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Uber User
Posts: 770
Location: SC, USA | I love lists. Today I came across China Mieville's list of 50 F&SF books every socialist should read. It looks like an interesting list. I have only read a few of these. I am not advocating that this become a new WWE list (nor am I advocating socialism)! I think others will enjoy looking at it too. His descriptions made me add two more books to my WWE list and one more to my TBR list for books not in WWE. Enjoy. http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/50socialist/full/
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | Thanks for pointing this out! It's a fascinating one. One of the things that attracted me to SF in youthful days was what I took to be it's liberal/socialist message, centered around the idea that we can potentially change the world for the better (or worse, if we're not careful). It turns out I was probably to some extent imposing my own inclinations onto the field, since much SF actually has a conservative bent (there's even an annual award for the best libertarian SF novel). So it's interesting to see a knowledgeable socialist's take on which books lean in that direction. Moorcock, Spinrad, Reynolds (not to mention Mieville himself) are not surprising inclusions, but I love how he shoehorns Gene Wolfe and Keith Roberts in there as well! | |
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Uber User
Posts: 770
Location: SC, USA | Scott,
And I love the "Ayn Rand Know your enemy" comment/inclusion.
Rhonda | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Hi Rhonda,was just exploring old posts from before I joined.I saw Mieville's list,and had assumed it was a list of Mieville's books,aand I am avoiding Mieville at the moment( I am still bewildered and irritated by Kraken ! lol)
So it was nice to find a quirky list.I too am a sucker for lists,its been a real joy finding WWEnd..
A fascinating list,most of which I wouldnt fancy,but some intriguing titles.So here are a couple of lists!
<u>Books Read </u>
The Yellow Wallpaper.I read this a few months ago(its on Project Gutenberg) and it was such an emotional read.The cosy patronising attitude to the poor woman was heartrending,and I still shudder over the marks round the walls where she went round and round. Ugh.
Northern Lights.Everyone raved over this as a masterpiece,but I'm not sure if it was just because it shocked some earnest parents about its atheist tones.Personally I thought it was overated,and I am not sure if it will have the same impact in 10 or 20 years.Just my opinion.
Frankenstein.Ashamed to say I only got round to this a few months ago.Boy,did Shelley dislike scientists.The Manhattan Project must have made her spin in her grave.Wonderful book.The Karloff film is still one of my all time favourite films,and I had always assumed Colin Clive was hamming it up,but he is EXACTLY like that in the book.,and even worst - selfish,self obsessed, and craven.
Gormenghast and Titus Groan.What a setting,what peculier characters. Mieville tells us to give Titus Alone a chance,but I have to confess I never finished it! lol
Gulliver's Travels.Wow,what an indictment of a society. How odd that it has been adapted into a children's tale,but the imagery is strong enough to make it still popular
The Happy Prince.What a sweet,sad,little gem this is.I finally read it about 3 months ago,and I am sure I will be rereading it
Sadly,that is all I have read.Some of the rest were already on Mount TBR
<u> Books on my reading list </u>
A Scanner Darkly
Strange Evil
The Dispossessed
KSRs Mars Trilogy
The Island of Dr Moreau
Fifth Head of Cerberus
We
One nice little bonus for me.I checked up on The Wandering Jew,and was delighted to see mentioned My First 2000 years:The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew,by George Viereck.I somehow got hold of a copy back in the early sixties and was fascinated by this tale.It was probably the first edition.My father got rid of all my books when I went off to college,so bye bye Wandering Jew.Worth quite a bit now.I could never quite remember author or title,and now I know It goes on my shelfari shelf as books read number 2912
So thanks Rhonda for the list.
Edited by dustydigger 2012-09-19 11:46 AM
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Uber User
Posts: 770
Location: SC, USA | Hi Dusty,
In your Read Pile I routinely teach "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Frankenstein, so I've lost count of how many times I read them, but I always find something new and interesting when I do. I have not read any of the Gormengast books, but I did see the wonderful mini-series, which does want to make me read them. I'm glad you found the Wandering Jew again. This summer I collect up used copies of Elizabeth Goudge books that I read as a teen. I was feeling a bit nostalgic. Have you read her? I just assume so because you are British and seem to have read everything! I've only re-read one of them, The Bird in the Tree, which had very long descriptive passages of the English countryside that I must have loved as a teen, but am not as keen on now. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Back in the mists of time I did read a few.The Eliots of Damerosehay,The Scent of Water,Green Dolphin Street.They have all blurred now,but they have left a gentle impression of her love of the English countryside.Only occasional sharp scenes come to mind.I remember the agony of the old grandmother crippled with arthritis,in anguish at the suffering of World War II,whose only recourse is prayer,the only way she can fight..Then I have a flash from another book about a blinded man whose marriage is in trouble.In a petty act of spite his wife will tiptoe into the room and switch off the light.What a simple yet brilliantly complex description of her bitterness.Those little flashes have stayed with me 50 years! Amazing.
Oddly enough,after such a huge gap,I recently read her children's classic The Little White Horse for the first time and loved it. How I wish I could have read this as a child.I think I would have read and reread it.Lovely little book.with again,wonderful descriptions of England.
Talking about descriptions of England,last week I read Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.A book of two parts The first is a funny and charming account,written in journal form by a young girl, about the poverty stricken yet idyllic life of an eccentric family living in a ramchackle cold and crumbling castle in the 1930s,and the problems that ensue when one of the family,Rose,,who detests their poverty stricken lifestyle, decides to set her cap at one of therich young men who have moved into a house nearby.The last part of the book is darker in tone as disasters follow.A good read,but it is rather sad that the idyllic tone and the sweet nature of the naive young narrator are lost as reality intrudes.Still a very good,interesting read,with miraculously beautiful evocations of the delightful English countryside.Heartwarming and funny,yet thought provoking and somewhat sad.A worthwhile read.
On the whole though,I too am not enamoured of very long descriptions of nature,but the writers of the early part of the twentieth century seemed obsessed with it.Possibly because they were witnessing the wholesale destruction of said country,and the rampant spread of ugly urbanisation.Now it is a done job,we are all urbanite,and the later writers dont have that connection with the rural.All food comes from supermarkets,! lol | |
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Uber User
Posts: 526
Location: UK | Northern Lights - I wasn't too impressed with this, either. Lyra seems to simply be pushed around and doesn't have much agency in the story. I found The Subtle Knife to be a much much better book, and then The Amber Spyglass was a bit patchy. In the oft-made comparisons with Harry Potter, it seemed to me that Pullman's writing and world-building were better but his stories were worse.
Gormenghast - I gave up after Titus Groan, myself. It seemed to be enough. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Lol.He does go on a bit,doesnt he?And Titus is only one year old by the end of the book.Wonder how many people get through the whole thing.Wonderful setting though,and the names remind me strongly of Dickens.
Pullman is a bit slow and heavy at times.I have come across a lot of adults raving about the books,but,at least in our library,the kids seemed much more lukewarm.They liked the ''daemons'',but were not all that enthusiastic about the protagonists.
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