|
Post by moseymoo on Apr 21, 2014 11:40:53 GMT -5
LOTR marathon!!!
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Apr 21, 2014 11:37:35 GMT -5
*cough* Ulysses *cough* Is Murakami any good? I have been meaning to read something of his for a while now (mainly because of his references in ASOUE ), but I keep hearing such conflicted reviews about his writing style...
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Apr 21, 2014 11:33:53 GMT -5
Woah that's amazing -- is Portuguese your first language? My two best friends are both bilingual (one Japanese and the other Italian) -- I think its incredible! And oh you should really persevere with War and Peace! It might be long but its quite episodic so I didn't feel guilty about leaving it to the side for a couple of months and reading something else for a while before coming back to it. Although, I think that Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's best (I always seem to be going on about it on here...) -- similar length, but just gorgeously written and the most beautiful plot with wonderfully nuanced characters
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Apr 1, 2014 6:36:38 GMT -5
Within the context of this poll, I have plumped for realist; however, my favourite type of fiction is not so much realist in that Zola-esque fashion, but novels which distort or twist reality to bring a certain point into focus (which, I guess, is low fantasy...). I do, however, have a problem with much modern fantasy fiction -- I find the majority of it incredibly derivitive and antiquated: there doesn't seem to be any forward movement in the genre, just the constant rehashing and imitating of previous works.
Also, where do you all feel dystopian fiction sits on this scale? It is realist in the sense that it is focussed on our own countries and our world, yet isn't realist in the sense that the author invents a societal structure etc in which to frame the events of the novel.
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Apr 1, 2014 6:27:09 GMT -5
I'm reading volume 1 of War and Peace or at least pretending to do so. War and Peace in incredible! Although I have to say I prefer Anna Karenina (in fact, its probably my favourite book of all time)... to be honest, any Tolstoy is fab - I have a copy of the Kreutzer Sonata at home that I have been meaning to get around to reading
|
|
|
Poetry
Mar 7, 2014 17:11:38 GMT -5
Post by moseymoo on Mar 7, 2014 17:11:38 GMT -5
Hmm Eliot is certainly marvelous (my personal favourite of his is Rhapsody on a Windy Night), but I am also an immense fan of Pound's hugely underrated work: in my opinion, Cathay has some of the most inexplicably beautiful images of the entire poetic canon; and Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is a brilliant portrait of the integrity of 'true' artist being tramped underfoot by commercialism and mass production.
(Also, I adore Larkin's High Windows -- This Be The Verse is one of the few poems I can recite from memory without even thinking about it!)
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Feb 25, 2014 5:51:24 GMT -5
I've been round it. Clare is great, what's your conditional offer? I am too young and dumb to study there. A*AA At the risk of sounding ridiculously ignorant.... who is Mulan??
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Feb 24, 2014 14:22:25 GMT -5
I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place for this, but I was wondering if anyone is currently studying at Cambridge Uni or has an offer to do so. I have a conditional offer to study English at Clare, so I thought it would be interesting to hear about other people's experiences at the Uni.
(To be honest, this is a pretty poorly concealed attempt to ensure that I have an acquaintance or two when I arrive -- I'm awful at making friends: I've been at the same school since I was 2 and have literally no friends outside of it...)
But yes: anyone with information or experience of the Uni please do post here, I would be fascinated to here about it!
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 21, 2013 15:06:28 GMT -5
Gosh -- I have just started reading Lolita as well!! I got given it as an early Xmas prezzie from a friend... how are you finding it?? I have also started reading The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo; it's brill -- I love all of those extraordinarily proleptic novels from the 19th Century (Note from Underground by Dostoyevsky is another), they could have been written a week ago and we would still think them daringly innovative I actually haven't read much yet to have a real opinion- I'm a slow reader and for some reason I've decided to read two books at the same time. Yeh I haven't read that much either - only got given it on Tuesday; I'm liking what I have read so far though: very clever prose style!
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 20, 2013 12:55:10 GMT -5
Notes from Underground is fab! Make sure you get a good translation though -- it's full of colloquialisms and idioms that are notoriously hard to translate and has, accordingly, had some awfully clunky or tediously stuffy translations...
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 20, 2013 5:50:07 GMT -5
Started reading Lolita today. I've only read a few pages but I kinda hope he doesn't go on too much about his childhood. Gosh -- I have just started reading Lolita as well!! I got given it as an early Xmas prezzie from a friend... how are you finding it?? I have also started reading The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo; it's brill -- I love all of those extraordinarily proleptic novels from the 19th Century (Note from Underground by Dostoyevsky is another), they could have been written a week ago and we would still think them daringly innovative
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 17, 2013 15:28:24 GMT -5
Yeh I wouldn't say that I am some goody two shoes dream student, but I have managed to get all the cool rebellious teachers that encourage me to be "individual"
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 17, 2013 15:23:59 GMT -5
Hmm yes, I think perhaps that breakdown of particular character traits in the later novels is perhaps indicative of the breakdown of a black and white moral code: as the Baudelaires begin to question their own morality in the later books, the ancillary characters tend to become less polarised and occupy a rather more murky moral grey area...
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 16, 2013 18:16:24 GMT -5
I really like the point that only the "good" characters display both a talent and an interest in the same skill: it illustrates the way in which certain characters are the good/bad counterparts to others ie Beatrice is "good" because she both is skilled at acting and enjoys it; whereas Esme is her "bad" counterpart because she pursues a career in acting yet we assume (in part because of her association with Olaf) that she possesses no skill for it.
I think perhaps that it is less that certain characters has certain 'skills', and maybe more the case that each character is identified (or differentiated if you like) by one particular trait, a sort of personal signature. For many characters (like Nero) it is a hobby or pursuit; but for other characters, like Charles, it is more a unique facet of their personality, ie his constant supplication to Sir.
|
|
|
Post by moseymoo on Dec 16, 2013 17:55:42 GMT -5
No worries Anka!! I have been awfully absent lately (Cambridge applications and general school work load are my excuse); however Christmas hols are coming up, so you should be seeing rather a lot more of me in the next couple of weeks!
Genuinely the only time in my life that I have ever been called a Jock -- achievement or what?!!
|
|