Al Franken's "The Truth"

[QueenAdrock]

It made me laugh. But it also made me cry. He brings up excellent points, unspun, just backed up with quotes from this administration. Such as Cheney saying in 1990 that it was stupid to go into Baghdad because it meant we would have to put in a new government and who knows how long THAT would take and how many troops would have to be committed, and basically, it was a bad idea. And it's "different" now, somehow.

And Condi Rice and Colin Powell saying that Saddam had no way to build up his weapons at all, and there was no evidence that he had any sort of WMD's, just MONTHS before they both changed their minds to say that he DID have WMD's. Somehow he got his destroyed nuclear program back on track within only 90 days, and he would kill us and our children if we didn't attack.

And Kerry's the flip-flopper? Gimme a break. If we ever want to win another election, us democrats need to fight the fuck back. It upset me to learn that the Democrat's National Convention in Boston was based around the idea to keep things clean - now when I think back on it, it's true. They didn't say "Bush drove this economy into the ground," instead, they said "Kerry will strengthen this economy." The Democrats seriously need to realize that the only thing that will combat mud-slinging is mud-slinging, need to get up off their asses and fight as dirty as the Republicans do and go at them blow for blow. And I hope they do.

[Medellia]

I almost bought this for my dad for Christmas. Got him a DVD instead.

[Lipper]

I just bought it on CD. It's great!

yea - i'm a lazy fuck who doesn't like to read.

[QueenAdrock]

Ha! My bf downloaded Daily Show's "America: The Book" on audio. It's actually quite entertaining to hear Jon Stewart read it. (y)

[EN[i]GMA]

I went to the bookstore today, but didn't buy it. Saw it, thought for a second, but didn't buy it.

I had better things to read:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsy (Means I've got all 5 of Dostoevsky's major novels)
Love, Poverty, and War by Christopher Hitchens (Can't go wrong)
The Undercover Economist by Tim Hartford (Economist gave it a good review and I found the subject fascinating)

I was dissapointed that the store (Borders) didn't have Godel, Escher, Bach in stock, because I was looking to purchase it.

[yeahwho]

GMA']I went to the bookstore today, but didn't buy it. Saw it, thought for a second, but didn't buy it.

I had better things to read:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsy (Means I've got all 5 of Dostoevsky's major novels)
Love, Poverty, and War by Christopher Hitchens (Can't go wrong)
The Undercover Economist by Tim Hartford (Economist gave it a good review and I found the subject fascinating)

I was dissapointed that the store (Borders) didn't have Godel, Escher, Bach in stock, because I was looking to purchase it.

Thats one hell of a good list. Your going to be too smart for all us very soon. (y)

I'm still pondering the where, why and how Waldo blends in.

[EN[i]GMA]

Thats one hell of a good list. Your going to be too smart for all us very soon. (y)

'Tis the plan.

:)

[D_Raay]

Love, Poverty, and War by Christopher Hitchens (Can't go wrong)
Bah... what a self-righteous prick.

[Lipper]

Fyodor Doestoevsky(sp?) is over-rated. Not saying you do this. but I hate it when people read a famous author and automatically "love" their work. Geeze, have an opinion of ur own. Fyodor writes in unneccesary exhausting detail - bores the hell out of me.

[EN[i]GMA]

Fyodor Doestoevsky(sp?) is over-rated.

How so?

He was certainly one of the era's most influential authors, as noted by Nietzsche, Kafka, and the existentialists of the time.

He was also quite good. His characters, themes and prose were all excellent.


Not saying you do this. but I hate it when people read a famous author and automatically "love" their work.

To be fair though, a famous author is probably famous because he's good.


Geeze, have an opinion of ur own. Fyodor writes in unneccesary exhausting detail - bores the hell out of me.

I know what you mean. For example, I found Dubliners to be somewhat turgid. I don't like Joyce's writing style; I find it hard to follow. Undoubatably he's a good author, but I didn't really enjoy reading him. I mean, the stories were amazing but for some reason I would read a page and not be able to remember anything that happend. I'd read the story and have no knowledge of any of the details. I don't know why that was.

As for Dostoevsky writing in detail, that was sort of the thing at the time.

I thought he used detail very well.

[yeahwho]

EN[i]GMA,

The narrator's and protagonist's of Al Franken's novel The Truth (first published in English as "A Raw Youth") are twins Barbara and Jenna, two naive 19-year-old girls bursting with ambition and opinions. The illegitimate daughters of a political huckster, they are torn between their desire to expose their father’s wrongdoing and the desire to win his love. Their travels to Washington DC to confront the father they barely know, inspired by a dual inchoate dream of communion and both armed with a mysterious document that they believe gives him power over others. This new English version by the most acclaimed of Dostoevsky’s translators is a masterpiece of pathos and high comedy.

You can listen to Fyodor Dostoevsky on Air America rambling on and on or checkout his Stuart Smalley book at the library. OK?

[Ace42X]

GMA']
I know what you mean. For example, I found Dubliners to be somewhat turgid.

I dislike both Fyodor and Jimmie Augusta. Both are over-rated. "oooh we did something new" yawnerama. Really their achievments are more what they allowed others to do, much like Proust, much like Nietzche.

Mind you, I am not particularly fond of Dickens either. Thomas Hardy is worth a glance, but suffers heavily from Victorian angst.

