The Literature Thread

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:56 am

Rex Kramer wrote:The City and The City is a pretty tremendous book. About 25% of the way through according to my kindle and the setting is probably one of the most original I've ever read. Essentially the story takes place in an eastern European city that is in exactly the same place as another city. Sections of these cities overlap but the residents of each city are not allowed to acknowledge the presence of the other. Anyone breaking this gets snagged by something called Breach. It's really quite fascinating. I'm reticent to recommend it yet without finishing it but I'd check it out if the premise interests you.


Sounds similar to a hypothesis I'd been considering (but never told anyone about...):

What if you could clone the UK; Everyone who wants to Brexit goes on the independent, no-deal island just to the West. Everyone who wants to remain stays where they are, and remains part of the EU.

I'd mainly thought of of it as an illustration of 'which would you prefer to live on?', but never considered it as the basis for fiction until now.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by OrangeRKN » Mon Sep 09, 2019 1:04 pm

Poser wrote:
Rex Kramer wrote:The City and The City is a pretty tremendous book. About 25% of the way through according to my kindle and the setting is probably one of the most original I've ever read. Essentially the story takes place in an eastern European city that is in exactly the same place as another city. Sections of these cities overlap but the residents of each city are not allowed to acknowledge the presence of the other. Anyone breaking this gets snagged by something called Breach. It's really quite fascinating. I'm reticent to recommend it yet without finishing it but I'd check it out if the premise interests you.


Sounds similar to a hypothesis I'd been considering (but never told anyone about...):

What if you could clone the UK; Everyone who wants to Brexit goes on the independent, no-deal island just to the West. Everyone who wants to remain stays where they are, and remains part of the EU.

I'd mainly thought of of it as an illustration of 'which would you prefer to live on?', but never considered it as the basis for fiction until now.


It's more like not cloning the UK, but the country "splitting" in two regardless, without actually splitting at all. All the leavers would live in Brexituk, all the remainers in Eurouk, and neither would interfere with the other. Two countries coexisting grosstopically together but entirely divided. You'd drive into the ROI from Eurouk's NI with no border procedures, turn around at a roundabout, then queue for 2 hours to get through the border checks into Brexituk.

Honestly the concept of The City and The City is so good. One of the themes is to shed light on how we already live somewhat like what initially appears absurd in our cities, like in how we walk past the homeless without seeing them, or avoid entirely those areas of the city we don't like or feel like we don't belong. The subjective reality of The City and The City is constructed from a human capability for cognitive dissonance and correction of an observed reality to better fit our own internal views. The concept then of the two cities existing separately but together is not a novel, alien one existing only in fiction, but a natural and obvious extension of our reality.

Basically it's perfect sci-fi.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:35 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:
Poser wrote:
Rex Kramer wrote:The City and The City is a pretty tremendous book. About 25% of the way through according to my kindle and the setting is probably one of the most original I've ever read. Essentially the story takes place in an eastern European city that is in exactly the same place as another city. Sections of these cities overlap but the residents of each city are not allowed to acknowledge the presence of the other. Anyone breaking this gets snagged by something called Breach. It's really quite fascinating. I'm reticent to recommend it yet without finishing it but I'd check it out if the premise interests you.


Sounds similar to a hypothesis I'd been considering (but never told anyone about...):

What if you could clone the UK; Everyone who wants to Brexit goes on the independent, no-deal island just to the West. Everyone who wants to remain stays where they are, and remains part of the EU.

I'd mainly thought of of it as an illustration of 'which would you prefer to live on?', but never considered it as the basis for fiction until now.


It's more like not cloning the UK, but the country "splitting" in two regardless, without actually splitting at all. All the leavers would live in Brexituk, all the remainers in Eurouk, and neither would interfere with the other. Two countries coexisting grosstopically together but entirely divided. You'd drive into the ROI from Eurouk's NI with no border procedures, turn around at a roundabout, then queue for 2 hours to get through the border checks into Brexituk.

Honestly the concept of The City and The City is so good. One of the themes is to shed light on how we already live somewhat like what initially appears absurd in our cities, like in how we walk past the homeless without seeing them, or avoid entirely those areas of the city we don't like or feel like we don't belong. The subjective reality of The City and The City is constructed from a human capability for cognitive dissonance and correction of an observed reality to better fit our own internal views. The concept then of the two cities existing separately but together is not a novel, alien one existing only in fiction, but a natural and obvious extension of our reality.

Basically it's perfect sci-fi.


Does sound good, to be fair. Might look it out.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Tafdolphin » Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:40 pm

Preezy wrote:
TV Dinner wrote:
Preezy wrote:Right, literary buffs of the forum... assemble!

