sperg about normal books here - it's like the comic books thread but without the pretty pictures

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George RR Martins problem isn't that his books are too long it's that he contradicts himself with the distances especially in a clash of kings somehow the Tyrell and the lannisters forces can get all the way from the riverlands to the crown lands and no one notices also no other faction besides the lannisters can engage in diplomacy
 
Just finished the first book of "The Three Body Problem" series. It's good, but I was honestly expecting something a bit weirder in its premises and not so autistic when it comes to realistic depictions of emotion and human interactions, maybe? The hard science stuff is nice, but damn, the only one who comes off as somewhat human and not some emotionally anesthetized automaton is that cop character Da Shi.
 
OrangeJuliusEvola dijo:
Just finished the first book of "The Three Body Problem" series. It's good, but I was honestly expecting something a bit weirder in its premises and not so autistic when it comes to realistic depictions of emotion and human interactions, maybe? The hard science stuff is nice, but damn, the only one who comes off as somewhat human and not some emotionally anesthetized automaton is that cop character Da Shi.
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it might be a translation thing
 
I just finished reading The King in Yellow and I was a little surprised by the couple stories that have seemingly no connection to the play at all, other than being set in France among an artistic crowd.
The state funded suicide chamber was a bit surprising, being in NYC rather than Canada, but it was written at the turn of the 20th century.
 
OrangeJuliusEvola dijo:
Just finished the first book of "The Three Body Problem" series. It's good, but I was honestly expecting something a bit weirder in its premises and not so autistic when it comes to realistic depictions of emotion and human interactions, maybe?
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The story gets better in the second and third books.
 
Oliver Onions dijo:
I recently finished the Ring trilogy by Koji Suzuki, which includes the eponymous Ring, Spiral and Loop. It's one of the best and most bizarre trilogies I've ever read, given how it starts and where it ends up.
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I read those when they first came out. Still got my first edition copies of Spiral and Loop, dunno what happened to Ring but I have a feeling some bitch I used to know stole it. Shame because I love the cover designs by Chipp Kidd and the reprints of Ring have that last movies poster for a cover ugh.

Anyways, loved the theme of people sacrificing essentially the world in the first two to save their loved ones with the ending of part 3 having the hero sacrifice himself to save the world instead.

The first book gave me goosebumps when the protagonist flees the cabin after watching the tape and feeling as if he was being chased.

Did you read the short story collection "Birthday?" Had a creepy deleted chapter from Spiral called Coffin in the Sky that always stuck with me.

Spiral was probably my favorite of the three; wound up reading it in one sitting on a plane ride.

Do like the twist in Loop and going back to scenes from the earlier books and seeing them in a different perspective.
 
Sargon's wife's son dijo:
George RR Martins problem isn't that his books are too long it's that he contradicts himself with the distances especially in a clash of kings somehow the Tyrell and the lannisters forces can get all the way from the riverlands to the crown lands and no one notices also no other faction besides the lannisters can engage in diplomacy
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His issue is that he kinda just drops any series as they get popular because he can’t really write an ending well. His previous sci-fi series are all abandoned.
 
TATE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!! dijo:
The first book gave me goosebumps when the protagonist flees the cabin after watching the tape and feeling as if he was being chased.
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The description of the tape and his anxiety right after is surprisingly effective. What I really liked about the books is how each one is a different genre: the first is a ghost story, the second is a crime procedural and the final one is dystopian sci-fi.

I'm not sure if that was his intention or just him being annoyed at being pigeon-holed as a horror author, but I was impressed with how he was able to completely switch gears without making it contrived. Not many authors can get away with that.
TATE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!! dijo:
Did you read the short story collection "Birthday?" Had a creepy deleted chapter from Spiral called Coffin in the Sky that always stuck with me.
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I did, I've read quite a lot of Suzuki's work since I finished the Ring books. I think my favourite from that collection is the one about Sadako's time with the acting troupe, and the last one about Ryuji getting to see his family again (or them getting to see him). It wasn't remotely scary but it was a very nice bow to tie on the universe.
 
Stoner was pretty good. Nothing too impressive. I don't get why some call it "the perfect novel".
 
Finally read roadside picnic after years of loving the stalker games and adoring the tarkovsky film and it was phenomenal. It's really great at getting you in the mind of a really tired Russian man just trying to support his wife and monkey. The book does such a good job at making understand why someone would be willing to go to a dangerous place like the zone beyond the simple curiosity of man most imitation lazily use.
 
I want to ask a potentially retarded question (Screw it this is totally retarded):

How? How do words on a page stick with people this much? And how do I, an aspiring artist hope to do the same with images? What abstraction of experience must I grasp totally to create an impactful story?
 
liam dees dijo:
How? How do words on a page stick with people this much? And how do I, an aspiring artist hope to do the same with images? What abstraction of experience must I grasp totally to create an impactful story?
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This is not entirely a stupid question. In fact I would say it is a good question but I don't think there is a answer that can be written without you not understanding all of it.

I'm not an artist but I know a few things about good art. Don't treat what I'm about to tell you as a formula either. Formulas make bad art.

I'm going to tell you two things I think all good art needs to have.

The first thing is that it needs to have some version of one the basic stories. Think stuff like Heroes Journey etc. Joseph Campbell is good for understanding this stuff though again don't make stuff based on a simple formula. This basic story will form the skeleton of whatever art you are trying to make.

The other thing good arts needs is a good story to tell and it needs to tell it in a certain way. Different kinds of art can be interesting for all kinds of reasons, but something that a lot of really good art has in common is that it is Fractal or put more simply it has layers. Computers can store a large amount of information but when it comes to storing the type of information humans most often deal with and not something that is just numbers computers absolutely suck. Biological systems are really good at storing and transmitting Fractal data. A good story therefore needs to utilize this method of storing and communicating data. What this means is that as you go through that story you should be slowly building this Fractal pattern until the pattern is revealed very clearly at the end. So you express the "arc" of the story in an extremely schizophrenic way that the audience won't consciously notice in the beginning of the story and as you get through that story you tell the "arc" again but a bit more clear and then do it again but even more clear until you reveal it very clearly at the end. The idea that the author of a mystery book should hint at who done it in the beginning is a symptom of this structure of good stories. If you go back and you look at really good art you will find this structure hidden within it.

Which brings me to some pieces of advice. For whatever art you are making look and find the best examples in that ecosystem and dissect and analyze what makes them great and try to learn from them. This will sadly ruin some of your enjoyment of those things, but in order to perform an autopsy you need a corpse and if you truly want to be an artist you will sacrifice some your enjoyment to make yourself better.

The other thing is you need to do is practice a lot. There are many many people that want to be artists and who work really hard and you need to beat nearly all of them. This means you need to make a lot of art. You need to constantly keep practicing for years or possibly even decades before you'll get good and certainly before you get great.

Deadwaste dijo:
i've been reading the foundation series by asimov as of late. it is in fact quite a good read.
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Have you gotten to the one that is about the mule and if so what do you think. I'll say I fundamentally disagree with some of the perspectives Asimov has within that series but I still find it quite enjoyable. I enjoy it as a bunch of guys who have these tough problems they have to solve and they come up with these clever solutions.
 
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