Books: What are you reading tonight? - Page 151 - The Lounge Discussion and Review on Literature, Arts, Culture

I'm not totally done it yet but I'm not really loving it. i think maybe it's because I've studied similar afflictions in my cognitive neuropsych and other classes before so i want to know more about what exactly is causing the problem, the hows and whys. I enjoy the personal aspects (which many textbooks don't have) but I find it lacking some of the science I like. At the same time i find him using really complex language and writes in such a way that he assumes the reader has read everything he's ever written and a bunch of other things as well. I'm pretty disappointed by this book, but the cases are still interesting. Maybe it's because it's older and at the time they didn't have the knowledge and techniques that I'm used to hearing about in class.

Give Phantoms in the Brain a try, or if you dont want to invest the time, watch VS Ramachandran's TED video "On Your Mind", he goes over a couple of the cases that he talks about in the book.

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04-23-2010 , 04:29 PM

#3752

vhawk01

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SharkTank43

Started Bag of Bones by Stephen King a couple nights ago...I'm an enormous King fan, but IMO this book is ****ing terrible, just completely unlikeable main characters...every single page has some ******edly annoying flashback to something the main character's irritating dead wife said or did, just too much for me, had to put it down after 175 pages, no way I was going to suffer through another 500 pages.

That one, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Gerald's Game are the only King books I just stopped reading halfway through and will almost certainly never get around to finishing. Easily his worst works.

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04-23-2010 , 04:38 PM

#3753

livinitup0

Iron Chef of the Lounge

Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 7,038

alright busto we need a little more substance on your apprecaition of bag of bones.

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04-23-2010 , 04:58 PM

#3754

SnotBoogy

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Quote:

Originally Posted by livinitup0

i hate his writing style and couldnt get past the first 50 pages of this and The Road...i know thats against the grain here but it seemed a lot more about pretencious writing than storytelling imo. just my uncouth 0.02.

kinda like calling #99 the great one pretentious

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04-23-2010 , 05:05 PM

#3755

AJW

a distant tied 2nd

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,371

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malcolm X

I've heard only good things about Blood Meridian so your view surprises me.

About to start In Cold Blood but after that I am out of books. I read Bonfire of the Vanities years ago and loved it. Are any of his other novels any good because it is probably one of my faves.

I also read Are You Experienced? in one sitting today for about the 5th time. Can't get enough of that book.

I definitely recommend Blood Meridian. Perhaps I didn't make it clear how captivated I was its just that it isn't a barrel of laughs and McCarthy seems to have a pretty low opinion of mankind. Which it’s hard not to share when you look at what we do to one another.

Anyone got any theories about the Judge?

Spoiler:

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04-23-2010 , 05:14 PM

#3756

livinitup0

Iron Chef of the Lounge

Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 7,038

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnotBoogy

kinda like calling #99 the great one pretentious

i admit im not in a popular group with my sentiments on this guy but he reminds me of a drummer that puts in a solo ever couple of measures.

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04-23-2010 , 05:23 PM

#3757

SnotBoogy

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Quote:

Originally Posted by AJW

Spoiler:

yeah you nailed it pretty much this. the judge is one sick puppy

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04-23-2010 , 06:49 PM

#3758

JMa

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Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,328

Finished Steinbeck's Cannery Row just now. Easy but not all that interesting read though.

Anyway, in one of the conversations towards the end John wrote "I should of..." instead of "I should have". I don't really get this. I realize that they both sound alike, but since they sound alike, why would you write the wrong form?

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04-23-2010 , 07:00 PM

#3759

jontsef

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He used incorrect grammar and spelling on purpose. Many authors do that.

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04-23-2010 , 07:04 PM

#3760

JMa

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Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,328

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontsef

He used incorrect grammar and spelling on purpose. Many authors do that.

Sure, but what is the point in this case? "would've" and "would of" sound the same. I understand that many authors do it to properly describe the scene their portraying but in this case it just seems nonsensical.

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04-23-2010 , 07:09 PM

#3761

jontsef

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Regarding Steinbeck specifically, this is from his biography by Catherine Reef:

He wanted to capture their language on paper - profanity, bad grammar, and all. He was sick of books that presented "the noble working man talking very like a junior college professor," he said. His characters would be real people who cursed and argued and spat on the ground.

