(urth) What are you reading?

Wed Apr 2 07:10:59 PDT 2014

Were these two novellas ever published / printed separately?

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, ha ha, I've often looked at it and thought 'well, can't stop there,
> oh and you can't stop there', etc.
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> "Yes!  I've often thought it should be excerpted and anthologised."
>>
>> Yeah that would be neat.  I guess the problem is that there there is so
>> much pay off when Quiche meets the Five-O'Clock Man again.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
>> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, he wrote a brilliant afterword to it.  But I always suspected he
>>> was handed that one to read and write an afterword for - I'm sure he
>>> sincerely liked it, but he'd already been a long time fan of Lafferty by
>>> then (1987), so I'd be interested to know what else he liked.
>>>
>>> *The account of the filming of the thirteen "crucifixions" is a
>>> masterpiece on its own.*
>>> Yes!  I've often thought it should be excerpted and anthologised.
>>>
>>> -DOJP
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:54 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
>>> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I thought the first novella was fantastic.  I was actually a bit
>>>> worried as I came to the end that the second wouldn't be as good, but it
>>>> was.  It was wickedly funny ... a forger so good his works are worth more
>>>> *as* forgeries than as originals, a film director who is more
>>>> convinced of the cinematic brilliance (and falseness) of Quiche's torture
>>>> the more grotesque and real it seemed, etc*.  *The account of the
>>>> filming of the thirteen "crucifixions" is a masterpiece on its own.
>>>>
>>>> On Wolfe, I imagine he quite liked *East of Laughter*, didn't he write
>>>> a forward or something specifically for it?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 8:20 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
>>>> danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> "I just finished *Apocalypses*, I think it is my favorite Lafferty.
>>>>> Loved it from start to finish."
>>>>>
>>>>> So glad to hear you say that bout that book, Antonin!  I think I've
>>>>> heard a fair number of Lafferty fans say they liked the second novel in the
>>>>> omnibus, but rarely heard anybody say a word negative or positive about the
>>>>> first novel.  I loved the book right off too.  It definitely contains some
>>>>> of his greatest passages and ideas and should be more highly regarded in
>>>>> his body of work.
>>>>>
>>>>> To keep things Wolfean (heh), has anybody ever heard what stories or
>>>>> novels Wolfe may have liked in particular from Lafferty?
>>>>>
>>>>> -DOJP
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
>>>>> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I just finished *Apocalypses*, I think it is my favorite Lafferty.
>>>>>> Loved it from start to finish.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Small world, I picked up the third Culture novel, *Use of Weapons*,
>>>>>> right after.  It isn't bad, but it isn't particularly good either.  There
>>>>>> are some interesting ideas dotted throughout, but the prose itself is very
>>>>>> simple and straightforward, while the plot is a fairly generic adventure
>>>>>> story.  I'm sure the cumulative effect of multiple stories set in the
>>>>>> Culture universe is better than the small view you get in an individual
>>>>>> novel, however.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 7:50 AM, Mark Lewin <mark at marklewin.com>wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  I'm currently enjoying the first of Iain M Banks' Culture books, *Consider
>>>>>>> Phlebas*. No great mental effort required on the part of the
>>>>>>> reader, just good, imaginative space opera. I'm having a blast.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've also just completed a selection of short stories entitled *The
>>>>>>> New Uncanny*. Having got rather bored of horror/supernatural tales
>>>>>>> in recent years, this was a rather brave purchase, but one that paid off.
>>>>>>> It's a great collection with some really original, off-the-wall stories, by
>>>>>>> a mixture of genre authors such as Christoper Priest and Ramsay Campbell,
>>>>>>> and "literary" types like AS Byatt and Hanif Kureishi.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Next up: "Home Fires".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Mark
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014, at 05:05 AM, Dan Harris wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I can't do much reading these days, so I've been supplementing it
>>>>>>> with audiobooks whenever possible.  Currently meandering through All
>>>>>>> Creatures Great and Small as well as Titus Groan.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 6:19 PM, Antonin Scriabin <
