AllenLowe Posted September 5, 2008 Report Posted September 5, 2008 (edited) Dr. Spock - oh, sorry, for a minute I thought I was Sarah Palin's daughter - Edited September 5, 2008 by AllenLowe Quote
bruce talbot Posted September 5, 2008 Report Posted September 5, 2008 the Bible - which Philip Larkin referred to as 'balls' I seem to remember. Quote
BruceH Posted September 5, 2008 Report Posted September 5, 2008 Yes. . . haven't read him in a long time. . . but yes. You're the best!!! :tup Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 "Norstrillia," Cordwainer Smith (for maybe the fourth time?) I've never read anything by Cordwainer Smith. I found a copy of Space Lords in a used paperback shop the other day to give him a try; it's the first book of his I've found. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, or his stuff is just hard to find. Quote
aparxa Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Conrad - Heart of Darkness heinrich Böll - Le train était à l'heure now : F.S. Fitzgerald The Beautiful and Damned Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Conrad - Heart of Darkness Another one on my "to read" shelf...though it's been there almost as long as Ulysses now... Quote
BillF Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Conrad - Heart of Darkness Another one on my "to read" shelf...though it's been there almost as long as Ulysses now... Reminiscent of Heart of Darkness are the film Apocalypse Now and J G Ballard's The Crystal World, my current reading. Quote
Shawn Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Cornell Woolrich - The Bride Wore Black Quote
jazzbo Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 (edited) "Norstrillia," Cordwainer Smith (for maybe the fourth time?) I've never read anything by Cordwainer Smith. I found a copy of Space Lords in a used paperback shop the other day to give him a try; it's the first book of his I've found. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, or his stuff is just hard to find. Norstrilia is in print now in a handsome new edition (I don't have it though, I have two copies of seventies paperbacks) and there is a fantastic hardcover of all his short fiction called "The Rediscovery of Man" in print, well worth seeking out. (A shorter paperback collection of short stories, "The Best of Cordwainter Smith" has been out of print for some time but I have seen it often in used bookstores). It's been a long time since I saw my copy of Space Lords, it has to have some of the "Instrumentality of Mankind" stories in it. (There were two other early paperbacks on Pyramid I think, The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople, that were standalone volumes of the full novel Norstrilia). That makes all his work in print except for three or four mainstream novels written under another nom-de-plume (Cordwainer Smith is, you guessed it, also a pseudonym). I've never read those. . . I'd like to but I don't want to pay 50 plus each for the ones that can be found. . . . Edited to clear up a mistake I made about The Space Lords. Edited September 6, 2008 by jazzbo Quote
jazzbo Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 (edited) Here is a nice website run by his daughter about his work: http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/ He had an interesting life. Here's a quote from his (Paul Linebarger's) "Psychological Warfare" In other terms, it is tough to be modern; the difficulty of being modern makes it easy for individuals to be restless and anxious; restlessness and anxiety lead to fear; fear converts freely into hate; hate very easily takes on political form; political hate assists in the creation of real threats such as the atomic bomb and guided missiles, which are not imaginary threats at all; the reality of the threats seems to confirm the reality of the hate which led to it, thus perpetuating a cycle of insecurity, fear, hate, armament, insecurity, fear, and on around the circle again and again. It is possible, but by no means probable, that the rapid development of psychological and related sciences in the Western world may provide whole new answers to the threats which surround modern Americans, including the supreme answer of peace as an alternative to war or the secondary answer of victory in the event of war.... Too specific a concentration on the problem of winning a war may cause a leader or his expert consultants to concentrate on solutions derived from past experience, therewith leading him to miss new and different solutions which might be offered by his own time. Here: http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/psychological-warfare.htm Edited September 6, 2008 by jazzbo Quote
jazzbo Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Yes. . . haven't read him in a long time. . . but yes. You're the best!!! :tup The best what? My girlfriend says I'm the best lover. . . but I credit her. Quote
jazzbo Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Conrad - Heart of Darkness Another one on my "to read" shelf...though it's been there almost as long as Ulysses now... Heart of Darkness. . . wow I should reread that sometime soon. Conrad was something! Quote
aparxa Posted September 6, 2008 Report Posted September 6, 2008 Yes, quite impressed by the intensity along the story. I think I should give a 3rd chand to Lord Jim after having given up the book in french and then english a long time ago. Quote
