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Below Zero Reading Festival
Jan. 20th, 2008 10:55 pmSelected Stories by Anton Chekhov
Summary: a collection of short stories written by Anton Chekhov.
Opinion: About time I got around to reading The Man. And boy am I glad I did. With fandom being such a fleeting genre, it's good to be reminded that stuff written 130 years ago can still be powerful and moving and thought provoking and relevant.
Along with the stories being simply good stories, an element of craft really stuck out for me. Chekhov's stories were originally written in Russian and the non-english sentence structures were new ground. Thick, winding sentences, oftentimes using word combination I tend to edit down (the house of Gregor, vs. Gregor's house). Not only was it a learning experience to see that kind of phrasing done right, but it was a good example of how prose itself can lend weight to a story-- most of Chekhov's stories deal with the layers and layers and layers of social classes in Russian life. Long sentences that take care to mention what belongs to whom and for what reason reaffirmed the basic gists of the stories.
Most of the stories are short. Two, three pages. Chekhov squeezed drama into every little detail. Gah.
Divas Uncovered by who knows
Summary: Cheesecake photos of divas.
Opinion: There were people who paid 30 bucks for this? I felt ripped off at 6 bucks. The pictures weren't anything that couldn't be snatched off the internet, and the text was drivel. "I enjoy being sexy!"
The only upside was that there were pics of Dawn Marie and Ivory. So pretty and so long gone.
Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Summary: An economist explains various influences on economic conditions
Opinion: I'm big on the idea of very casual cause and effect on major social engines. I believe history and social change usually occur not for big lofty reasons, but for private, personal goals. So I bought into the premise of Freakanomics pretty readily.
The book didn't really live up to its premise, though. It barked a lot about how economic conditions are brought about by one single issue, but then turned around tried to sell the author's own special single issue as the reason for the way things are. In other words, they simutaneously denounced pat explanation and provided them.
Some of their reasonings were downright offensive. They suggested that the reason crime dropped in the mid-90s was because all the crimals that would have been commiting the extra crimes had been aborted after Roe Vs Wade. Because, you know, only low-income, uneducated whores get abortions. *eyeroll*
Also, don't waste money trying to educate your adopted kid. They're gonna be dumb no matter what because they're the babies those same low-income, uneducated whores didn't bother to abort. And Lord knows, if they were too lazy to get an abortion, they were too lazy to get proper pre-natal care.
Lost Echoes Joe R Lansdale.
Summary: Harry's psychic visions are triggered by sound.
Opinion: Lansdale has been a HUGE influence on my writing. Plucky white trash solving crimes = fuck yeah.
Lost Echoes was 84% awesome. The front half of the book had very odd pacing. The chapters were short, like a page or two, and it came off as lazy writing rather than "quick" or "action-packed". Lansdale tends to write lots of untagged dialogue, which in his other books is magnificent. He has quirky, blunt characters. It's easy to tell who just said what, and the lack of tags aids the bluntness. In this books, the characters spoke alike, and there was usually a bunch of them, so the untagged dialogue caused me a few re-reads.
The back end of the book was the usual Lansdale flooring. He writes violence, especially needless violence in such an agonizing way. There's no glorifying it. It always comes off as a sick, terrible waste. So much sadness and horror. There's not a lot of likeable characters in a Lansdale story, yet anytime one of them dies I feel so damn sorry for them. And that's when it's writing that shines.
The thematic arc of the story didn't get fired up until end either. Which is one of those double-edged sword things. It was so good when it came, that it seems awful to complain about it any manner. But, once the good stuff emerged, I wish he would have gone back and sprinkled some of it into the first half.
Summary: a collection of short stories written by Anton Chekhov.
Opinion: About time I got around to reading The Man. And boy am I glad I did. With fandom being such a fleeting genre, it's good to be reminded that stuff written 130 years ago can still be powerful and moving and thought provoking and relevant.
Along with the stories being simply good stories, an element of craft really stuck out for me. Chekhov's stories were originally written in Russian and the non-english sentence structures were new ground. Thick, winding sentences, oftentimes using word combination I tend to edit down (the house of Gregor, vs. Gregor's house). Not only was it a learning experience to see that kind of phrasing done right, but it was a good example of how prose itself can lend weight to a story-- most of Chekhov's stories deal with the layers and layers and layers of social classes in Russian life. Long sentences that take care to mention what belongs to whom and for what reason reaffirmed the basic gists of the stories.
Most of the stories are short. Two, three pages. Chekhov squeezed drama into every little detail. Gah.
Divas Uncovered by who knows
Summary: Cheesecake photos of divas.
Opinion: There were people who paid 30 bucks for this? I felt ripped off at 6 bucks. The pictures weren't anything that couldn't be snatched off the internet, and the text was drivel. "I enjoy being sexy!"
The only upside was that there were pics of Dawn Marie and Ivory. So pretty and so long gone.
Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Summary: An economist explains various influences on economic conditions
Opinion: I'm big on the idea of very casual cause and effect on major social engines. I believe history and social change usually occur not for big lofty reasons, but for private, personal goals. So I bought into the premise of Freakanomics pretty readily.
The book didn't really live up to its premise, though. It barked a lot about how economic conditions are brought about by one single issue, but then turned around tried to sell the author's own special single issue as the reason for the way things are. In other words, they simutaneously denounced pat explanation and provided them.
Some of their reasonings were downright offensive. They suggested that the reason crime dropped in the mid-90s was because all the crimals that would have been commiting the extra crimes had been aborted after Roe Vs Wade. Because, you know, only low-income, uneducated whores get abortions. *eyeroll*
Also, don't waste money trying to educate your adopted kid. They're gonna be dumb no matter what because they're the babies those same low-income, uneducated whores didn't bother to abort. And Lord knows, if they were too lazy to get an abortion, they were too lazy to get proper pre-natal care.
Lost Echoes Joe R Lansdale.
Summary: Harry's psychic visions are triggered by sound.
Opinion: Lansdale has been a HUGE influence on my writing. Plucky white trash solving crimes = fuck yeah.
Lost Echoes was 84% awesome. The front half of the book had very odd pacing. The chapters were short, like a page or two, and it came off as lazy writing rather than "quick" or "action-packed". Lansdale tends to write lots of untagged dialogue, which in his other books is magnificent. He has quirky, blunt characters. It's easy to tell who just said what, and the lack of tags aids the bluntness. In this books, the characters spoke alike, and there was usually a bunch of them, so the untagged dialogue caused me a few re-reads.
The back end of the book was the usual Lansdale flooring. He writes violence, especially needless violence in such an agonizing way. There's no glorifying it. It always comes off as a sick, terrible waste. So much sadness and horror. There's not a lot of likeable characters in a Lansdale story, yet anytime one of them dies I feel so damn sorry for them. And that's when it's writing that shines.
The thematic arc of the story didn't get fired up until end either. Which is one of those double-edged sword things. It was so good when it came, that it seems awful to complain about it any manner. But, once the good stuff emerged, I wish he would have gone back and sprinkled some of it into the first half.
