Poll: What do you like to read?

by **Protagonist X** » Thu May 01, 2003 10:34 am

See, he's always struck me as a really bright guy, so maybe he actually has a good reason for this. I just can't imagine what it is.

Maybe he's worried that CMU's webcasting server being slashdotted will screw up University research? I dunno.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu May 01, 2003 10:09 am

Great concerns?! The guy wrote a cyberpunk novel and is too much of a pussy to allow his visage to be broadcast over the Internet?

Well, that will just about do it for me and reading books.

by **Protagonist X** » Thu May 01, 2003 8:33 am

Work in Progress by Neal Stephenson
<<< Cancelled >>>

Description:

We are sorry that Neal Stephenson has
great concerns about live broadcasting
the lecture over the internet. So we will
not be able to broadcast this one to you.

Do you hear that noise? That is the sound of my fucking heart breaking.

by **Protagonist X** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 1:20 pm

On a related tangent:

Since interest in Neal Stephenson seems to be a common theme around here, I thought I'd mention that he's giving a live talk this Thursday (May 01 2003) at CMU, 4:30 pm EDT. Even better, though: it's being webcast.

Link: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~streaming/

You apparently need quicktime plus a special, Carnegie-Mellon-specific plugin --> http://infocom.cmcl.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin- ... .cgi?uid=4

They mention support for Windows, and some flavors of Debian and Redhat (I don't know what distro Bruce and the other Linux users favor).

by **Protagonist X** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 1:14 pm

bruce wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: What didn't you like about the Diamond Age? I don't know anything about it except what's being said in this thread.
I liked it right up until the end, when Stephenson's editor apparently called him up and said, "Hey, that's 75,000 words. You can quit now."

Bruce

All his stuff ends like that, it's true. The most satisfying final paragraph I think he's written was at the end of In the Beginning Was the Command Line, which is (of all things) a nonfiction essay. I take that back: Zodiac actually coasts to a stop over the course of a few pages, instead of his customary "OK, all the plot threads are tied up, let's hit the brakes hard at the end of... hmm... this paragraph I'm typing right here."

[Cue SFX: screeching metal of beautiful train braking to zero mph in an absurdly brief timeframe.]

There was a maxim a screenwriting prof of mine had. Given the choice between ending the story (A) too soon, (B) too late, and (C) at the exact right time, which should you choose? His answer was that (A) and (C) are the same; you should always leave the audience wanting more.

When I ended Snow Crash, I wondered if Stephenson had had similar advice in the past and gone a little too aggressively with it. Still, he's one of my favorite living authors, and I loved all of his books (Diamond Age and even The Big U included) despite the endings. And I indeed wanted more when I was done with his books.

Vitriola wrote:Anyway, Diamond Age was just, I mean, imagine if you were making cereal in the morning, and you pour out your Cocoa Puffs of whatever you eat in the morning that makes you the spaz you are, and then you go to pour out the milk, and it's pouring, and it's white, and you're thinking 'yummy', and then the milk turns pink, then red, and a severed kitten head comes out of the milk opening and lands right on top of your nicely mounded pile of Cocoa Puffs. That's Diamond Age.

Sorry, I'm not following you, other than that there was something other than the ending that really failed to light your fire?

by **looper** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 1:56 pm

bruce wrote:I've read a bit of Beagle, though not The Innkeeper's Song. Specifically, The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place, and I See By My Outfit.

Cool...yeah, Beagle just hasn't written a whole lot (last I checked). But I highly recommend The Innkeeper's Song. I've read it, The Last Unicorn, and A Fine and Private Place, and neither of those last two compared to Innkeeper's Song. I've read it repeatedly. I consider it to be fairly innovative, too, at least for the author...everything is told in the first person, but each chapter is told from a different character's perspective. One of the characters is not really human, more of a...erm, fox...and it really makes for some enjoyable reading.

by **looper** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 3:07 pm

Re: Diamond Age (& also P.K. Dick)

man, my ISP sucks...I'm at a library now for internet access *sniff*

I can see why people would think the Diamond Age's ending was too sudden...but I hadn't heard the sentiment till I read this thread...I thought it was a nice ending because, like (warning, minor to middlin' spoilers), it seemed to be a surprise ending: the reader's thinking, "Sh*t, how is she going to get out of this? Man, everything's f*cked", and then, BAM!, she pulls it all together and surprises everyone. That's what I thought anyway. Plus, I thought it was neat how, one theme of the whole book was being an orphan, being motherless and fatherless, and then...you know. I'm easy to please, though :)

I've read Snow Crash too and I prefer Diamond Age. Haven't read Cryptonomicon though.

...Androids and Ubik are both real nice, Jonesey. Although I had to grit my teeth for the first 30 pages or so of Ubik...it was just tough to hang in there till I got past that.

by **Vitriola** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 12:49 pm

Snow Crash rules, and I think of it every day when i'm faced with the option of moving into my own storage locker.

Anyway, Diamond Age was just, I mean, imagine if you were making cereal in the morning, and you pour out your Cocoa Puffs of whatever you eat in the morning that makes you the spaz you are, and then you go to pour out the milk, and it's pouring, and it's white, and you're thinking 'yummy', and then the milk turns pink, then red, and a severed kitten head comes out of the milk opening and lands right on top of your nicely mounded pile of Cocoa Puffs. That's Diamond Age.

Anyone read Richard Calder's trilogy? I started that, and my dreams have never been the same. Also reading Pat Cadigan's 'Mindplayers'.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 12:06 am

Snow Crash ended the same way (in the same manner, I mean).

