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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   4743 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 24, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Paradise Lost. So far God isn't coming off well and Jesus sounds harebrained. On the other hand, Satan seems to have unfortunate ideas about what to do with humanity, which feels personal.

Paper I'm reading: Magnus' Science and Rationality for One and All.

I did it! I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It had been on the back burner for...gosh. Months, now. The final stretch was so atmospheric and surreal that it pulled me back in. I absolutely loved how Strange and Norrell persistently refused to resolve their differences on other peoples' terms, only to come together in pursuit of new magic. The chapter where they first parted ways was one of the best in the book for similar reasons. It's hard for me to recommend the book without caveats; even as a notorious fan of door-stoppers, I found it slow at points, and I was afraid it wouldn't deliver. With the exception of a couple plot threads, I can conclude that it did.

Next up, I'm going to start Banks's Use of Weapons. It's the Culture book I've most wanted to read for a while, and I found a used copy recently.

Though...perhaps something a little lighter? Last night, after discussing stylized prose and pacing in JS&MN, we were flipping through Patriot Games. I wanted to find a Clancyism. And wow, he did not disappoint.

Sergeant Major Noah Breckinridge was the image of the Marine non-commissioned officer. Six-three, the only fat on his two-hundred-pound frame was the hot dogs he'd had for lunch in the adjacent Dahlgren Hall.

God, it's perfect. The peak of the genre. Simultaneously a vivid image and a complete blank slate. It imports a stable of tropes while screening itself with the extra details. They don't matter; they're only there to keep the reader from noticing that he or she has conjured a phantom, fully formed, from the collective (American) unconscious. In isolation, Clancyisms are ridiculous. In context, when the reader stays under keeps suspending disbelief, they make for a vibrant, breakneck read.

If you liked Jonathan Strange I can recommend Piranesi by the same author - also good but much shorter and tighter (though on the downside, from my point of view, the homoeroticism moves from subtext to text).

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