GRcade

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.

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.

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.

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

Bizarrely, this is now being turned into a Netflix show

twitter.com/patrickklepek/status/1173981865105154051

Yeah... that looks shite.

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

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

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

Thoroughly recommended!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Mayall

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.

Thanks for the tip