I don't get that. The endings are the most fun to write!

by **bruce** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 10:18 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: What didn't you like about the Diamond Age? I don't know anything about it except what's being said in this thread.

I liked it right up until the end, when Stephenson's editor apparently called him up and said, "Hey, that's 75,000 words. You can quit now."

Bruce

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 6:05 pm

Vitriola wrote:Ooo, Rob

Hey, where did my other "b" go?

I actually threw that bbook across the room

Ah, there it is.

when I was done to get as far away as possible. Like, one of the worst books I've ever read. I just lent out my copy of Crypto, too...Currently starting Necroscope, back in 1.3 years...

What didn't you like about the Diamond Age? I don't know anything about it except what's being said in this thread.

by **Vitriola** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:44 pm

Ooo, Rob, Cryptonomicon is great, but stay far, far away from The Diamond Age. I actually threw that bbook across the room when I was done to get as far away as possible. Like, one of the worst books I've ever read. I just lent out my copy of Crypto, too...

Currently starting Necroscope, back in 1.3 years...

by **bruce** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 9:18 am

I've read a bit of Beagle, though not The Innkeeper's Song. Specifically, The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place, and I See By My Outfit.

Anyone else here make it all the way through David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest?

Bruce

by **gsdgsd** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 10:37 pm

For fiction-- mostly straight lit fic, the Delillos, the Roths, the Amises, and so forth. Most recently was Ismail Kadare's "The File on H."; next up will be the new Delillo or a second try at Jonathan Franzen's "The Twenty-Seventh City" (about St. Louis, Bruce!).

The majority of the reading nowadays is non-fiction that I have at least a mildly professional interest in; foreign policy treatises mostly. Also a lot of history and travelogues, currently "Prague in Black and Gold" by Peter Demetz.

Greg

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 9:55 pm

looper wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Cryptonomicon by Stephenson.
Ah, have you read The Diamond Age?

Haven't yet... only because I have finished off the Crypt yet. But yeah, that's one that I definitely have my eye on. I'm hoping to work up the courage to talk to the Diamond Age sooner rather than later, and maybe ask it if it would like to, I don't know, maybe get some coffee or something. If it's not busy! I mean, if it's not doing anything anytime soon and was, you know, free.

Sigh.. Someday. It's rough when the one you fancy happens to be the one with the spine.

And also, do we have any Philip K. Dick fans in the house? Particularly of the book Ubik by said author?

Ubik I have not encountered, though I have heard that it is excellent. I've got the obligatory well-worn copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? kicking about though. Before I read it, I was aware that there was some big question in the book, and I went in thinking that the ultimate answer revealed would not be whether or not Deckard was a replicant, but whether or not androids really do dream of electric sheep.

I think Dick made the right choice with what to run with there.

by **looper** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:56 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Cryptonomicon by Stephenson.

Ah, have you read The Diamond Age?

...

Ok, I tried (accidentally) to derail someone's thread earlier this year by mentioning a book when they started talking about the Game Kid book or whatever the book was titled. But now I won't be derailing...BWAH HAH HAHH HAH HAH *ahem*...ok, so, has ANYBODY read The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter S. Beagle? Or has anyone heard of Peter S. Beagle?

And also, do we have any Philip K. Dick fans in the house? Particularly of the book Ubik by said author?

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:24 pm

I just read the short story that the Spring Comp game 'Cross of Fire' is based on. Other than that, I also have been doing the gutenberg thing and read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

One of these days, I'll probably read Stephen Tunney's _Flan_ again or read another sci fi book with lots of funny in it like I usually do.

Also, my brother has a book about the 1893 World's Fair serial killer that he may lend me.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:24 pm

Carolina Bunky wrote:Also lookin' interesting is "Black Dahlia Avenger" - nonfiction account of this guy investigating the Black Dahlia murder only to realize chances are pretty good that his own father was the murderer.

Oh, wow, I didn't know there was a book out on that. I had seen an URL passed around on that story recently... I presumed it was a recent revelation.

I was going to do a riff on how much it would suck to investigate one of the most notorious crimes in the country's history and come to the end of it, Maze Craze style, looking at your own father with his finger on the trigger, or hand on the knife or whatever the hell that guy used, but there's really very little you can say. I've got to imagine that every conversation the guy had with his dad while growing up has become totally tainted, though. When I was five or six my dad told me a joke that went like "What kind of wood doesn't float?" The answer was 'Natalie Wood.' OK, ha ha, whatever. This Dahlia guy's kid is living a life where after hearing that joke he realizes thirty years later that *his* old man pushed her off the frigging boat.

by **Carolina Bunky** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 8:11 pm

I'm reading "An American Tragedy" for about the twelfth time...

I have "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" on hold at the library (SciFi channel just showed "Riverworld" which is based on this series of books).

Also lookin' interesting is "Black Dahlia Avenger" - nonfiction account of this guy investigating the Black Dahlia murder only to realize chances are pretty good that his own father was the murderer.

by **bruce** » Wed Apr 16, 2003 6:19 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: I need to finish off "Gravity's Rainbow" by wossname there, and Cryptonomicon by Stephenson. I am about halfway done with Cryptonomicon, but I haven't gone flying recently.

That would be Thomas Pynchon and it's only THE GREATEST BOOK IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. And no, I'm not joking.

Bruce

Poll: What do you like to read?

Post a reply

Expand view Topic review: Poll: What do you like to read?