| Username |
Post |
| Namita |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 09:53 AM
My choice:
1.Guns, Germs, and Steels; The fates of human society
2. White Teeth
3. Geeta
4. A Short Guide To Happy Life
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| sally |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 11:43 AM
When all the s*** hit the fan in Nepal, I found that it was really absorbing my constant attention (and to a large degree still is). I felt a need to escape mentally--and yet I needed something to read that seemed to have something in common with my state of mind.
I definitely didn't want to read South Asian literature. I just wasn't in the mood. But at the same time, I couldn't escape into something about middle-class Americans worrying about their swimming pools or something. That wouldn't fit my mood, either.
So I began re-reading the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert. I like a number of sci-fi films, but I'm not a big sci-fi fan in literature; I think the only sci-fi book I've gotten through is "Neuromancer" (which is a landmark of "cyberpunk" and is also excellent). But Herbert's classic book creates a universe that is at the same time utterly Other and strangely familiar: conspiracies, plots within plots, ruling dynasties, and an atmosphere of complexity and danger.
Now THAT really did seem to fit my mood!
I'd be curious to hear what kind of reading other people have been doing to "get through" these difficult times.
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| Gokul |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 01:59 PM
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
I read this book when I was an engineering student almost 10 years ago. While window shopping a book store, my eyes fell on this book due to the weird sounding title. I tried several times to finish reading this book but always failed. I always dozed and fell asleep. Similar to what used to happen when I tried to enjoy and understand the Pink Floyd music. Somebody had told me that PF was great and I was desperately trying to catch that greatness, as if therein lied my salvation and purpose of my life. I later realized that that stuff was not for me and completely gave up looking for great stuffs of similar kinds.
A couple of days ago, I found this book again but this time in a second-hand book shop. With a pittance, I bought this book and have been reading since then. I am not a voracious reader and I read slowly, sometimes very slowly. If I find a line that I feel possesses the truth, then I close my eyes and try to envisage what it means. I want that line to be a part of my existence residing somewhere deep in my all level of consciousness. Essentially, I want to live and be and experience that line. And when something strikes, then it strikes me forever. I still remember the thrill that I experienced when I heard a line saying that the whole purpose and meaning of life in this wasteland lies in truth (Bonfire of Vanities). (something in that effect).
Now being more mature than what I was before 10 years ago, unknowingly losing the rigor of engineering and mathematics and gradually cultivating the soft approach towards life, taught little by management courses and more by the experience of day-to-day living, I see this book in the entirely different perspective. It is as if the caterpillar has suddenly become a butterfly. If you have read Parijaat's "Tori Bari Bata ra Sapanaharu" - then you will find the same melancholy, loneliness and craving for the truth in every sentence.
Namita: Whose interpretation of the Geeta are you reading?
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| Rekha Mukhia |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 02:09 PM
Hey Sally,
I actually saw that Dune movie and I have to admit, even though I love Sci-fi flicks, this was a one that was pretty ummmm flat..
I haven't read this book but I saw Oprah presenting the author...Its called "Stolen Lives" and the author (I think) is Malika something...I think this true story would be more than a diversion from the present times/happenings.
From the Publisher:
A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller—the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privelige.
Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After twenty years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996.
A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom.
Rekha
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| namita |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 02:21 PM
Gokul,
Like you, I tried to read that book a long long time ago. Somebody had given it to me. I don't know if I finished it... wait a minute.. i think I *did* finish it. I don't remember anything now, though :)
well, the geeta i am *trying* to read is translated by Madan Prasad Aryal. The translation is in simple nepali. Also in hindi and english. I am listening it though, when my mother reads in the morning - that is what pushing me to read. I just wanted to finish the other books in my list. So far I have finished only one - a short guide to happy life. bery bery tiny book. u will finish in 30 mins. at the most. I am reading guns and white teeth simultaneously whatever the mood strikes.
btw have u read dave eggers heartbreaking work of staggering genius? kinda juvenile (one might say), but I liked it tremendously. and liar's club. one of my favourites besides 'the stranger.' you laugh through your tears - i am talking about liar's club. heart wrenching and very poetic.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 03:06 PM
I was reading "Badhi" by Dr Dhruba Chandra Gautam this week. I
read this novel(based on his true experience) because I wanted
to read something in Nepali, and about Terai life.
Badhi is not a book capable of winning Madan Puraskaar, but there
are several good chapters. The writer's excessive interest on
movies, his interaction with King Mahendra and his experience
as a teacher in girl's college are the most effective.
