MetaFilter posts tagged with novels

Edit, undo me

iamkimiam — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:40:53 -0800

"Meanwhile, down in Vaginaland, Mr Condom's beginning to feel a bit iffy. He's overheating. For some reason, the shagging seems to be twice as fast this evening, and he grimaces as he gets flung willy-nilly in and out of the pink tunnel. He starts getting friction burns, hanging onto Bobby's stiff penis for dear life, headbutting Georgie's cervix at 180 beats per minute. 'Help me!' he yells in the darkness, feeling himself melting."
This year's worst sex. [NSFW or post-turkey family reading] Also, Flavorpill relives its baddest of the bad: "She moved her hips again and continued to fuck my lights out. I thought of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, the story goes, knew the instant he heard the name Adolf Hitler that he had brushed up against the reason he was born."

Novel Chess

carsonb — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:49:40 -0800

Reading to the Endgame: Algorithmic translation of classic nineteenth century novels into chessboard slugfests. Select the opponents from a list of fifty-five novels in five languages, and watch each text maneuver across the battlefield.

The crying of x^2 + xy + y^2 = 49

escabeche — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:00:24 -0800

"Pynchon, postmodern author, is commonly said to have a non-linear narrative style. No one seems to have taken seriously the possibility, to be explored in this essay, that his narrative style might in fact be quadratic." Number theorist Michael Harris on Pynchon and conic sections.

Two Chinese Brothers

escabeche — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:03:57 -0800

"This is a novel born out of the intersection of two eras. The first is a story of the Cultural Revolution, a time of fanaticism, repressed instincts, and tragic fates, similar to the European Middle Ages. The second is a story of today, a time of subverted ethics, fickle sensuality, and every kind of phenomena, even more like the Europe of today. A westerner would have to live four hundred years to experience the vast differences of the two eras, but a Chinese would only need forty years for the experience." Yu Hua's Brothers, a sprawling, foul-mouthed, comic-historical epic, and the best-selling novel in China's history, is available in English. (The quote above comes from the afterword to Brothers, not included in the US edition.) The New York Times didn't care for the translation, by Eileen Chow and Carlos Rojas; Chinese litblog Paper Republic criticized the review, leading to an interesting comment thread in which both Chow and the NYT reviewer participate. Yu got even tougher treatment from local critics, who were baffled by Yu's abandonment of his previous restrained, literary style. Cang Hang (translation via Paper Republic) calls the book "a 500,000 character trash heap." Read an excerpt from Brothers and listen to the relevant podcast at NPR.

Deionized Essence of Dan Brown

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:19:34 -0800

"Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow." Dan Brown's 20 Worst Sentences

(not-so) Real Housewives of Lancaster County

Miko — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:21:49 -0800

A new subgenre is rising to meet the significant demand for romance novels that won't corrupt the flesh: Amish Romances. The relatively chaste romances, mostly written by non-Amish authors, the books are selling well, with Cindy Woodsnall's Sisters of the Quilt trilogy leading the pack on the New York Times bestseller list, and many new authors jumping into the game.

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry

thescientificmethhead — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:20:36 -0800

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. A feature-length documentary focusing on Malcolm Lowry, author of the novel Under the Volcano. Previously.

A Strange Erotic Journey from Milan to Minsk

Horace Rumpole — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:44:26 -0800

In September 1969, Simon & Schuster was preparing to publish Irving Wallace's The Seven Minutes, a novel about the obscenity trial of a fictitious book of the same name by the fictitious author J.J. Jadway. Maurice Girodias, head of the erotica and avant garde literature publishing house the Olympia Press had a clever idea: what if I publish Jadway's book? Not surprisingly, he didn't get away with it, but did re-release it under the (barely) new title The 7 Erotic Minutes (full text of the book, NSFW). Russ Meyer directed a movie based on Wallace's novel, but the film was a flop.

Snats don't squeak; they hiss

panboi — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:05:19 -0800

The art of Jason Courtney takes a personal tour on some of the moments of Margaret Atwood's dystopia Oryx & Crake - a visit to the pigoons or Snowman's morning view, pausing to reflect on the enigmatic beauty of Oryx. As well as his work on Oryx & Crake, Courtney visits ancient cities, futuristic buildings and windy landscapes, taking in an assortment of characters with guns (and making sure your team is ready).

