LiteraryWIMB

[Burney]

The sort of person who does so has been getting immoderately excited by the debut novel by Imogen Hermes Gowar, "The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock", so I have taken it upon myself to read and review this supposed masterpiece for you good people.

One reviewer noted that the 'prose shimmers like the titular temptress'; I note as follows: Nothing happens. Fúck all. No events. No happenings. No occurences. For hundreds of pages. Nothing.

Get yourself a nice, honest Dan Browne or something.

Novels, you see? Lot of nonsense. Deciding to give up literary novels is one of the best moves I've made. Frees up so much time for reading worthwhile stuff.

[Sir C]

novels, you see? Lot of nonsense. Deciding to give up literary novels is one of the best moves i've made. Frees up so much time for reading worthwhile stuff.

***this is an automated response. You seem to have mistakenly posted in a thread containing elements of heart, soul, joy or wonder. Kindly back up and remove yourself at once before you start slagging off theatre and live music as well, you dessicated automaton***

[Burney]

***this is an automated response. You seem to have mistakenly posted in a thread containing elements of heart, soul, joy or wonder. Kindly back up and remove yourself at once before you start slagging off theatre and live music as well, you dessicated automaton***

Increasingly, I believe that (recorded) music and the plastic arts are the only bits worth bothering with. If I can just wean myself off poetry, I can fück the literary arts in the bin altogether.

[Sir C]

Increasingly, I believe that (recorded) music and the plastic arts are the only bits worth bothering with. If I can just wean myself off poetry, I can fück the literary arts in the bin altogether.

At some point I recommend you pause and consider just what it is that defines us as 'human'. You are speaking like someone who works in IT.

[Burney]

At some point I recommend you pause and consider just what it is that defines us as 'human'. You are speaking like someone who works in IT.

Yes, but it's all silly, madey-uppy stuff, isn't it? It's not real and so rarely even rings true. Indeed, we only call it 'good' when it manages to approach some semblance of verisimilitude. What's the point when non-fiction is so much more rich and strange - and involves stuff that actually happened?
For instance, I'm currently reading 'The Faithful Executioner', a biography of Frantz Schmidt, an executioner in 16th Century Nuremberg based on his journals. It's a far more extraordinary story and far more revelatory of what one might call 'the human condition' than any novel I've read.


I make a distinction for rollicking historical novels involving war, of course.


btw, I see that vile communist Dan Snow is on Twitter hand-wringing about Dresden. Lord, but I cannot stand that man.

[World's End Stella]

Novels, you see? Lot of nonsense. Deciding to give up literary novels is one of the best moves I've made. Frees up so much time for reading worthwhile stuff.

I can't remember the last time I read one.

Mrs WES bought me 'Wine and War' for Christmas, all about how the Frenchies spent so much time hiding their best wine from the Nazis. Very readable and doesn't in any way reinforce traditional stereotypes of the two nations involved.

Next up - Vietnam and 'A Bright Shining Lie'

[Monty92]

Novels, you see? Lot of nonsense. Deciding to give up literary novels is one of the best moves I've made. Frees up so much time for reading worthwhile stuff.

I'd be keen how the "gender is a social construct" brigade would explain the differing reading habits between men and women (the latter reading far more fiction).

[Burney]

I'd be keen how the "gender is a social construct" brigade would explain the differing reading habits between men and women (the latter reading far more fiction).

In fact, there is an argument that the rise of the novel has had a feminising effect on society.