*What book are you reading ?

[Col_Buendia]

John Fowles, The Collector.

Much more twisted than I expected, and I couldn't put it down, despite it being such a shudder-inducing story.

 

[IntoStella]

John Fowles, The Collector.

Much more twisted than I expected, and I couldn't put it down, despite it being such a shudder-inducing story.

I have not read it yet but I have heard it is pretty disturbing. Presumably you have read The Magus?

What about Mantissa (which I must admit I hurled aside with great force)?

 

[IntoStella]

Incidentally may I recommend Madame Mao- The White-Boned Demon by Ross Terrill?

A decent biography of Mao's bit of fluff (after his 2nd wife) Jiang Quing- showing her transformation from a crap actress, to a vindictive, spiteful, bullying, power-crazed, and ultimately suicidal, bitch. With bits of her part in the Cultural Revolution thrown in to illustrate the fact that she was one nasty piece of work.

Funny how women are so often singled out for a particularly vicious kind of vilification in situations like these. No doubt she put Mao up to the whole thing. There's almost invariably a woman to blame in there somewhere.

Coming soon: Mrs Stalin -- It Was All Her Fault. The Bitch.

Bit of fluff, eh?

vindictive, spiteful, bullying, power-crazed, and ultimately suicidal, bitch

And how would you describe her male comrades?

Can't help wondering if the misogynistic vitriol is really the book's or yours.

 

[Ryazan]

Shut up. I haven't singled her out because she was a woman, but she was one nasty piece of work. She does have significance, and rather ignoring women, as they usually are, subsumed into the lives of their male contemporaries, she need s amention. She wasn't merely part of Mao The Events, but made quite a few bad judgements herself. Her part in the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" was frankly awful.

And how have I said it was all her fault? Stop taing a giant leap forward in assuming my attitude towards women, and perhaps make yourself aware of such as what had happeened in China.

Well, Nadezhada Alliluyeva can't have been completely ignorant of the Ukraine famine, so perhaps she could be frowned upon for that, and she was a bit of a snitch apparently while a student in Moscow, but she did shoot herself I guess, in part, through despair at having such a brute of a husband.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Just gone through "Pandora's Star" again, in preperation for the squel that should come out soon.

Think i'll go back and finish war and peace in the mean time.

 

[IntoStella]

Shut up.

You shut up, you woman-hating dickwad.

God I pity you. What a way to live.

 

[Ryazan]

How can disliking one particular women make me a hater of all women?

 

[IntoStella]

She wasn't merely part of Mao The Events, but made quite a few bad judgements herself.

And that makes her a vicious, spiteful blah blah blah bitch does it? Your lack of self awareness is pathetic.

 

[IntoStella]

How can disliking one particular women make me a hater of all women?

Your stinking attitude to women shines out of you all the time for all to see.

 

[Ryazan]

So she can be excused for her actvities, her actions leading to imprisonment and the ruination of other people, including other women? She can be excused because she is a woman?

Now that would be some kind of chivalrous chauvinism. Women aren't responsible adults are they.

 

[IntoStella]

So she can be excused for her actvities, her actions leading to imprisonment and the ruination of other people, including other women? She can be excused because she is a woman?

Now that would be some kind of chivalrous chauvinism. Women aren't responsible adults are they.

An entirely irrelevant straw man.

It was the way you were getting a stiffy out of calling her a lot of misogynistic names that makes me sick to my stomach.

And as I said, what about the rest of the 'gang', where is your bile for them?

I don't doubt that in truth you DON'T think women are responsible adults. You think they are bits of fluff, don't you?

 

[Ryazan]

Oh for god's sake!

It was meant in good humour the fluff bit. She was crap, or at best mediocre, but used power for ill.

 

[Ryazan]

And I didn't get a single twinge from writing that post. Stop assuming.

 

[IntoStella]

Oh for god's sake!

It was meant in good humour the fluff bit. She was crap, or at best mediocre, but used power for ill.

Which makes her a vicious, spiteful, etc etc bitch?

 

[Ryazan]

her actions in the Cultural Revolution , in my opinion, do, yes.

Quite a sad character too. Even more sad is his second wife searching for children in the countryside, left during the Long March.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

And here was me thinking this sticky was about books

 

[jigsaw]

concrete jungle

The Collected Short Stories of JG Ballard

About fifty years worth of writing, mostly dystopian visions of the future, all wonderfully imagined. It's great.

'concrete jungle' sucked me in, felt like i had merged into this jg ballard story line/dream

 

[J77]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (or is that the other way around?)

 

[Col_Buendia]

I have not read it yet but I have heard it is pretty disturbing. Presumably you have read The Magus?

What about Mantissa (which I must admit I hurled aside with great force)?

Presumed wrong, I'm afraid! Only read The French Lieutenant's Woman before. The Collector is pretty disturbing in a way that makes the unthinkable seem quite ordinary. Yet is a strangley gripping read - apols for the cliches!

 

[jigsaw]

I'm reading "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall ; it's very good than-you very much.

What about you ?

reading the 'METRO'
thats a good title!
listening too, lardy dardy music!
i'm being stalked!/
over ground, faces appear before me.
secret eyes,,secret ways,
my, yes, are able to see thee outrider!
do it to yoursel
pain the ture, thought enough!
splay your self canvass- across, outline your frame
enjoy the situation, getin it on
up to no good,
need to paint in the coutryside!
skinny looking detrimentals!
or eh/
love ya 'Barry'


avu;-)

 

[In Bloom]

The Corporation by Joel Bakan. Only halfway through the first chapter so far, pretty decent so far. Strikes me as a little inconsistant though, Bakan is extremely cynical about corporations (and rightly so), but fails to apply this cynicism equally to the state.

 

[humble]

I’m re-reading for the xth time Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by the sorely missed Douglas Adams.

is Douglas Adams a brother of my friend Gerry?

 

[Orangesanlemons]

'Lunar Park' by Bret Easton Ellis.

Fantastic so far, really developing nicely. It's a... mock autobiography with horror elements. Highlight so far is a cracking cameo by Jay McInerney. Um. More when I've finished it.

 

[kyser_soze]

Is Lunar Park good?

Think I'm gonna wait for the paperback...

 

[Orangesanlemons]

Excellent so far, laugh-out-loud funny in places. I love the idea of someone idly picking it up and reading it as a straight autobiography. Guest appearances so far from 'Patrick Bateman', Keanu Reeves, an evil voodoo bird and (of course) a mountain of coke and booze.

 

[Wyn]

My Nine Lives - Ruth Prawer Jhanvala

 

[Major Tom]

Black Vinyl White Powder by Simon Napier Bell.

Julie Burchill gave it a rave review but I'm not so sure. It's full of mistakes - Napier-Bell obviously wasn't that interested in the music side of things. More drugs and sex - although he does admit it in the book. His morals are a bit suspect too - he was quite happy to set the Wham! in China concert up while being fully aware of the human rights abuses there - he even attended a show case trial where petty criminals were taken to a field afterwards and exectued by a bullet to the head.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Black Vinyl White Powder by Simon Napier Bell.

Have you read 'You Don't have To Say You Love Me' by SNB? That's quite entertaining if you like reading about late nights in the Bag O'Nails with B-list 60s pop stars.

 

[Rollem]

"a million little pieces" by james frey

i started reading this towards the end of my pregnancy....then baby came and interupted!!

just found the book again (having thought i through it out!!) and am thoroughly enjoying it again....

 

[stroober]

The Good German by Joseph Kanon

Its a bit of a pager turner after starting slowly

sort of whodunit in Berlin 1945