Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shatner moment?
Saturday Night Live sketch circa 1986. He's at a Star Trek convention in a small town and finally snaps at the trivia-mad, stalkerish fans telling them to "Get life, will you people?!"
Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
141–150 of 166 posts
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#142When people recommend Russian literature I'm always curious what they think about the other great Russian literary works. Because I find unnecessary complexity unbearable. I have no desire to read literature with 100+ named characters, unreliable narrators and Escher-like chronology. For some people narrative complexity is a draw but if I can't put a book down and come back to it two weeks later without having to sta…
Ivan Bunin's works are simple, short and brilliant. BTW Nabokov translated some of them.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#143who said I was terrified? I haven't read the article, I am only responding to the title. The title did not make me want click it.
(The comments, otoh, always good)
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#144Pale Fire has been my favorite book for a long, long time, ever since I read it as part of a course in university. After all these years I haven't read a better, more intricately-constructed book. It was suggested to me to read the intro first, then skip the poem and read the endnotes start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. The index is part of the fiction and must also be read. I think the keys to really…
> It was suggested to me to read the endnotes first, start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. I read it with two copies open, so that I was reading the poem and the endnotes in parallel.
The original alt-tab is flipping between pointer fingers in a book.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#145For someone who wants to get into poetry and literature, but has never read anything past the elementary school, would Pale Fire be a good start?
I'm not particularly sharp witted when it comes to books, would it be a good idea to read it in parallel with some sort of an analysis or commentary?
Should I read it translated into my native language (Polish)? I could get through it in English probably, by looking up some of the words. I wonder how much is "lost" when a book like this is translated.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#146Pale Fire has been my favorite book for a long, long time, ever since I read it as part of a course in university. After all these years I haven't read a better, more intricately-constructed book. It was suggested to me to read the intro first, then skip the poem and read the endnotes start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. The index is part of the fiction and must also be read. I think the keys to really…
> It was suggested to me to read the endnotes first, start to finish, then to go back and read the poem. I read it with two copies open, so that I was reading the poem and the endnotes in parallel.
Just as Charles would have wanted :)
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
none of those questions have definitive answers I will limit my criticism to saying that this is a trope adopted very often these days and it is not one to which my personality is suited. I like mysteries but I do not like treadmills, running without arriving.
What do you mean by “these days?” Pale Fire was written in 1962.
It seems to be more common now than it used to be. Many pieces of media, whether written or televised, seem to use it as an excuse to avoid committing to a narrative. It's as if they expect people will simply make up whatever headcanon is most entertaining and therefore the media will appeal to a greater number of people than it would otherwise. Or they've written themselves into a corner and rather than rework the plot to make sense, they simply go "Well what do youuuu think happened?" I hate it.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#148I was excited to read Pale Fire after reading what I consider to be one of the finest novels ever written, Lolita. The protagonist is a monster, but the writing is so eloquent - and not even in the author's original tongue! Pale Fire was simply boring to me. I am not extremely literary, so a lot of it probably went over my head, but I was rather disappointed it didn't shine like his 1955 masterpiece.
While I don't think you need to be 'extremely literary' to enjoy it, Pale Fire is strong stuff, and challenging in surprising ways -- as the linked review expounds on, at some length. Lolita is probably Nabokov's most accessible book, or at least the most accessible of his I've read, but I bet part of what you liked there is that you, the reader, don't interact with Humbert Humbert in quite the same way that Humbert…
Speak, Memory is extremely accessible, easy to understand and the finest peace of writing I have ever come across.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#149If you are going to read Pale Fire, get it on paper. I tried to read it on my Kindle and the UI is not up to task of lots of flipping back and forth between the poem and the prose sections.
This is also true of _Infinite Jest_, for the same reason.
I read both on paper, using two bookmarks.
Re: Don't be terrified of Pale Fire
#150If you are going to read Pale Fire, get it on paper. I tried to read it on my Kindle and the UI is not up to task of lots of flipping back and forth between the poem and the prose sections.
When I tell people the UI of paper books is in most ways superior to ebook readers, this is the kind of thing I mean. They do take up a shitload less space, which is a pretty big advantage, though.
I prefer paper as an experience, but there are absolutely ways that (e.g.) a Kindle can be superior.
* Control of text size * Weight
I forget what it was, but at some point I was excitedly reading a new hardback -- and found it so heavy to read in bed that I bought the Kindle edition in addition to the paper one. This also applies for travel, doubly so.