Random Literature Thread

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linguoboy
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-03-02, 16:39

Naava wrote:
linguoboy wrote:Am I alone in this peeve or does it annoy some of y'all too?

That reminded me of this.

WTF is up with that clueless person trying to langsplain code-switching to a fluent bilingual? SMH.

As clumsy as this is, at least it's an attempt to reflect a multilingual reality. What really bugs me are passages where you'd have a conversation start like this between two characters who were Spanish-speakers and presumably speaking Spanish the whole time. Then it reads like, "They're speaking SPANISH, remember? 'Cause I set my story in MEXICO!"

I didn't think of the accent thing, because that's a film and television trope, not a literary one, but that's ridiculous, too. There'll be scenes where two characters are speaking with Russian accents or whatever and I'll be like, Aren't we in Russia? Isn't the whole dialogue presumably translated from Russian? If they have any accents at all, shouldn't they be reflective of their origins within Russia? (Like, say, a posh accent for an aristocrat or a regional accent to signal someone's from the provinces.)
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Antea » 2018-03-04, 22:50

I just discovered this theatre play “На дне” or “The lower depths” by Maxim Gorky. It seems interesting, I just wonder if I would be able to read in Russian...maybe with a translation nearby :whistle:

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-03-11, 20:28

Reciting what I've learned of Mayūra Sandēśam in one sitting is so hard because there are so many verses I lose my breath! :bittercry:

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby IpseDixit » 2018-04-27, 17:06

Recently I've been questioning what kinds of books people imagine I read when I say that I like science fiction. I mean, when I say that, I always have authors like Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Stanisław Lem, William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin in mind, among the others; but I'm more and more afraid that an average Joe might picture something closer to Divergent, Hunger Games or even Marvel shite. I don't know, it's something I've never given much thought to before, but as I grow older I find myself worried that people might be completely misunderstanding my tastes and that I might appear more superficial than I actually am. So much so that I'm considering dropping entirely the word science fiction and just list a few authors when I'm asked what kind of stuff I read.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Luís » 2018-04-27, 18:23

Yeah, when you mentioned before you liked reading science fiction I imagined something like Star Trek novels, not Philip K. Dick and Ursula Le Guin :P (not that there's anything wrong with Star Trek)
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Dormouse559 » 2018-04-27, 18:55

Well, I mean, science fiction is such a broad genre, so broad that it bleeds into fantasy. Like, I don't think of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin as being all that similar in their subject matter; Le Guin is closer to the fantasy end of the spectrum.
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby IpseDixit » 2018-04-27, 19:20

Dormouse559 wrote:Well, I mean, science fiction is such a broad genre, so broad that it bleeds into fantasy. Like, I don't think of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin as being all that similar in their subject matter; Le Guin is closer to the fantasy end of the spectrum.


Yeah, I didn't mean that those authors write a similar kind of sci-fi, I just mentioned them to give a few examples of sci-fi writers that have some literary value IMO, as opposed to tasteless novels such as the aforementioned ones.

I'm not worried that people might think I read books more leaning towards fantasy rather than sci-fi, I'm worried that people might think I read shitty books, as Luís is confirming. :lol:

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-05-02, 17:44

Dormouse559 wrote:Well, I mean, science fiction is such a broad genre, so broad that it bleeds into fantasy. Like, I don't think of Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin as being all that similar in their subject matter; Le Guin is closer to the fantasy end of the spectrum.

It really depends. Earthsea, which she's best known for, is unabashedly fantasy, but Always coming home is pure science fiction, just with "soft science" (i.e. anthropology) as a base rather than the "hard science" preferred by "Classical SF" authors. But both she and Dick show an engagement with philosophical questions which is lacking in a lot of more widely-read authors.

