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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 01:29 pm:   

There are two reasons why I refuse to read the books of Jonathan Carroll. The first reason is that he is often described as a 'Magic Realist' but he's not. 'Magic Realism' has a very specific mandate and Carroll doesn't adhere to it.

The second reason is that halfway through Voice of the Shadow (the first Carroll book I picked up) two of the main characters go to eat dessert at McDonalds. McDonald's! Sorry no, I can't tolerate that. Total ban on Carroll's works from that moment!

The unreasonable prejudices of readers can sometimes be as beautiful as the whipping of a samovar!

Do any of you out there have unreasonable, perhaps totally arbitrary, reasons as to why you avoid or dislike certain authors? I'm not asking for well-argued reasons. I don't want plausible or justifiable reasons. I want unreasonable ones... but unreasonable ones that are original, amusing, absurd, beautiful...
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.229
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 01:41 pm:   

Yes, I'll never read a novel by Tracy Chevalier because I used to go to school with a girl called Tracy and she was a right pain. So, no way will I touch Chevalier's putrid schoolground bully fiction.
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 01:43 pm:   

For the record I loveth Jonathan Carroll. He's one of my favourite writers.

But... I refuse to read Guy N. Smith, because I don't understand his country ways.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.158.58.28
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 02:18 pm:   

I haven't read much Rhys Hughes in recent years but I did make an exception for Engelbrecht Again!

But I do think this question would not need to be asked if all books were published nemonymously, thus causing people to read more of what they enjoy, without worrying about any ill-defined prejudices, as mine usually are.
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 02:21 pm:   

I suppose that if I were to answer this question sensibly, then I've always avoided Charlaine Harris (and other's of her genre) as it's always seemed to me to be tedious vampire-lady-porn. However, I enjoyed the series of True Blood immensely.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 05:41 pm:   

Des, if all books were published anonymously, I would be forced to risk more McDonald's references than is seemly. So I would probably give up reading altogether.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.55
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 05:47 pm:   

I think you may have found the only MacDonalds reference in the whole of Jonathan Carroll's canon of work.

I would suggest you pick up a copy of 'a Child Across the Sky' tomorrow and make recompense.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.55
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 05:49 pm:   

If you've only read half a JC novel, how do you know he doesn't stick to a magical realist mandate?

Also, is that not just pigeonholing him in any case? And this mandate thing sounds too much like Craig's template theory...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.55
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 05:53 pm:   

I refused to read any Nick Hornby because he wrote a book about football.

When I eventually was forced to read one of his I found my presupposed prejudices were correct and I hated it.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 06:10 pm:   

I refuse to read any James Patterson novels because, apparently, he refuses to write them.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 06:19 pm:   

> If you've only read half a JC novel, how do you know he doesn't stick to a magical realist mandate?

Because I'm unreasonable. I find it saves valuable time.
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Colin Leslie (Blackabyss)
Username: Blackabyss

Registered: 02-2010
Posted From: 86.132.2.214
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 07:53 pm:   

I refuse to read Jeffrey Archer because he is a tosspot. Did I explain my rationale fully enough?
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 08:42 pm:   

I'm with Jonathan about Guy N Smith. I couldn't possibly buy a book by (and therefore give money to) someone who goes around shooting innocent animals.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.63.114
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 10:25 pm:   

David Attenborough does that. He shoots animals. He does.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.209.76
Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2010 - 10:36 pm:   

Guilty animals are of course quite reasonable (and ever so entertaining) game
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.17.252.126
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:46 am:   

This is weird, because I've just read the first story in Joel's 'Earth Wire' collection and the writer who immediately sprang to mind was Jonathan Carroll right alongside the term "magic realism"... for me Carroll is the greatest adult dark fantasist of the last 30 years.
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 10:36 am:   

Talking of N. Smith. Have you seen that on the BFS website he's running his own fan convention... at his house! Be afraid. Be very afraid!

