|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
The writing style: WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much detail that adds nothing to the story line. I got, maybe, two-thirds of the way through, and still the 3 separate characters' stories had not become amalgamated; I got tired of waiting to see whether anything ever actually happened.
Im sorry, but when it comes to reading and movies I like them just told; I want a clear plot, convoluted though it may be. I tend very strongly to want the characters to tell me who and what they are; I will virtually never "see" the writing itself as a means of conveying something other than the story line--for ex., satire almost always goes right over my head. Not exactly sophisticated in my reading, or much else for that matter.
Edit: so--you all please tell me what I'm missing, in this book.
Last edited by Jackie; 12/06/06 03:15 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631
addict
|
|
OP
addict
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 631 |
Quote:
The writing style: WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much detail that adds nothing to the story line.
I haven't read that one, Jackie, but maybe the problem is you're are looking for a storyline when there isn't meant to be one. A storyline, I mean. Maybe he's one of those fashionable post-modern writers and what you've got is more of a story-forking-path; or web, hypersphere, mobius-strip, tesseract type thingy.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
Maybe he's one of those fashionable post-modern writers and what you've got is more of a story-forking-path; or web, hypersphere, mobius-strip, tesseract type thingy.
I think that Neal Stephenson is more of a throw-in-everything kind of modernist writer. In this respect, he is similar to Lyly, Rabelais, or Joyce in creating huge lists (or catalogs) and lots of extra info.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I tried his Quicksliver, but couldn't get through it, for much the same reason. someday, however, I will prevail.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
someday, however, I will prevail
I liked his earlier, funnier novels like: The Big U. (1984) and Snow Crash (1992).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I've never managed to get through Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, or The Illuminatus, to mention some 'modernist classics'.
But I've read everything of Stephenson from Snow Crash through the Baroque Cycle. What makes him very readable for me is his inventive imagination and the way he expresses this without becoming embroiled in paranoia. NS insists that he's still working in the SF genre, even with the Baroque Cycle. I'd go with Speculative Fiction.
"The science fiction approach doesn't mean it's always about the future; it's an awareness that this is different". - Neal Stephenson
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
a storyline when there isn't meant to be one.  Good gracious---then, what on earth else is a book for???
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
To the list of postpositives I add: orange, as in clockwork.
WRT Nabakov... it seems like some readers prefer prose that is like a clear window overlooking an interesting scene. You don't spend time inspecting the windowframe or the glass, but rather the view which the window affords. Other readers delight in writing that is like a stained-glass window, where the window itself is meant to be admired, studied and interpreted with little if anything visible beyond the glass.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
what on earth else is a book for???
Books are meant to be read, I'd suggest. So read them. I read many books without storylines, though most of them are non-fiction, but some are not. This is the old plot- versus character-driven stories debate. One of the reason I like so few mystery novels is because they are almost entirely plot. Many find plot-driven, linear narrative fiction to be the only kind of fiction worth reading. Some do not.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 557
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 557 |
Quote:
To the list of postpositives I add: orange, as in clockwork.
So Tik-Tok of Oz, a clockwork man, is a mannish clockwork rather than man made of clockwork? 
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,994
Members9,198
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
848
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
