes and depressing atmospheric soundtrack.

as far as the novel goes, it made me want to read other mcormac stuff, which i havnt gotten around too. i dont want to get deeper into his catalouge because i want something else like the road, though. im hoping hes got more versatility than that. im assuming the prose in the road was minimal to compliment barren setting. otherwise, that style doesnt have much reach.

[Orion]

Just wrapped up a Krakauer run, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Into the Wild, and just finishing "Beautiful Boy". Really good, but overly wordy. Drives me insane when an author uses multiple adjectives and adverbs per sentance, almost like they're just trying to add pages to the novel. Worth reading though for sure.

About to start on another Thompson piece:

[juliaN.]

woke up in a bit of a funk, read this and i felt much more peaceful afterwards -

much better than naked lunch...the matter of factness, straightforward narrative with only mild but not superfluous tangents of cerebral digression made for a nice, quick read that probably gets better with each successive one.

[Baeyer-Drewson]

^one of my good friends swears the only way to read naked lunch is to carry it around for a few weeks and read a page or two of the book at a time, opened completely at random. if it's a page you've already read you just open it again.

still haven't tried it. sounds interesting enough to warrant doing it though

[NESK]

junkys pretty good. i flew threw that one.

[femelle]

^one of my good friends swears the only way to read naked lunch is to carry it around for a few weeks and read a page or two of the book at a time, opened completely at random. if it's a page you've already read you just open it again.

still haven't tried it. sounds interesting enough to warrant doing it though

I swear that's nearly exactly how I read it.

... I don't know that I prefer junky to naked lunch. They're too difficult to compare.

[C0C0]

i might try that method one day...i just couldn't stand naked lunch at all and gave it away :\

[notesee]

Reading the World Screaming Nov ... don't like it as much as his first two offerings. I really enjoy the un edited rawness of his previous titles.

[chubby]

been reading it pretty much everyday for a month.

Thank god I have a class dedicated to it, because I really wouldn't catch 1/10th of James Joyce's brilliance on my own. "Dense" is an understatement.