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| sparsha |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 04:26 PM
I once (many years ago) read a hostoric novel " president's lady ". It was a novel based on the lives of 7th(?) US president Andrew Jackson and his twice married(by him alone) but "unrecognized" wife Rachel. I really enjoyed the novel then. Occassionally I found myself senti. you know emotional. I think it was Irving Stone (?) who wrote that book but I am not quite sure.
sparsha
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| sally |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 04:44 PM
Rekha,
I agree with you about the movie made from "Dune." I believe the director was the same guy behind the TV show "Twin Peaks" and the movie "Blue Velvet," which I thought was a very very creepy and sicko movie even though it's supposed to be some kind of art-film classic. That particular director--I'm blanking on the name, maybe Biswo knows!--has a unique sensibility that isn't at all appealing to me, and I definitely didn't feel he portrayed "Dune" and its characters with the tone I envisioned. I don't think it was a commercial success either.
Gokul and Namita,
I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" in college. I remember liking it, especially the parts that fit with my interest in Buddhism at the time, although come to think of it most of the people who had recommended it were engineering majors! If you're reading it slowly now and savoring it, I think that's part of being "Zen," isn't it? So it definitely fits with the book. But I think I skipped a fair amount, and a lot of it has gone out of my brain. I actually have it on my bookshelf here, though, with the idea that I'd re-read it some time. Maybe I will now.
Btw, Gokul, Pink Floyd is great--but I've never been able to convince my musician brother of that, so you're not alone. And it occurs to me that if I sat down and listened to it now I might find less interest in it than I did in college; it seems that some types of music really fit certain times of our lives, don't you think?
At the same time, it's intriguing to me that in such a change-obsessed society as the US, certain kinds of music have crossed the generations: Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, etc. There you were 10 years ago, listening to a kind of music that had also been listened to just as raptly 20 years before that! Yet at the same time there is this cult of youth and newness in the US (and now, "thanks" to US influence, all around the world).
To what would you attribute that? It can't just the quality of the music. Big Band music from the 1940s was also great, but it didn't have the same appeal to the next generation as the 1960s/early 1970s music has had.
Any thoughts?
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 05:28 PM
I am not sure, but I guess David Lynch is the director of
original Dune. This is not a great sci-fi in my opinion. There
was also a controversy about the movie later. So, one can
research about who is the 'real' director of the movie..
The best sci-fi I recommend to watch is 2001: A space odyssey
(Stanley Kubric), Star Wars(George Lucas) , and ET: The extra
terrestrial(Spielberg). However, I believe most of the sci-fi
fans have already watched these classics!
Dune ,acc to one critic, is fathomable only if you have already
read the novel. Otherwise, you find it boring. Is that your case,
Sally?
I am wondering if some of our readers have watched 'murder by
death'? I found it boring, but it is also supposed to be a good
movie among critics. I always wonder just what is so good about
the movie?
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| Trailokya Aryal |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 09:01 PM
My book list for this summer:
Embracing Defeat: japan in the wake of world war II by Hohn Dower
--about the post war Japan. This book won many prestigious awards such as Pulitzer, National Book Awards etc.
2-The Art of War by Sun Tzu
(written probably in the second century BC or before that)
3- How to read Karl Marx by Ernst Fisher, and translated by John Bellamy Foster.
Trailokya
Trailokya
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| Trailokya |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 09:10 PM
Hi,
I heard "waiting" by Ha jin is a good read. I am not into literature/fiction but I have included that on my summer list. Has anyone here read it yet? If yes, would you mind sharing your views on that book with us?
Trailokya
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| sally |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 09:20 PM
Thanks, Biswo. David Lynch--that's the guy. He's got a real cult following. Not including me.
I actually read the book before I rented the movie, so I knew what was going on, but I didn't care for Lynch's interpretation (specifically the tone and the pacing).
Another great sci-fi movie is "Blade Runner." It's in the same cyberpunk mold as the book "Neuromancer" that I mentioned. The intriguing thing about "Blade Runner" is the setting. A lot of sci-fi tends to be placed in a kind of medieval environment with high-tech accoutrements--examples would be "Star Wars" as well as "Dune"--so you get this sense of a universe that is rather sparsely populated, with perhaps only one kind of culture on a planet. It makes for easier plotting, perhaps, and certainly works on a mythic level (as in "Star Wars" or even the Star Trek series), but it isn't very believable as a possible future.
In "Blade Runner" the future is an overpopulated earth with a heavy corporate presence, a lot of convincing high technology and biotechnology (at least it's convincing to techno-ignoramuses like myself!), and a vivid sense of cultural mixing, especially Japanese and Chinese. The setting is visually very rich.
I don't think it was a huge hit, but it has a strong critical reputaton. I first saw it in a film class. It stars Harrison Ford.
Btw, I also enjoyed "Matrix." I'm not very interested in dazzling special effects for their own sake, but "Matrix" seemed to integrate them well into an intriguing plot.
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 28-Jun-01 09:48 PM
I also have a high esteem for both 'blade runner' and 'matrix'.
The former is also a master piece, and the later is significant
because (I think) it has gave trend-setting story to movie
history[cyber villain!].
To Trailokya: I think there is a story by Ha Jin in the best short
story collection of 1999 (The one that includes Samrat's
shopkeeper).May be I am confused about that also. I haven't
read 'waiting'. May be I should read your evaluation first.
