Books you are currently reading

[Hollow]

I don't get around to reading much in the last year, but now that my XBOX live is up and I'm not going to renew it (and yes, I know that's a lame excuse) I finally finished Goodbye 20th Century: A History of Sonic Youth, and have just started Eating The Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. He's my favorite writer so I'm excited about reading it, finally.

Eating the Dinosaur is a great book.

[Peter]

I don't get around to reading much in the last year, but now that my XBOX live is up and I'm not going to renew it (and yes, I know that's a lame excuse) I finally finished Goodbye 20th Century: A History of Sonic Youth, and have just started Eating The Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. He's my favorite writer so I'm excited about reading it, finally.

Eating the Dinosaur is a great book.

Yikes. Judging by my grammar I should be reading more...

[Jordan f.]

Probably gonna start A Clockwork Orange tonight

[tylerp]

clockwork orange is essentially just the narration of the movie with some extra bits. it's really short too, a pretty easy read once you get used to stumbling past the jargon.

also about sedaris, I went to the reading/signing last year! haha. he was a cool guy.

[shakehurst]

hawking, the grand design

[darcy]

Finished Old Man and the Sea.
Starting The Time Machine.
boom.

[officespace]

Old Man and the Sea is a pretty meh Hemmingway book. I am reading Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miler.

Also what's everyone's reactions to them trying to take "nigger" out of Huck Fin?

[grind/bro]

Also what's everyone's reactions to them trying to take "nigger" out of Huck Fin?

Despite my aversion to the usage of that word, it should just be left the way it is. Changing any literature in any form is pretty sketchy to me.

[officespace]

Well obviously I don't go around using the word nigger but to change a piece of literature so they can teach it in school etc. Soon they're going to have to change To Kill A Mockingbird etc.

[officespace]

that is thing though they shouldn't have to take nigger out to teach it to children. If you can't properly teach the book you shouldn't be teaching in the first place. Also nigger is in the book for a purpose.

-Warren

[xchadx]

..

[officespace]

Clockwork is prob Kubrick's worst film. I mean it's still great but definately the worst/most overrated of his catalogue.

[Hollow]

First, to respond to the Huck Finn question:

Roger Ebert said it best "I'd rather be called a nigger than a slave" (this is in response to the suggestion that the word "nigger" be replaced by the word "slave"). Beyond the fact that posthumously changing a mans work is sketchy at best, horrifically offensive at worst, lets look at the history of this novel. This is probably one of the most important pieces of anti-slavery literature, ever. Twain was a passionate abolitionist, and felt that the only way to really make an effective argument was to write a story from the perspective of a southerner who had never questioned the practice of slavery. Huck, at the beginning of the book, simply doesn't worry about slavery. He knows it exists, he's aware of the slaves in the general area he lives in, but he doesn't really care because it doesn't affect him. The most important part of that novel is the raft trip where Jim and Huck become friends and Huck, for the first time, sees Jim as a human being. Twain meant it to be an allegory for the relationship between poor whites and black slaves; i.e., they're in the same fucking position, and they're all human. The word itself was meant to show that, and by the end of the novel (and it's been a while since I've read it, so if what I say next is horribly wrong please correct me) Huck doesn't even use the word, and simply refers to the man as Jim. OH HAY SUBTEXT.


Second, in response to Clockwork Orange:

I've never read the book, but I like the damn movie. Ridiculously boring.

[officespace]

slave please

[officespace]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyLoNITS ... r_embedded

18min Louie talks about Huck Finn

[Human-Demise]

Clockwork is prob Kubrick's worst film. I mean it's still great but definately the worst/most overrated of his catalogue.

im pretty sure eyes wide shut is his worst.

[tylerp]

I concede that clockwork orange had some bad flaws. Alex when he's "feeling sick" is some cringe-worthy acting. It also has some unsurpassed brilliance, especially the set design and soundtrack.

Regarding the book, I stick with my opinion that nothing should be changed. Committees like that just want to pick apart little elements when an overall piece is much too complicated for them to grasp the significance of. Writing conjures up a unique emotional response depending on who is the reader. Nothing should need to be censored unless it is causing people harm (ie. a "let's kill Joe Thomas" mass-circulated paper) and even then, I'd hope that society can just make up its own mind. Then again, that hasn't really worked for the Bible yet. WHOOPS.

[Human-Demise]

Then again, that hasn't really worked for the Bible yet. WHOOPS.

mad truth

[Hollow]

I'd hope that society can just make up its own mind. Then again, that hasn't really worked for the Bible yet. WHOOPS.

IMHO, if society is misconstruing the meaning of a work of fiction, whether it's Huck Finn or the Bible, then that's the fault of the society teaching said work of fiction.

[Human-Demise]

people should read more science textbooks and less da vinci code