With you Stevie, Jonathan Carroll is the dog's. Utterly brilliant. Bones of The Moon and Voice of Our Shadow are two of my favourite works.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 10:44 am:   

I'm holding my own convention in my garden shed: just me, the missus, and the chav I murdered last night. Oh, what fun we'll have; what sights I have to show them.
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.5
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 10:44 am:   

I have a prejudice about Stephen King, so I'm reading very little by him. I resent the wordplay of him being the "King of Horror" but that would be forgiveable had it not become an essential definition of the One and Only "God" of horror literature for many readers whose culture is unable to acknowledge who on hell are Lovecraft or even Poe! (That's in Italy, at least.) And all those blurbs declaring every new author to be the heir, or at least a competitor, to His Majesty's Throne...makes me jaundiced.
Is this unreasonable enough? I understand it's not King's fault but I tend to see him as a firm's brand rather than a writing person.
I think I should have to reconsider but my aversion refuses to go.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 10:51 am:   

For a long time I refused to read any Lovecraft, because in my warped little mind (based on th few stories I had read) he represeented everything I think modern horror should leave behind: daft monsters, rubbish characterisation, atmosphere over emotion and character development, etc...

Now I have read quite a bit of him, I occasionally wish I'd stuck to that unreasonable prejudice.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 12:21 pm:   

Jonathan, two horror novels I read in my teens completely changed my view of what could be achieved in the genre: 'The Nameless' by Ramsey Campbell & 'Voice Of Our Shadow' by Jonathan Carroll.

Carroll led me on to discover writers like; Guy de Maupassant, Franz Kafka, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and others of that nature. Writers of beautiful flowing prose poems that merge stark realism with ambiguous intrusions of surreal fantasy. Joel's first story fits that mould perfectly imo.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 12:25 pm:   

Carroll's great. A Child Across the Sky is one of my favourite novels in any genre. The first line is worth the price of the book alone.

"An hour before he shot himself, my best friend Philip Strayhorn called to talk about thumbs.

I mean, who woud't be captivated by that? It's a beautiful, horrific and haunting novel.
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.159.131.192
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 12:29 pm:   

Giancarlo, i totally agree. Also the notion that a new writer is no great shakes unless he/she has a 'King Quote' on the front cover.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 12:40 pm:   

> Carroll led me on to discover writers like... Franz Kafka, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and others of that nature.

With me, it was the other way around. Which is why I was mildly disappointed.

Having said that I am willing to admit that Carroll is a great writer -- because plenty of people whose opinions I respect seem to think he is... They can't all be wrong.

And yet, When it comes to the 'Magic Realism' issue, sure it's good and healthy and wise not to apply overly strict criteria in one's own fictional use of it, but before breaking the rules it's also good to know what the rules are. And 'Magic Realism' isn't just a hazy definition but a precise term for a precise thing (Terry Pratchett defined Magic Realism as "fantasy written by someone who has gone to university"; he was wrong).

It's the same with Surrealism and Absurdism. They don't just mean what you want them to mean or think they might mean (i.e. stuff that's a bit weird or doesn't make sense). They have specific manifestos: Surrealism is intimately connected with Freudian psychoanalysis; Absurdism is intimately connected with Existential philosophy, etc.

It's fine to take elements from those movements you agree with and discard the rest -- it's even possible to argue that the original meanings have changed over time and that the correct definitions are now those of modern consensus -- but again, it's nice to learn the original meanings too, just to give yourself a firm basis to show what you're working from.

One of the problems I have with lazy definitions of 'Magic Realism' in particular is that misunderstandings of its intentions and techniques can produce truly embarrassing work. John Updike, for example, was so enamoured of the surface effects of such writers as Marquez as Marquez and Amado that he wrote a novel (called Brazil) chock full of the effects without the rationale. In true Magic Realism people don't just start flying for no reason whatsoever or because it's pretty: the flight is a concrete symbol of an emotional state (intense happiness, for example).

Anyway... That's me blathering again.

RhysCorp, blathering since 1992 -- believe it!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 12:58 pm:   

The term 'Magic Realism' has always confused me. What on earth does it actually mean?

Give me a good example of a 'Magic Realism' novel so I can find out in the flesh, so to speak.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.158.58.28
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:00 pm:   

The Ground Under Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:08 pm:   

Read it. Enjoyed it. So that's 'Magic Realism'? That kind of urban fantasy grounded in reality. Mmm...maybe I should try Marquez now.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:13 pm:   

'Magic Realism' simply means a style of fiction where the author doesn't write about how the world actually is, but how it sometimes feels...

So it's emotionally based, rather than intellectually, politically or philosophically based.

It uses exaggeration, overstatement and grandiosity to put over a wholly subjective world view (inter-subjective world view really, because all the different subjectivities should interact and modify each other).

Understatement has little or no place in Magic Realism.

