(urth) What are you reading?

Wed Apr 2 11:53:00 PDT 2014

I'm pretty sure they were published nowhere else but as this omnibus.  A
slightly strange little publishing venture.

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Antonin Scriabin
<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>   _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>>
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-- 
Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
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