>>>>>>> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks for the Vandermeer recommendation. I picked up Annihilation
>>>>>>> yesterday and it was quite good. Sort of a blend of the investigative
>>>>>>> horror of Lovecraft, the detached (but still eerie) narration of House of
>>>>>>> Leaves, and natural wonder of something like The Lost World. Really looking
>>>>>>> forward to the other two novels in the trilogy, and knowing they will both
>>>>>>> be released in 2014 is a great bonus!
>>>>>>> On Mar 12, 2014 2:38 PM, "Piotr Szczęsny" <neternalz at gmail.com>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I bump Craigs recommendation!, great start for "Southern Reach"
>>>>>>> trilogy.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Jagannath" by Karin Tidbeck is a short story collection, in summary
>>>>>>> it's new weird in nordic countries setting (mostly, not all), very fresh,
>>>>>>> disturbing, and yet sweet sometimes. Also the stories originally written in
>>>>>>> swedish Karin translated herself, that impressed me very much.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> After that I wanted some very light reading, so I picked up the
>>>>>>> Dresden Files, I just started book four, and it's pretty fun, reads very
>>>>>>> fast, and it have a rare tendency - the latter the book in series the
>>>>>>> better (story wise, style wise, all-around improvement).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As for Wolfe, I read his story "Forleseen", and it was hauting me
>>>>>>> for a week or so, made me very sad, but it is a great story.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anybody read "No Return" by Zachary Jeningan? Many people compare
>>>>>>> this to the book of the new sun, Elizabeth Hand wrote : "It has the
>>>>>>> sweep of Frank Herbert's *Dune* and the intoxicatingly strange
>>>>>>> grandeur of Gene Wolfe's *Book of the New Sun*, with a decadent,
>>>>>>> beautifully rendered vision all its own."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2014-03-12 15:35 GMT+01:00 Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  I can't recommend Jeff Vandermeer's _Annihilation_ highly enough.
>>>>>>> It's part of a new "trilogy" (the others will be out by September), but
>>>>>>> each book is going to be quite different. It's the smartest, most
>>>>>>> entertaining, and most effective continuation of the "weird" tradition I've
>>>>>>> read in years. He learned everything you're supposed to learn from Bierce,
>>>>>>> Blackwood, Machen, Lovecraft, C.A. Smith, and the others, and turned it
>>>>>>> into something fresh.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>>>>  *From:* Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>  *To:* The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
>>>>>>>  *Sent:* Wednesday, March 12, 2014 7:26 AM
>>>>>>>  *Subject:* (urth) What are you reading?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hello, Urthlings. What are you reading these days?  I haven't been
>>>>>>> reading much Wolfe lately, so nothing is fresh enough in my mind to
>>>>>>> participate in some of the other ongoing discussions.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am working my way through the Harvard Classics.  I just finished
>>>>>>> the fourth volume, the complete poems in English by John Milton.  *Paradise
>>>>>>> Lost *was a treat, as was Franklin's autobiography in the first
>>>>>>> volume and the *New Atlantis *by Bacon in the third, which is an
>>>>>>> old favorite of mine from my philosophy major days.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  I've also recently read *The Sea, the Sea *by Iris Murdoch, which
>>>>>>> was excellent, and *The City of Dreaming Books *by Moers, which was
>>>>>>> great, silly fun*.*  I also read the first 50 pages of *Lookout
>>>>>>> Cartridge* by McElroy and decided to put it back on the shelf for
>>>>>>> the time being.  It wasn't particularly *bad, *it was just entirely
>>>>>>> unsuccessful in grabbing my attention within a reasonable amount of time,
>>>>>>> together with being written in a very disjointed, unique style.  I will
>>>>>>> probably get back to it in the near future.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  Anyway, I am getting back on a Wolfe kick today by finishing the
>>>>>>> latter half of *The Island of Doctor Death, and Other Stories, and
>>>>>>> Other Stories*. Looking forward to it!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>   _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Urth Mailing List
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>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Urth Mailing List
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>>>>> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>
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