If you want a REALLY good read, check out "Murphy" by Samuel Beckett. Possibly the greatest novel ever written. Also, Dubliners is vastly inferior to Joyce's Portrait of the Artist and of course the epic Ulysses.

Personally I think The Dead is the only story worth mentioning out of Dubliners.

[EN[i]GMA]

EN[i]GMA,

The narrator's and protagonist's of Al Franken's novel The Truth (first published in English as "A Raw Youth") are twins Barbara and Jenna, two naive 19-year-old girls bursting with ambition and opinions. The illegitimate daughters of a political huckster, they are torn between their desire to expose their father’s wrongdoing and the desire to win his love. Their travels to Washington DC to confront the father they barely know, inspired by a dual inchoate dream of communion and both armed with a mysterious document that they believe gives him power over others. This new English version by the most acclaimed of Dostoevsky’s translators is a masterpiece of pathos and high comedy.

You can listen to Fyodor Dostoevsky on Air America rambling on and on or checkout his Stuart Smalley book at the library. OK?

Wasn't that guy a pinko?

[EN[i]GMA]

I dislike both Fyodor and Jimmie Augusta. Both are over-rated. "oooh we did something new" yawnerama. Really their achievments are more what they allowed others to do, much like Proust, much like Nietzche.

I think Dostoevsky was as good a 'philosophical' or 'psychological' author as there's ever been.

And no, his influence really can't be overstated.


Mind you, I am not particularly fond of Dickens either. Thomas Hardy is worth a glance, but suffers heavily from Victorian angst.

Dickens? Three words: Boring as fuck.

His novels were pedestrian at best and his writing was prosaic.


If you want a REALLY good read, check out "Murphy" by Samuel Beckett. Possibly the greatest novel ever written. Also, Dubliners is vastly inferior to Joyce's Portrait of the Artist and of course the epic Ulysses.

Not heard of it. I'll look into it.

I've heard good things about Nabakov's writing though.

Inferior how so? I think it was a good form for his writing style. I could easily see a long a novel written in the same manner getting very boring and difficult to read, not to mention confusing.

I'll probably end up reading them though.


Personally I think The Dead is the only story worth mentioning out of Dubliners.

I found this to be interesting: http://www.hackwriters.com/dubliners.htm

I thought it was one of the weaker ones.

None of the characters were at all fleshed out (WHich is to be expected in a short story), but due to the length of that one, it made the story suffer.

The best short stories were the ones where the lack of characterization was made up for by making the characters broadly representative. For example, the story about the man being disabused at work and then beating his child (Forget the name). That's probably my favorite story in the book. Very poignant.

The Sisters was a good one. Araby was one that completely passed me by unnoticed. What even happend in this story? I can't remember.

I thought the Boarding House was quite good. A Little Cloud was also good.

[Ace42X]

GMA']
His novels were pedestrian at best and his writing was prosaic.

Such is social realism, I guess.

Inferior how so? I think it was a good form for his writing style. I could easily see a long a novel written in the same manner getting very boring and difficult to read, not to mention confusing.

The short stories just allowed him to play with the tools which he uses to contruct the bigger works. Portrait of the Artist uses a shifting narrative that allows you to have a narrator whose entire perspective shifts as the story develops. It also has a plot, which is more than can be said for a lot of Dubliners, which are essentially a combination of snapshots and mood pieces. Ulysses is important because of its first world war relevance, as well as an example of modernism. The homeric parallelism also gives some direction to Joyce, who I feel is prone to wander at the drop of a hat.

None of the characters were at all fleshed out (WHich is to be expected in a short story), but due to the length of that one, it made the story suffer.

The key to the Dead is that it is about what isn't said and doesn't happen.

Araby was one that completely passed me by unnoticed. What even happend in this story? I can't remember.

Boring, almost confessional, piece about a kid's crush and the futility of the weak and vulnerability of the naive.

[EN[i]GMA]

Such is social realism, I guess.

Social realism is nothing if it's poorly conveyed.


The short stories just allowed him to play with the tools which he uses to contruct the bigger works. Portrait of the Artist uses a shifting narrative that allows you to have a narrator whose entire perspective shifts as the story develops.

Dostoevsky employs this quite often. His narrators often act as 'characters', either in the story or people retelling the story. The narrator often talks directly to the reader, in the middle of the story and shifts from omniscient to normal.

I mean Notes from the Underground is entirely composed of narration.


It also has a plot, which is more than can be said for a lot of Dubliners, which are essentially a combination of snapshots and mood pieces. Ulysses is important because of its first world war relevance, as well as an example of modernism.

Modernism you say. Isn't the novel an example of stream of throught? Thought I heard that somewhere.

The homeric parallelism also gives some direction to Joyce, who I feel is prone to wander at the drop of a hat.


Perhaps due to his supposed diesease.


The key to the Dead is that it is about what isn't said and doesn't happen.


Well if what's not being said and done is what's important, obviously my not reading it will aid in my understanding.

I think I see what you mean about 'not hapening' though. My copy of Dubliners had the handy critical essay in the front that made note of the characters impotence.




Boring, almost confessional, piece about a kid's crush and the futility of the weak and vulnerability of the naive.

Ah yes, the kid and his dad or uncle or whatever and the festival.

Totally uneventful. A non-story as it were.

"I was going to get up and get a sandwitch, but I didn't"

[sam i am]

GMA']I've heard good things about Nabakov's writing though.


Lolita is an excellent book and the movie's even better.