Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: Nothing.

Currently reading: The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe. This is the best one out of the four. 15/10 unless he somehow doesn't land the ending. The whole thing is metal as shit and completely bonkers, which is the highest praise I can sing for books like this. It begins in a field hospital where Severian is recovering and there are several chapters of a storytelling competition where three men compete to marry a woman by telling the best story (and you know I'm a sucker for that kind of thing). We get to meet the Ascians, who are the enemies of the Commonwealth and are rad as fuck. I mean they're a satire of Maoists who can only communicate, Darmok-style, in sentences pulled from approved propaganda. I am also a sucker for this kind of thing. Anyway eventually Severian goes off to war and gets rescued by the Autarch riding a fucking MAMMOTH because this book commits to the bit, and has to eat his brain to become the new Autarch, and he is currently facing a trial to either become the New Sun or lose his junk. What a great system of government. No notes. God this book is so good.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Ishmael and Queequeg get married a second time and Ishmael would like you to know that Queequeg is hot. That's it, that's the chapter.

Comments

[greylock]

God this book is so good.

I am in doubt mode, but people love them.
I may live long enough to re-read, we'll see. I mean, books are like that!

:/

[greylock]

Fuck, there are more books (not just the Long Sun). Are you all in?

[sabotabby]

Thinking of it. I know there's a fifth book about Severian being married, which sounds boring except that it is in this series so it probably isn't.

[greylock]

Last night (or this morning) I read a short story by Wolfe in a Sandman collection and... I think maybe his stuff doesn't gel with me.

[sabotabby]

It's understandable. I'm a big fan of baroque prose and bonkers plots, so he's totally my jam.

[greylock]

uuuuuh, I finished The Night Land. I'd think baroque prose and bonkers plots would be my jam.

There's something in his prose that doesn't land.
I read a Caitlin R Keirnan story in the same anthology, and it screamed try-hard gawth.

Sometimes I guess things don't land for some reason. I guess it's where you are in your life.

I really wanted to enjoy Mr Woolfe, it's been a decade since I started. Maybe next time.

[greylock]

I have *spreads hands* this many GW books. If I can't get into the next one or two, thare are yours!

[sabotabby]

Hah thanks. My stack is the size of a small building though.

[greylock]

Your TBR stack?
*pif*
I have housing developments of unread stuff!
(Old Man Bookseller was my crack!)
I'll send to to the Gin Palace. Siobhan does the book swap thing. You can fight it out.
(I may be in the 'downsizing before I die' phase)

[rydra_wong]

This is entirely off-topic, I just need to make sure you've seen the Das Kapital bouncy castle:

https://twitter.com/FreihandDenker/status/1689976898519003137

[sabotabby]

WHAAAAAT? I need it.

Related.

[rydra_wong]

WHAAAAAT?

It is Art, but the description does imply that you can potentially bounce on it:

https://www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de/en/ausstellungen/famed/

[sabotabby]

I feel like anything inflatable can be bounced on, at least once.

[greylock]

To paraphrase a meme: Anything inflatable can be bounced on if you are brave enough.

[oracne]

I LOVE THIS REVIEW.

[sabotabby]

I consider it one of my best reviews of all time.

[oracne]

I concur.

[omnia_mutantur]

Something about the way you review Moby Dick strongly reminds me of reading some part of Tolkien to my 7yo nibling when I was spending the night. As I was reading, he dozed off, woke up, told me he does that all the time when Dad reads to him, and said "they just talked about where they were going some more, right? I don't mind not remembering those parts very well."

[sabotabby]

Ahaha that's hilarious.

I'm being facetious, of course. I just don't know if there's anything that I can say about about a book that's objectively brilliant and that has been analyzed to death that no one else has ever said.

[omnia_mutantur]

Of course, and I do actually love it as a book. (I've even been to part of the marathon reading the New Bedford Whaling Museum does). I just adore your (and his) matter-of-factness.

[rydra_wong]

(I've even been to part of the marathon reading the New Bedford Whaling Museum does).

Oh wow, I would love to know what that's like.

[sabotabby]

Hard same.