TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Chill Out Room
-- Bukowski Moments
Pages (4): « 1 [2] 3 4 »

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J JM Coatzee. He won a Nobel prize for literature, but his books are good only for academics to write papers about.

Interesting. I've heard him praised before but have never read anything by him. What faults did you find in his works?

Beethoven's 5th symphony. I hated it the first time I heard it and to this day I still fail to see what's so great about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Cpt.Cocaine Beethoven's 5th symphony. I hated it the first time I heard it and to this day I still fail to see what's so great about it.

Do you like any of his other works? Other of his symphonies?

Seems like it's rare for people to enjoy other Beethoven but hate the 5th.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Interesting. I've heard him praised before but have never read anything by him. What faults did you find in his works?

Well, to be fair, I've only read Foe, but it was a novel with so much effort put into the subtext that the actual text was just a flimsy conceit. There are large tracts consisting of the idiotic protagonist writing long and rambling letters that no real human would ever write unless they became trapped in a novel straining hard for a mimetic narrative strategy.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J There are large tracts consisting of the idiotic protagonist writing long and rambling letters that no real human would ever write unless they became trapped in a novel straining hard for a mimetic narrative strategy.

I see.

eraserhead

quote:

Originally posted by Lira No, after I read 1984, I promised myself I wouldn't read anything by Orwell's any time soon. But, the reason why I disliked 1984 is not because it is cliché. It's because it is shallow and far-fetched. I don't know if you were born in Australia but, if you weren't, we both have in common the fact that we were born under dictatorships - so 1984 should not be that much far from home. Yet, it is.

Fair enough.. I read it a LOOONG time ago so can't even remember the specifics found it a fairly accurate representation of the Soviet/North Korean style dictatorships

quote:

All right, I will read it in December Ps.: By the way, what Sartre recommendation? You said you recommended me something by Sartre in another thread, but I don't remember

Oh yeah I was referring to the comment I left on your goodreads account http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76866558

Stilleben mit 12 Sonnenblumen

I originally thought this thread was going to be about moments like this:

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Do you like any of his other works? Other of his symphonies?

Not really. I just mentioned this one because that's the one that gets the most attention (and praise) in popular culture.

Ahh, so you're just a Beethoven-hater then.

Do you like other orchestral music from that era? I know some people that can only stand stuff from late nineteenth century (Debussy is often the cutoff point) and onward. And of course even more with no taste for classical music at all.

Catcher In the Rye

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Catcher In the Rye

So many people have recommended this to me, but I've never gotten around to it.

Why do you think it sucks?

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles So many people have recommended this to me, but I've never gotten around to it. Why do you think it sucks?

It doesn't 'suck' per se, it's just not worthy of praise in my opinion.

The main character is well written, but the book itself has no decent plot development. It's just some juvenile kid wandering around for a few days and then the book suddenly ends.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Newspeak may be hyperbolic or just not be a very plausible idea, but why do you think the whole book stands or falls based on that?

Since the beginning, the book is based on many word plays. War is peace, the ministries, and even Emmanuel Goldstein is not seen or heard - he's most likely a discursive trick created by the Ministry of Truth (an idea that was clearly hinted in the book). Even thoughtcrime seems to flirt with the idea that language is thought (and vice versa).

This would take me ages to develop, but I think you can see where I'm getting at.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Battle Royale. Not a highbrow film as such, but definitely critically acclaimed. I found it nonsensical, derivative and severely over-rated.

Really!?

That's it, our tastes are diametrically opposed

quote:

Originally posted by astroboy Fair enough.. I read it a LOOONG time ago so can't even remember the specifics found it a fairly accurate representation of the Soviet/North Korean style dictatorships

Yeah but the Soviet Empire collapsed not long after the actual year or 1984, showing how far-fetched the idea of establishing a dictatorship like that for so long and over such a vast territory (and, in my case, the Brazilian dictatorship did end in 1984). North Korea would be more like it... specially because its territory is a lot more manageable.

quote:

Originally posted by astroboy Oh yeah I was referring to the comment I left on your goodreads account http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76866558

Oh, why didn't the system send me an e-mail? Thanks for pointing out, I didn't see it.

