What are you reading right now?

[Jewthulhu]

Clancy really does suffer when he tries to work in overt global, epic events rather than covert, I think the only time he actually pulls it off is in Red Storm Rising and Larry Bond could be responsible for that. When you look at Red October, Patriot Games, Without Remorse it's always more contained personal violence rather than banging countries together like a toddler with building blocks.

Funnily enough, I thought the personal drama was the weakest part of Red Storm Rising. The overall war though was pretty well written ("Dance of the Vampires" being an obvious highlight), if maybe politically a bit inaccurate.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

Funnily enough, I thought the personal drama was the weakest part of Red Storm Rising. The overall war though was pretty well written ("Dance of the Vampires" being an obvious highlight), if maybe politically a bit inaccurate.

Oh absolutely the "Rambo Weatherman and the raped Icelandic Maiden" bit was piss poor. I meant that the war-fighting actually worked and was kept fairly contained. He wrote well at the tactical level, not so much at the strategic, international geopolitics level.

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

I'm a little over halfway through Klara and the Sun. So far I really like Klara and her weird way of seeing and describing what she's seeing, and the mystery of whatever it means to be "lifted" or not, and I LOVE Melania Housekeeper. But I loathe snotty bratty Chrissie and Josie. In my mind's eye they look like such obnoxious, gross caricatures of prissy little assholes. I can't stand this "Sowwy for being sick uwu" crap from Josie. She doesn't deserve Klara. Let's see what the second half of the book is like.

 

[Hoof]

I'm a little over halfway through Klara and the Sun. So far I really like Klara and her weird way of seeing and describing what she's seeing, and the mystery of whatever it means to be "lifted" or not, and I LOVE Melania Housekeeper. But I loathe snotty bratty Chrissie and Josie. In my mind's eye they look like such obnoxious, gross caricatures of prissy little assholes. I can't stand this "Sowwy for being sick uwu" crap from Josie. She doesn't deserve Klara. Let's see what the second half of the book is like.

Did you end up finishing this book? I recently finished it. Although it's not something I'd usually read, It found it interesting. All my friends who read are sci-fi nerds and when i try to give them a spoiler-free premise, they scoff and act like they can predict the ending.

Oddly enough, a film version is coming in 2025, directed by Taika Waititi, starring Jenna Ortega as Klara. I would think she'd be too old to play this role, but will admit she was good in Beetlejuice 2 (only thing i've seen her in).

 

[Argos]

The Boys on the Tracks.

Got Lavender-Green Magic lined up for next week (Halloween tradition).

 

[part timer]

I wrapped up reading "The Little Sparrow Murders" by Seishi Yokomizo the other day, it's a murder mystery whodunnit which I think is fairly obvious from the title and author
I was pretty impressed with the twist at the end, looking back it was so obvious (as it tends to be with a good murder mystery) and left me with my face in my hands saying "of course!"
The twist was that the suspect and victim in a murder that took place around 20 years prior to the events of the book, were actually one and the same. The suspect was actually the public facing identity of the reclusive victim; and the actual murderer, who was the victim's wife, had manipulated the situation in order to cover up the fact that she had murdered her husband. So simple, yet I feel was so well executed

Very happy with the novel, and looking forward to the next one that gets translated into English, it seems like they're currently doing one every year.

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

Did you end up finishing this book? I recently finished it. Although it's not something I'd usually read, It found it interesting. All my friends who read are sci-fi nerds and when i try to give them a spoiler-free premise, they scoff and act like they can predict the ending.

Oddly enough, a film version is coming in 2025, directed by Taika Waititi, starring Jenna Ortega as Klara. I would think she'd be too old to play this role, but will admit she was good in Beetlejuice 2 (only thing i've seen her in).

