CP LITERATURE DRAFT - (Rapid Fire Free For All Round)

[WindomURL]

Originally Posted by Ro

The Carnies select with their 2nd round pick, in European Lit, the second best book I've ever read:

The Tin Drum
by Gunter Grass

Wow Ro!
I'm very impressed.

This was almost my Movie Draft's WAR pick. If it wasn't for my need to have a Kubrick movie in my roster (Spartacus), I would have chosen the 1979 Volker Schlondorff directed adaptation.

I joked around in the workshop thread that I never read books.
This is one of the only books I've bothered to completely read in decades.

Well done!

[Ro]

Originally Posted by WindomURL

This was almost my Movie Draft's WAR pick. If it wasn't for my need to have a Kubrick movie in my roster (Spartacus), I would have chosen the 1979 Volker Schlondorff directed adaptation.

It's strange, but my two picks thus far in this draft (Catch 22 & The Tin Drum) were both made into feature films, and I have seen neither. I have no aversion to seeing them, it's not as if they would tarnish the books or whatever, I just haven't felt the need to see them. I'm not a "the book is always better" guy either- each are different in their own way and I think it's a waste of time to over analyze the comparisons most of the time.

I've heard The Tin Drum is a much better movie than Catch 22 is, and I would like to see it sometime- your recommendation might've just spurred me on there.

And maybe your post will spur others on to reading The Tin Drum. Like you suggest, it's fantastically good, and unlike anything I've ever read. Thanks for the kudos!

[rogermexico]

I think the Catch 22 movie is my favorite film adaptation. Alan Arkin is perfect as Yossarian. They really nail the mood of the book - it's funny, then becomes less and less funny and more and more serious as it progresses.

(ETA: I haven't seen The Tin Drum film)

[Antithesis]

In the second round of our fine draft, I am glad to select in the American Lit category (gosh, I hope this fits here!), Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.



I love this book; the themes have really seemed to hit home, between the criticism of consumerism as a way of life, through to the examination of masculinity in our culture. I also happen to think it's a darn fine story as well.

[Aeneas]

I also have hope that my selection fits the category...

I choose in Graphic Novel...



Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

While it has also been published sans pictures, it was originally a "book with pictures" in his own words.

I own no other graphic novels, and after seeing the farcical movie "300" I really have no desire to purchase any graphic novels.

However after seeing, and being delighted by, the movie Stardust; I had to go to the source. Helps that my brother in law's brother (what does that make him to me?) owns a comic store. Anyway, bought the graphic novel this year and enjoyed reading it.

Just thought I'd better fill this category now, since I really only had one option.

Stardust (1998) is the first solo prose novel by Neil Gaiman. It is usually published as a novel with illustrations by Charles Vess. Stardust has a different tone and style from most of Gaiman's prose fiction, being consciously written in the tradition of pre-Tolkien English fantasy, following in the footsteps of authors such as Lord Dunsany. It is concerned with the adventures of a young man from the village of Wall, which borders the magical land of Faerie.
In 2007, a film based on the book was released to generally positive reviews.[1] Gaiman has also occasionally made references to writing a sequel, or at least another book concerning the village of Wall.[2]




Sorry for the delay, but I did check the computer repeatedly Friday, then of course the moves are made after I am busy with family and sleep! I suppose I should have sent troutman the pick!

[Jagger]

Please move on without me. Lots of personal stuff going on right now. I'll pick later.

[Jagger]

Ok I've got some time now (1:55am!)

For our 2nd round choice I choose a novel that you either love or hate by an author you either love or hate. I'm on the positive side, mostly, of the argument.

Representing our Mass/Pulp Fiction category Team Babel Fish chooses

"The Stand"
by Stephen King

I know I know there are those out there that hate this novel and King too but I read this novel when I was still fairly young and it really struck a chord with me. Still does in fact. I've liked a fair few King novels and hated some too it must be said. This one remains the one I remember best.

I like this portion of the review from Amazon.com.

"In 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookstores and beg them not to buy it."

The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil.


