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What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

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    #572
    PopePalpatine
    Registered Users Posts: 11,849 ✭✭✭✭PopePalpatine


    Well, there's always the high seas. :pac:


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    #573
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    I finished "The Player of Games" last night. I enjoyed it but there's one thing bothering me.

    Why did
    Mawhrin-Skel try and blackmail Gurgeh? Was it to force him to go to the Empire? And why did he pose as Flere-Imsaho? :confused:

    I just don't see the significance....


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    #574
    DapperGent
    Registered Users Posts: 4,838 ✭✭✭DapperGent


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Why did
    Mawhrin-Skel try and blackmail Gurgeh? Was it to force him to go to the Empire? And why did he pose as Flere-Imsaho? :confused:
    My impression was that SC selected Gurgeh as the person (or one of the people) they wanted to be the Culture participant in the Azad tournament before the novel even began. There was never anything wrong with Mawhrin-Skel and it was just there to manipulate Gurgeh into agreeing to go. The blackmail I think had two purposes firstly (and most importantly) to get him to agree to go and secondly for him to understand what it was to be in real jeopardy.

    His entire life is at stake if his cheating is revealed and he clearly states that he'll kill himself if it comes out, this (unusually for a Culture citizen) allows him to empathize better with a civilisation like Azad where life is tenuous and suffering is everywhere and arbitrary.

    Having already successfully manipulated Gurgeh once and knows him well I guess it is a natural choice for the role of manipulating him throughout the tournament using the completely different (officious grating) personality of Flere-Imsaho. Showing him the reality of Azadian life at the right time, getting him to start speaking Marain again at the right time etc.


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    #575
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Started Ender's game, sort of. Reading the intro bit by Card and his theories on how his book captures a reality is a little absurd. It's unfair obviously of me to completely it diss it offhand but I just find it strange. The golden rule of fiction is that it's the only place where the world and actions of the characters has to make sense. If one was to write a book that reflects a reality, especially that of the psychology of gifted children and/or war pilots, then it would very likely be a boring unintuitive mess.


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    #576
    DapperGent
    Registered Users Posts: 4,838 ✭✭✭DapperGent


    Card is an astounding fúcktard, the vast majority of his books suck and the totality of his opinion writing sucks. Ender's Game is a great read though as are select few of his other stories, my advice would be to just confine yourself to the book. It doesn't have the philosophical weight some people (including Card) think it has but it's just a great story.

    I remember watching an interview with Neil Young and he was discussing his inability to answer a frequent question he gets which is along the lines of "How did you manage to write those songs?/Where did the genius come from?" or some variant. He says that he really doesn't know and that he was a different person then. That's how I think of Orson Scott Card, whoever wrote Ender's Game is 1985 and Speaker for the Dead in 1986 isn't around anymore, there's just some self-regarding crank who writes an embarrassing amount of crappy sequels.


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    #577
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    DapperGent wrote: »
    My impression was that SC selected Gurgeh as the person (or one of the people) they wanted to be the Culture participant in the Azad tournament before the novel even began. There was never anything wrong with Mawhrin-Skel and it was just there to manipulate Gurgeh into agreeing to go. The blackmail I think had two purposes firstly (and most importantly) to get him to agree to go and secondly for him to understand what it was to be in real jeopardy.

    His entire life is at stake if his cheating is revealed and he clearly states that he'll kill himself if it comes out, this (unusually for a Culture citizen) allows him to empathize better with a civilisation like Azad where life is tenuous and suffering is everywhere and arbitrary.

    Having already successfully manipulated Gurgeh once and knows him well I guess it is a natural choice for the role of manipulating him throughout the tournament using the completely different (officious grating) personality of Flere-Imsaho. Showing him the reality of Azadian life at the right time, getting him to start speaking Marain again at the right time etc.

    Thanks for that, makers sense alright!

    I've now moved on to "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. A book I've been meaning to read for a long time.


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    #578
    swampgas
    Registered Users Posts: 3,537 ✭✭✭swampgas


    robindch wrote: »
    ...which is appearing on screens in October.

    Unfortunately, there have been calls for a boycott of the film on account of Card's unhealthy views of his non-heterosexual fellow-citizens. So Card has asked that people forget that he spent years fighting against marriage equality and instead, show him "tolerance".

    Andrew Wheeler at the Guardian makes a point about tolerance today: link.

    It's a film I'd like to see, but I'm with the boycott crowd on this one.


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    #579
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    Just finished Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Excellent book. Stargate Universe ripped it off too.


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    #580
    smacl
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,725 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    DapperGent wrote: »
    Card is an astounding fúcktard, the vast majority of his books suck and the totality of his opinion writing sucks. Ender's Game is a great read though as are select few of his other stories, my advice would be to just confine yourself to the book. It doesn't have the philosophical weight some people (including Card) think it has but it's just a great story.

    I thought Ender's Game was nowhere near as good as Speaker for the dead, or probably even Xenocide, but the series drifts off after that. Just finished the Ender's shadow series which were very readable but nothing special. Read the Game of thrones series earlier in the year, where the first book was entertaining and each subsequent book got progressively worse. Card has his flaws, but there's much worse out there.

    Sad to see Banks pass on a few months back, love much of his stuff, and unlike many here would put The Wasp Factory on top of that list, followed by Complicty and the Crow Road. Other good recent reads for me include The Boxer Rebellion and Khartoum, both of which turned out to be more compelling than much of the fiction I've read. Also had to digest a fair number of maths and programming books, which were way more mundane.