There's a character in One Hundred Years of Solitude who has bad wind. In Realism it would simply be stated that he farted loudly; in Magic Realism his farts kill sparrows in mid air and wither palm trees. This doesn't mean (as Updike seemed to think) that the sparrows really were killed by the fart, but that the fart was so powerful it felt like a phenomenon that might kill sparrows in mid air.

So Magic Realism makes very heavy use of symbolism. Every significant event is a symbol or extended metaphor.

And yet, even though all the events are determined by a literal application of feeling, those fantastical events are presented in a very deadpan style. So if someone is deliriously happy they might start flying, but nobody around them will comment on this, or even note it, because the flying is actually internal.

Try anything by Marquez or Alvaro Mutis. Try Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado. Or El Señor Presidente by Miguel Ángel Asturias.

I now expect to told that actually 'Magic Realism' has always been an ambiguous term. Yes, that's true, but the above is a good place to start for a definition.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:23 pm:   

Cheers for that, Rhys. Very interesting. I'm going to take the plunge and try One Hundred Years of Solitude - a book I've always meant to read but never quite got round to.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:27 pm:   

Great, Gary! I love that book. Just remember that the town in which the action takes place is a microcosm of the whole of South America. That's why so many improbable and drastic events keep happening all the time: because they are symbols of the turbulent history of an entire continent condensed into one little town!

Patronising of me to say that, huh? Maybe. But the above knowledge enhanced my own reading pleasure and made me see the method in the daftness.

RhysCorp -- patronising other writers since 1992. You know it makes sense!
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:34 pm:   

Incidentally, this is why I don't rate Jonathan Carroll as a 'Magic Realist' -- because Carroll uses understatement (rather than overstatement) to create his effects.

RhysCorp -- overstating everything since the 11th Century.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 01:52 pm:   

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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 03:42 pm:   

Zed, you'll find yourself reading one of the great (weird) literary masterpieces of the 20th Century but don't expect instant understanding. Take your time with it, let it seduce you with its imagery and its unforgettable characters... then come back to us.

Or if you find the thought of tackling such a weighty tome and its reputation daunting (like me with 'Lolita') then try some of his short story collections to get a flavour of the man's unique style.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 03:45 pm:   

Nothing daunting about it, matey. I'm rather clever, you know, for a northerner.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 03:48 pm:   

Incidentally, I've now just read 'Albert Ross' (our Joel does love his puns) and 'Common Land' and found both exquisite to the point of transcendence and not in the least bit depressing or bleak. The man is a narrative poet first and foremost, that is already evident imo.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 04, 2010 - 03:50 pm:   

Well I had to read it twice to get an inkling if what was going on and will no doubt read it again... but then I'm Irish as well as Northern lol.
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Ian Alexander Martin (Iam)
Username: Iam

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 64.180.64.74
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 07:38 am:   

I know this is supposed to be about books, and not films, but I don't care.

I've never seen E.T. and have decided that if I've got this far and not felt left out, there's no point in fretting about it.

The same thing with any of the output of the Hammer Film Company.

…and cue the stampede to beat I.A.M. with pointy sticks!
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Ian Alexander Martin (Iam)
Username: Iam

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 64.180.64.74
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 07:42 am:   

Actually, now that I think about it, I've got a book here edited by Joel, but I swear if I ever meet a particular Joel again (not Mr. Lane, a different one) I'll physically attack him and not stop until pulled off of his bloody, dead, pulp of a carcass.

So… it's a bit of a tough thing to willingly open a book with J… o… e… [shudders] that name on it.

Nothing personal, Mr. Lane. There is something personal, oh yes! Just not with you.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.210.209.136
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 09:31 am:   

Wow, Ian. I can't believe a man who has published Lord P has never seen a Hammer film! Has his enthusiasm not transferred?...
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.176.15.157
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 10:20 am:   

Here's my prejudice: I'm always prejudiced against books with the title and/or writer on the cover in embossed letters - makes the book seem (and it is often true) as cheap trash.
I have bought them, but never liked their look and feel.

