the mortal enemy of videogames

whatsarobot

Outer Dark was a heck of a journey. It was both a surprisingly charming comedy, and a deeply disturbing cautionary tale. I wrote a bit about it, if you’re so inclined.

sabertoothalex

reading that Hour of the Sun by Clarice Lispector and enjoying it a lot. Pretty bizarre book that feels very layered but still clear enough at large to mostly understand. Her writing is sorta fragmented moment to moment but makes sense at the same time. It’s VERY short so should be finished soon. Glad I asked about her here.

yeso

Taking an Onetti break to read El lugar sin límites. Have been intending to read The Obscene Bird of Night in Spanish but that might be beyond me (laz)

posting a little joke for the Lat Am lit fans

saddleblasters

@yeso how is El astillero/The Shipyard? That seems to be the only one of Onetti’s books translated into Chinese. I don’t remember anyone mentioning it when the forum was going through an Onetti phase a few months ago.

yeso

saddleblasters it’s one of my favorite novels. It’s a sequel to Bodysnatcher but I think you can read The Shipyard first. Sort of a Suikoden v Suikoden II situation

beets

I finished reading Dune the other night. I had already seen the new movie but they’re pretty different. Thinking back on the movie now, it seems a lot darker in style/tone than the book, especially all the Harkonnen stuff.

I am looking forward to see how characters like Alia are adapted. I found the chapter with her and the emperor really funny

bwood

I’m reading Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God. It has me thinking. I wonder what it would have felt like to have been rabid fan of someone like McCarthy from the start and read every book when originally released.

edward

bwood
One interesting thing I read about McCarthy recently is that all his books before he won the National Book Award cumulatively sold 5,000 copies. So following his career from the start probably would’ve been difficult, but also wild. Like you encounter this strange writer of uncommon power and no one you’ve met has even heard of him.

I read Child of God ten years ago after reading Blood Meridien and really didn’t like it. I’m rereading it soon, so hopefully it works better for me this time, but I’m not especially excited about it.

bwood

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I read Cormac McCarthy’s screenplay The Gardener’s Son. I read it 2x and watched the movie (which someone posted on youtube). I guess I had to be sure I didn’t like it.

Strip away the vivid descriptions of setting, the sensory imagery and figurative language, the mysticism, and the humor, and you’re left with The Gardener’s Son. If you watch the film on youtube, there’s ascene not in the book that fleshes out two of the characters, plus a few scenes have a few added lines. The screenplay has opening and closing scenes that aren’t included in the film, honestly for the better.

There’s just too much missing from the story to recommend it. The conflict is centered around an incident that is never mentioned, nor investigated in any sort of character study. I understand McCarthy’s intent, but leaving it out requires the audience to fill in the gaps, and there’s nothing in the story to push or pull me in any direction. I simply don’t care.

bwood

edward Worst case scenario, it’s three-four hours of reading. It’s pretty good when read with The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark. Each book has its own strengths and complements the others well. I definitely recommend you NOT read The Gardener’s Son.

edward

Yeah, I suspect I’ll enjoy it more this time since I’m sort of following the trajectory of his career, which is the sort of thing that interests me. And, like you said, I believe this is his shortest novel.

whatsarobot

I saw that there was some Pedro Paramo chat in the Spanish language thread, but no hablo, so… How great is Pedro Paramo (in English)? My friend is doing a hard sell on it, and the concept sounds amazing. Plus it has the seal approval from both Marquez and Borges…

I guess this is me saying I’m going to read Pedro Paramo ASAP unless anyone here throws a flag on the field.

yeso

whatsarobot How great is Pedro Paramo (in English)?

been years since I read the the English version, but Rulfo has such a clear and straightforward style at the sentence level that I can’t imagine there would be an issue with the translation. Sort of like Raymond Carver in Spanish, but less abrasive (from just a stylistic pov I mean). Your friend is correct, it’s a 10/10. You might want to read The Burning Plain first though (also 10/10).

saddleblasters

Well I acquired a copy of The Shipyard and read the translators’ introduction. they said they spent over 30 years trying to translate the book, which is quite a long time! They also gave brief summaries of Onetti’s other books – and, well, A Brief Life sounds quite interesting to say the least.

I have yet to start the actual book though. We’ll see how that goes.

whatsarobot

yeso oh heck you are exactly the guy I was hoping would chime in. Thank you! Will look into both books.

Rocketomato

A large fire tore through the upper floors of a skyscraper in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of HongKong and they said it also hit the famous site of Chungking mansions last night.it quite confused me a little the first time i heard by the name about ChungKing many years ago,which is a large city in China,but the whole building nowadays is nothing to do with ChungKing.oh,it happens at the same in ChungKing,where they have a Hongkong street in a busy shopping district.and if you observe in details,you may find HongKong and ChungKing used to be a couple and loved each other so much,but they didn’t aware of that.hahah,hk dumped him a long time ago maybe,i don’t know.

Google knows i’m just kidding.
I went there inside of chungking mansions just few days ago to enjoy a good time there alone,then there were so many foreigners most from south of asia,and i had to speak shy english! i felt better practice cantonese first so i left,but it also reminded me of a book-chungking mansions by Gordon mathews.

Hope no more bad happens in this fire.

When i back to Chungking(Chongqing),i will tell him hk street the fire news to see what his reaction is!

yeso

trying to find a post on ST Joshi’s blog where he goes to Wisconsin Dells and refers to the people there as “the unwashed.”. Not sure why I find that so funny or if I remember it correctly though

edward

yeso
He’s never been to Noah’s Ark then. That place is one big bathtub.

yeso

found it!

we headed to Chicago—but stopped about halfway, at the well-known resort known as the Wisconsin Dells. This idyllic rustic venue (sadly littered with an array of cheap establishments catering to the unwashed) was a welcome interim stop

There were not one, not two, but three mini-golf places that looked mighty tempting, but my tyrannical wife would not let me play on any of them

DaveedNoo

damn poor guy needs some mini golf.

apt description

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