bokonon Posted April 3, 2008 Report Share Posted April 3, 2008 My brain's on vacation so I'm reading some fantasy trash. I love Charles De Lint. Anyone else admit to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainsunshine Posted April 7, 2008 Report Share Posted April 7, 2008 Hey bokonon, I think we're the only 2 that read BOOKS on here.. And I think I know where you got your username.. I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle, and I loved it! It was both hilarious and insightful.. Another kudos to my dad for giving me yet another amazing book from his collection.. I'm ready to start another book by Vonnegut: Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted April 8, 2008 Report Share Posted April 8, 2008 I just finished "God Knows" by Jospeh Heller - funny shit. The story of King David as told by King David the crusty old Jewish guy on his deathbed. Recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Hey bokonon, I think we're the only 2 that read BOOKS on here.. And I think I know where you got your username.. I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle, and I loved it! It was both hilarious and insightful.. Another kudos to my dad for giving me yet another amazing book from his collection.. I'm ready to start another book by Vonnegut: Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons! I give you six months until you're an official member of the Humanists of Canada. The first time I read Vonnegut I was pretty young, (grade 8 maybe) and one of my teachers wanted to take my book away from me. I thought it was pretty funny given the fact that Vonnegut makes a lot of fun of book-burners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy American lit. Simple diction and prose expressing profound ideas. Humble, useful and often funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Oh, and how can I not make a nod towards America's overt sexuality. America....FUCK YEAH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainsunshine Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 Just finished Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons.. I enjoyed this one a lot! This was a collection of some of Vonnegut's short stories, speeches, reviews, interviews, etc.. I really like the way he writes, humor with a bit of sadness to it.. It's really unexplainable until you read his work..bokonon, which of his other books would you recommend me to read next?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Well, I'm not bokonon but I would totally recommend "Slaughterhouse-Five". I think it is his best work, hands-down. Also good are "Galapagos", "Breakfast Of Champions", "Jailbird", "Mother Night" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 The first Vonnegut I read was Hocus Pocus and it got me addicted, so I'd definitely recommend that one. Also, if you like the collection of random writing style of Wampeeters... try Palm Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 I'm reading the Catcher in the Rye right now. The main character is repulsive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allison Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 The main character is repulsive.Explain please.Are you reading this for the first time EVER? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 I am reading this for the first time ever and I find him repulsive because he is so critical of everything (people, their behaviour, movies, books etc) and then he immitates exactly the thing he was bitching about. Also, his first priority in life is alcohol. He puts it before his family, friends, school and even his own safety. I hate seeing people like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Oh yeah, and his attitudes towards women make me want to castrate him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allison Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Have to say I am somewhat baffled by your interpretation (and find it interesting you made an sweeping generalization about American Lit's themes and styles without having read one of its most compelling authors/books).One of the themes of the book is supposed to be the conflict between childhood lack of hypocrisy,adolescent rebelling against its presence in adults, and what the book conveys as an inexorable slide into as one gets older.Holden's character is torn by the awareness of becoming/being hypocritical...and his hatred of it.Alcohol? Um...ever known any teenagers?Women? Why? They may be a trifle quaint..but the book was written in the 50's.They are hardly anti feminist.I prefer Franny and Zooey (I loved it when I was a teen and still do) and Teddy is one of my all time favorite short stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 I think Holden represents the first wave of what was phrased on Daria as "My So-Called Angst"*: the idea that life as a middle-class suburban teenager is dramatically tortuous for some reason, and I find that gets a little boring to read about after not too long a while.Aloha,Brad* In this epsidoe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Have to say I am somewhat baffled by your interpretation (and find it interesting you made an sweeping generalization about American Lit's themes and styles without having read one of its most compelling authors/books).One of the themes of the book is supposed to be the conflict between childhood lack of hypocrisy,adolescent rebelling against its presence in adults, and what the book conveys as an inexorable slide into as one gets older.Holden's character is torn by the awareness of becoming/being hypocritical...and his hatred of it.Alcohol? Um...ever known any teenagers?Women? Why? They may be a trifle quaint..but the book was written in the 50's.They are hardly anti feminist.I prefer Franny and Zooey (I loved it when I was a teen and still do) and Teddy is one of my all time favorite short stories.Actually, I do feel qualified to make a sweeping generalization of American lit. I've read a ton of it, not only for my own enjoyment but also for school and various jobs (library, book store). Obviously I have not read every book America has produced, nor do I claim to, but there is an undoubtably noticeable style to American literature.Holden Caulfield is an incredible hypocrite with no sense of values and no respect for other people. He repulses me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timouse Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 all sweeping generalizations are bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 all sweeping generalizations are bad.Gold! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 11, 2008 Report Share Posted April 11, 2008 Another discussion about Catcher in the Rye I was stumbling around and came across this today, which I thought was an interesting bit of synchronicity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allison Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 The only sweeping generalization to be made about American Literature is that it's American.There is not " an undoubtably noticeable style " to Am.Lit as a whole..time periods or literary movements...yes.Perhaps that is what you are really getting at?bradm..I agree to a point.It gets a bit nauseating the whole over examined life bit.Partly because we are inundated with that genre now.But I still think Catcher itself is a worthy classic...it says something.Not a nice or uplifting something..but real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 I never said the book was unworthy of being a classic. I said Holden Caulfield is a repulsive character.And I disagree that there are only certain identifiable styles among the literary movements. I think there are underlying traits and themes that cross the boundaries of the movements and are present in the majority of literature produced in the USA that make the writing quintessentially American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 I never said the book was unworthy of being a classic. I said Holden Caulfield is a repulsive character.I figure that the ability of an author to make the reader feel very strongly (either good or bad) about a character is the sign of a very well-written novel. Personally, I can think of few literary characters I would be more eager to strangle than Holden Caulfield. He's a complete twerp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainsunshine Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 (edited) Thanks for your suggestions, hamilton and bokonon! I'll definitely have to check those out! I really enjoyed the other two by him.. And just because it's springtime, the flowers are in bloom, and I'm feeling quite dreamy, I just finished reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.. (for about the 50th time in my life! Ha..) These stories never get old to me, and I love letting my imagination run wild while reading these stories.. Anyone else love these adventures as much as me?? Wonderland is REAL! Edited April 18, 2008 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bokonon Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Alice is sooooo not just a kid's story! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allison Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 And I disagree that there are only certain identifiable styles among the literary movements.This sentence makes no sense to me.What I said was that styles are identifiable within literary movements..but not identifiable to American Lit as a huge category.I think there are underlying traits and themes that cross the boundaries of the movements and are present in the majority of literature produced in the USA that make the writing quintessentially American.True d'at.There are themes that can be identified with American Lit as a whole..which is why I said I agreed if this is what you were getting at (in contrast to what your written words intimated).Styles and themes being different things in my world,this side of the looking glass.Re-read "Cry, the Beloved Country" this week.Love this book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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