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| Hari |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 12:30 AM
The nice afterthought about "Matrix" for me was its circular logic and the whole shebang about who's controlling who's controlling what. One of my interpretations about it has been that it's loosely based on Eastern philosophy (particularly Hindu and Buddhist ones) and as such, hovers implicitly around themes of "maya" and "moksha". Keanu Reeve's not new to this theme, having played "Little Budhha" in the past, but "Matrix" definitely seems to be executed much much better than the former.
About "Dune", I haven't watched the movie but have heard that it had been a disaster. There was supposed to have been a Sci-Fi Channel epic, to the effect of a six hour movie, sometime last year. People had better hopes on that. Has anyone seen that one or does anyone know if that ever came out?
Another summer (or is it scheduled for winter?) anticipation for me is "The Lord of the Rings". The preparation and the hype has been on for a few years now. The trilogy is supposed to be released during 2001-2003. Hope Paramount does a good job at it.
Dui Paise Musings,
Hari
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| Rekha |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 09:21 AM
Hari, I am literally holding my breath for the "lord of the rings" to come out!! Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to read those books...and Im looking forward to finding the time to re-read them once before I see the flicks as I would hate sitting there and going...damn..I don't remember that part!
Rekha
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| Bina Gurung |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 02:03 PM
Hello all,
I have been a silent reader of this forum for a while. Thanks Namita for this discussion. I am posting the books I have read this summer and the ones I will be reading.
Satanic verses by Salman Rushdie. I wanted to know what really ticked off Khatami. Its an ok book.
currently, reading John Milton's Paradise Lost
Goethe's Faust, Bob Woodward's Maestro: Greenspan's fed and the American boom and Michael Paterniti's driving Mr. Albert are on the list.
I agree with Gokul on Pink Floyd. I tried to listen to them but I couldnt go beyond that. I had to give up the PF ticket my cousin gave me.
Bina
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| namita |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 02:18 PM
Bina,
I had heard about that book once in NPR. sounds fascinating. can you (if you get the time)come back and post how you found the book? I think I have just too many books on my list already. So I would be really grateful.
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| sally |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 02:41 PM
If any reader is a new Mom or Dad, or has friends who are, a very good and extremely entertaining book is "Operating Instructions: A Journal of my Son's First Year" by Annie LaMot.
The best time to read it is when you're actually going through the experience. That was a few years back for me, but I've given it as a baby-shower gift a couple times since then. It's fun in a very insightful way, and wise as well.
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| Gandhi |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 03:35 PM
If you are interested in the philosophy of science, the following book is a good stuff - colloquial languages, vivid examples and writers' own explanations on scientific methodology.
Book: PARADIGMS LOST:
Images of man in the mirror of science
Author: John L. Casti
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 04:07 PM
Dear Binaji:
I have read both The Satanic Verses, and Paradise lost few years
ago.I am not quite sure what I read in Paradise lost, because I
was just impressed by the reputation the book had.
But as a regular reader of almost all of the Rushdie's books,I grade TSV a B . The midnight's children and Moore's last
sigh are probably his best.If you have already read A hundred
years of Solitude of Marquez, you will probably find TSV even more
awkward and boring (my opinion only).
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| sally |
Posted
on 29-Jun-01 04:50 PM
In spite of some occasional degeneration into personality politics, I do think this site is interesting--and sometimes even useful.
Last night, after reading the posts on Ha Jin, I found that, yes, his stories were printed in "The Best Short Stories of 1999" (the same one that Samrat's is in) and "Best Short Stories of 2000." We had those books in the house and I'd read some of the stories, but not Ha Jin's. I read them, and enjoyed them. Spare language, precise description, and a vivid picture of life in China c. 1980.
Btw, I've found that short story collections are a great way to get to know authors I might not have found otherwise. And they're great for summer reading--short, sweet, and just right for the pool.
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| Bina Gurung |
Posted
on 01-Jul-01 07:29 PM
Hi Namita,
Since this book came out at the end of the eight years war between Iraq and Iran, my hunch was Rushdie might have based the story on the war, thus knowingly stepping on the pride of the Shiite Iranians by turning them into villains. Or so I thought. But it is a simple story that explores faith and definition of self in a rather intricate manner that spans the cycle of life and death, good and evil.
Islam is portrayed as anything but heinous. It is used to define a man plagued by his loss of faith and its validation by recurrent dreams and delusions that tells him that God himself is not perfect. There are obviously a lot of references to the Koran and thus knowledge on the Koran can make it easier to understand the symbolism. The jump between dream and reality can get ambiguous; the plot mostly remains stagnant and the gist of the story gets diluted in the process. Had it not been for the condemnation, this book wouldn’t have been where it is.
Biswo ji mentioned the moor’s last sigh and I truly believe that it is an excellent book. Read it; you will see history pass before your eyes.
Bina
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