I also shiver when I see a book being advertised as "in the tradition of..." - typically it's best not to pick them up.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.31.239.78
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 10:51 am:   

I loved 100 Years of Solitude.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 81.131.175.165
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 11:28 am:   

I have read Marques et al, but I see Salman Rushdie's work as the archetypical 'Magic Realism'.
As another genre I've called 'Magic fiction' or 'fiction as religion', I'd put Thomas Ligotti up there, and Susanna Clark's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.'
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 11:36 am:   

I'll let you hepcats know what I think of One Hundred Years of Solitude - I might take in on holiday with me in August.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 01:10 pm:   

I'd also like to recommend Froth on the Daydream by Boris Vian, which is possibly my favourite novel ever.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.233.241
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 04:37 pm:   

I have a knee-jerk prejudice against any film with an "-ing" verb accompanied by a name in it. Like: TEACHING MRS. TINGLE, or CHASING AMY, or SAVING SILVERMAN, or FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, or KILLING ZOE, or FINDING FORRESTER, or.... My prejudice is usually justified, because it seems they, inevitably, how does Joel put it?... suck donkey dick in Hell....
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 04:41 pm:   

KILLING ZOE is one of my favourite films of all time.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.233.241
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 04:50 pm:   

Really? I found it to be self-indulgent, ego-maniacal, and ultimately forgettable myself... at least, what I remember of it....
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 07:36 pm:   

Yes, really. I think it's brilliant - energetic, canny, hip, absurd, obscene, violent and frequently hilarious. Add two bottles of merlot and a Russian hooker and you have my perfect night in.

The phrases "self-indulgent" and "ego-maniacal" are triggers to make me rush out and see film, btw. What's the alternative: bland and derivative. Like Michael Bay.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.222.111
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 09:58 pm:   

Craig – that is so not true. Leaving Las Vegas is a fine film that does justice to a superb novel. Everything about it – scene-setting, script, performances, editing – is at a very high standard.

Oh, and Breaking the Waves is impressive too: a tribute to Bergman with a Bowie-enriched soundtrack and a powerful, ambiguous narrative that has the cumulative effect of a North Sea storm.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.222.111
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 10:04 pm:   

I can't stand it when a snowfall freezes and then gets covered by more snow, so you're walking on ice you can't see. Mostly because having to replace a pair of shattered glasses last winter put my finances badly out of joint. And yes, I know that's an unseasonable prejudice.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 10:18 pm:   

Both brilliant films, Joel, particularly the former.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.255.173
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 07:28 am:   

Joel - read my post again: "ing"-verbs accompanied by a name, the name of a person... your examples are accompanied by a place and a thing - sadly to say, neither of which I've seen, but have heard great things about.... (though I did absolutely love THE DEEP END - same director as BREAKING THE WAVES, right? or am I thinking of another movie?)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.255.173
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 07:34 am:   

Okay now, you've GOT to be kidding that "ego-maniacal" and "self-indulgent" make you want to run out and see a movie, Zed.... I hate self-indulgent ego-maniacal tripe - this recent bad film I've seen I've mentioned on another thread, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, is a great example - but a more familiar one might be the director's previous flick, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING. I found HUDSON HAWKE and THE FIFTH ELEMENT s-i/e-m, and of course, Mr. D... you know what I'm talkin' 'bout... 'nuff said on that one, though.... another example: Kevin Smith only makes e-m/s-i crapshit, from what I've seen....
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.31.239.78
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 08:36 am:   

I watched the brilliant THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE last night. Just thought I'd mention it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:21 am:   

China Meiville for haviing a daft name.
Neil Gaiman for feeling pretentiousy.
Will Smith - I mean Self - for being such a druggy sarky misery.
That guy who writes about London and architecture a lot, Aykroyd, for once describing tramps in his books in an offensive and cliched way but getting details of old buildings just right.
Lars Von Triers films because he once slaughtered a live donkey just for a film.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:25 am:   

"self-indulgent" and "ego-maniacal" films make me feel unecessary to the watching of them.
Yes, Craig - 'ing' films do grate!
I also hate books that have 'The _____'s Daughter/Wife/Husband/etc/whatever' as a title.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:27 am:   

'100 Years of Solitude' - it's a flash/harkback novel. Anything that is set in the present character's past instantly feels unecessary to me. I want/need to be here and now with a character, in their present.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:29 am:   

'"An hour before he shot himself, my best friend Philip Strayhorn called to talk about thumbs.

I mean, who woud't be captivated by that?'

- me. :-(
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:30 am:   

I don't know why, it just feels tricky and clever. It feels like words on a page.
:-(
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 11:58 am:   

All writing is just words on a page. 'Characterisation' is bullshit. There are only two characters in any work of fiction -- the author and the reader.

Anyway... unreasonable prejudices...

I refuse to read anything by Jeanette Winterson because she always looks like she has got a cold, and I can't stand that.

