Comments for Blotter Paper

Comment on The Warden, by Anthony Trollope by R. H. Kanakia

R. H. Kanakia — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:44:47 +0000

This one would be a good place to start, because: A) It’s the beginning of a series; and B) it’s way, way, way shorter than any of his other books (I just downloaded like eleven of them off Project Gutenberg).

Comment on The Warden, by Anthony Trollope by Becca

Becca — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:29:57 +0000

I keep meaning to read more Trollope! (The really embarrassing thing is I know I have read one Trollope . . . and it may well even have been this one . . . but I cannot remember anything about it in order to tell. Except that I apparently liked it enough to form a vague intention to read more Trollope?)

Comment on The Warden, by Anthony Trollope by R. H. Kanakia

R. H. Kanakia — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:43:33 +0000

Yes, Dorian Gray was great. It was also surprisingly funny. My favorite part of the book was probably the first chapter…I loved the long dialogues between Hallward and Wotton.

Comment on The Warden, by Anthony Trollope by Frank Bishop

Frank Bishop — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:25:09 +0000

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an amazing read, absolutely amazing.

I’ll add The Warden to my bucket.

Comment on There should be a National Coming-Out Day for people whose favorite novel is _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ben Godby

Ben Godby — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:12:01 +0000

We do indeed say “totes,” but I was just riffing off of your earlier totes – something about steel, or something.

…and the Human Condition is a totes thick text, probably mostly because of her insane and unending sourcing. If there’s one criticism that needs to be made of Arendt, it is, “stop deriving our entire modern culture from the Greek and Latin experience.”

Comment on There should be a National Coming-Out Day for people whose favorite novel is _Atlas Shrugged_ by R. H. Kanakia

R. H. Kanakia — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:13:41 +0000

I would definitely be shocked to hear someone say that Moby Dick is their favorite book. I mean, I love the first third of the book (Ishmael and Queequeg’s romance is only barely subtextual….I don’t see why those two crazy kids can’t just live happily ever after…) but I was a little bored by all the whale trivia that fills the last two thirds (except for the chapter “The Whiteness of the Whale”, which is amazing).

Still, good for you! Sometimes I forget that all the reputatation of all these ‘classics’ is built on a really basic edifice: tens or hundreds of thousands of people who read the book and just really, really enjoyed it.

Comment on There should be a National Coming-Out Day for people whose favorite novel is _Atlas Shrugged_ by Frank Bishop

Frank Bishop — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:57:58 +0000

People look at me like I have three heads when I say Moby Dick is my favorite book. Typically I break my favorite books down according to feel, much like I do music and movies, but something in those 800 pages resonates with me. I’m actually a pirate so it must be the thirst for vengeance.

Who is John Galt?

Comment on There should be a National Coming-Out Day for people whose favorite novel is _Atlas Shrugged_ by R. H. Kanakia

R. H. Kanakia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:55:02 +0000

Oh man, three years ago, I read _Eichmann in Jerusalem_ and I really loved it, so then I sat down and tried to read _The Human Condition_….but I absolutely could not make heads or tails of it. With liberal help from the internet, I fooled myself that I was getting it, but as I got about halfway through, it became clear that none of the things meant what I thought they’d meant, so I just gave up.

Also, you said ‘totes’. Do Canadians say ‘totes’? Wait…you are Canadian, right?

Comment on There should be a National Coming-Out Day for people whose favorite novel is _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ben Godby

Ben Godby — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:31:46 +0000

I read “The Fountainhead” in high school and was totes pumped. I then read a couple books of Rand’s philosophy (I believe one was expounding Objectivism, and the other was about Romanticism). It’s a very appealing philosophy. Criticism of ideologies like Rand’s, whether they’re ultra-right or ultra-left, tend to lose sight of their mythic qualities. I’ve always hated people who say, “Communism is a great idea in theory, but it doesn’t work,” because the same is true of capitalism – and probably every other great idea of political, economic, ethical, aesthetic, etc. significance. We need big, blind, blustery ideas to keep mentally revolutionary/progressive.

Anyway, this was an Atlas Shrugged of a blog post, but I swear I read the whole thing. I’m glad you’ve got a favourite book, and your passion was illuminating. My favourite is still “The Human Condition” by Hannah Arendt; though it’s not fiction, and not idealism, it’s the most captivatingly intelligent thing I’ve ever read – even though it took me, like, four years to do it.

Conversely, the fastest I ever read a book was Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War.” I’m still angry at myself for enjoying it.

Comment on Wherein I learn something about noir literature by R. H. Kanakia

R. H. Kanakia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:25:44 +0000

I think there’s definitely something to be said for that. To a larger extent than horror (I think), noir is united by a common bunch of settings and tropes….but there’s also a sort of noirish mood…or a noirish worldview…alot of noir seems to take place in a dismal, garishly-lit place where people can imagine a better life than any of the lives which the book actually contains. I think you could definitely have a noir science fiction or a noir western or a noir campus novel (actually, Bret Easton Ellis kind of writes noir campus novels).

I’ll definitely check out the interview. I’m always interested in learning more about horror (which is one genre where I don’t have very much knowledge at all)