Literature Thread

[Ethel_The_Frog]

Because, I bet, underneath it all, us tub thumpers are actually quite clever.
In this thread, why not say what kind of books you like / books that you have read recently that have really moved you. Even books that have completely changed the way you think, and, of course, explain why!

Recently, I've been reading a lot of dystopia like Brave New World and 1984. I have to say I was amazed with Huxley's presentation of our world in BNW, and very satisfied by his resolution of the problems he created within his futurist landscape by its 'companion', Island, which provided a true utopia. Huxley was a bit of a literary one shot wonder in terms of influential writing, as BNW is his only significant contribution to the canon, but it's very original and definitely predated a lot of modern technophobia in society. I'd recommend it to everyone. It's quite relevant to today's society, especially the teleshopping segment of the population, and those proponents of standardization. Oh, and bio-ethics as well.

Conversely, 1984, which I also read recently, is just a massive plagiarism on the part of Orwell. Every single aspect of the plot is ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which is far superior in terms of imagery, themes, motifs and delivery. It's more concise than 1984, and offers a proper insight into totalitarianism from the perspective of a supporter of the state, rather than Orwell's criticism of his own creation right from the start of the novel. Orwell's plot is a direct plagiarism of We's plot; from thought police, female members of the revolution becoming involved in romantic liaisons with the protagonist - even an escape to the countryside is present in both novels! There are a lot more points where Orwell copied from Zamyatin, which is a shame, because he did have some interesting political views, especially pertaining to his view of the post Second World War geographic politics - Orwell's idea of "Who controls the past now, controls the future, who controls the present, controls the past" (an idea that rewriting history in your favour could secure your power for eternity) was more succinctly written by Zamyatin; when his protagonist, a mathematical genius, is asked by a member of the revolution, what the final number is, he can't reply, to which he is then told there will be no final revolutions either. Zamyatin says that those who revolt try to stop the next revolution, by proclaiming it to be final; thus, predating Orwell's idea by at least 15 years. It's a shame, because 1984 is an absolute slog to go through; getting through it and then realising that an infinitely superior text exists - one which Orwell copied thematically in his mad devotion, crossing the line of plagiarism regularly - can really grate your patience. Yargh.

Right now, I'm reading Nietzche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and some of his late philosophical works, Twilight of The Idols, Ecce Homo, e.t.c.) Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics and Poetics) and a great book, The Good Soldier Svejk by Jarsolav Hasek. I've also got Don Quixote, Moby D**k (-.-), Heart of Darkness, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and some other books to read. My sister bought me War And Peace for my birthday. I might have to slog through that. But enough about me. What have you been reading?

Enjoy.

[yohin]

I love reading and writing science fiction. My favorite book series of all time is the Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale. The whole storyline is just so epic and so huge, there's nothing I've read so far that compares to it, even though it is aimed at a younger age group than me.

[ironfist]

The Beano

[gonefishin]

Im out of my league here with this thread ..........the last book I read was probably 30 years ago when a teacher at school made me read it .

I simply just dont have the ammount of extra time to sit down and read. If I read any thing it will be just a short story from a magazine .

[Quadcam79]

I haven't read much lately the last things I remember reading were

Eragon and Eldest : Christopher Paolini

Walden - good book but really taxing on the brain to read.

Breaking the Limit - about a 20 some yr old woman who takes her Harley sportster on a roadtrip from NJ to Alaska and back

Hells Angel - The life and times of Sonny Barger : a look into the highly controversial, five-decade-old Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), Barger chronicles the formation, history, and events that have led to the mystique and outlaw image of this free-thinking organization

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert Persig- texts in which he explores his Metaphysics of Quality.The 1974 book describes, in first person, a 17-day motorcycle journey across the United States by the author (though he is not identified in the book) and his son Chris, joined for the first nine days by close friends John and Sylvia Sutherland. The trip is punctuated by numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author, on topics including epistemology, ethical emotivism and the philosophy of science.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : Barbara Kingsolver - chronicles the true story of the family's adventures as they move to a farm in rural Virginia and vow to eat locally for one year. They grow their own vegetables, raise their own poultry and buy the rest of their food directly from farmers markets and other local sources. There are touching human stories here (the family's 9-year-old learns a secret to raising chickens for food: don't name them!) but the book's purpose is serious food for thought: it argues the economic, social and health benefits of putting local foods at the center of a family diet. As Kingsolver details the family's experience month-by-month, husband Steven adds sidebars on the problems of industrial agriculture and daughter Camille tosses in some first-person essays

[Andreeew]

Neil Gaiman is my favorite author I love his work

[Ethel_The_Frog]

The Beano

Brilliant. Gotta love a bit of Dennis and Gnasher every now and then.

[bongobro]

If there's one thing I have more of than drums, it's books! (Just ask Mrs. 'bro, since she wants me to cut back on my book collection!

I don't read a lot of modern fiction (that is, the stuff published in the past 30 years or so), but I've read a lot of Mark Twain, Hemingway, and John Steinbeck--Twain is my favorite by far as far as humorous fiction goes.

I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies; needless to say, I have dozens of books about cars; I have reference books galore about Baby Boomer culture, rock music, television, etc...

I have close to 1000 cookbooks--everything from Better Homes and Gardens to the Joy of Cooking to dozens of small-town church cookbooks with 53 different ways to make Texas Potatoes, Jell-O salads and tuna casserole. The amazing thing is that cooking tastes may vary from one region to the other, but man, there are dozens of classic recipes that appear in every cookbook every published!