"I'll be glad when I'm not still the only one."

ocherdraco — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:01:32 -0800

Alice Randall is best known, perhaps, for her novel The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Gone With the Wind that tackles the earlier book's treatment of race. But Randall, a Vanderbilt professor and Harvard graduate, isn't just a novelist: she's a country music songwriter, the first black woman to have a No. 1 song on the country music charts. Randall's work, whether it's her novels or her music, often explores the African-American experience in unexpected ways,* and is filled with copious literary allusions. Her second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, about an African-American professor of Russian literature whose son, Pushkin, disappoints her by becoming, of all things, a football player, echoes The Godfather with its opening line, "LOOK WHAT THEY DONE TO MY BOY!" and her song "Many Mansions" is probably the only country music song to open with a line from a poem by Emily Dickinson. Another song is called "A Hundred Years of Solitude" after the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Randall is a rarity in the world of country music, which has been called the de facto "soundtrack of white flight," both for who she is and for the subjects of her songs. She's written a song about a man who got lynched between his wedding and his reception ("The Ballad of Sally Anne"), and songs ("I'll Cry for Yours, Will You Cry for Mine?" and "Went for a Ride," respectively) about slave and Confederate dead in the Civil War and about black cowboys in the Old West (referenced in this bio). Beyond just writing songs, Randall teaches about the artform: she has a course called "Country Music Lyrics in American Culture" and co-wrote a book of playlists to guide listeners through the genre. *I'd just like to point out that this is my favorite link in the whole post, a meaty interview at identity theory.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mr. Rushdie

rdone — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:41:28 -0800

Today is the 20th anniversary of the permanent fatwa pronounced by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the life of Salman Rushdie for writing his novel The Satanic Verses. Said the Ayatollah: "Even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell."

The Cost of Self-Publication: Ebook vs. Print - One Person’s Story

Joe Beese — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:30:37 -0800

"I don’t know for certain what big publishers are doing to make their prices so high, or what they think they’ll get out of it. I only know that I made a deliberate pricing decision to discourage Amazon and Kindle sales because I needed Amazon’s visibility but I didn’t want to lose my shirt, bra, AND panties." [some language may be NSFW] related posts here, here, here, and here.

It is impossible - and unnecessary - to grapple with every 'must read' of the literary canon

stbalbach — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:40:42 -0800

John Updike died, have you read his books? Who has time where there are a 1000 novels to read yet! James Delingpole argues that it is impossible - and unnecessary - to grapple with every 'must read' of the literary canon. He says:

Partly you're excused by the issue of time. In the early 19th century, it might just have been possible for a sprightly reader with bags of leisure time to whizz through all the great novels that had ever been written. In the early 21st century, it's an impossibility. Mainly though, you're excused by the fact that there's no novelist out there so essential that an unfamiliarity with his work represents a crime against taste and good judgment. All I mean is that once you've had a reasonable grounding in sufficient "proper" literature to form your taste, you should never again read a book out of duty. Far too many of the (depressingly few) novel-readers I know do, though. They feel compelled to read the must-read new literary prizewinner; the must-read new, vibrant-insight-into-remote-foreign-culture novel. They have this idea in their heads, instilled from having to revere the classics at school, that literature is a lofty thing, that the best writing is fine writing or stuff they don't quite understand or feels slightly hard work. But if you don't read any must-read books, I promise you won't be missing anything. First, it's because must-read books .. are just never, ever, EVER as good as the critics say they are. Second it's because there is no such thing as a perfect novel.

1000 novels worth reading [about] from the Guardian

stbalbach — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:57:09 -0800

1000 novels worth reading [about], from the Guardian. Part of its ongoing 1000 series: 1000 albums, 1000 films, 1000 artworks. More than a list, it includes sub-articles and paragraph long write-ups of each.

"... He clutched her in a semi-muscular embrace"

terranova — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:40:37 -0800

Despite sagging paperback sales in the publishing industry, romance novels -- and particularly hen lit -- fiction featuring older female heroines -- are thriving. In 2006, according to Romance Writers of America, 26.4% of all books sold were romances, generating $1.37 billion in sales. In hen lit aka Matron literature, heroines typically are over-40, widowed grandmothers whose romance yearnings are secondary to family, work, and hobbies.

