Literary Discussion's Journal (original) (raw)

(Latest 12 entries) (Calendar) (Friends) (User info)

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Thursday, August 3, 2006

2:08PM - capote

just saw capote...time to reread "in cold blood"....eek!

Current mood: contemplative

Sunday, July 30, 2006

1:18PM

ATTENTION NYC AREA MEMBERS!

My friends and I have two extra tickets (possibly three) to see Stephen King, JK Rowling, and John Irving at Radio City Music Hall. It's titled: A Benefit Evening with Harry, Carrie, and Garp.

Wednesday, August 2nd
Radio City Music Hall
7:30 pm.
Tickets are $38.

Comment and I'll contact you to let you know you've got a spot! We can discuss payment and ticket exchange then.

Hope to see you there!

Keep cool my babies,
Lizzi

Friday, July 22, 2005

4:11PM - Let's get a discussion going.

Has anyone read

Beloved

by Toni Morrison? It's my all-time favorite book, and I was just curious to see what ya'll thoughtabout it :-)

Beloved

can usually spark some pretty interesting/heated disucssions!

Marcy

Friday, July 15, 2005

12:36PM

I read Utopia by Sir/Saint Thomas More. I wanted to read this one for awhile because of my fancy for the dystopian fantasy. The book is filled with humors about religion and politics. It is actually pretty funny. Sometimes he write about things that actually became part of Western political thought, which is strange, and there are times when I can't really tell if he is joking or not.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

11:53PM

So I've delved into the philosophy lately. I read The Republic of Plato, the Meditations of Rene Descartes, and I plan on reading the Categories, Metaphysics, and Nicromachean Ethics of Aristotle. Before reading Aristotle though I thought I'd take a break from philosophy, so I picked up Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by the recently passed Hunter S. Thompson. This book has all the fire, wit, and gonzo that I have come to love from the work of HST. He's the only author who make me laugh out loud while reading.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

6:15AM - Wake Up!!!!

Ok...This is me getting this community back into action. so booyah...anyway...answer this meme thing...hopefully it wil inspire discussion...here goes with my answers.

Total number of Books I own: 121(I just counted :D)
Last Book I paid Money For The complete chronicals of Narnia
Last Book I read Mystic River by Dennis Lehanne...currently reading Les Miserables by Hugo and Henry and June by Anais Nihn.
Five Books that mean a lot to me and why 1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This was one of the books I read while i was in the hospital and it really spoke to me. There is something magical about the bronte sisters, whenever I read any of them, I am instantly transported. It sounds cheesy, but this is one of the books that made me realize I was destined to study literature forthe rest of my life.

2. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe. This is one of the best representations of stream of Conciousness out there. Wolfe Was a landmark not only of Chick!lit, but literature as a whole. she connects people to emotions in ways not even Joyce and Faulkner can. truly amazing novel. Plus, I wrote about it on the AP Exam.

3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The first novel I was ever truly willing to stand up and argue for. This girl in my english class bad mouthed Edna Pontellier, I swear, I stood up and listed the reasons that she was a strong woman to the class. Edna, it seemed, was me as I read this novella. She is every woman that has ever lived against the grain. To read The Awakening is to understand the nature of being a woman.

4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Because there has to be a buildings roman on everyone's list of books that mean a lot to them. ATGiB is my buildings roman. it is the coming of age novel for people who don't really like coming of age novels. there is a little bit of everything in the pages. truly amazing. truly essential.

5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. The only novel of a great author and beautiful poet. So tragically flawed, Esther Greenwood is more like myself than any character on this list. The institution at Bellvue is more like the adolescent medicine ward than any interpritation I have ever seen or read. This book got me through some really hard times, it may have depressed me and reminded me of old times, but it helped me to grow strong and not return to old bad habits. If only Plath were alive so I could thank her. I have nothing left to do but return the favor.

Current mood: calm

Friday, April 29, 2005

2:43PM - Anyone else here?

I thought that this was a good community, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of talk going on around here. Here's one to keep it going...

I started reading the bible, and before we go any further I want to make clear that I am an agnostic. I lean towards atheism, but in the former case I'm still a deist. So this has been quite on odd experience for me. I thought that it couldn't hurt to give it a go, and at the very least I will have a better understanding of why I reject organized religion (and religion in a broader sense). Also, I had wanted to read it at a younger age and I think that it is an importantto read at least once in my lifetime. What could it hurt?