And when it comes to music, I look up info on Latin music, hand drumming, etc...no surprise here!

[keysanddrums]

I think this thread having only 7 posts (8 now) in it shows that beneath the stereotype that drummers don't read very much, drummers actually don't read that much.

I've been reading lots of musician autobiographies/biographies lately, and thriller novels.

Bongobro, my mother has over 1300 cookbooks. We counted them. If the ice age or the apocalypse comes, we've got lots of materials to keep a fire going.

[xweasel]

I like to read... When there's a new book to read.

I'm currently reading The Blood Detective.

[kay-gee]

I've read more books in the last year than all my life combined I think. (approx 1 a week)

Having no sattelite or cable has kinda forced me into it. Good plentiful and cheap entertainment. Wife says my vocabulary has improved. LOL

all the best...

[Mysterious Stan]

Conversely, 1984, which I also read recently, is just a massive plagiarism on the part of Orwell. Every single aspect of the plot is ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which is far superior in terms of imagery, themes, motifs and delivery. It's more concise than 1984, and offers a proper insight into totalitarianism from the perspective of a supporter of the state, rather than Orwell's criticism of his own creation right from the start of the novel.

Despite reading both books (they are 2 of my favourites) i dont undrestand a word of this? Are you studying English at uni or something? I think books should be enjoyed rather than analysed. Il have to check out that one Orwell ripped off though, sounds interesting. I like some fiction but am more into the non fiction atm. Just read a terrific book on the siege of Malta and have started one on Hannibal. The last fiction i read was Dracula which was pretty awesome. Ethel you seem to have read some pretty sweet stuff. I think crime and punishment is one of the best books ive read

[Ethel_The_Frog]

Despite reading both books (they are 2 of my favourites) i dont undrestand a word of this? Are you studying English at uni or something? I think books should be enjoyed rather than analysed. Il have to check out that one Orwell ripped off though, sounds interesting.

No, I did an A level in English Literature - but, after deciding what course I wanted to do at university, I had a bit of a literature revelation, and suddenly wished I'd applied myself so I could study English at a good redbrick university. When I read books, I now read them as if I was studying them; my university aspirations so far are in film, so I'm trying to become an auteur, part of which would be the ability to write good scripts, with the propensity to realise them. One of my friends is going to Oxford next year, though, and modernism is his strongpoint (and my favourite period of time in literature), so we have lots of interesting discussions about books I enjoy reading. Oh, and my brother is doing literature at Durham university (although he seems to have no personal opinion on any book he's read other than being vehemently opposed to my views on it).

You're definitely right when you say books are meant to be enjoyed, not analyzed, but sometimes our enjoyment comes from the referencing most authors do. I'm reading Paradise Lost at the minute, and it borrows so heavily from Greek mythology in terms of imagery; I guess some part of the collective consciousness (Jungian :| ) understands this and gains satisfaction from it.

Anyway...
The point I was trying to make is that I read 1984, then I read We, then I contemplated both of them and went 'huh'. I felt that, for all the acclaim surrounding the novel, 1984 was weak and borrowed too heavily from its source of inspiration to be a completely original story. I think that the praise Orwell gets for this work should, instead, be directed more towards Zamyatin, who came up with the concept of a totalitarian, dystopian future in the first place. It may be a bit weird to accuse Orwell of plagiarism (and you could always whip out that old maxim, 'bad writers borrow, great writers steal' -.-), but the themes and narrative established in 'We' are regurgitated again in '1984'. Orwell found it necessary to update the novel to modern times, probably in response to the iron curtain. Or Communism. Which sense no makes, because 'We' was written about Communism as well. By an inhabitant of Communist Russia.

Some things that Orwell copies = Big Brother, protagonist, love interest, underground movement, countryside as being freedom from the state, love as a liberating force, the state's victory over the mind, the state's attempts to make itself immortal, oh, and 2+2 = 5.

Also, in 'We', you get the sense that the protagonist really buys into the propaganda of the state, wants to actively be a cog in its machine; but at the same time, he develops on a personal, individual level, that cannot function in society. The conflict this provokes in the reader - should we feel sympathy for his actions towards the state, or pity him for it, and should we react to the discovery of his own soul with the same negativity it is treated with in the novel, or look at it with optimism? - is strong, mainly because it ends up being ambiguous where his loyalties lie. With 1984, it's pretty much state = bad! from the first word, making it harder for you to develop your own personal opinion on it.

Other things; '1984' is LONG and gets bogged down in political science, 'We' is short (30 chapters, most only a few pages in length) and more focused on the individual. In '1984', it's hard to find recurring imagery, which is weird, considering the order of Airstrip One. With 'We', the motif of him, whenever he's with the girl he's in love with - looking into her eyes and gazing at her soul - is just one of the many literary tools that is used to great effect.

1984 is alright, I guess. Not as good as it's made out to be, but a good story. I just read 'We' and felt disappointed in Orwell for copying the story to such an insane degree.

Also, I'm waffling, so I'll shut my mega huge post up now >.<

[Mysterious Stan]

Cool, yeh il have to look into reading 'we' as ive read 1984 and have to say it was probably one of the best books ive read-along with brave new world, crime and punishment and one flew over the cuckoos nest off the top of my head. I considered doing english at a level but turned it down for history as i have more an interest in it. Good stuff though, really kills the drummer stereotype lol!

[oaktree137]

some pretty deep/moving books include:

1984, animal farm, a separate peace, fahrenheit 451, among others. Not only books, but music or poems can have deep meanings too, or any of the arts