I just finished it now. It really seems like a horror story to me, not at all what the blurbs and reviews on the back mention about love.
Right after I posted, they went to Capaldi's and the entire tone of the story changed. I knew it was scifi with the robots and all, but the Josie AF is the most disrespectful, creepy, objectifying, selfish thing I can imagine to do to a child who's going to die. I lost some of the affection I felt for Klara because her agreement to become Josie if her Cootings Machine plan failed, simply on the basis that she CAN emulate Josie, reminds me she's just a tool to take whatever orders any asshole gives her. So I really don't agree with the reviewers or the friend who gave me this book that it's anything other than a type of horror. I like horror plenty so I enjoyed it in that sense, but I really had the wrong expectations for it.

 

[Susanna]

I just finished it now. It really seems like a horror story to me, not at all what the blurbs and reviews on the back mention about love.
Right after I posted, they went to Capaldi's and the entire tone of the story changed. I knew it was scifi with the robots and all, but the Josie AF is the most disrespectful, creepy, objectifying, selfish thing I can imagine to do to a child who's going to die. I lost some of the affection I felt for Klara because her agreement to become Josie if her Cootings Machine plan failed, simply on the basis that she CAN emulate Josie, reminds me she's just a tool to take whatever orders any asshole gives her. So I really don't agree with the reviewers or the friend who gave me this book that it's anything other than a type of horror. I like horror plenty so I enjoyed it in that sense, but I really had the wrong expectations for it.

But if Klara can perfectly copy Josie’s behaviour and nobody can tell the AF Josie from the original, aren’t they effectively the same person?

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

But if Klara can perfectly copy Josie’s behaviour and nobody can tell the AF Josie from the original, aren’t they effectively the same person?

My take is, it's disrespectful and selfish because love is a two-way street. It's not just that I want to give treats to my specific cat, it's that I want him specifically to have treats to enjoy. When he dies, there will be other cats, and we'll enjoy each other, but I will miss him specifically getting to experience life. So an AF isn't Josie because Josie isn't experiencing anything reciprocally. That's what disgusts me about it. It's all well and good for me to remember and miss and carry on the legacy of my dead relatives, but the lasting sadness is that I'm no longer part of their lives because they ended. So that's the personal reason why this was personally horrifying to me.

 

[Hoof]

My take is, it's disrespectful and selfish because love is a two-way street. It's not just that I want to give treats to my specific cat, it's that I want him specifically to have treats to enjoy. When he dies, there will be other cats, and we'll enjoy each other, but I will miss him specifically getting to experience life. So an AF isn't Josie because Josie isn't experiencing anything reciprocally. That's what disgusts me about it. It's all well and good for me to remember and miss and carry on the legacy of my dead relatives, but the lasting sadness is that I'm no longer part of their lives because they ended. So that's the personal reason why this was personally horrifying to me.

well said. that and even if the AI can perfectly replicate Jose (unlikely) you still have the fact that everyone close to Josie went through the trauma of losing a loved one. That's going to change the dynamic. Also the mother has too much influence over the AI, much more than she seems to have over Josie's emotional state. Also Klara seems to be under the impression that Josie and Rick were meant to be. If she were to replace Josie in that context that's a whole new can of worms. The book also makes it clear that AI experience discrimination in the real world. Something Josie never had to experience first hand. Even if they Josie suit is foolproof to the naked eye, it still introduces the concept of a hidden secret that Jodie never had to carry with her. The whole plan isn't well thought out by the mother. Very Pet Cemetery

 

[Hinttitroniikka]

well said. that and even if the AI can perfectly replicate Jose (unlikely) you still have the fact that everyone close to Josie went through the trauma of losing a loved one. That's going to change the dynamic. Also the mother has too much influence over the AI, much more than she seems to have over Josie's emotional state. Also Klara seems to be under the impression that Josie and Rick were meant to be. If she were to replace Josie in that context that's a whole new can of worms. The book also makes it clear that AI experience discrimination in the real world. Something Josie never had to experience first hand. Even if they Josie suit is foolproof to the naked eye, it still introduces the concept of a hidden secret that Jodie never had to carry with her. The whole plan isn't well thought out by the mother. Very Pet Cemetery

When Josie wakes up crying in the night that she doesn't want to die, imagine if she knew that life will go on almost as normal for everyone who knows her. That death is the end for her, but a minor setback for everyone she loves. There is where Klara fails her as her AF. Very scary.