I'm trying to find out the name of this short story (I thought it was by Stephen King but apparently not) about these people that go into a cornfield, get lost and find a dying dog, and they slowly go mad and there's this big sacrificial stone and they basically kill each other. The story ends with some other people walking past the cornfield and hearing someone call for help, and the cycle begins again.

Any ideas?

I think it's In the Tall Grass by King and his son Joe Hill.

You hero, that's the one :toot:


Bizarrely, this is now being turned into a Netflix show

twitter.com/patrickklepek/status/1173981865105154051


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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Preezy » Tue Sep 17, 2019 4:43 pm

Yeah... that looks shite.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Tue Sep 17, 2019 9:27 pm

Netflix has a good record of King adaptations and Natali is a great director so I'm hopeful.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:42 am

Ha, came here to post that trailer link. I think it looks ok, but haven't read the book yet.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Dowbocop » Fri Sep 27, 2019 2:56 pm

Has anyone read My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl? I found it in a charity shop and picked it up, and it hasn't disappointed. It's basically a mix between George's Marvellous Medicine, Ocean's Eleven and Debbie Does Dallas. I Googled it and there's a thread on Mumsnet about a mum burning it after her daughter found it in the school library :lol:

Thoroughly recommended!

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Rex Kramer » Fri Sep 27, 2019 5:01 pm

I strawberry floating adore George's Marvellous Medicine, it's absolute peak Roald Dahl. And it's also got Rik Mayall reading it on Jackanory which was incredible.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Captain Kinopio » Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:42 pm

For the Stephen King aficionados in here, because I know there are several, where would you recommend someone start?

I’ve wanted to for a while and Dr Sleep has me tempted to start The Shining stuff, I’ve always been wary of length though. I’m a slow reader at the best of times and starting a 1000 page odyssey is really off putting to me.

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:01 am

Captain Kinopio wrote:For the Stephen King aficionados in here, because I know there are several, where would you recommend someone start?

I’ve wanted to for a while and Dr Sleep has me tempted to start The Shining stuff, I’ve always been wary of length though. I’m a slow reader at the best of times and starting a 1000 page odyssey is really off putting to me.

From memory 'Salem' s Lot and Pet Sematary are on the shorter side of King's work and are some of his best. Relatively self-contained with references to his other work too so you wouldn't miss much.

The Shining isn't a particularly long book either.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Saint of Killers » Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:21 am

Rex Kramer wrote:I strawberry floating adore George's Marvellous Medicine, it's absolute peak Roald Dahl. And it's also got Rik Mayall reading it on Jackanory which was incredible.


An abiding memory of my childhood.

:wub:

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Zilnad » Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:41 am

Memento Mori wrote:
Captain Kinopio wrote:For the Stephen King aficionados in here, because I know there are several, where would you recommend someone start?

I’ve wanted to for a while and Dr Sleep has me tempted to start The Shining stuff, I’ve always been wary of length though. I’m a slow reader at the best of times and starting a 1000 page odyssey is really off putting to me.

From memory 'Salem' s Lot and Pet Sematary are on the shorter side of King's work and are some of his best. Relatively self-contained with references to his other work too so you wouldn't miss much.

The Shining isn't a particularly long book either.


I recently read Bag o' Bones (having only read The Shining previously) and I really enjoyed that. Although I obviously can't comment on how it compares to his other works. I've got Doctor Sleep lined up on my Kindle after it was 99p in Amazon's Daily Deal.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Tomous » Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:44 am

Mr Mercedes, a crime novel by Stephen King, is a similar length to Salem's Lot too and pretty good.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:06 pm

I actually looked at my Stephen King bookshelf earlier and Misery looks really short. A good book too.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Captain Kinopio » Fri Dec 13, 2019 8:51 pm

Thanks for the recommendations, think I’d prefer something supernatural so I might just go for The Shining.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Curls » Sat Dec 14, 2019 3:15 am

Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption is only about 70 pages long IIRC and is a nice read.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Ironhide » Sat Dec 14, 2019 3:16 pm

Saint of Killers wrote:
Rex Kramer wrote:I strawberry floating adore George's Marvellous Medicine, it's absolute peak Roald Dahl. And it's also got Rik Mayall reading it on Jackanory which was incredible.


An abiding memory of my childhood.

:wub:


Mayall :wub:

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:37 pm

Curls wrote:Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption is only about 70 pages long IIRC and is a nice read.

Technically it's Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Inexplicably there's no the.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Curls » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:07 pm

Thanks for the tip :P


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