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04-23-2010 , 07:12 PM

#3762

JMa

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Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,328

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontsef

This is all well and good, but suppose your were listening in to they're conversation. How would you tell the difference between "I should of stopped talking long ago" and "I should've stopped talking long ago"? It sounds the same! It doesn't capture anything that's there, because nothing's there.

Last edited by JMa; 04-23-2010 at 07:19 PM.

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04-23-2010 , 07:23 PM

#3763

jontsef

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Right, it might sound the same, but the idea is to capture their bad grammar on paper. He also often used 'an' instead of 'and' even though they sound the same in many cases.

Also, the proper way to pronounce "should have" is not the same as "should of."

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04-23-2010 , 07:28 PM

#3764

JMa

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Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 3,328

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontsef

I edited!

If the idea is to capture their bad grammar in an oral conversation there are so many better ways than of/'ve. Oh well.

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04-23-2010 , 07:29 PM

#3765

Blarg

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Yeah the homophone for "should of" is not "should have," but "should've." And it can still sound different, depending who's saying it.

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04-23-2010 , 07:46 PM

#3766

jontsef

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Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 2,065

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMa

I edited!

If the idea is to capture their bad grammar in an oral conversation there are so many better ways than of/'ve. Oh well.

It's important to remember that he also wants the conversation to flow well. I can't really think of a better spot to use bad grammar, mainly because of the reason that is sounds similar to correct usage.
Two birds with one stone.

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04-24-2010 , 06:19 AM

#3767

Malcolm X

grinder

Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 577

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dominic

Malcolm, Bonfire of the Vanities is by Wolfe, In Cold Blood by Capote...they are not written by the same author...or did you not mean to suggest they were?

sorry, i didn't mean to suggest they were. i'd quite like to read some more Wolfe but i've never been suggested any of his other stuff. After watching Capote I have to say I'm pretty excited about In Cold Blood.

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04-24-2010 , 07:33 AM

#3768

emmemere

moderatrix

Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 8,255

Quote:

Originally Posted by vhawk01

Give Phantoms in the Brain a try, or if you dont want to invest the time, watch VS Ramachandran's TED video "On Your Mind", he goes over a couple of the cases that he talks about in the book.

I actually watched a lot of the video's of his cases in my cognitive neuropsych course and found them really interesting.

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04-24-2010 , 05:13 PM

#3769

jontsef

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Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 2,065

Hey emme, you might like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by the same author of PP&Z.
I remember you're into serial killers, or maybe just reading about them

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04-24-2010 , 06:02 PM

#3770

RussellinToronto

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Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 2,199

I just got a PM from a student who wanted me to answer some questions on a book I'd recommended on this list because he has an essay to write. I told him he'd have to do his own homework -- but it left me curious: has this happened to others? Did he (Todd) solicit others?

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04-24-2010 , 06:25 PM

#3771

Blarg

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I don't know who Todd is, but I've been PM'd that way before. Not for a while though.

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04-24-2010 , 09:11 PM

#3772

Bostaevski

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JMa

I rather liked Cannery Row. Also liked Tortilla Flat which takes place in the same era and town as Cannery Row. I have the Grapes of Wrath staring at me next to the bed but haven't cracked it yet. Can't decide if it should be my next book or if I should go with Moby Dick.

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04-25-2010 , 12:44 AM

#3773

MarkD

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 4,624

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bostaevski

Grapes of Wrath, and it's not even close. I liked Grapes and disliked Moby... I mean, unless you are really really curious about whale anatomy.

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04-25-2010 , 12:55 AM

#3774

SnotBoogy

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I'm not going to rec the entire book cuz its damn near 1000 pages, but everyone should read the intro chapter to Underworld by Don Delillo. Classic historical fiction about the shot heard round the world. Excellent bit. You could probably read it in a bookstore in 30 min.

"On the fiftieth anniversary of "The Shot Heard Round the World," Don DeLillo reassembles in fiction the larger-than-life characters who on October 3, 1951, witnessed Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Gleason is razzing Toots Shor in Leo Durocher's box seats; J. Edgar Hoover, basking in Sinatra's celebrity, is about to be told that the Russians have tested an atomic bomb; and Russ Hodges, raw-throated and excitable, announces the game -- the Giants and the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in New York. DeLillo's transcendent account of one of the iconic events of the twentieth century is a masterpiece of American sportswriting."