I read a chapter and then went on with my life

Ok

Both Joyce and Pynchon wrote during lucid experiences when they were...uhm...chemically enhanced.

So you are reading intoxication thinking.

Similar to word salads, which are a trip if youve never heard one.

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Would like to read your story.

I'm sorry for your loss.

I always liked this, hm, sudden "humanisation" of Arthur:

"Arthur Dent," comes the cry from the furthest reaches of the galaxy, and has even now been found inscribed on a mysterious deep space probe thought to originate from an alien galaxy at a distance too hideous to contemplate, "what is he, man or mouse? Is he interested in nothing more than tea and the wider issues of life? Has he no spirit? has he no passion? Does he not, to put it in a nutshell, fuck?"

Or maybe you could build something around God's last message to his creation ("We apologize for the inconvenience") and Marvin's reaction to it.

Have you read The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham? Great book. Also, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand seems similar to what you are talking about.

I had to google if it's David Mitchell the comedian who writes the books or another DM 😂 (It's another person)

I’ve been wanting to read literature from Botswana, it’s got a pretty interesting recent history as far as good leadership, social policies and economic growth go. But all my library has is Alexander McCall Smith, plus a few nature books, nothing by authors actually from Botswana.

I would like to someday visit both Galveston and Johnstown!

Yeah they kind of go hand in hand together (lol).

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thank you for sharing your thoughts!

I’m hoping to listen to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld on audiobook, but a lot of the reviews on audible for the newly recorded versions say they are pretty mediocre due to the narration not being great. I would read paper copies, but I want to listen while I run so that’s not going to work. Does anyone know where I can find good audio versions? Did anyone listen to the 2022 versions and maybe they’re not that bad?

The whole panic about drag is seriously new in America too, like within the last 10-20 years. Used to be way more common. I mean people still love the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. There was an entire sitcom starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari called Bosom Buddies about two dudes who dressed in drag so they could live in an apartment building that was for women only (which is an interesting artifact itself.) Can’t say it tanked their careers; on the contrary it was extremely popular.

In my lifetime I’ve watched certain groups of people get WAAYY more skittish about drag, as if there MUST be a sexual connotation to it, and it’s not a good thing.

I wonder how would our society work if the didn't happen. what if Christianity didn't demonize same sex love..

You could potentially make an allusion to “the answer to life, the universe, everything” and follow it up by saying something about how we may never know the answer (though you suspect it’s 42), but he lived his life as close to that true meaning as anyone could.

I’m sorry for your loss, but I’m happy to hear that you have some really precious memories you’ve shared together. Grief is funny in how it touches the things we love even when it’s not funny in how it touches the people we love.

Also, it wasn't condemned at all in a lot of cultures prior to Christianity. For example the ancient Celts were so pansexual (and polyamourous) that even the Greeks and Romans were like "woah dial it back a notch."

Most of the negative attitudes towards it around the world can be traced back to Christian colonization.

The title of this thread actually resembles something Holden would say. Except Holden probably would have italicized something. "Does anyone actually like the Catcher in the Rye?"

There was a push in the 1800s due to a conservative POS in parliament who got too much power and got out of control. Suddenly it was being harshly criminalized, and Oscar Wilde was one of the most prominent victims of this moral panic.

And yes religion as usual was a major factor.

Tara captured her inner child voice perfectly imo. She was able to write it as an adult but use the perspective she had as a child and that was very impressive to me. Educated and glass castle were both tough reads but they really resonated with me and helped me.

> Honor is a Mary Sue, clearly. Just because a character is such doesn't have to mean they're not fun or interesting to follow along with

I would agree with both those statements. That said, the big problem I had with the series (besides Weber's very obvious tendencies toward inserting his personal politics) and the reason I gave up on it was that everything goes right for her.

You can have a character who's overpowered, better than others, and even just out and out perfect, but when you then feel the need to make all their enemies stupid, and everyone else fawn over them, and everything just happen to work out in their favor, it kills any real dramatic tension. Having a character overcome superior odds through cleverness and skill is great; having them overcome superior odds because their enemies are idiots who just happen to do everything exactly wrong is boring.

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So long and thanks for all the fish

Surviving back then was much, much more difficult. The strength of the bonds you made with your fellow man were quite literally a matter of life or death. This was especially true in the American frontier.

Now, you can be a complete and total shut-in with no meaningful connections and still live into old age. Things are getting interesting (see: Japan).