What'cha Reading?

[Aquarelle]

Ha, actually I am the opposite... I don't find Lisbeth terribly interesting, but I like Blomkvist.

They're not high literature or anything, but they're entertaining and help take my mind of stuff at night so I can sleep. Plus, I'm doing reading on complex systems science for class, so I think I've earned a bit of lighter leisure reading!

I've seen the movie and its sequel. I felt both movies were terribly stylish but Lisbeth didn't touch my heart.

Do I have a hard heart or am I just difficult to please?

Please tell me, for I don't think I have quite digested either.

Did you watch the Swedish versions or the US ones? I haven't seen the films, but I'm not sure Salander is supposed to touch your heart. I think you're supposed to take away from her that 1) Your perception of someone might not be accurate and 2) Even if a person isn't likeable, they still deserve human respect and kindness, and those things can go a long way.

Or maybe that's just my NF talking. :blushing:

 

[Kanamori]

I recently started Anna Karenina too. I’m yet to be persuaded by its reputation as the greatest novel ever written. I recently re/read Madame Bovary, Wuthering Heights and Tess of the d’Urbervilles so perhaps I’m just weary of the genre. I'm starting to wonder if it's compulsory for any female protagonist with a spark of intellectual or sexual curiosity in 19th century literature to come to a violent end...
I suppose I’d want to kill myself if I lived back then, too.

I'm halfway through Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin? by Griet Vandermassen which thus far is pretty disappointing; and When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom which, like so many things, is a better idea than it is a novel.

We shall see. You like Wuthering Heights? I have no idea how I'm going to feel about Anna Karenina, but I'm probably going to read War and Peace first.

 

[Nicodemus]

Lisbeth Salander has all the depth and complexity of Lara Croft.

And more.

 

[Nicodemus]

Did you watch the Swedish versions or the US ones?

There are no US films yet.

 

[Salomé]

And more.

She's the author's way of resolving his own impotence and fighting his own ghosts. I don't find her convincing as a real character. Overlooking her superhuman feats of strength and cunning, all those attributes are unlikely to constellate in one individual.

You like Wuthering Heights?

Not really, no. I seldom read purely for pleasure.

 

[Aquarelle]

There are no US films yet.

Ah, well I heard they were coming... I don't really keep up with films.

 

[Nicodemus]

She's the author's way of resolving his own impotence and fighting his own ghosts.

Whether true or not, it certainly is irrelevant. Why did Proust write?

I don't find her convincing as a real character. Overlooking her superhuman feats of strength and cunning, all those attributes are unlikely to constellate in one individual.

I agree; she is, as all three novels are, a little over the top.

 

[Salomé]

Whether true or not, it certainly is irrelevant. Why did Proust write?

You're not seriously comparing Larsson to Proust? LOL.

I agree; she is, as all three novels are, a little over the top.

That's why I compared her to Lara Croft.
An unconventional male fantasy figure she might be, but still, that's all she is.

 

[Nicodemus]

You're not seriously comparing Larsson to Proust? LOL.

Yes, I am. They were not equally good writers, but they were both writers of fiction. YOU DIDN'T GET THAT? LOOOL.

 

[Salomé]

Yes, I am. They were not equally good writers, but they were both writers of fiction. YOU DIDN'T GET THAT? LOOOL.

Ignoring your immaturity, I will add that I certainly think understanding an author's motivation is very important to any reading that is not a superficial one.

 

[Nicodemus]

Ignoring your immaturity

The covered mirror. Very funny.

I certainly think understanding an author's motivation is very important to any reading that is not a superficial one.

There are millions of scholars who would wholeheartedly disagree with you. Personally, I think to understand an author's motivation to write is less important than what he chooses to write.

By the way, are you sure you really understand Stieg Larsson's motivation?

 

[Valiant]

Really great book! One of the best i've read, to be honest. It's the first in a series. The next one is due on March 1, 2011.

Next one will appear in my mailbox, hopefully tomorrow or on monday.
This is the one:

 

[Salomé]

There are millions of scholars who would wholeheartedly disagree with you. Personally, I think to understand an author's motivation to write is less important than what he chooses to write.