Also she claims Calvino as an influence. Back off flu-face, that's my territory!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 12:41 pm:   

All fiction is bullsit by definition, but with good characterisation and emotional resonance it can be beautiful bullshit...
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.184.226.144
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 12:52 pm:   

I watched the brilliant THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE last night. Just thought I'd mention it.

It's a good'un, isn't it?
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 12:59 pm:   

Brilliant, brilliant film...one of the Coens' best, IMHO.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.17.252.126
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 03:25 pm:   

All writing is just words on a page. 'Characterisation' is bullshit. There are only two characters in any work of fiction -- the author and the reader.

I couldn't disagree more! Read any of Dostoevsky or Graham Greene or Charles Dickens and try to tell me that those characters don't live and breathe (metaphorically speaking lol).
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.2.241
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 05:14 pm:   

I didn't like THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, not at all.

Honestly. It left no impression on me. I won't say it's a poor film, because I should give it another chance... but I can say, as of this moment - didn't like it at all.

An hour before he shot himself, my best friend Philip Strayhorn called to talk about thumbs. I don't know who wrote that line, Tony, but I agree - this reads like the very definition of self-indulgent crapshit. Any sentence like that, to me, bodes ill for what follows....
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 06:25 pm:   

Craig, sometimes you're so mainstream Hollywood that it hurts. They've brainwashed you. You see individuality and risk-taking in art as self-indulgent and you seem to worship at the altar of a man (Michael Bay) who has helped castrate genuine creativity in modern mainstream filmmaking.

Free yourself. Enjoy art for art's sake...
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.31.239.78
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 06:59 pm:   

Yeah, Craig, you talk utter shit. :-)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.13.242
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 08:16 pm:   

How did I get this reputation for worshipping Michael Bay?!... But leaving that aside - sorry, I calls them as I sees them!

It has been a long while since I saw THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. TMWWT is exactly the kind of movie I should love: neo-noir, beautiful b&w, brooding and seething, great actors, made by masters of the craft (the Coen brothers), etc... but I remember being supremely disappointed by it, much as I was by NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, another film I should have loved (but felt it was flubbed). But I loved the Coen brother films that seem to form a triptych with that one, BURN AFTER READING and A SERIOUS MAN - both contenders each, for best films of the years they were produced in.

I don't at all see individuality and "risk-taking" as "self-indulgent" - I see SELF-INDULGENCE, as self-indulgent. I enjoy a mainstream piece of Hollywood "art," if that's what it's going for, and it pulls it off. Everything to its own genre, and to be judged accordingly, is my motto.... But crap's crap, and I'll always call it out where I see it.
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Ian Alexander Martin (Iam)
Username: Iam

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 64.180.64.74
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 09:17 pm:   


quote:

Wow, Ian. I can't believe a man who has published Lord P has never seen a Hammer film! Has his enthusiasm not transferred?...


Steven, I never said I didn't want to, just that I hadn't yet got around to doing so.

Granted, it's not quite true, becuase I have — sadly — wasted part of my life watching the film adapted from the novel Space Zombies that I can never remember the title of, the one with the guy from Spooks and Tobe Hooper, plus the woman wandering naked around England having sex with everyone and killing them, then having sex with Mr. Hooper in the basement of St. Paul's before the pair of them shoot into the sky and fly off in their ridiculous lump of a space craft and prey on another planet. I believe that film was made by Hammer Studios. Drivel. Even worse, it was 1980s drivel, possibly the worst sort of it.

I also now remember that I refuse to read any of the Dune series, or anything which even vaguely resembles it, not because the author was insane or had ridiculous political views, but because I've been told repeatedly that I <i>must</u> read it without any further justification provided by its seemingly obsessive acolytes. Cyclical arguments, or ones which rely on tautology, get a punch in the nose from me by way of return opinion (and don't even merit that much of a response).

