tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post1479770741546465197..comments2024-03-20T19:40:58.078-05:00Comments on The OF Blog: Decoding and parsing textsLarry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-17626859002306881662010-03-12T13:06:51.042-06:002010-03-12T13:06:51.042-06:00I don't read SF/F/H when I need to chill -- th...I don't read SF/F/H when I need to chill -- that's when I read a mystery, something set in this world, something I don't have to think too hard about. In fact, I've found myself avoiding epic fantasy lately because I don't have the energy for it -- and, conversely, reading more thrillers, which require almost nothing of me but that I continue to move my eyes across the page.<br /><br />Even within SF/F/H there are gradations. I find it much easier to read and become engrossed in fantasy than hard SF, as the latter makes me think too hard -- that is, work hard to visualize what's going on, and sometimes to understand a bit of physics or math, neither of which fits the folds in my brain. I particularly remember reading Forward's Dragon's Egg and getting a headache from it at the same time I was enjoying it enormously.<br /><br />I've also been reading some mainstream fiction lately, and while I admire the technique, I've been finding it rather boring, even though I'm reading fairly celebrated books. (I just finished Jay Parini's The Last Station, for instance; I'll bet the movie was better than the book, which is something I rarely say.)<br /><br />Of the texts you put out (and which I had trouble reading as well), I'd rather read the Tchaikovsky, just because it sounds like so much fun. But I'd have to have the time and energy to do it right.Terry Weynahttp://www.readingtheleaves.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-58876673874365029692010-03-11T19:33:01.382-06:002010-03-11T19:33:01.382-06:00I agree wholeheartedly, Larry. I am reading less a...I agree wholeheartedly, Larry. I am reading less and less SF/F as the months go by, simply because of a difficulty engaging on a deeper personal level (a few notable authors aside.)<br /><br />I also strongly encourage reading this essay, for writers and readers alike.<br /><br />http://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/failbetter.htmMikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04415151159054635677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-68567246430270792942010-03-11T12:31:02.536-06:002010-03-11T12:31:02.536-06:00You're welcome! Better yet, pick up a Les Pau...You're welcome! Better yet, pick up a Les Paul and start shredding!Chad Hullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17774092046594256969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-70242065813111318662010-03-11T11:37:49.315-06:002010-03-11T11:37:49.315-06:00Points noted. I don't have the nice shade opt...Points noted. I don't have the nice shade option available which the Wordpress blogs have, or else I'd use that. I chose this format to make it seem the posts were smaller than what they actually were, so there'd be less scrolling. Same reason why the margins are the way they are.<br /><br />Chad,<br /><br />I agree with what you say about engagement and about secondary-world fantasies. As for setting up Tchaikovsky to fail, his work was mentioned merely because it was the one I had read most recently that took me a while to engage with. The writing is not bad at all, minus the difficulties I had processing it, nor is it anything other than a decently-told epic fantasy opener whose sequels I will read in the near future. But for some, his writing is going to be more "accessible" and therefore "better" than say Nabokov's, because of what some readers bring to the table.<br /><br />And now I find myself wanting to listen to early Allman Brothers and Derek and the Dominoes...thanks? :PLarry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-20927639591009272762010-03-11T11:25:30.012-06:002010-03-11T11:25:30.012-06:00Chad, I have the same problems with the quote font...Chad, I have the same problems with the quote font. It's no fun to have to copy/paste the quotes into Word in order to read them. <br /><br />Should have said something long ago, but I didn't want to come across as bitchy, and I wasn't sure it was only me.Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-58244082964050980412010-03-11T08:27:39.508-06:002010-03-11T08:27:39.508-06:00Two Comments:
The font you use when quoting someo...Two Comments:<br /><br />The font you use when quoting someone else is almost small enough to discourage me from reading. Admittedly, my eye sight is horrid so this maybe a personal peccadillo. Conversely, others may feel the same way. <br /><br />I've always thought fantasy/sf as being a bit more difficult than fiction set in our world. The foreign 'world building' elements have to be presented in a way that makes things 100% clear to the reader-who is not from 'that world'--and not be a boring info-dump. <br /><br />Making a derivative world as clear to the reader as it is to the author is difficult to do in an engaging way. I think most fantasy writers take an easy way out and pull a Tolkein; where in terms of natural science, Middle Earth, isn't too terribly different from regular-ass Earth. Thus readers have a pretty good grasp on how life on, "Derivative Planet X" works. I applaud authors who try for something really different, but they only make things more challenging for themselves. <br /><br />I haven't read the Tchaikovsky, so I can't comment on specifics, but I've read may a fantasy/sf that turned me off not for lack of engagement, but because the author never put me on solid ground in the world they created, so to speak.<br /><br />Nabakov, like many of the past's great writers, may have trouble being published today if he were a new and upcoming voice. While Lolita and Speak Memory are pretty 'straight forward', Pale fire and Pnin, the latter a 'fantasy' work, can wander a bit. That said, the reader never gets so lost concerning the setting or story elements as something taking place in a derivative world that has been either poorly explained or poorly conceived. <br /><br />I kinda feel like you set Tchaikovsky up to fall here: virtually everyone's writing pales in comparison to Nabakov's. I'm real good playing slide guitar until you listen to Duane Allman... <br /><br />Okay, and a third comment: Nabakov or not, that was the least concise rendering into English I've ever come across from Anna Karenina.Chad Hullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17774092046594256969noreply@blogger.com