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Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

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Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#541

Post by throwqwerty »

mcv wrote: post #537
throwqwerty wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I normally downvote comments that complain about downvotes, but not for quoting well-sourced interesting/concerning background facts about relevant authors. Below I linked to a published literary essay and I got downvoted.

Not by me, though. I think that comment could have used a bit more explanation beyond calling it "nazi apologia" with a link. Like a bit more explanation of what exactly makes it nazi apologia.

Look at the length and substance of that comment of mine and the one that started this subthread. They are similar in length, similar in glibness. I don't know what the score of gop is but it's not grayed out so I'll assume it's higher than the score for mine. What is the difference in the two? Maybe homophobia is more palatable than nazism. Maybe mine accused the reader instead the author (but almost everyone that responded defended card). Maybe Wikipedia is more authoritative than a literary journal.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#542

Post by mcv »

throwqwerty wrote: post #541
mcv wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not by me, though. I think that comment could have used a bit more explanation beyond calling it "nazi apologia" with a link. Like a bit more explanation of what exactly makes it nazi apologia.

Look at the length and substance of that comment of mine and the one that started this subthread. They are similar in length, similar in glibness. I don't know what the score of gop is but it's not grayed out so I'll assume it's higher than the score for mine. What is the difference in the two? Maybe homophobia is more palatable than nazism. Maybe mine accused the reader instead the author (but almost everyone that r…

I don't know. I don't speak for other commenters. Card's homophobia is pretty well documented, however, and from some of the comments to your other posts, I get the impression that the argument that it's nazi apologia is pretty thin. I haven't read the article, though.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#544

Post by mariodiana »

tkamphefner wrote: post #165

Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, for a coming of age story, using nanotechnology as a futuristic concept for understanding the differences of being fed one's needs and being given the tools for meeting them. Steinbeck's East of Eden for coming to grips with a fundamental moral struggle of what is good and what is choice. Anything ever written by Kurt Vonnegut for the proper cynicism needed to live in this world. Os…

I never finished that book, because about two-thirds of the way through the narrative thread seemed to be coming apart (to me, anyway). But I did find the themes of educational philosophy and social organization intriguing. Yesterday, it occurred to me to give it a second try: specifically, because Stephenson's theme of social organization in "clans" (or whatever he called them) seem to me to maybe give some insight into today's identity politics.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#545

Post by metroholografix »

d2161 wrote: post #519
metroholografix wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found all 3 books to be vastly overrated and mediocre at best. I would bet money that in 10 years, few will even remember them. The translation doesn't help, but the issues with the books go beyond it. It's obvious that Cixin Liu is not a good writer. The characters in TBP are cardboard cutouts and his pacing and framing of ideas awful. I feel that there is merit in his imagination but it'd be better presented in a…

Dune is soft sci fi. TBP is hard sci fi. They're very different formats of stories. Good hard SF generally doesn't have character development. In fact character development is a kind of subgenre called bildungsroman. I don't know why ppl these days expect characters to change as though it's some inherent part of a book. Some books are thought experiments or about world building. Part of reading for me is to try exper…

I don't "hate" TBP, so not sure why you chose this characterization. I just find it overrated. When I finished the trilogy, I wished I'd have gotten back the hours I spent reading it. That's neither the mark of a good book nor a good writer. And let's not pretend that the Hugo committee is some sort of arbiter of truth. Plenty of real stinkers (N. K. Jemisin anyone?) have won it.

Also, If I'm in the mood for hard sci-fi, I'll read Peter Watts who is (again) on a different league. Blindsight and Echopraxia navigate similar (but not only!) themes to TBP in a much more intelligent, thought-provoking and cohesive way.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#546

Post by mariodiana »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #426
pierremenard wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious why you think Moby Dick is not a good book. I thought it was going to be a long drag, but found the writing extremely enjoyable. Apart from the obvious "literary merit", reading this book feels like being at sea, isolated from the world, where life is subject to the rhythms of much more powerful forces, and you can look around and study deeply the rich detail present even in a closed system like a ship. To th…

The language is great. Melville is definitely one of those 19th century Americans who could work the run-on sentence for good. My complaints are almost purely structural. I really enjoy the begining of the book which establishes the unlikely relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg. I especially enjoyed the speech that gets the Quakers to allow the pagan Queequeg to join the voyage. But around page 200 the book dive…

I'm with you on Moby Dick, though I always feel guilty about that. I was loving that book, up until the whaling and "whiteness" chapters. I never got past that. Les Miserables, by contrast, I absolutely loved — even the essay-digressions. Hugo is an absolutely genius at dropping what seems at the time like the most inconsequential seed into the plot and then having it flourish into a great reveal a hundred or so pages later.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#547

Post by mariodiana »

p_l wrote: post #444

- Hobbit, followed by Lord of the Rings. The selection might seem trite, but I suspect that there wasn't a book with bigger impact on me than Hobbit, for very simple reason. It made me into voracious reader, put me on a path of reading, actually reading. All because my father prodded me to read out loud first few pages so that I could show off how well I read. That was enough to get me hooked and probably nothing com…

In sixth grade, back in the '70s, my English textbook had Chapter Five ("Riddles in the Dark") as a selection. It turned out my teacher was a huge LotR fan. She gave the class a choice—we could either continue on with the textbook or each purchase a copy of The Hobbit (which was 1 dollar for the paperback) and read that instead. We opted for The Hobbit. I don't even remember her name anymore, but I would say that that decision of hers was monumental for my life. I liked reading before that, but this was something completely different.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#548

Post by amanaplanacanal »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #208
nnlsoccer wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His other book A Deepness in the Sky is amazing as well

Those two books of his, and in addition his earlier books The Peace War and Marooned in Real Time , have all had a huge influence on me.

I enjoyed Marooned in Real Time so much. A great murder mystery set in an anarcho-libertarian far future society.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#549

Post by shanecleveland »

rjkennedy98 wrote: post #243
stepbeek wrote: post #210

The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. You'll finish it in an evening. I didn't get how it impacted me at first, but I knew that I was deeply affected by it. It was what made me internalise the idea that struggle doesn't necessarily lead to external reward.

Even better is The Sun Also Rises (which I've currently just been re-reading over and over). Hemingway's short stories also are astonishing, but The Sun Also Rises seems be the best example of the power of understatement (which is Hemingway's lyrical genius).

Hemingway's short stories are incredible. I particularly enjoy the Nick Adams collection.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#550

Post by shanecleveland »

Anything from Salinger. Go beyond Catcher in the Rye. Nine Stories; Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters; Franny and Zooey.

Hemingway's short fiction really kicked off a lot of reading for me. Men Without Women is a nice little collection.

A couple others to go deeper on ... Stephen Kind and Roald Dahl. King has many incredible novelas: The Body (Stand By Me); Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (Shawshank Redemption); Hearts in Atlantis. Likewise, Dahl, known more for his children's books wrote some adult fiction, short stories.

I think it is less about the book and more about when in your life you pick it up.

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