Hmmmph! So there!
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.122.209.76
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 10:02 pm:   

Oh no no no no no - Sir Ian! That's LifeForce, adapted from Colin Wilson's The Space Vampires. It wasn't a Hammer film but a Cannon production. Here's a review I wrote many years ago to make things all better:

You can imagine the scene back in the early eighties when Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus said to Tobe Hooper - "Here's $23 000 000, a book about space vampires destroying London, special effects experts John Dykstra and Nick Maley, a gorgeous girl to play the lead space vampire and Henry Mancini is going to write one of the best scores of his later musical career. So if anything goes wrong we know who to blame." With all this in mind, Hooper's claim that he intended Lifeforce to be his Ben-Hur of the science fiction genre was greeted with great excitement by those of us who had read Colin Wilson's source novel and knew that with all the technical expertise on board it would take a director of monumental incompetence to mess things up. Oh well...... To be honest it's not entirely Hooper's fault that Lifeforce is a bit of a misfire, really, albeit a glorious one. The screenplay really isn't very good, relying continually on characters providing vital pieces of plot information because they "just know", "just feel it" or sometimes with absolutely no explanation at all. Steve Railsback's acting range consists of alternating his expression from one of "troubled" to "hopelessly constipated", making him a poor choice for Carlson, and Peter Firth doesn't have the edge to play a senior officer in the SAS. So watch this film for Nick Maley's great animatronic corpses, watch it for Mathilda May, watch it for that fantastic bombastic Mancini score, but most of all watch it because this kind of big-budget utter insanity will probably never, ever occur again.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2010 - 10:47 pm:   

Hear-hear, John.
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Ian Alexander Martin (Iam)
Username: Iam

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 64.180.64.74
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:57 am:   

Actually, just after I saw it in 2007, I wrote a review of my own on my blog: http://iamiam.ca/musing/archives/2007/275/review-of-lifeforce, plus posted some more stills from it in this post here (yes, Zed, there's boobies): http://iamiam.ca/musing/archives/2007/291/lifeforce-redux
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 07:36 am:   

Craig has never shown anything else but an open mind. He takes every film at face value and judges it on its merits. He isn't swayed by other voices or opinions or reputations. I think this is the right approach to appreciating film. He liked Transformers a bit and it means he worships Bay? This is not the Craig I know or have read here.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 07:38 am:   

And by words on a page I meant those particular words did not transport me or open a door to anywhere for me. But then you all really knew that.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.154
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 07:38 am:   

I have a huge soft - at least I think it's soft - spot for Lifeforce. Smashing film.
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Kate (Kathleen)
Username: Kathleen

Registered: 09-2009
Posted From: 213.122.209.76
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 07:39 am:   

Sounds like a must-see for me, then! I've only ever seen Railsback as Manson in Helter Skelter, so that should make for at least one point of interest.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.249.183
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 09:05 am:   

Ian, Dune is an intriguing example of what the late Edward Said called 'orientalism': it transfers a romantic/mystical view of the Arab world to a desert planet environment where the historical and political realities of the Middle East mostly don't apply. It's good on landscape and sensory detail, rather pompous and pseudo-profound on human and social issues, and generally a work of high-grade hokum that will neither let you down nor change your life.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:13 pm:   

Craig has never shown anything else but an open mind. He takes every film at face value and judges it on its merits. He isn't swayed by other voices or opinions or reputations. I think this is the right approach to appreciating film. He liked Transformers a bit and it means he worships Bay? This is not the Craig I know or have read here.

Hear, hear... and beautifully put, Tony.
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Kate (Kathleen)
Username: Kathleen

Registered: 09-2009
Posted From: 213.122.209.76
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:29 pm:   

Well said, Joel.
It's also often cited as the SF book non-SF fans will most enjoy and that was certainly true in my case.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.26.154.208
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:33 pm:   

I think you'll find that Craig is a complete and utter bastard. It's true. Even Craig thinks so. Ask him.

(And lest anyone think I'm being serious in this ever so serious place today, here's a smiley: :-))
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:35 pm:   

Well said, Zed.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:35 pm:   

Or:

Well, said zed.
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Kate (Kathleen)
Username: Kathleen

Registered: 09-2009
Posted From: 213.122.209.76
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 12:37 pm:   

I think you'll find that Craig is a complete and utter bastard.

And he's a puppeteer.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 01:10 pm:   

Joel, in my opinion the 'Dune' series is literary world creating at its most successful and jaw-droppingly spectacular. Only 'The Lord Of The Rings' rivals it for sheer epic sweep and scope of imagination. The obsessive wealth of technical, historical, biological and cultural detail and the characterisation of whole peoples, from primal myth-making to finely etched families and unforgettable individuals, in those six books is breathtaking and utterly captivating in its grandiosity.

Frank Herbert is, for me, the greatest sci-fi/fantasist of them all. Other writers of such epics often camouflage average or poor prose with a welter of creative detail but what makes Herbert stand out is the sheer brilliance of his writing, and particularly his characterisation, as well. In the 'Pandora' sequence, written with Bill Ransom, he also created the most thrilling, and utterly convincing, epic on the exploration and colonisation of a hostile alien planet ever written imho.