 

[Exterminatus]

Started reading "Lee" by Douglas Southall Freeman, had it on my shelf for a while and finally got around to it.

 

[Jean d'Arc]

Just finished reading Infinite Jest so yeah, you could say I have a higher IQ than all of my peers. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Who? by Algis Budrys

 

[glass_houses]

PTSD Radio volume 1.

So, I'm weird. Really, really weird. In my personal and professional life I've dealt with all manner of gross, disgusting, traumatic biohazards, but the two things that freak me out are human spit, and (unattached) human hair. I know spit is comparatively benign, and hair is just keratin, but both of them just turn my stomach and I can't even tell you why. I'm also perfectly fine with hair that is still attached to a human scalp, it's only once it's shed or cut that it begins to gross me out. I'm thoroughly aware that none of this makes a single particle of sense, but it's that's the way it is.

This is significantly increases the impact of PTSD Radio, which is about a malevolent supernatural entity which inhabitants and uses human hair.

I'm struggling with this one, it's a little too effective.

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

Currently on Crash by J. G. Ballard. I have already seen the movie, but even so I was not prepared for how fucked up the book is.

 

[Hazel Motes]

Currently on Crash by J. G. Ballard. I have already seen the movie, but even so I was not prepared for how fucked up the book is.

I used to own a first edition of Crash with the gearstick erection cover. Cost me over 300 quid. I have not read the novel in years. I loved Ballard's early work- they are like SF versions of Joseph Conrad- but I could not stand Concrete Island, so much so that it turned me off reading him any further. I must return to him at some point.

His autobiography is interesting despite his own personal dullness (not including his very eventful youth).

Finished reading Nabokov's Despair. It was one very long joke stretched out for 200 pages before it reached its punchline. Very good though.

Now reading Updike's Roger's Version and Kastrup's new book.

 

[Gaear Grimsrud]

For Halloween I read two Poe stories. The Black Cat & The Cask of Amontillado.

 

[Sincere Irony LLC]

I finished reading a complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe's works. Found the whole experience fascinating as I had no real knowledge of Poe besides what I absorbed from popular culture. I was very surprised to find so few horror stories and so many science fiction, comedy, and mysteries. There were also many philosophical tales which includes Eureka, a long essay describing Poe's conception of the metaphysical. These writings meant very little to me, I didn't quite grasp it but perhaps that's because I am unfamiliar with Aristotle and the other philosophers he references and seemingly builds off. Poe seemed enamored with hot air balloons which was kind of cool. One of his stories, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hand Pfaff, was a hoax about a man flying a balloon to the moon. It was incredibly illuminating for me to see how vast scientific understanding was in 1840. The distance from the earth to the moon was known and there was an idea that there was a vacuum outside the atmosphere. The horror stories were all pretty tight and quick. Most distractingly Poe uses the word "ejaculate" to mean "exclaim" and "diddling" to mean "scamming." Poe seemingly had a very pessimistic outlook on American democracy which was unexpected (and surprisingly based), he seems to have believed it to be taken over by mob mentality. You can see this in Some Words with a Mummy. Poe seemingly had a lot of influence on other notable writers which I was also unaware. He wrote 3 mystery stories which inspired the Sherlock Holes series, his science fiction stories influenced Jules Verne and his novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, influenced Herman Melville in Moby Dick. Overall wasn't the dark brooding mood setter for fall I expected but tremendously enjoyable experience nevertheless.

 

[AnOminous]

Overall wasn't the dark brooding mood setter for fall I expected but tremendously enjoyable experience nevertheless.

He often doesn't get enough credit for his literary criticism, which was top notch for the time, and unlike much criticism, not written by a failure who had never created any works himself. He was pretty much also the soul brother of his French translator Charlie Baudelaire, also a similarly doomed character.