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Messages - Roundy

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1781
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: April 03, 2015, 04:37:14 AM »
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

It was shit.

1782
Arts & Entertainment / Re: FES Book Club
« on: April 03, 2015, 01:58:53 AM »
I've just finished Huxley's Brave New World. It's the last of the dystopian novel triangle of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 I needed to read and I think it's the best of them. I found the world of BNW far more believable and sinister than Orwell or Bradbury's simply because it doesn't portray the ruling elite being evil for its own sake. There is a faintly terrifying familiarity with the leisure-and-drug-drenched world where people are more than happy to sacrifice freedom and liberty for happiness and short-term relief.

The plot itself is less well-organised than the other two, but it helps capture the feel of a world warped by drugs and social conditioning. Unlike 1984, it knows not to labour the point and wraps up neatly before you can get too bored with it.

My biggest problem with Brave New World was that the writing was terrible.  Huxley created a world both fascinating and frightening, but his descriptions of said world were hampered by his complete and utter lack of writing talent.  It wasn't quite as bad as, say, Tom Clancy's writing, but it was still pretty bad.

I have to agree with this (except the Tom Clancy part, he I think is a fine writer even if his stuff does tend to plod along sometimes and he does get a bit bogged down in the technical details).  Brave New World was a fascinating concept poorly executed, in my opinion nowhere near the quality of 1984 or Fahrenheit 451.  I've read 1984 like five times since first reading it for school.  It used to be my favorite book.

As far as bleak futuristic dystopias go I'm not sure it gets any better than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I just read for the first time a couple weeks ago.  So profoundly disturbing, and I actually found that the more I reflected on it after I was done reading it the more disturbing it seemed.  There was a lot of unsettling subtext in that book.  I guess it remains to be seen if it holds up that way for me after some time has passed, but I have a feeling I'll be reading that one again.

And also speaking of political thrillers (I know, it's a weak segueway but whatever) I just got done reading The Bourne Supremacy.  Certainly Robert Ludlum was a better writer than Clancy.  Of what I've read so far his stuff never gets boring, and the story in that and Identity is just plausible enough that I am able to gleefully suspend my disbelief while I'm reading it, while at the same time being ridiculously exciting enough that it feels like the literary equivalent of a thrill ride.

1783
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: March 24, 2015, 02:02:09 AM »
The thing with a Pynchon novel is that for all its mystery, unanswered questions, deep unidentified longing, and zany humour, there is never a moment that the prose becomes ponderous, ill fitting, devoid of lucidity and flow, alienating to the reader

I beg to differ.  What I read of Mason & Dixon suggested that it was all of those things, all of the time.

With such a limited frame of reference it seems odd that you would imagine yourself to have any grasp on the matter at all.

I think the fact that you included "never a moment" in the statement Saddam responded to makes his response worth consideration, at the very least.  Maybe you should add the clause "who is already used to his ponderous and alienating prose" at the end for clarification.

1784
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 13, 2015, 01:46:27 AM »
Well, I'm feeling a little better.

1785
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 11, 2015, 04:42:32 AM »
Yeah, Sam Bradford.  I was superpsyched about that one let me tell you.

1786
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 11, 2015, 02:22:12 AM »
 >o<

1787
Don't know if you're familiar with this one but The Fratellis' Costello Music is really good.  I recently rediscovered it (I heard "Whistle For the Choir" on an old episode of Community a couple weeks ago and it reminded me that I loved that album and spurred me to buy it) and I can't stop listening to it.

Also please review Congratulations by MGMT.  I've asked repeatedly and it still hasn't made your list.  Oracular Spectacular by the same group is also really good.

1788
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 11, 2015, 01:55:10 AM »
Well, now that Chip Kelly has murdered my team I'm shopping around for someone to root for who might actually get somewhere next season.  Any suggestions?
But he made it better.
I take this back, Chip Kelly may be insane. But in a fun way.

I'm not having any fun.  >o<

1789
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 04, 2015, 05:38:28 AM »

Well, now that Chip Kelly has murdered my team I'm shopping around for someone to root for who might actually get somewhere next season.  Any suggestions?

But bro, you're getting Marcus Mariota...

At what cost?  When the dust settles will it be worth it?

1790
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Official Sports Thread
« on: March 04, 2015, 03:53:41 AM »
Well, now that Chip Kelly has murdered my team I'm shopping around for someone to root for who might actually get somewhere next season.  Any suggestions?

1791
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Led Zeppelin discography listen-through
« on: February 24, 2015, 03:16:55 AM »
Next up is "What Is and What Should Never Be," and...all right, I've danced around the issue long enough.  Something every Zeppelin fan needs to accept is that Robert Plant is, quite simply, a god-awful lyricist.  Not the worst, certainly.  He at least has a decent sense of meter - which is to say that he isn't constantly tripping over excessively long, clunky lyrics full of idiosyncratic uses of overly-technical terms that seem to have been written with the intention of showing off how smart the lyricist thinks he is rather than whether or not they can be sung well (Guess which lyricist that barb was directed at.  Go on, guess.)  But still, they're pretty bad, and nowhere does it show more prominently than songs that are apparently trying to be poetic, mystical, fantasy-influenced, or the like.  "What Is and What Should Never Be" is one of those songs.  It's meant to be a love song, and it has a nice melody, alternating smoothly between soft verses and a heavy chorus, but man, the lyrics suck, and it's really distracting.