I've read this and enjoyed it immensely. I'm going to take a look at this book. That introduction I posted actually got me a lot more interested in Merleau-Ponty. I bought my girlfriend "Child Psychology and Pedagogy" and she seems to have liked what she read (plus, in a more childish vain, his posh name soon became a meme, and we'd often blurt it out for no good reason ).

Have you ever read anything by him?

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated It doesn't 'suck' per se, it's just not worthy of praise in my opinion. The main character is well written, but the book itself has no decent plot development. It's just some juvenile kid wandering around for a few days and then the book suddenly ends.

I love this book. I guess I like character-driven films and novels in general, now that I think about it.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Huxley vs. Orwell in comic form: http://www.recombinantrecords.net/d...s-to-Death.html

lol that's great!

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Since the beginning, the book is based on many word plays. War is peace, the ministries, and even Emmanuel Goldstein is not seen or heard - he's most likely a discursive trick created by the Ministry of Truth (an idea that was clearly hinted in the book). Even thoughtcrime seems to flirt with the idea that language is thought (and vice versa).

It's not really about "wordplay" but about propaganda and all the other ways in which totalitarian states try to deceive their subjects, immunize them against outside influences, control access to information, and turn them against caricatured (or nonexistent) "enemies" in a way that is useful to the leaders of the state. It is also about the contorted and straitjacketed "thought" and "logic" that go into supporting the ideologies that such states are founded on, and the way that all social institutions (educational, artistic, etc.) are bent to go along with it.

I still don't see how it's all that unrealistic in its portrayal of these tendencies. And none of it really requires the notion that "language is thought," even if the novel may go too far in that direction at some points.

God I hate write an essay on Battle Royale.

Definitely disliked that.

Still need to get around to reading 1984.

quote:

Originally posted by astroboy Also I'd be interested to know your opinion of Huxley's A Brave New World.. I found it more relevant than 1984 for some reason.

Love that book.

Hitchens on North Korea and 1984:

Kafka's Castle

Goethe's Faust

American Beauty

Rolling Stones

Jackson Pollock

Minimal Techno

Bjork

oh shit i thought of one, instead of just defending against other people's hates

barack obama.

GET THE FUCK OVER IT.

can't fucking believe he won the nobel prize simply for getting elected, like seriously wtf?? he hasn't even done anything!!
fucking annoying.
wow he's a good orator, who inspires hope, that's nice, so where the fuck is the revolutionising of the world's last remaining imperial power?? oh, nowhere, ohh, still fighting needless wars, oh still raping third world states, ohh ok, you're democracies hero...

*cough*


yeah.
agree with the beatles too. boring as shit imo: i'm sure they were contextually important, but useless these days...

i think the messages that 1984 delievered at the time and deliver now are interesting, the paradoxes and the administration of the regime can be seen as critiques of totalitarianism (obviously), but even can be seen in terms of modern capitalist societies to an extent...

things like the whole big brother is watching and the slogans "war is peace, ignorance is strength and freedom is slavery" still resonate with me at least, in one of those horrible ironic ways

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I liked Portrait and found it quite readable. I don't really see what's hard to understand about it. Ulysses I can see being difficult. I've only read excerpts of it (which I liked) for a course, but I picked up the book recently and will start on it soon.

I didn't find the plot hard to understand, rather that he doesn't really try to convey his points about religion and art to the reader. The main character and his problems are not something I can easily identify with and Joyce just doesn't manage to make this book accessible to me.

Interesting to see that quite a few people agree about the Beatles. I was expecting a huge shitstorm about how ignorant and clueless I am.

at naming Beethoven.

Oh, and I want to add

• Andy Warhol: I know that is his fame isn't solely based on his artistic merit, but rather on the techniques he introduced and how he changed art as a whole. But I'm quite baffled about what could possibly be great about his stuff. I wouldn't hang any of this crap in my room, and I think anyone who doesn't know will be like "What kind of silly garbage is that?!" That is, until you tell them it's by Andy Warhol, when they'll suddenly change to "Oh, that's cool."
  

Led Zeppelin.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.