Off-Topic » Books, books and more books! » 13-1-2017 08:01:15 |
Repartee wrote:
Wow Javi. That is an interesting post with a plot twist about a book you say has no plot. You say it is grandstanding technique but somehow falls on its face with you in doing whatever it is a novel is supposed to do.
Interesting! I was considering the purpose of a novel only from the technical point of view. In fact, it was Flaubert himself who was poised to demonstrate he could write a novel without a plot, so he displayed an obscene (and hidden) amount of writing technique to do so. But your point is right: what do you want a novel for, then? Just for showing off and tell the rest of the world you da man?
For me, it´s just that I don´t like the setting and Mme. Bovary´s idiotic behaviour. Idiotic meaning bottomlessly egotistical, coming from the Greek ídios (I don´t know if I can write in Greek here, so Roman tansliteration. More Greek to come!). Thing is she only cares about herself, herself and herself. I want to keep this spoiler-free, but it´s quite revealing Bovary´s name itself. She got it by marrying monsieur Bovary, a good and patient man with a taylor-made surname. Bovary comes also from the Greek bous, that is, bull. But Monsieur Bovary is more like a hard working ox, while his notable wife is the exact opposite. Why, in the name of the Minotaur, does she marry him, then?!
And that´s only the beginning of my problems with her. Anyway, if a novel manages to make you so involved that you end up despising a character that means there´s some good work behind it. So good that I won´t read it again because I hate the results, apart from not telling exactly anything. Nerve wrecking novel all the way, yup.
Repartee wrote:
"It's easier to kiss a boar to death"! That is a great image. Is it a Spanish proverb?
Nope. I got it from a comic called Sporty. It´s about a dumb kid playing a lot of sports who always ends up in big trouble, as in being blown up by a bazooka, chased by wild and ferocious beasts or
…Off-Topic » Books, books and more books! » 12-1-2017 13:38:18 |
I think Madame Bovary is one of the best written books ever. I mean, technically is a wonder to behold. Flaubert manages to keep alive a novel just by itself. In fact, how can you write a novel without plot and without author? In any book, you can see the hand of the author, the style, the unavoidable autobiographic hints... That sort of things that always remind there's someone behind the story, but not in Mme. Bovary.
Maybe it sounds easy, just put some distance between you and your work, but nope. It's easier to kiss a boar to death. You have to be a master of your trade and know how to restrain yourself. Even worse: it's not a matter of hiding behind some formulae or tricks, it's a matter of making the story (not the story in this case, explanation coming up!), making "it" flow. Madame Bovary is seamless, smooth and flowing, and the paradox is that you need An awful lot of work to make it, but at the same time that work is masterfully concealed.
So well done that the book doesn't even need a plot! It's such a simple thing that it isn't any kind of story: a bored and nerve raking woman (yep, I can't stand her). Flaubert could have chosen something more interesting... At least at its time it was quite ground breaking because women were not supossed to be like Madame Bovary, but that plot is secondary to the main objective: create a novel which exists by itself. Flaubert intended to do so and succeeded.
After all this, one could think that I like Madame Bovary, right?
Well, no. I am awed at how damn well written it is, but I didn't enjoy it. I wouldn't read it again, and I recommend it not as an enjoyable book but as a technical masterpiece which maybe bores you to hell.
The same goes for Pride and Prejudice. I was forced to read it, so I hate it, period. Jane Austen dominates the free indirect speech, does wonderful things with the tenses and so on, but I can't get over it. I prefer Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. I won't read it again either...
And soeakin
Off-Topic » Books, books and more books! » 11-1-2017 15:26:58 |
Too many typewriters around, and it´s time to talk about something related to them: literature.
What are your favourite books? Or authors? Or genres? Do you agree with "best evah" lists? Are there any books that you have read more than once? Too many questions to be asked, and only one limitation: Fiction only, please.
To start with something, I´m a big fan of horror literature, but I´ve read a little bit of everything. Blame the university, where I was forced to swallow angry bricks like Pride and Prejudice (how I hate it... though I´ve to acknowledge how damn well written it is!) and extremely enjoyable works like The Odyssey. When you´re forced to read something, many times you end up hating books that you´d otherwise enjoy (like Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland), but sometimes it´s good to be pointed in a direction.
Right now, I´m reading The Night Land, by W.H. Hodgson. Not bad, but it´s a mixed bag. In some aspects it is waaaaay ahead of its time, but in some others it´s aged badly.
Type Talk » Put a typewriter into the new Monopoly game » 11-1-2017 13:26:20 |
Done!
