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Books.
Nov 2, 2011 11:01:40 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 2, 2011 11:01:40 GMT -5
Honestly, if there's one 'virtue' that really, really grinds my gears, it's glibness--I really, really can't stand it, probably because my Dad, for most his life, has been the King of Glib.
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Books.
Nov 7, 2011 21:55:41 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 7, 2011 21:55:41 GMT -5
The Dirty Dozen: this purports to contain the twelve, worst, Supreme Court decisions in the "modern era" (defined as FDR forward). I don't have much to quibble with here, but the contortions and rationalizations (in the appendix) to not include Roe v. Wade[footnote:1]I don't care how you feel about this issue: RvW was a hellishly bad decision on the merits, and is the exemplar of rule by judges/judges usurping the role of the legislature/the left using the courts to make laws they couldn't get passed in the legislature. Essentially, it is the standard-bearer for judicial overreach.[/footnote] was really ham-fisted and amounted to: we're hardcore libertarians, so though we know it was a really bad decision on the merits, we aren't going to make too much of a fuss over it because we got the result we wanted, i.e. the ends justify the means. (They try to lump Bush v. Gore in here, too, but that's just utter horseshit, and I think that was only there to mollify libs, while the rationalization on Roe was to (feebly) mollify conservatives and, in the process, will satisfy neither at the expense of some of their credibility.) My next 'project' is tackling Herbert's Dune, a book (and series) I've attempted in the past, but never could get past the overly-verbose, much-too-leaden, verbiage that spans, roughly, eleventy-billion pages. (Maybe I should just go and watch the Lynch film again and call it a day.)
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Nov 9, 2011 23:18:22 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 9, 2011 23:18:22 GMT -5
Starting Strength 2nd Ed.: this is, probably, the best book I've ever cracked on the 'art' of weight training. While Arnie's encyclopedia was my undergrad tome of choice, this book is definitely grad level material, but it would still be a great first book for *anyone* looking into getting into traiing. Highly, highly recommended. As for Dune, I'm actually enjoying it this time around. Granted, the last time I'd even bothered cracking it was on the order of 15 years ago, so I guess the old, broken down, me is finally tolerant enough of the baroque language to make a real go at it. I'm now actually semi-curious about David Lynch's Dune (whicih I saw in theaters, lo those many ages ago) again, even though I'm 99% certain I'll think it's God-awful (as a kid, I can recall being pretty confused by it, more than anything else).
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Nov 14, 2011 1:09:46 GMT -5
Post by elchevalier on Nov 14, 2011 1:09:46 GMT -5
So, William Faulkner, where should i begin?
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Nov 15, 2011 1:34:12 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 15, 2011 1:34:12 GMT -5
Personally, I'd steer you towards non-fiction history before suggesting Faulkner Fiction is nice and all, but you probably get enough make-believe in your life as it is (like pretending you don't live in the Detroit of Mexico).
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Books.
Nov 18, 2011 22:28:25 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 18, 2011 22:28:25 GMT -5
Dune: finally, after decades, I managed to get through the entire book and it was...OK? I think the problem here is that, while it was probably awesome in '65, it's been so passed by other stories (many of which unabashedly ripped it off, elements of which can be found in Star Wars, Warhammer 40K, and about a half-dozen other, obvious examples), that it was still a struggle getting through all of it.
One thing I really didn't like was that you spend what has to be at least hafl the time in characters' heads, being fed what's going on via internal monologue and it's just too much--they seem to spend more time thinking than speaking/interacting w/ other characters.
Because of this, it's now easy to understand why Dune, the film, felt the need, however misguided, to do exactly the same thing by replacing dialogue with narration left and right. There is simply no way, in a 2-3 hour movie to convey, through dialogue, what is going on in this story w/o them. (Short breaking it up into 3 films to tell it all--maybe the Sci-Fi channel version handles this better?)
I did go back and read some reviews from sci-fi lumianries at the time of tis release and all I gotta say is: man, did some of them over-react, even for then. I mean, someone basically stated the only ting like it was The Lord of the Rings, but the world in which Dune is set, while detailed, is not as ornately constrcuted as LOTR--not even close, in fact. While there are lots of great concepts and locales introduced (no doubt expounded upon in the numerous sequels), a lot of them seem as if they get short-shrift since, oh yeah, here's some more of Paul's thoughts on the turmoil surrounding his life...Zzzz.
Anyway, I can't really recommend this unless you're on some quest to read all the classics of science fiction, in which case, well, good luck!
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Nov 18, 2011 23:04:40 GMT -5
Post by elchevalier on Nov 18, 2011 23:04:40 GMT -5
So, which will be a good heavy sci-fi classic that is very much worth a check?
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Nov 18, 2011 23:15:04 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 18, 2011 23:15:04 GMT -5
By heavy do you mean long? Or thematically? Or both?
Some you should read, regardless, in no order:
*Starship Troopers *Hyperion (and its sequels) *The Foundation Trilogy *The Time Machine *The Martian Chronicles *Ringworld *A Brave New World (this should be a must-read by everyone on the planet) *Rendezvous with Rama *That Hideous Strength *Stranger In a Strange Land
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Nov 21, 2011 18:42:12 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 21, 2011 18:42:12 GMT -5
Mister B. Gone: a (short) Clive Barker novel that I hadn't read! This is pretty entertaining stuff: a fast read, and it's the type of theme that I go ape for: Biblical mytholgoy, i.e. demons, angles, etc., etc. tied into an historical event that drives the entire narrative. Good stuff. Wolf Hunt: A *good* (short) werewolf novel! This is action-packed, moves at a breezy clip (I think it took me all of four hours), and does something sorta-kinda different w/ the werewolf mythos that isn't so far afield from it that it's alienating for fans of lycanthropy. Recommended if you're into this sort of stuff. Next up, it's probably back to some non-fiction (to make up for my fiction bender), probably in the form of Republics: Ancient and Modern by Paul Rahe (yeah, all three volumes, so that'll be a long, hard, slog, though I'm guessing highly illuminating even for someone that fancies himself well-versed on the topics covered).
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Nov 22, 2011 15:54:21 GMT -5
Post by feilong80 on Nov 22, 2011 15:54:21 GMT -5
so you wouldn't put Ender's Game in the list of classics?
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Nov 22, 2011 16:24:11 GMT -5
Post by ECM on Nov 22, 2011 16:24:11 GMT -5
I like Ender's, but it's more like Top 25 than Top 10.
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Nov 23, 2011 15:33:25 GMT -5
Post by Justin on Nov 23, 2011 15:33:25 GMT -5
You're a reading machine! I can't keep up with you!
I started both The Hobbit and The Elegant Universe. Yes, I grabbed from both sides of the spectrum ;D
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