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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2835 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 17, 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 starting a reread of The Count of Monte Cristo after recent mentions here. I don't remember a lot of the details and perhaps it will seem more profound this time around. The political aspect of Danglars' accusation wouldn't have drawn my interest in the past.

Still on Hurewitz' The Struggle for Palestine.

Finished Brothers Karamazov.

After reading both that and Crime And Punishment this year I think I'm due for something much lighter. Does anyone have any recommendations for above average short story compilations?

Controversy around the inspiration for its most well-known story aside, I received Kristen Roupenian's collection You Know You Want This a few Christmases ago and enjoyed it quite a lot. Every story is short enough to be read in one sitting, her spare, terse style means that the stories never drag, and there were several stories I enjoyed quite a lot and none that I actively disliked. The stories are "dark" in the sense that they deal frankly with BDSM and weird sexual fetishes, but they're more like campfire stories or high-class /r/nosleep posts (made explicit in one story which veers into outright supernatural horror) - there's nothing here that's grounded or realistic enough to be truly disturbing or unsettling. As an understated slice-of-life examination of modern dating culture which is never really trying to shock or scare the reader, "Cat Person" is actually the outlier here.

Both Ted Chiang and Greg Egan have above-average short stories if you're into sci-fi. Try Chekhov and Turgenev as well, if you want to stick to Russians.

Not sure if this is up your alley, but Stephen Kings short stories are some of his finest work. His stuff from the 70s and 80s is great; he had a bite to his writing that sort of dissipated over time. Check out Skeleton Crew it has a few of Stephen Kings best short stories, The Raft and The Jaunt.

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