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    #581
    Aenaes
    Registered Users Posts: 1,677 ✭✭✭Aenaes


    What happened this thread?

    Emma by Jane Austen. Roughly half-way, it's not a book I can read quickly but I expected that. It's quite enjoyable :)


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    #582
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    Slouching Towards Kalamazoo by Peter De Vries. Hitchens recommended this in one of his articles. It's fantastic. Very humourous.


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    #583
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Aenaes wrote: »
    What happened this thread?

    Emma by Jane Austen. Roughly half-way, it's not a book I can read quickly but I expected that. It's quite enjoyable :)

    Reading pace was cut to 5 mins per day.

    Just to pre-empt bluey's inevitable snipe. :pac:


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    #584
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,309 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    Jernal wrote: »
    Reading pace was cut to 5 mins per day.

    Just to pre-empt bluey's inevitable snipe. :pac:

    Damn :cool:


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    #585
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    Another Country by James Baldwin. I love it.


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    #586
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    bluewolf wrote: »
    Damn :cool:

    It was either that or ban you from this forum and hope you wouldn't appeal it. I tossed a coin.


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    #587
    Corkfeen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,940 ✭✭✭Corkfeen


    Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut,been a big fan of him for years. He can be so subtle in his comedy, admittedly the phallic tombstone wasn't subtle. :D


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    #588
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    Just finished Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S Thompson. Read it years ago, but unfortunately it's the kind of book that gets borrowed and not returned. Now I have it on the Kindle, so it's MINE FOREVER (laughs maniacally, runs from room).


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    #589
    The Black Oil
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,311 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Black Oil


    Currently listening to an audiobook of Sam Harris's The End of Faith. There seems to be something wrong the end of chapter 4, the file seems to stop mid sentence and skip straight to chapter 5. Bought it from iTunes, so it's legit. Not sure if I can report it or get it fixed. :confused:

    He certainly puts Islam under the microscope, anyway.

    Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.

    CMod: Entertainment



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    #590
    smacl
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,725 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    Currently reading Blown away for Good. Readable enough insight into the dodgier aspects of Scientology, but not exactly earth shattering.


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    #591
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    Starting Unacknowledged Legislation by Christopher Hitchens.


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    #592
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    Idly picked up Huckleberry Finn the other day and I'm now about half way through it. I haven't read it since I was a kid, but it's amazing how much of it is still fresh in my memory. Twain was a good one.


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    #593
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    pauldla wrote: »
    Idly picked up Huckleberry Finn the other day and I'm now about half way through it. I haven't read it since I was a kid, but it's amazing how much of it is still fresh in my memory. Twain was a good one.

    I need to read this again.

    Currently reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. It is brilliant.


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    #594
    SmilingLurker
    Registered Users Posts: 222 ✭✭SmilingLurker


    [-0-] wrote: »
    Currently reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. It is brilliant.
    Good book. Read it on holiday last year.

    Just finished The Quarry by the late Iain Banks.


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    #595
    Gbear
    Registered Users Posts: 12,775 ✭✭✭✭Gbear


    I've mostly finished Ben Goldacre's most recent book Bad Pharma. You'd obviously suspect that there's nefarious goings on in the world of the pharmaceutical industry, and there clearly is.
    But he raises more interesting issues about the more passive failings in regulation that aren't necessarily outright criminal but more subtle biases and also the degree to which the culture of society as a whole isn't conducive to having a well running medical industry.
    Even if you went into it with the most pessimistic expectations of the pharmaceutical industry it'd still be a pretty shocking read.

    I also recently got a big load of Discworld books that I had previously lost so I read The Fifth Elephant, Guards Guards, Feet of Clay, Men at Arms, Interesting Times, Carpe Jugulum, Small Gods (possibly my favourite of the whole lot), Monstrous Regiment and I could be forgetting another, over the past month.
    With the onset of his illness Pratchett's writing has understandably lost some of it's sheen and that's without taking into account that he's been writing them for over 20 years and he's just released the 40th Discworld book, so staleness was inevitable. But the older books are just so bloody brilliant.
    Next on my shopping list is the "Death" storyline.

    I've also started Dr David Nutt's book "Drugs Without the Hot Air". After that I'm looking forward to Biographies of Nikola Tesla and Werner Heisenberg. Plenty to be getting on with.


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    #596
    MrPudding
    Registered Users Posts: 9,788 ✭✭✭MrPudding


    SmilingLurker wrote: »
    Just finished The Quarry by the late Iain Banks.
    I quite enjoyed that.

    MrP


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    #597
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Second time reading it.


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    #598
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    [-0-] wrote: »
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Second time reading it.

    Read it years back, I wasn't that impressed actually, but I think I was expecting something a bit different. Must try it again.


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    #599
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    Read this a while back, and started it again recently while sitting at the table waiting for my tea. Very well written and informative.

    51T5R64P3HL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


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    #600
    Bannasidhe
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 19,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭Bannasidhe


    Just finished Terry Pratchett's Rising Steam...gods, I miss Granny..:(


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    #601
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    pauldla wrote: »
    Read it years back, I wasn't that impressed actually, but I think I was expecting something a bit different. Must try it again.

    It's not as good as 1984 but it did pave the way for it. Huxley taught Blair.

    Now reading John Moriarty's Dreamtime. A wonderful, wonderful book.


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