tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post3500980890726613710..comments2024-03-21T07:37:30.475-04:00Comments on Light reading: Wednesday miscellanyJenny Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-74933460498411045342010-01-28T00:15:01.732-05:002010-01-28T00:15:01.732-05:00Kirschenbaum: he sounds interesting and he poses t...Kirschenbaum: he sounds interesting and he poses thoughtful questions and is assigning readings that look mind-blowing, and though I would like to listen to a lecture by him or read a piece by him, I can imagine this particular graduate course being an epic nightmare. It sounds like the type of thing that Spivak was alluding to when she said that a certain type of <br />cavalier interdisciplinarity "creates pretensiousness in graduate students." (As if there is not enough pretensiousness to go around!) <br /><br />As an anti-technologist who doesn't understand any of this stuff, I'm off to read Wodehouse's Paris Review interview.Paul Devlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05931755750549699626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-65003494780508169172010-01-27T20:29:50.601-05:002010-01-27T20:29:50.601-05:00I didn't even get to the second paragraph, I w...I didn't even get to the second paragraph, I was so struck by the title! And, speaking of series, have been meaning to ask you if you've read the Outlander books?Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002802440403969922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-43284969312031268602010-01-27T19:40:23.750-05:002010-01-27T19:40:23.750-05:00I'm astonished you're not a Dunnett reader...I'm astonished you're not a Dunnett reader given the tastes you display in your Light Reading. If you found Aubrey/Maturin addictive, you're in for some serious pleasure with Dunnett's historicals, which are in an altogether other class from her mysteries.<br /><br />I'm very fond of her House of Niccolo (which BTW is 8 novels, not 7) and its hero, but nothing can compare with her six-book Lymond Chronicles. An action-packed emotional roller-coaster ride through the Courts of the HIgh Renaissance - politics, diplomacy, spies, wars and high-stakes intrigue, dysfunctional families, and romance, with the Greatest Screwed-up Marches-to-his-own-drum semi-Byronic Hero EVAH! <br /><br />Each book in the Lymond Chronicles is structured differently - the first a clockwork mystery, the second a James Bond-style spy story, etc. But they're all part of what is really a single novel that follows the hero over a decade of adventures and psychic turmoil, and never lets up. House of Niccolo and Aubrey/Maturin are leisurely travelogues by comparison. <br /><br />The world-building is rich and confident, the prose is splendid, the dialogue is from laugh-out-loud funny to gutwrenching, the historical details are impecable, the characters unforgettable, and her suspense tricks, with sleights-of-hand and misdirections galore, are masterful. It's also technically a narrative tour de force -- an intriguing, complex psychological portrait built up over six books that's achieved without letting the reader inside the hero's head but for a handful of moments -- all show, not tell. Very cinematic. The series is a rare combo of deliciously meaty and enormously fun. <br /><br />And I'm delighted to hear there's a follow-up to A Suitable Boy!dunnettreaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01458450047215098334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-19645056337995009622010-01-27T17:01:21.844-05:002010-01-27T17:01:21.844-05:00The syllabus on simulations really ought to point ...The syllabus on simulations really ought to point out that <a href="http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/002223.html" rel="nofollow">we're living in one</a>, complete with <a href="http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/002220.html" rel="nofollow">Easter Eggs (struck by lightning seven times - come on, that's a dead giveaway!)</a>Brent Bucknerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14754659334435107746noreply@blogger.com