BPsite Forums
March 28, 2024, 10:51:45 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: BPSITE FOREVER!
 
   Home   Help Search Members Login Register  
Pages: 1 ... 20 21 [22] 23 24 25
  Print  
Author Topic: Currently I am reading  (Read 171475 times)
underruler
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 3984



View Profile
« Reply #315 on: February 07, 2005, 03:53:30 AM »

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.
Logged

I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and and bananas.


http://www.toxin.org/cgi-bin/hugs.cgi?&HUG...hug=luvr_bunnie

[img]http://www.toxin.org/cgi-bin/count_hugs.cgi?hug=luv
Lord Lanair
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 6326



View Profile WWW
« Reply #316 on: February 07, 2005, 04:57:00 AM »

Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut.

I can see rug enjoying it!  LOL
« Last Edit: February 07, 2005, 04:57:16 AM by Lord Lanair » Logged

- I'm scissors.  Nerf rock.  Paper's fine.

-It's not the mind control that kills people; it's the fall damage.

-Que sera, sera.
ns33
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 1417



View Profile WWW
« Reply #317 on: February 07, 2005, 05:38:46 AM »

We just finished Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez, and we began The Sound and the Fury. After reading Intruder in the Dust last year, I'm beginning to wish Faulkner was never born.  <_<  
Logged
Perdition
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 9364



View Profile WWW
« Reply #318 on: February 07, 2005, 11:55:35 PM »

Yeah, faulkner was a cocky little shit that should've been put into an institution by the age of 12.

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly.  Graphic violence and sex splashed about in a very tasteful matter.  Quality!
Logged
Lord Lanair
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 6326



View Profile WWW
« Reply #319 on: February 08, 2005, 01:01:52 AM »

Didn't that guy (Connolly) write something about the Vietnam war?  :unsure:
« Last Edit: February 08, 2005, 01:02:14 AM by Lord Lanair » Logged

- I'm scissors.  Nerf rock.  Paper's fine.

-It's not the mind control that kills people; it's the fall damage.

-Que sera, sera.
Perdition
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 9364



View Profile WWW
« Reply #320 on: February 08, 2005, 02:02:49 AM »

possibly  I've only read a few of his books.
Logged
underruler
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 3984



View Profile
« Reply #321 on: February 09, 2005, 03:39:09 AM »

Quote
We just finished Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez, and we began The Sound and the Fury. After reading Intruder in the Dust last year, I'm beginning to wish Faulkner was never born.  <_<
I kind of have to write report on him, but I'm kind of regretting picking him.
Logged

I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and and bananas.


http://www.toxin.org/cgi-bin/hugs.cgi?&HUG...hug=luvr_bunnie

[img]http://www.toxin.org/cgi-bin/count_hugs.cgi?hug=luv
ns33
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 1417



View Profile WWW
« Reply #322 on: May 03, 2005, 11:32:39 PM »

Catch-22 by Heller. I'm sure all you Euros have heard of this one before  Wink

Blindness by Saramago is also a good book.
Quote
"We were blind the moment we became blind, fear struck us blind, fear will keep us blind." (117)
"Inside us there is something that ha sno name, that something is what we are." (248)
"images see with the eyes of those who see them..." (317)
"God does not deserve to see." (318)
"I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see." (326)
I highly suggest Blindness and these quotes while reading...
Quote
"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Matthew 15:14
"Men... would rather believe than know." Edward O. Wilson
"eyes were like a flame of fire... whose face was like the sun shining in full strength... I fell at [God's] feet as though dead." Revelation 1:12-7
« Last Edit: May 04, 2005, 03:32:56 AM by ns33 » Logged
SS
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 10392



View Profile WWW
« Reply #323 on: May 04, 2005, 05:57:52 PM »

I think I've heard of Catch-22, but never read it. The reviews make it sound interesting though, so I'll add it to my list of books to read. Likewise with Blindness ...the reviews describe a very interesting book.


As for what I'm currently on, I'm re-reading the WoT series, just started A Crown of Swords a couple of nights ago.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2005, 05:58:38 PM by SS » Logged

Peter 'SpectralShadows' Boughton,
Seeker of Perfection, BPsite Sitelord.

Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming
defiance with the last breath, to spit in the Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.
Arkanor
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 801



View Profile WWW
« Reply #324 on: May 05, 2005, 05:26:52 AM »

Catch-22 is pretty good, if you can get past the quasi-unreality of Yossarian's predicaments.  

