icarus | (no subject)

Wow, you're going to be just rolling in angst. The God of Small Things is good. I haven't read the Marquez, but reading Heart of Darkness really is kinda like hacking your way through a jungle. =)

I'll read Heart of Darkness first, before school begins. Always do the hardest task first.

Well, if Snape Manor takes a sudden turn for the dark (or the opposite, towards the absurdly silly) you'll know why.

Icarus

You're so motivated. You tempt me to go break out my schoolbooks.

Well, maybe not. ;)

I read an excerpt of Heart of Darkness. I find myself Beta-reading -- and mentally eliminating a lot of commas. Geeze, this author does what I've trained myself not to do. Conrad got away with this.

Icarus

Big Authors can do those kind of things. *Attention, JK Rowling, will you please return all of the adverbs to the modifier aisle. Put the adverbs down. Thank you*

*splutters with laughter*

Actually, I went down 'nitpick lane' with someone once, and finally realised that if you do that -- well, it's sort of like over-working a painting. At a certain point you have to recognise when you're killing the story's charm. The adverbs and 'he said, they said' in JKR's book is what gives it that 'children's book' feel.

Icarus

Very true.

'nitpick lane' That way lies madness, I've found, even if I do suppress the urge to whip out a pen and correct every sign I see with a misplaced apostrophe.

I think Stephen King was probably right in his review of OotP when he said JRK really, REALLY wants us to like her characters, wants us to feel like we're a part of the story, and so the adverbs come out in excess. Rather sweet, really.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a beautiful book with a slight touch of the supernatural when you really wouldn't expect it. You should also read Love in the Time of Cholera.

I've also read and enjoyed Heart of Darkness. I am not familiar with the others. Let me know if you think they are worth reading.

I'll let you know. I intend to read these before school starts, to give myself a break when the homework hits.

Icarus

The Bone People is brilliant and heartbreakingly beautiful. Love that reading list. Enjoy it...

Wow, this is really heartening. I read the titles and thought... oh no... I can see the angst, I hate angst.

But depth is good. Very good.

Icarus

Except for God of Small Things, which I've not yet read, those are some of my favorite works -- the Hulme is absolutely amazing. It's the kind of thing you give people when they're deeply depressed and there's no use trying to cheer them up. And if that sounds like a bad rec, I mean it as the highest form of compliment (i.e., it's compelling and evocative reading even for the despairing and spiritually dead -- not to be confused, mind you, with the normally superficial).

Definitely reassuring, though I'd feel better if at least one of the books on the list was... comedic? Just to balance out the angst. We'll see soon enough. I always loved the books my librarian friend Mrs Cosgrove picked out for me. ;)

Icarus

This isn't a bad list at all - Heart of Darkness is not so bad if you remember when it was written and how many books, changes to writing style, films, etc it comes before. I'd never claim to enjoy it, but it is interesting.

God of Small things is smart and well written. I don't think it's brilliant, I'd rather read Joyce, Rushdie, Naipaul, Rhys and the other influences on her, but it's not bad.

I adore the GGMarquez book, it's one of my favourites.

Kerri Hulme is a very singular choice for an American college reading list - I couldn't be more surprised. I've taught a course that included this (it was a co-convened course with a World Lit person) and in general the students found it hard to get into. But it's a book that would have to look and feel very different in the U.S. than in Australia.

Love to hear what the other one is, just for interest's sake.

PS. It always amazes me to see the immense difference between reading lists in Australia and the States, which is mostly less about the texts -- the above combination could definitely happen in Australia -- but the amount of reading. Here a lit course usually has one book per week, and two if it's a two lecture course and they're not long novels. No wonder American students are shocked when they come here on study abroad.

Well, I'm rather relieved myself. This is a night class and I suspect half the people in it are working full-time as they go to school. In Buddhism you may spend a year studying two works, the Dom Sum and the Bodhicharyavatara and feel as though you skimmed them both.

It's all rather dark though, don't you think? Never been a big fan of Joyce myself, I lean more towards the whimsy of Lewis Carroll. Though even Carroll I find rather cynical, despite the fact he was light for his time.

Icarus

I'm a big Joyce fan, although I don't like A Portrait however much I appreciate its role in the history of Lit in English. I think you have to come at Joyce the right way - I was lucky to have a great Joyce teacher.

Dark? Well, Marquez and Small Things contain humour, and I think it's only healthy to laugh at Heart of Darkness but yes. The thing is, like most World Lit courses this is a course partly on the literary aftermath of European colonialism and thus there's a lot of dark.

Don't forget to tell me what the other text is, I'm all curiousity about it.

I adored Heart of Darkness when I read it in high school. I imagine some of the charm has probably worn off.

Here's a quote that you may be amused by: "Mr. Conrad has paid us a pretty compliment by learning to write the English language correctly, and the journalists are so pleased that they have assigned him a place in our literature." -- George Moore

Oh, how... turn of the century of them! I am most amused!

Icarus

Oooh, you lucky, lucky thing. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a fantastic author. I read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in high school and adored it. If you like the magic realism tradition, you should also try Isabel Allende, I'd rec "The House of the Spirits". "Heart of Darkness" is supposed to be brilliant, and I've heard a lot of good things about "The God of Small Things", too. Your reading list is far more interesting than mine, I assure you. Read and enjoy. And don't nitpick, you'll just drive yourself crazy...

This was most reassuring, thank you. I'll admit, my past reading lists have been more along the lines of the Prajnaparamita and the Uttaratantra, which is very difficult but uplifting stuff. In my personal reading I tend towards Harry Potter, George R. R. Martin, C. J. Cherryh and other SciFi/Fantasy works (not to mention reading The Lord of the Rings about 30 times). When I was a kid I read Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe and the Bronte sisters, but once I discovered Tolkien -- :D

Icarus

Yes, I can relate to that. I used to read "classics" all the time, what my parents term "quality literature". Now I mostly read fantasy - although I do study literature at Uni... I don't know, fantasy (and sci-fi, to an extent) is just addictive! As is fanfiction. You're partly responsible for my fanfic addiction, by the way. I suppose I should curse you, but I'd rather thank you - you write brilliantly :-)

oh my. i hope your professor doesn't have that same curriculum year after year ... that can't be healthy.

and now, for something completely different: i was wondering if you wanted me to take down scarred (http://www.geocities.com/owrai_fics1/rd/scarred.htm), until you finish the entire series? i think you hinted at it earlier, but i am a bit of a sod-brain, and only just hit me as to what you probably wanted. ^^;;;;;

No, don't bother to take down Scarred. It has no spoilers for the other parts, and, after all, I'm the one that's posted it. I still have it up on my website. And it's still up on ff.net.

Maybe it would be better to take it down, but I'm against taking stories down in principle. I feel like an Indian giver if I do that.

Icarus

However, you do have the old, pre-Beta version of it. Give me your email, and I'll send you the beta'd version for your site. I haven't updated ff.net with the beta version either, I think.

Icarus

oh! thank you! :D:D!

simmysim@livejournal.com should be simple enough. ^_________^

Where did you get the icon with the boy taking a shower?
~*Leah

From a friend of

keelywolfe actually.

Icarus