What are you reading?

elgato · Post by **elgato** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:52 pm

Corpsey wrote:It's a module in American Studies, ''Approaches to the Blues''. I'm doing an essay on ''Suicidal Thoughts''- can connect it to blues through religion, individual as a community representative, psychological trauma etc. Just need some books to back me up/shout me down really.

thats so deep. that track is so mindblowingly sick, its one of the most emotional hip-hop tracks ive ever heard. i love the spoken word but still clearly in verse styles. im envious of you studying something so heavy!

will look at those books when work finishes friday

seems to me though, with something like that you dont really need to prove historical links to make valid analysis of BIG as the bluesman, rather you could demonstrate that similar social/economic circumstances coalesced to result in similar psychologies/communities/forms of expression in the two periods... which needs a different kind of reference i guess, rather than a historical perspective linking blues to hip-hop?

apologies if this is in any way patronising or stepping on your toes, i just find it a very interesting topic

corpsey · Post by **corpsey** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:23 am

To be honest I've got so much work on at the moment that I won't be able to do it justice, only got a day to spare for reading really. I'm going to steer clear of historical statistics etc. I'm basically going to pick out elements of the track that I feel show that there is a continuity from Blues to Hip-Hop, at least in some cases.

For example, in Suicidal Thoughts Biggie is playing the role of ''the worst'' member of a community. He's the marginalised outsider, just like the early bluesmen, but just like the bluesmen he's a figure on the periphary (spelling? my brain just died lol) who still speaks for a wider community about their particular psychological traumas. Also, all the stuff about religion in the tune is fertile ground for comparison, as I've read a few critics who say Blues was a form of ''secular spiritual''- meaning it tried to reconcile a spiritual sense with the physical reality (often terrifying) of living as a poor black american. And in Suicidal Thoughts there's the whole ''when I die fuck it I wanna go to hell'' but then also he ''swears to god'' etc. He's not rejecting god but I think he feels the traditional sense of morality as handed down by the church doesn't accomodate him, and probably doesn't accomodate a lot of essentially moral people.

It is interesting, I'm thinking it's going to be the most fun of all my essays to write.

misk · Post by **misk** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:54 am

Tusk wrote:P J Carroll is indeed a very good writer, totally respectable, though I find his severe tone a bit much sometimes. AOS is ultra dense. I can see why some referred to him as "the incomprehensible mystic" but his written work (and illustrations) are clearly very potent. If I remember correctly "shadow.." is my favourite Lovecraft story, although I may be confusing it with "the colour out of time". Speaking of Lovecraft/occult check out John Coulhart's new Lovecraft graphic novel compendium "The Haunter of the Dark". It contains the Kabbalistic attributions of the Great Old Ones and their evocations by Alan Moore. Intense stuff.

dude. thats fucking killer. ill have to whip out the lemegaton and evoke some good 'ol fashioned madness!

crash fistfight · Post by **crash fistfight** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:32 pm

This is my first post on the forum but books is a good place to start I think. Just reading the QI book right now 'The Book of General Ignorance' it is a brilliant read and it makes you feel good but a little pretentious when you belittle other peoples' facts and say things like "Ha thats not true! a blue whale's throat is only the size of a mellon, whoever told you that is a dick!" and so on. Darren Shan's recent works are pretty good too, childish but amazingly graphic and gory.

aerosol cambell · Post by **aerosol cambell** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 1:29 pm

Iain M Banks - Feersum Endjinn, wierd scifi (kinda) romp. This guys mind must be snapped, entire chapters written in the first person by a dyslexic character.

William Kotzwinkle - The bear went over the mountain. About a bear who finds an authors unpublished book, steals it, takes it to New York and lives it up as a celebrated genius.

scarecrow · Post by **scarecrow** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:30 pm

All Iain M. Banks novels are sick!
I reccomend Excession, Dopest book he's done.
Feersum Endjinn is pretty deep though, the dyslexic narration smacks it.

I've just finished the Illuminatus! Trilogy, pretty deep.
The whole book is basically a dark form of mind control and subliminal messages, hidden lines of invocation/evocation in each paragraph. You only notice a little while after finishing it. Freaky deaky I tell thee. Good though.

misk · Post by **misk** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 6:22 pm

illuminatus? yeah i dug the eye in the triangle, but i saw some documentary on RAW, and i lost a lot of respect for him. its like he's spent his whole life trying to be crazy and cool, but in the process, has become bland and without life.

im sure one day ill get around to the illuminatus trilogy.

but ill probably just pick up the sandman again

luke.envoy · Post by **luke.envoy** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 8:36 pm

was never into books but this got me on reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_point_field

also big:

*grand* · Post by ***grand*** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:42 pm

DTI SBS evidene base document.. government report crap.. research init.

RubiconMan · Post by **RubiconMan** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:45 pm

s'all about the IDRIES SHAH books.
SUFI mystics n all...
wah its good

Jubz · Post by **Jubz** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 2:17 am

AeroSol Cambell wrote:Iain M Banks - Feersum Endjinn, wierd scifi (kinda) romp. This guys mind must be snapped, entire chapters written in the first person by a dyslexic character.

Love this book, Iain M. Banks is a great writer.

I'm currently reading Northern Lights, nearing the end, its a very enjoyable book.

pk- · Post by **pk-** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 6:58 pm

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by jeff lindsay

because it inspired a tv programme i've just finished watching

both are great

digital · Post by **digital** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:26 pm

Only started it on xmas day and it's already hurting my head.

paolo · Post by **paolo** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 1:08 pm

for chrimbo i got ...

'swag' by elmore leonard which i finished on boxing day - you cannae beat him!

rik mayall's autobiography - 'bigger than hitler, better than christ'

'out' by natsuo kirino which is an ace japanese murder story with lots of dark twisted feminism type stuff

i also read 'rashomon' by ryunosuke akutagawa which is just beautiful

the947sw11 · Post by **the947sw11** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:08 pm

William Shakespeare "Much Ado About Nothing"

Tom Stoppard "Jumpers"

Emile Zola's "Therese Raquin" dramatised by Nicholas Wright

Dubstep forum lol

metalboxproducts · Post by **metalboxproducts** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 3:11 pm

Tibor Ficsher "Under the frog"..
Ace

unlikely · Post by **unlikely** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:18 pm

Scarecrow wrote: I reccomend Excession, Dopest book he's done.

second that, mindblowing novel

if anyone sees a copy of "kiss me judas" by an author i cant remember

, buy on sight! Incredible train-of-thought prose noir novel that completely transports you into the mind of the protagonist, the most vivid imagery of any book i've read. Everyone I know who read it finished it in a day because otherwise you feel like your still in the book and its very unsettling.

a_k47 · Post by **a_k47** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:26 pm

bagelator · Post by **bagelator** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:35 pm

roland barthes - mythologies

percy gonzalez · Post by **percy gonzalez** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:09 am

unlikely wrote: second that, mindblowing novel

if anyone sees a copy of "kiss me judas" by an author i cant remember , buy on sight! Incredible train-of-thought prose noir novel that completely transports you into the mind of the protagonist, the most vivid imagery of any book i've read. Everyone I know who read it finished it in a day because otherwise you feel like your still in the book and its very unsettling.

i read this book.

in my opinion... it was a proper wad of cocks

im readin short stories by Tolstoy. hes big in the game.

What are you reading?

Who is online