Millions? Are you certain about that? Maybe you could site a few? Certainly a great many think it is important, but that's neither here nor there.

By the way, are you sure you really understand Stieg Larsson's motivation?

If it's so unimportant to you, I wonder why you ask...

But anyway, according to a friend, it was the motivation:

Best-selling Swedish author Stieg Larsson drew on an incident from his teens in writing about the violence perpetrated against his female protagonist, a friend reportedly claims in a soon-to-be-published biography of the author.

ABC News is reporting that Larsson's longtime friend and publishing colleague Kurdo Baksi said the "Millennium Trilogy" is Larsson's attempt to atone for a rape he witnessed and never reported when he was 15 years old.

The incident occurred, Baksi said, in 1969 at a camping site in northern Sweden when Larsson watched three of his friends rape a girl named Lisbeth. Larsson never intervened and did not report the rape, Baksi said.

Larsson reportedly tried to apologize the girl days later, but his apology was not accepted.

 

[Aquarelle]

Really great book! One of the best i've read, to be honest. It's the first in a series. The next one is due on March 1, 2011.

Hmm, that sounds interesting. Is it out in paperback? Probably not, huh? I'm looking for something to bring with me on a work trip next week, but I don't want anything hardcover...

 

[Nicodemus]

Millions? Are you certain about that? Maybe you could site a few? Certainly a great many think it is important, but that's neither here nor there.

Hans Schwerte, Heinz Kindermann, Erich Trunz, Wolfgang Kayser, Richard Alewyn, Wolfgang Kayser, Emil Staiger, Heinz Kindermann, Benno von Wiese; some of the curious disciples of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes or post-structuralism in general - and I am certain there are quite a few - are likely to discard any author's motivation as well, they might even claim the death of the author.

If it's so unimportant to you, I wonder why you ask...

To make you ask yourself. But I admit that you have indeed a good source, a source with its own motivation to publish a book, of course. Still, to know where Lisbeth came from does not mean that she has nowhere to go anymore. You could just as easily void much of Thomas Mann's work by saying that it is nothing but his way of resolving unfulfilled lusts.

 

[Salomé]

Hans Schwerte, Heinz Kindermann, Erich Trunz, Wolfgang Kayser, Richard Alewyn, Wolfgang Kayser, Emil Staiger, Heinz Kindermann, Benno von Wiese; some of the curious disciples of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes or post-structuralism in general - and I am certain there are quite a few - are likely to discard any author's motivation as well, they might even claim the death of the author.

That seems premature.

To make you ask yourself. But I admit that you have indeed a good source, a source with its own motivation to publish a book, of course. Still, to know where Lisbeth came from does not mean that she has nowhere to go anymore. You could just as easily void much of Thomas Mann's work by saying that it is nothing but his way of resolving unfulfilled lusts.

She probably isn't going anywhere now the author really is dead. (Unless reports of an unpublished 4th novel are to be believed). But anyway, I don't believe I did "void" the work. I just claimed that the character was less than believable and the work owes its success more to marketing than to literary merit. And I believe you agreed. So I'm not sure why you're still arguing about it.

 

[Nicodemus]

That seems premature.

How so?

She probably isn't going anywhere now the author really is dead. (Unless reports of an unpublished 4th novel are to be believed).

Well, she never lived either. Are you deliberately misreading me?

But anyway, I don't believe I did "void" the work. I just claimed that the character was less than believable and the work owes its success more to marketing than to literary merit. And I believe you agreed. So I'm not sure why you're still arguing about it.

I thought this motivation thing was one of your two reasons to depreciate the character. If I am mistaken, we can both go to bed now.

 

[strawberries]

jonathan franzen's latest book freedom. if i end up liking it half as much as i liked the corrections i'll be happy.

 

[93JC]

Well, I was about to say "I'm reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," but nevermind: apparently doing so will suck me into some silly argument/discussion about the literary merit of Stieg Larsson's books.

 

[Spamtar]

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson http://www.amazon.com/Short-History...=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287712110&sr=1-3