Novels 'better at explaining world's problems than reports'

stbalbach — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:21:59 -0800

Novels are 'better at explaining world's problems than reports'. According to the study "The Fiction of Development: Literary Representation as a Source of Authoritative Knowledge" (HTML or PDF), people should read best-selling novels like The Kite Runner and The White Tiger rather than academic reports if they really want to understand global issues, such as poverty, migration and other issues.

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner "has arguably done more to educate Western readers about the realities of daily life in Afghanistan under the Taliban and thereafter than any government media campaign, advocacy organisation report, or social science research", said the report. It also praised the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, for its "passionate depiction of the perils and pitfalls of rampant capitalism in contemporary India". The novel "deftly highlights the social injustice and moral corruption that underpin the country's apparently miraculous economic development during the past decade," it said.

The Iron Heel

finite — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:17:03 -0800

The Iron Heel, published a century ago this year, is a novel by Jack London about socialist revolution in the United States. It is set mostly between 1912 and 1932, with a foreword and numerous footnotes written from the point of view of a historian who has just discovered the manuscript some 700 years later. Here is an excerpt (which is printed on the back cover of some editions) from chapter five:

"This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease, we will show you what strength is. In roar of shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power. There is the word. It is the king of words--Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power."

Arabian Nights

hadjiboy — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:49:28 -0800

Ladies, have you ever dreamt of being ~~whisked away~~ kidnapped by a dashing young Prince? Or being swept off your feet and losing your virginity to a dark and mysterious stranger, who happens to be a Sheikh? Or how about being sold to an Arab aristocracy and living off the rest of your days in married bliss. No? Then how about considering a Royal who is so down-to-earth you won't meet anyone else quite like him? Much better than the alternative of marrying his polar opposite, don't you think? Of course, you can always try and keep it platonic if you wanted to. Welcome to the wonderful world of Sheikhs and Desert Love, where all of your fantasies can come true! (via)

"turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book."

amberglow — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:17:56 -0800

The Page 69 Test --inspired by Marshall McLuhan's suggestion to readers for choosing a novel, a new blog, inviting authors to describe what's on page 69. One says: Not the best, but not the worst. If my pages were presidents, I’d put page 69 somewhere in the James K. Polk range.

The Man Booker prize one ups Radiohead.

drezdn — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:32:14 -0800

Every novel on the Man Booker Prize shortlist will be made available for free online [link via bookslut]

One Book Project

otio — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:54:41 -0800

Looking for something to read this summer? Well, if you like crime fiction The Rap Sheet has some recommendations for you.

How does one mend a ripped bodice, anyway?

chowflap — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:04:30 -0800

Everyone knows about Fabio, but he's just one in a large stable of studs used as romance novel cover models. Ladies, meet 'Sicilian sweetheart' Anthony Catanzaro (warning: music), a paperback cover model and so, so much more. Of course, even he wouldn't be where he is today without the illustrators of those bodice-ripping covers.

The Short Timers

Ogre Lawless — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:15:48 -0800

It doesn't seem like it was twenty years since Stanley Kubrick produced Full Metal Jacket based on the out-of-print novel "The Short Timers" by Gustav Hasford. While out of print, the full text of "The Short Timers" is available on his (memorial) website as is the followup, "The Phantom Blooper". Hasford's bid for an Oscar was colored by the discovery of nearly ten thousand stolen library books in the same year. Some say the experience of being caught red-handed broke him, leading to his death from non-treatment of diabetes at the age of 45.

Susan Sontag on the moral superiority of the novel & the "task of the novelist"

patricio — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 09:55:27 -0800

Susan Sontag on the moral superiority of novels over the mass media. "The real force behind the argument against literature, against the book, comes, I think, from the hegemony of the narrative model proposed by television." [Sontag previously on MeFi]

Gotta Catch Em All!

RokkitNite — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:59:04 -0800

Booktribes is a new site from the creators of writing site Abctales where bibliophiles can compile lists of every book they've ever read. Replete with a simple, intuitive interface, compiling your life's reading list becomes strangely addictive, and for the whole of March, the best comment of the day on this as-yet underpopulated site wins a copy of David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, with the best comment of the month winning the entire 21 volume Sceptre Collection. And if you're worried your reading list isn't up to scratch, don't panic - you can always cheat.