At the moment, I'm chewing my way through The History of Air Power, which is proving more interesting than the exceptionally dry title would indicate.  However, unless you have an interest in the Air Force it might prove somewhat less enthralling than I indicate.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2005, 05:27:17 AM by Arkanor » Logged

Being a good example is hard.  I’m trying to serve as a horrible warning instead.
ns33
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 1417



View Profile WWW
« Reply #325 on: May 16, 2005, 07:59:41 PM »

I need a book of literary merit that has been turned into a movie. No Pride and Prejudice, no Eyes Were Watching God... Recommendations?
Logged
mole
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 10763



View Profile WWW
« Reply #326 on: May 16, 2005, 08:06:29 PM »

read jurassic park? good fiction

or are you being subjected to something 19th century-ish?
« Last Edit: May 16, 2005, 08:06:56 PM by mole » Logged

Quote
Yiff Hunter says:
and the last question do u get a sudden eye twicth and shudder wen i say :

CLEAN?
RipperRoo says:
yes
Yiff Hunter says:
rite ive declared u imorally peasant like
Perdition
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 9364



View Profile WWW
« Reply #327 on: May 17, 2005, 01:12:29 AM »

Currently reading Obedience To Authority, an interesting book based on an amusing study that took place at Yale in 1961 and 1962. Too lazy to really get into it, but if you're bored you can always read the blurb on amazon about it.
Logged
smi256
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 2287



View Profile
« Reply #328 on: May 17, 2005, 06:30:34 AM »

ah Sad no book report?
Logged

*was here
Perdition
Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 9364



View Profile WWW
« Reply #329 on: May 17, 2005, 11:52:50 PM »

Quote
Although the studies that are contained in this book are a little over 40 years old, they are as relevant as ever. Although Milgram wrote with his eye to the past - he looked back to the Holocaust and to My Lai (he finally wrote the book in 1972, 10 years after the studies were completed) - his voice has proven to be not only prophetic, but of continuing insight and relevance for understanding group dynamics of power and violence.

Milgram's studies were done between 1961 and 1962 while he was at Yale; they were all variations on a theme: a unknowing participant (the subject-teacher) was brought to believe that s/he was participating in a learning study. The other two main participants were a man who posed as the student (the learner) and one who posed as the principal investigator (the authority figure).

The subject-teacher was told that the learning would occur in this way: the student would be hooked up to an electric shock generator while the teacher would read a set of word pairs, which the student would repeat back. When the student missed one of the word pairs, he would be shocked by the "teacher" in increasingly higher shocks (the shocks increased in 15 volt increments), up to 450 volts (which was marked, along with the 435 volt mark, with XXX).

The basic goal of the study was to find out how far the "teachers" would go despite the cries, pounding and eventual silence on the part of the students. The frightening finding was that more often than not, the vast majority of teachers followed through with the command to continue the experiment, which was given by the man acting as the principal investigator every time one of the "teachers" wanted to quit. [It should be noted, however, that the experiment was designed such that the "student" was never shocked, as the student was an actor, typically in a connected room and could only be heard via microphone.


One of the things that makes reading Milgram's studies so chilling is the scientific exactness of Milgram's own writing style as he describes the studies. The moral and ethical issues raised in these studies, although addressed by Milgram in his narrating the book, are also expressed in this same mathematically cold style. It's almost like a bad science fiction movie where our whole human story is narrated - moral failures and all - with robotic precision. It's unsettling.

Of course, it *should* be: any experiment that deals with human interaction on such a violent and perversely authoritarian level ought to get us a bit uncomfortable. Of course, Milgram also notes that when the subjects were confronted with their own complicitness, they often blamed others or excused themselves in some way. It really does give a tremendous insight into the psychology of human beings: when faced with our own evil, we try to excuse it rather than deal with it.

If, at the end of reading Milgram's book, we aren't questioning ourselves and our ability to be violent and to promote the spread of violence by being passive, we have missed the entire point of the book. Milgram's goal is to not simply report the collection and analysis of data, but to engage the reader on a fundamentally moral level. He cites Hannah Arendt's work Eichman in Jerusalem and notes that evil is not necessarily expressed in a pro-active way; indeed, it can be far more subtle but no less dangerous.

Milgram's book is one well worth the effort. It reveals an element of human being that is so easy to forget, especially given that our culture is so bent on *denying* any element of - or at least any potential for - evil within ourselves. Of course, such blindness to the reality of evil and tragedy is what makes *letting it happen* so easy.

I <3 copy and paste
« Last Edit: May 17, 2005, 11:53:26 PM by Perdition » Logged
Pages: 1 ... 20 21 [22] 23 24 25
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.16 | SMF © 2011, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!