BruceH Posted September 8, 2008 Report Posted September 8, 2008 "Norstrillia," Cordwainer Smith (for maybe the fourth time?) I've never read anything by Cordwainer Smith. I found a copy of Space Lords in a used paperback shop the other day to give him a try; it's the first book of his I've found. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, or his stuff is just hard to find. Norstrilia is in print now in a handsome new edition (I don't have it though, I have two copies of seventies paperbacks) and there is a fantastic hardcover of all his short fiction called "The Rediscovery of Man" in print, well worth seeking out. (A shorter paperback collection of short stories, "The Best of Cordwainter Smith" has been out of print for some time but I have seen it often in used bookstores). It's been a long time since I saw my copy of Space Lords, it has to have some of the "Instrumentality of Mankind" stories in it. (There were two other early paperbacks on Pyramid I think, The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople, that were standalone volumes of the full novel Norstrilia). That makes all his work in print except for three or four mainstream novels written under another nom-de-plume (Cordwainer Smith is, you guessed it, also a pseudonym). I've never read those. . . I'd like to but I don't want to pay 50 plus each for the ones that can be found. . . . Edited to clear up a mistake I made about The Space Lords. Got to put in my recommendation for The Rediscovery of Man, easily the best Cordwainer Smith collection yet. The publisher, NESFA Press, do the best single-author story collections on the market, but they tend to be pricey...you might want to look for it in a library. The Ballantine paperback you mention, Jazzbo, The Best of Cordwainer Smith, was my own introduction to him. (In fact, the Ballantine "Best of..." series from the 70's totally rocked---thoughtfully chosen, generously programmed, affordable, and, more often than not, with attractive covers. I've still got a lot of them.) The books you say you've never read, could that be the "Cashier O'Neil" series? "On the Storm Planet," "On the (whatever) Planet," etc. I bought those ages ago when they were briefly in print and never got around to reading them. Admittedly it's been decades since I've last read any Cordwainer Smith, and frankly, I'm not sure I'd like his stuff as much as I used to, but I'll always be grateful for the unique pleasure of reading his stories as a teenager. Quote
jazzbo Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Well, I just reread Norstrillia in a few days and man was it good. I have The Rediscovery of Man and hope to read it soon, I got it for about 20 bucks and i believe it has a handful of stories I've never read (and yes I still have The Best of Cordwainer Smith and a few others in the Best of series from Ballantine, I agree, that's a great series). Hmmm. . . don't know anything about "Cashier O'Neil". . .the books I mention are three: Ria, by Felix C. Forrest Carola, by Felix C. Forrest Atomsk, by Carmichael Smith None of them are science fiction, Atomsk is an espionage novel. I really read science fiction ony infrequently in the nineties and this millenium, rereading mostly Phil K. Dick and occasionally a few others such as Moore, Moorcock and Smith. I'm now in the mood and am reading and rereading Weird Tales-like fantasy and science fiction. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 (edited) I never got into Moorcock, other than Behold the Man which appealed to me for obvious reasons. I think I have ten or twelve books by him, which is pretty safe to say is more than by any other author I don't read... Edited September 9, 2008 by Jazzmoose Quote
jazzbo Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Oh well, what can I say? I liked Moorcock a lot in the seventies and eighties, especially the Elric and Jerry Cornelius series. Pure escapist potboiler stuff in most cases. Since then I've read a few well-written historical fantasy novels he's written. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Switching gears yet again, I see from above that we have a few Ballard fans here; have any of you read The Atrocity Exhibition? There's another book I've been looking for for decades without any luck... Quote
Elissa Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 I read the Atrocity Exhibition, after Crash, Concrete Island and High Rise, but more than 20 years ago. There was an issue of Re/Search magazine about him that tipped me that way in the early 80s. Now I'm reading Obama's lovely book, Dreams from my Father. Anyone else give it a go? Fascinating to learn about his family, his grandad (on the Kansan side) was a a nonconformist in days when that was rare; his grandad on the Kenyan side was a tribal leader and medicine man. Our Obama however was somewhat of a punk in college at Occidental; very into jazz and Billie from a young age. Apparently he wanted to get into (the now derided, thanks Mrs Palin, idea of) community organizing in his early 20s and started writing letters - the first job he landed in that vein turned from an idea into a lucrative gig writing and consulting for international business and industry, and not what he wanted to do. So he quit, and another letter writing campaign eventually landed him a meeting with one Marty Kaufman, originally from Brooklyn, who'd gone down south in the 60s with civil rights activists, only Marty never left. I love that it was a Brooklyn Jew who brough Obama to Illinois to organize in Churches - originally there wasn't a lick of the fear of god in the man, thank god. Also found up a copy of Simone Signore's memoire, Nostalgia Ain't What it Used to Be, with which I'm still just flirting. Quote
BillF Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Switching gears yet again, I see from above that we have a few Ballard fans here; have any of you read The Atrocity Exhibition? There's another book I've been looking for for decades without any luck... Several copies in Manchester Public Libraries. Guess you're living in the wrong place (I haven't read it yet.) Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Guess you're living in the wrong place Yeah, it's been that way for close to three years now... Quote
Niko Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Guess you're living in the wrong place Yeah, it's been that way for close to three years now... what's wrong with this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/094...ASIN=0940642182 Quote
BillF Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 Now reading Ah, so it's a book! (I only know it as a Charlie Mariano composition.) Quote
BruceH Posted September 9, 2008 Report Posted September 9, 2008 I never got into Moorcock, Is it the name? Actually, his "Dancers At the End of Time" trilogy is quite good, and the only thing by him I've read more than once. Quote
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