I have finished Genesis and am now halfway through Exodus. So far my views on religion have been solidified by the fiction. And yes, I call it fiction, and for a good reason. Even when I was "religious" in my youth I was never able to beleive in Creationism. I'm an evolutionist in every sense of the word. Evolution is scientific fact, not theory. Aside from my feelings about Genesis I find that much of the story is filled with contradictions of both elementary and fundamental types. The only explanation to account for the kind of discrepancies is to say the the will of God is arbitrary or whimsical. If this is the case then even if I'm wrong I'll take whats coming to me, because I wouldn't agree to praise something so perfunctory. However, maybe I'll find something before the end of it that will change my mind. I doubt that will happen though. As a work of literature, I would say that it's well written fantasy. The tales are interesting. The characters, although shallow at times, on occasion still show a measure of feeling. If nothing else it is an enjoyable fiction.

I hope I don't offend anyone who may be reading my comments, but I'm not about to censor my opinions on a topic that happens to be important to me. Those of the opposing view have never felt the need to censor their own opinions when discussing this subject matter. In fact, I have strangers come to my door ALL the time where I live, pushing their values and beliefs on me. I get stopped in the street by Mormons too. I don't belittle any of these people and that's certainly not what I'm doing here. I think it's a relevant discussion on literature, and if anyone wants to discuss it reasonably with me, I would rather enjoy that, because I never get the chance to have a conversation on this in my regular life.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

7:41PM - A couple of things I'm reading

Bouncing back and forth between a couple of books. I'm on a bit of a philosophy kick. Some of it has to do with seeing Huckabees recently, but most of it has to do with my life becoming much more complicated as of late. I started reading Aristotle's Metaphysics, but I hit a wall after the first book Alpha. It's pretty heavy stuff. I have also been reading Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Tharathustra. I'm not sure how to feel about that one yet, because in some ways it has come to solidify my bad ideas about life. Also into "A History of the English Speaking People" by Winston Churchill, and I'm surprised that he's a decent writer. Never took the man for much before.

The most interesting thing I'm reading right now is "Chaos: Making a New Science". As you can tell from the title it's a book on Chaos theory. This one has been blowing me away. I've gotten much more philosophy out of it than I have with my actual philosophy reading. After thinking it over I ended up writing about my thoughts on the book in one of my journal entries. This is one paraphrased:

"Chaos is defined as the change in a complex system over time, and the summation of the minutia which are cause to radical shifts in the system when observed for longer intervals. Complexity is the cause of disorder. But there is an odd balance between chaos and order in any given system that can easily be measured. I think of two unique gaseous substances that are both inserted into a confined space. Brownian motion attempts to understand the movement of a molecule, but due to the very number of them and the variables that are in effect on the system, we assume thier motion to be random. It is a complex system that is inherently chaotic. These two hypothetical gases will move about in a state of chaos until they reach an equilibrium, that is, when the gases are homogenously mixed. In other words, it reaches a state of order. A system of chaos naturally falls back into a system of order. I wonder what the implications for this are. Is chaos a necessary or inevitable part of any system? What is the persistence of identity after change? What is the measure of entropy?"

Maybe this doesn't quite fall under _l_i_t_ because its mathematics, but it is a mathematics book. Does that count?

Also wanted to know if anyone else in this community has read Ayn Rand. I've discovered her recently through a friend who bought me Atlas Shrugged. That book has changed my life. I love when books do that.

Monday, April 18, 2005

11:38AM - An article I wrote some time ago

Small Intro: I not sure how my fellow literati feel about speculative-fiction (sci-fi/fantasy to the layman), but there are a few choice examples in the genre. The book I discuss in this article, Dune, sits right at the top of the heap. Not much else sits up there. Of course 1984 and Brave New World are classic examples (and I intend to write about both of them soon, as they are some of my favourite books). I would have to throw Bradbury, Asimov, and Clark in there for good measure, though I would be at pains to pick out specific works. I'm interested to hear what people think. Especially those who are familiar with this book. I take political stance to the fiction, which isn't all that uncommon in Frank Herbert's work, and there's a whole branch of my philosophy concurrent to the same theme which I only ever scratch the surface of. Hope you enjoy.

I have to link to this article because it grossly exceeds the lj limit of 4300 characters. Apparently its length is 50002 characters. A bit longer than I would have guessed. This links to my website, which I just put back up today so it should work fine. I just hope none of you are averse to my color scheme :P

Machines and the Mind of Man: A discussion of Dune by Frank Herbert

Sunday, April 17, 2005

3:14PM - French Literature

I just finished reading Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan. it was really good, but I think the translation could have been better. Anyway, I am in the mood for french Lit right now, I think I might pick up les mis again. I never get to finish because school always gets in the way. Also I recently discovered french authoress George Sand. she is really awesome too. If you are interested in french lit I highly recomend picking her up.

Current mood: anxious

Saturday, April 16, 2005

5:02PM - Mod Post

Ok so this is the community we've all been waiting for. come on Join. You know you want to...

Current mood: bitchy