I wouldn't call him hardcore sci-fi but existing in a realm half-way between Heinlein & Tolkien with the imagination and storytelling abilities of both. I've loved the guy's work since first having my mind expanded by 'Dune' as a teenager and make no apologies for my gushing praise of the man!!

I have to say I'm finding your own stories quite magical. Read three so far and each one is like a perfect jewel of literary craftsmanship. Reading them feels like being drawn into a painfully beautiful world behind ordinary everyday reality. You articulate the frustrated isolation of the misunderstood and misjudged in a harsh, unforgiving world quite exquisitely. Gorgeous prose and imagery and sense of mood and aching emotion to take your time with and savour - one-a-day I think, like shots of a fine single malt whiskey. Was 'Common Land' at all inspired by Fritz Leiber's 'A Deskful Of Girls'? Very, very impressed!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.26.154.208
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 01:35 pm:   

Yeah, but he's rubbish at throwing.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.232.47
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2010 - 05:12 pm:   

Thanks, Tony! (& Stevie) That was overwhelming.... Is there an overcome-with-emotion emoticon?

Though, yes, I confess to answering to "bastard" and "puppeteer," and "bastard puppeteer," as well, when skulking down the street....
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 11:58 am:   

I still won't read China Melville for that same reason.
Craig - at long last, you're welcome!
And GOD, but that Carroll line is bad! I mean, REALLY!
(feeling a tad Capotian today, sorry)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 12:01 pm:   

And I used to love a Tracy who sat opposite me at school, but she'll never know it. I didn't even realise it at the time myself.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 12:43 pm:   

China Meiville is the name he was given when he was born. You can hardly criticise him for that - he had no more control over that than his skin colour. He's an excellent writer and one of the few I pick up his books in hardback every time.

That Carroll line is IMHO one of the greatest opening lines EVER - from one of my favourite books of all time.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 12:46 pm:   

I suppose, re. China. But if I had a made-up sounding name like that I'd change it like a shot.
Grr to Carroll! But you know, if you like him that's great and fine. I won't hold it against you!
(Hey - did your friends manage to get that extra work? There's more now. I'll send you a message on you-know-where.)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:01 pm:   

Jonathan Carroll never wrote a bad line in his life, imho. It is unfair to quote any line out of context and the aforementioned opener went on to be quite a witty introduction to the novel, 'A Child Across The Sky' (1989).

I really must order the other three books in that series! I've been reading Carroll in chrono order over the years and ACATS is as far as I've got. In my experience he is a unique dark fantasist. I find his books utterly beguiling and unsettling in a way I've yet to see emulated by any other genre author. Yep, I need another fix soon... 'Outside The Dog Museum' (1991) is a must.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.16.127
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:24 pm:   

All names are made up.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:26 pm:   

It's the 'sounding' it though! If I was called Merryweather Pumblechook you'd never swallow it.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:44 pm:   

Outside the Dog Museum - opening line

"I'd just bitten the hand that fed me when God called on the telephone again."

I can quote more Carroll opening lines than any other writer.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:47 pm:   

cut the words on the telephone from that... sorry. Oh, and put a comma before again.

I'd just bitten the hand that fed me when God called, again.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 01:50 pm:   

Argh! That's just awful! Honestly Weber!
'I was eating tea with Satan counting my eggs before they hatched'. 'I was sniffing a smokeless fire when Einstein said to me...'
These lines actually hurt my brain!
I need to lie down - fast.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 02:29 pm:   

The Axeboy lived downstairs
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.199.223
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 02:37 pm:   

Bloody Lisa only went out at night, when no-one was looking.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 02:40 pm:   

I'd definitely read a book with that opening
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 02:50 pm:   

That's 'Bones Of The Moon' isn't it, Weber?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 03:17 pm:   

It is indeed

Try "How much does a life weigh?"
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 03:36 pm:   

I've only read the first five and can't remember all the opening lines but I'll hazard a guess at 'Voice Of Our Shadow' - my fav of his books that I've read to date. It and 'The Nameless' changed my whole perception of horror fiction back in my teenage years.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 04:06 pm:   

No - that one was After Silence - possibly my personal favourite of his.