I bought a new Monopoly when I was living in Bristol because my girlfriend wanted the cat token (no cat in Spanish versions at that time...). My choice was the boot, but if the typewriter finally comes in my pick will be clear
Off-Topic » English Fossils » 11-1-2017 09:32:37 |
Repartee wrote:
Let's go the full Monty then: a second belt of slightly larger cartridges shoots back the carriage return and the content is on punch tape so no typist required! It deafeningly rattles its way through a page and then ejects it in a cloud of smoke. If you could build one of these things it would be a great hit at the Science Museum - demonstrations at 12 and 2, weekends only.
Most sensible! You need time to rebuild the museum after each demonstration.
The World of Typewriters » New Typewriter Group/Forum » 08-1-2017 07:55:02 |
There´s something that I´veen trying to start here, and it´s a series of typewriters review following Uwe´s format. I think that´s interesting and usefl at the same time, mosty with less common typewriters. But there´s an issue: time. I can´t find time for that, and I wish I could spend more time with my typewriters ans sharing them as much as possible. Participating in this forum is an important part of it, because I´m in a typewriter desert where I live and there´s no one around to share the hobby with. But again, I cand find hardly enough free time, and sometimes I want (or desperately need) something lighter than complex mechanical issues with an escapement which refuses to work properly. So here´s something I totally agree with:
beak wrote:
We might all bear in mind that there is an off-topic forum; so perhaps we could all use that a little more - it's not all typewriters after all - and this can help to see special interest forums (hate 'fora') through the quiet moments. One topic popular on another forum about pens dealt with language and how we do (or should) use it - that generated a deal of interest, along with a deal of disagreement, but was always interesting.
After all, we are all interested in typewriters, and having a healthy off-topic section lets us speak not only about how to dismantle a typewriter, put it back together and not to die trying. That "use of language" topic seems most interesting, but maybe I´m not the most adequate one to start it because I´m not a native English speaker... Maybe I´ll come up with something interesting :D
Type Talk » eBay Alert: Remington Special 20 » 08-1-2017 06:52:10 |
Argh, 155 € shipping and far beyond my reparing abilities...
Type Talk » My Fingers Have A Big Mouth » 14-12-2016 07:39:24 |
KatLondon wrote:
ztyper, you ARE a good writer. Do it for yourself, not them - you can't lose.
Totally agree! Writing just for fun and for yourself is a win-win situation. You have a great time doing it, you do what you want no matter what others could / would / dare to say, and you´ll enjoy your own work.
At least that´s what happens to me. I have read again and again my own short (and long) stories, and while I always find little things that now I´d change, everytime I come back to them I have a great time. They´re far from being "literature", maybe lightyears from being remotely publishable, but I feel I´ve done a decent job and the way I wanted to. That´s rewarding enough.
A funny note: I learned a lot about writing with my English exams. They forced me to think before harassing the paper with nonsense, they showed me how to give structure and order, and by using something that´s not my mother tongue I had to excercise my mind, and the muscle you build up there never goes away.
Type Talk » What are you writing on your typewriter? » 23-11-2016 07:35:14 |
I beat my machines regularly, as I write long and short stories. Calling the long ones a book is stretching it a bit too much, but the longest one i several hundred pages long and still counting...
Apart from that, I keep sort of a "diary". I´m following what my great-grandfather started, and I bet he´d be ecstatic about that. He started writing about what he lived during the Spanish Civil War back in 1936 - 1939, just because he felt like it. I mean, he wasn´t thinking on leaving something for the future generations, he just wrote for the pleasure of writing and as a means to share his thoughts with someone else (in this case, a blank paper). Quite a feat for someone born in a mostly illiterate environment at the beginning of the 20th century.
Now I do more or less the same, and both my stories and the thoughts off the top of my head are a match made in heaven for the pleasure of typing. What I don´t write are letters... yet. I´ll start pestering my friends with that anytime soon.
Standard Typewriters » What is the best manual typewriter? » 21-11-2016 10:19:24 |
I have a thrashed Royal HH which still works great, and that´s a good indication on how sturdy they are. But if I had to choose a typewriter to work with and one manufactured in the last 50 years (following the original question) I´d go for the Olivetti Linea 98. This is much of a personal choice, because it´s the typewriter which better suits me. It can endure heavy workloads, it´s definitely fast, comfortable to use, slightly smaller than the almighty Olympia SG3 (which is equally great) and here in Spain it´s ultra easy to find at a ridiculously low price.
The big problem with the SG1 is availability. I´ve never seen one and I want it!