Hello, and welcome to Big Strong Book! I'm Reed, and uh, well...I love to read. Join me as I review all kinds of literature, from short stories to the big postmodern epics, and everything in between.
A masterpiece, Lewis's material draws out scriptural sentiment like no other works. My favorite of the series is "The Silver Chair". The Space Trilogy is a must read as well, I never would have thought that an author could capture and depict such an in depth contrast between the spiritual and earthly powers until I read it. Tolkien imo exceeded in many other ways and I will always appreciate his books. Especially how they appeal to the Christian warfare and narrative in terms of a broader scope. If I had to pick of which author is my favorite it would definetly be Lewis.
My list 1) citizen kane 2) seven samurai 3) inception 4) for a few dollars more 5) silence of the lambs 6) psycho 7) fight club 8) sherlock homles 9) avengers endgame 10) titanic 11) gladiator 12) godfather
Thanks. That's a good summary. I liked how Dick got the story into second gear somewhere around the middle of the book. And indeed, it did sound sometimes like a commentary on his own marriage.
It's not the Big Bang, it's a black hole; the ship crosses a worm hole to another parallel universe. He also throws his book to the black hole and that's how the book reached our time and Gene Wolfe was able to translate it. Brilliant.
Sharing my musical impression of THE HARBOR DAWN, filled with fog horns and buoy bells. From my fantasy for viola and orchestra THE BRIDGE. music.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FnHVMaJibHw.html&si=Lr_0V0IzFX7nnHR_
Thanks for your honest and in-depth review! I agree with most of what you said but found some of the subthemes related to the formation of the GDR and the initial socialist dream and the whole idea of a country simply not existing from one day to the next interesting. The love story was monstrous and because taking up most of the narrative, masking the more interesting aspects. The mass of cultural/historical/political content was indigestible, especially for non-German readers. Having read it in both languages, I feel it is an excellent translation.
Urth of the New Sun was not part of New Sun at all initially. It came about when David G. Hartwell, Wolfe's editor at Timescape Books, did not like the end of Citadel and wanted an extra paragraph to be added to the end about Severian's mission to bring the New Sun. Wolfe was adamantly opposed to that. After an argument between the two they came to the compromise that Wolfe would write a fifth book with Severian's journey to Yesod.
Minute 24: 40 "The title is not the greatest. Jedi Search" -- Sounds like the title for a talent search- Solid Gold, America's Got Talent, American Idol, Jedi Search.
Just realized I forgot to mention Qwi Xux’s insane naivety when it came to thinking the Death Star would be used for altruistic purposes. Really, Kevin?
May I suggest you an author that I love and appreciate? I am talking about the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis and his novels 'Christ Recrucified', 'The last Temptation of Christ', 'Freedom or Death', 'The Fratricides', of course 'Zorba the Greek' etc. Another important work of Kazantzakis is his 1938 epic poem 'The Odyssey, a modern sequel' beautifully translated in English by Kimon Friar. If you are interested to discover him I would suggest to start with 'Christ Recrucified'.
@@Manfred-nj8vz Kazantzakis has been an author I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time! The film adaptation of “Last Temptation” is one of my all time favorites!
@@bigstrongbook That's very nice to hear. In case you are interested to approach the novel also through secondary literature, I would suggest to check out the book «Scandalizing Jesus? Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years On». It contains eighteen scholarly important and interesting essays, among them one by Roderick Beaton I particularly recommend, but also a very interesting two-pages one written by Martin Scorsese.
Just an extra information on Krasznahorkai, which may be helpful for your further 'Krasznahorkai-discovery': «'Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming' is the latest Krasznahorkai novel to reach English readers, in a typically extraordinary translation from Ottilie Mulzet. It represents, as the author recently told The Paris Review in his Art of Fiction interview, the conclusion of a tetralogy: "I’ve said it a thousand times that I always wanted to write just one book. I wasn’t satisfied with the first, and that’s why I wrote the second. I wasn’t satisfied with the second, so I wrote the third, and so on. Now, with Baron, I can close this story. With this novel I can prove that I really wrote just one book in my life. T h i s is the book-'Satantango', 'Melancholy', 'War and War', and 'Baron'. This is my one book."»
@bigstrongbook You probably already know this but the shorter revised editions miss so much ( so reductionist) The John T McNeill two volume is very accurate.
Assume your theory is correct then there are two important questions to ask. 1) What is the plot and 2) is it...worth reading? Because, and here is the most salient point, if it has no plot then how can you "detect" the plot holes? Even mystery novels, with plot holes, make emotional sense at the end. They have a culprit and a motive. Gene Wolfe is not a writer who grips your attention. He doesn't, or can't, write anything exciting or beguiling. He's full of interesting facts without any narrative coherence. The new sun has no sun. There is no one source that sheds light on everything! If you can't trust the narrator then there is no narrative. You've just read a travel catalogue written by a tourist who doesn't know the histories of the places he's visited nor his own history. All he can do is describe he can't or won't explain.
I finished reading this morning, but different from you I didn’t like 😅 it takes me a couple months to finished. the big problem for me is that I didn’t understand many chapters, they were confused. I’m a little upset with it, because it’s a very famous and well rated book and I was expecting to like it. It’s possible that the edition I read has a problem of translating and editing (I read in Portuguese). But listening your opinion help me saw the book differently, and now I intend to watch the bbc series (I didn’t know this adaption existed and I expected it helps me to enjoy more the book)
I would have to consider these films: Star Wars, The Godfather, The Seventh Seal, 2001: A Space Oddity, Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, M, Citizen Cane (of course) and somewhere in there maybe a musical. These are first thoughts. I don’t know if I could limit it to ten easily. Thanks for the video. 👍
Interesting. I have never been able to finish this novella because it truly creeps me out so badly. I can see your idea that he might have been getting back at some demand for a ghost story. Weren’t they especially popular at the time? Thanks for the video. 👍 PS I also read Portrait of a Lady and enjoyed the writing and story. Wasn’t satisfied with the very end, but I got over it.
On the second page severian mistakes Roche for drotte, in between that, severian says he has a perfect memory, from then on the whole thing gets thrown into the air. I think severian has adhd
If you really wanna go deep, read Borges, Stapleton last and first men, and possibly lost world, however it’s still a mind fuck, the fact you got all this in your first read is impressive