Anyway, back to names

" suppose, re. China. But if I had a made-up sounding name like that I'd change it like a shot. "

After living with it for his whole life I'm sure he doesn't feel it to be a made-up sounding name. By the time he was old enough to realise it was an unusual name it would already have been an intrinsic part of his personality.

It's hardly an extreme name like the New Zealand girl called Talula Does The Hula In Hawaii. That is for real and the parents lost custody of her due to cruelty because of the name. She was taken into care and allowed to pick a new name for herself.

Anyway, CM might look at your name and think that it sounds like two parts of a lower limb with an unnatural attraction to the 12th letter of the alphabet.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 04:18 pm:   

I only remembered 'Bones Of The Moon' because Axeboy was mentioned.

I loved the way the same characters stories subtly interwove between; BOTM, 'Sleeping In Flame' & ACATS. It was only fairly recently I heard that he did the same thing over the three following books, making a loosely linked series of six novels.

That's it! I'm ordering the other three when my pay goes in tomorrow and going on a Jonathan Carroll splurge this year.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 04:55 pm:   

You may be disturbed to hear, Weber, that David Lynch is a big fan of Jonathan Carroll and has expressed an interest, in the past, in filming one of his novels. Personally, I can think of no one better suited to the job.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2012 - 05:42 pm:   

Well I actually really liked Blue Velvet - I just find most of the rest of his stuff too weird and lacking in coherent storylines for me to enjoy.

If he was to restrain his usual forget-that-he's-telling-a-story film techniques he might be quite good for the job.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.9.232.89
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 02:57 pm:   

Carroll is hit and miss for me, but AFTER SILENCE is fucking terrifying. His prose is always wonderful, tho.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:17 pm:   

Weber - you're watching them with a 'film head' on, and that's not the way to watch them. I know that sounds mad, but it's true. Donnie Darko is such a film, as is Company of Wolves. You sort of experience them.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:18 pm:   

Weber - I'm going to write you that 'Bloody Lisa' story, just as an experiment.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:21 pm:   

Oh, china can keep his name - but it will continue to hold me off. If he suits his name then it'll not be my kind of thing. Like Barbara Cartland. It suits her, and her writing. Maybe we've stumbled on something?
Like Magritte and Salvador Dali. Their names sort of conjure them up, too.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.9.232.89
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:22 pm:   

Stephen King is the plainest name imaginable, and yet it's kind of gilded with magic now.

Ramsey Campbell is a cool name.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.9.232.89
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:23 pm:   

Names acquire magic. It's a phenomenological thing.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:28 pm:   

Yes. Over-fancy sounding names for me, tend to write over-fancily, also unconvincingly. It's true. Funny; I like the names of the authors I like - Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King... That's really strange.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:29 pm:   

Yes - Ramsey Campbell is just right. Errol Undercliffe - there'd be castles in his stories, and cobwebs.
I like these ideas.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.155.221.233
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:45 pm:   

I think that True Man Cap o' tee sounds like a silly name.

I didn't like In Cold Blood when I tried to read it. Just something in the writing style I couldn't get on with.

BTW I adore the films Donnie Darko and Company of Wolves. DD tells a strong story with a coherent storyline. For me Eraserhead is just a confusing mess of images that don't mesh into anything resembling a story. I've seen it twice and hated it both times.

Horses for courses.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.142.128.232
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012 - 03:49 pm:   

Yeah, I'm less keen on Eraserhead. It's also a bit 'heavy' for me.
Donnie Darko is a weird remake of Back to the Future you know. I can feel it in my bones.
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Adriana (Adriana)
Username: Adriana

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.253.254.147
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 12:56 pm:   

All the great weird fiction writers have great names. Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, etc. They're all wonderfully evocative names.

(Donald)
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Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey)
Username: Darren_o_godfrey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 205.188.117.80
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 04:16 pm:   

Tony, I'd always looked at Donnie Darko as a sort of sinister remake of Harvey.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.9.232.89
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 05:14 pm:   

DONALD!!!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.180.123.7
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 07:39 pm:   

Who? :-)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.133.149.177
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 07:48 pm:   

Darren - it was the 'going back in time to save things' aspect. Donnie even mentions BTTF at one point.
I used to have a fear of big blue rabbits after imagining one outside our caravan at the seaside one night, my nan saying 'the sea fret is coming in'.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, February 27, 2012 - 12:17 pm:   

What you've just described is like something straight out of a Jonathan Carroll novel, Tony.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.102.6.161
Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - 12:32 pm:   

Sigh.

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