Ecch, one of my favorite Zeppelin songs.  Say what you will about the lyrics but that bassline can't be denied.

1792
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Led Zeppelin discography listen-through
« on: February 24, 2015, 03:12:03 AM »
Led Zeppelin IV

Sorry, what?

Technically, this album is untitled.

Maybe you missed?

I know you're just Parsifaling but this is the name used most often by fans to refer to this album, whether it's accurate or not.

1793
Arts & Entertainment / Re: FES Book Club
« on: February 20, 2015, 10:38:40 AM »
I just finished Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke about an invasion of sufficiently advanced aliens who use their technology to bring peace, prosperity and wealth to the people of the Earth, whilst maintaining an enigmatic ulterior agenda.

The novel starts well, framing the 'invasion' through the eyes of the leader of the UN who becomes the human face of the 'overlords.' The early chapters involve his efforts to balance the demands of the overlords against the wishes of the human subjects, managing protests and dealing with violent rebel groups. The novel then skips ahead fifty years and it's this part of the book which is the weakest and yet occupies the greatest volume of the book. The overlords have revealed themselves, humanity is settling into a peaceful yet dull golden age and there is no real mystery or challenge to drive the plot forwards until we reach the final fifth of the book.

On one hand, the ending comes too quickly without enough buildup but the last few chapters are what cements this book in the SF canon.  The bland utopia novel you thought you were reading suddenly leaves you feeling small, insignificant, and faintly depressed as the real purpose of the overlord's invasion becomes clear and mankind changes beyond all recognition in a swirl of beautiful prose.

In conclusion, I'd give the opening chapters a 4/5, the middle a low 3/5 and a full 5/5 to the final chapters. Overall 4/5 - Definitely worth reading but you'll have to struggle through the bland middle section to get the most out of it.

I read that book for school.  I thought it was pretty good.  I've always liked Arthur C Clarke; he wrote really thoughtful, edgy, and plausible science-fiction.  Even as a kid I had a short story collection of his called The Nine Billion Names of God that I loved.

When I read Childhood's End for school I was assigned a really dumb project where we had to create a mock newspaper that takes place in the world of the novel.  I did mine as a Weekly World News-style tabloid.  I put a picture of a very happy and very pregnant woman smiling and holding her belly with the original caption "I'm excited and frightened" attached to it, and the headline "I'm Having Karellan's Baby!"  I can't remember what the actual story was, but it was Weekly World News so the bitch may very well have been having the devil's baby.  Anyway I thought it was pretty funny but I was disappointed because I only got a C for it.  That teacher (Mrs Posatko, I also had her for Latin) never appreciated my creativity.  :(

1794
Flat Earth Community / Re: Pancake day
« on: February 20, 2015, 08:51:41 AM »
I kind of wish we had Pancake Day in America.  We don't really get food-based holidays, unless you count Thanksgiving.

1795
Arts & Entertainment / Re: FES Book Club
« on: February 20, 2015, 07:40:59 AM »
Harry Potter is really just a cheap carbon copy of DC Comics' Tim Hunter.

No way, it was all stolen from Nancy Stouffer:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/01/style/author_stouffer032801.htm

My favorite part:

Quote
For example "Neville" is another name in the books I have trademarked.

I remember her.  Looney tunes!

"There are other similarities. Castle with mirrored lake. Receiving room and wooden doors."

O-kay.

1796
Arts & Entertainment / Re: FES Book Club
« on: February 20, 2015, 03:01:23 AM »
Harry Potter is really just a cheap carbon copy of DC Comics' Tim Hunter.

1797
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Better Call Saul
« on: February 13, 2015, 06:32:20 PM »
I grinned when Tuco opened the door with the gun.  It might get stupid if they try too hard to weave characters from Breaking Bad into the story but I like what they are doing with Tuco.  I'm more on the fence about Mike, but it's been amusing and I'm eager to see what it leads to.  Bob Odenkirk has been spectacular.  I'm loving it so far.

It makes sense for certain characters to make an appearance. Mike is introduced in BB as Saul's private investigator. It would be weird if we didn't see him.

Ah, I had forgotten that.  I was just associating him with Gus.  So I'm guessing Mike will be a pretty integral part of the show.

1798
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Better Call Saul
« on: February 13, 2015, 03:57:21 AM »
I grinned when Tuco opened the door with the gun.  It might get stupid if they try too hard to weave characters from Breaking Bad into the story but I like what they are doing with Tuco.  I'm more on the fence about Mike, but it's been amusing and I'm eager to see what it leads to.  Bob Odenkirk has been spectacular.  I'm loving it so far.

1799
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: February 13, 2015, 02:55:37 AM »
I don't know, looks like compelling must-see appointment television to me.

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