When I started reading scifi, it meant authors like Asimov, Bradbury, Delaney, Ellison, Heinlein, Lem, Moorcock, Niven, Pohl, Silverberg, Sturgeon, Wolfe, and Zelazny, and that's still who I think of when I hear the term even though I know there's been an explosion in new writing since then and you could easily spend your whole life reading top-grade "science fiction" without ever picking up one of their books.
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby mōdgethanc » 2018-05-07, 17:26

I've always thought of Le Guin as someone who wrote both fantasy and science fiction, although I don't like to police the boundary of what counts as "real" science fiction versus fantasy (the next person to tell me "Star Trek is sci-fi, Star Wars is fantasy" needs to get fucked).
When I started reading scifi, it meant authors like Asimov, Bradbury, Delaney, Ellison, Heinlein, Lem, Moorcock, Niven, Pohl, Silverberg, Sturgeon, Wolfe, and Zelazny, and that's still who I think of when I hear the term even though I know there's been an explosion in new writing since then and you could easily spend your whole life reading top-grade "science fiction" without ever picking up one of their books.
These are the guys I grew up reading and I still like them although some of them run into the main problem with sci-fi, writing interesting characters. I haven't read much of the modern writers.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-05-07, 18:45

Okay, I guess I don't have to make sure I can recite 224 lines of poetry in one sitting. (Or, ultimately, 564 lines). Splitting it up in bits and pieces with long pauses between quatrains might be okay.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-07-02, 14:33

I'm annoyed at myself. In Seattle, I picked up a spanking new copy of a novel because I thought it was "the first ever translated from Malagasy". Turns out I misread the back cover blurb; it's actually the first ever translated "from Madagascar". The original is French and I could have simply read it in French. Pah.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-07-02, 18:48

For at least several months, I've been toying with the idea of trying to translate my dad's favorite short story in Malayalam into English. Or if you're interested in trying to read my translation of my grandfather's war memoirs, I could try sending you that. :P

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2018-08-12, 3:27

V. S. Naipaul ist tot

"In „Land der Finsternis“ (1964, dt. 1997) analysierte er kritisch die Verhältnisse in Indien, dem Land seiner Vorfahren. In „Eine Islamische Reise“ (1981, dt. 1982) wurde er zum Islamkritiker. Der Roman „An der Biegung des großen Flusses“ (1979, dt. 1980) beschrieb Chaos und Gewaltherrschaft in den unabhängig gewordenen Staaten Afrikas."

"Kritiker warfen V. S. Naipaul neben Arroganz und Ruppigkeit vor, die Welt vor allem aus dem Blickwinkel der Kolonialherren zu betrachten. In der 2008 erschienenen autorisierten Biografie „The world is what it is“ (Die Welt ist, was sie ist) beschrieb der britische Literaturwissenschaftlers Patrick French außerdem wenig schmeichelhaft, wie der Nobelpreisträger seine erste Ehefrau und seine langjährige Geliebte über Jahrzehnte demütigte."
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Naava » 2018-08-20, 18:15

I just found a university literature course named "Murder and Representation" and now I'm starting to get curious. Should I...? :hmm:

(Course description) wrote:This course examines the question of murder and representation, with a special focus on gender issues. We will concentrate on one type of murder, serial murder, as a cultural narrative from the end of the 19th century to the present. During the course we will analyse the cultural imagery and social contexts of serial killing in Britain and the United States. In particular, we will try to answer this question: how are gender and “normalcy” constructed through murder and crime narratives? We will start with the case of Jack the Ripper - the first “modern” serial killer - and his victims, and move on to representations of male and female psychopaths. We will explore such different genres as films and documentary programmes as well as texts written by FBI agents, serial killers and psychiatrists. We will also read three novels: Robert Bloch's Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, and Helen Zahavi's Dirty Weekend.

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2018-08-20, 18:49

Naava wrote:Should I...?

No.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-08-20, 19:04

Yasna wrote:
Naava wrote:Should I...?

Image

FTFY, HTH, HAND.
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2018-08-20, 19:52

linguoboy wrote:FTFY, HTH, HAND.

The course is transparently activism posing as scholarship. HTH.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-08-20, 19:55

Yasna wrote:
linguoboy wrote:FTFY, HTH, HAND.

The course is transparently activism posing as scholarship. HTH.

Image
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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby Yasna » 2018-08-21, 23:43

We seem to have very different ideas about the purpose of universities.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

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Re: Random Literature Thread

Postby linguoboy » 2018-08-28, 15:43

I thought this was an interesting read: an appraisal of Lovecraft's influence from a Laotian-American writer and admitted fan. http://twincitiesgeek.com/2018/08/how-can-writers-of-color-reconcile-h-p-lovecrafts-influence-with-his-racist-legacy/
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons


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