Here's a little Wiki:

In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes about the origins of The Stand at some length. One source was Patty Hearst's case. The original idea was to create a novel about the episode because "it seemed that only a novel might really succeed in explaining all the contradictions".
The author also mentions George R. Stewart's novel Earth Abides, which describes the odyssey of one of the last human survivors after the population is decimated by a plague, as one of the main inspirations:

With my Patty Hearst book, I never found the right way in . . . and during that entire six-week period, something else was nagging very quietly at the back of my mind. It was a news story I had read about an accidental CBW spill in Utah. (. . . ) This article called up memories of a novel called Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.

(. . .) and one day while sitting at my typewriter, (. . . ) I wrote—just to write something: The world comes to an end but everybody in the SLA is somehow immune. Snake bit them. I looked at that for a while and then typed: No more gas shortages. That was sort of cheerful, in a horrible sort of way. [2]

The Stand was also planned by King as an epic Lord of the Rings-type story in a contemporary American setting:

For a long time—ten years, at least—I had wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Then . . . after my wife and kids and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, I saw a 60 Minutes segment on CBW (chemical-biological warfare). I never forgot the gruesome footage of the test mice shuddering, convulsing, and dying, all in twenty seconds or less. That got me remembering a chemical spill in Utah, that killed a bunch of sheep (these were canisters on their way to some burial ground; they fell off the truck and ruptured). I remembered a news reporter saying, 'If the winds had been blowing the other way, there was Salt Lake City.' This incident later served as the basis of a movie called Rage, starring George C. Scott, but before it was released, I was deep into The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie,' according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas. [3]

[JerzeeGirl]

I'm with you on this one Jagger - one of the best of King's books and a superb story that is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Excellent pick!

[jammies]

Originally Posted by JerzeeGirl

I'm with you on this one Jagger - one of the best of King's books and a superb story that is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Excellent pick!

Seconded - far and away the best of King's books.

[Ronald Pagan]

I'm making this pick because I think it will be gone by next round seeing how all the children's lit is being gobbled up. Frankly, I can't believe no one has picked it yet.

For his second pick, Ronald Pagan is proud to select under the Children's Literature category:

Winnie the Pooh and the House on Pooh Corner



Quite simply this book or collection of stories is timeless.

They are my favourite children's stories by far. Pooh is the most identifiable character to children and the supporting cast all unapologetically represent moods, ideas, and idiosyncracies to be felt and introduced throughout your life.

Ultimately banal yet fundamentally relevant, these stories whisk you away to a place where being a child is not just a amusing purposeless trist but to a land where ideas matter, responsibility rewards, and of course, the where the most confident and honest have the most fun. There is no judgement at Pooh corner only sincerity, curiosity, and growth.

Incredible series and it has spawned a litany of critical examinations and praise.

[Burninator]

For my second pick of the draft, I select in the Science Fiction category, Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson.


1992

Set in a world where the internet has evolved into the "metaverse" (virtual reality internet), the mafia owns the pizza business, and corporations reign supreme.

At the beginning of the novel the main character, Hiro Protagonist, discovers the name of a new pseudo-narcotic, "Snow Crash", being offered at a posh Metaverse nightclub. Hiro's friends and fellow hackers fall victim to Snow Crash's effects, which are apparently unique in that they are experienced in the Metaverse and also in the physical world. Hiro uses his computer hacking, cognition, and sword fighting skills to uncover the mystery of "Snow Crash"; his pursuit takes the reader on a tour of the Sumerian culture, a fully instantiated laissez-faire society, and a virtual meta-society patronized by financial, social, and intellectual elites. As the nature of Snow Crash is uncovered, Hiro finds that self-replicating strings of information can affect objects in a uniform manner even though they may be broadcast via diverse media, a realization that reinforces his chosen path in life.

Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it references history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, and philosophy.

I thought this book was great. I don't read a lot of science fiction, and apparently this is "cyberpunk" which I think is close enough and is just a subset of SF. Anyone who is familiar with Neal Stephenson's work will enjoy this, as will fans of William Gibson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Nice choice--and yeah, cyberpunk definitely works for sf. Stephenson is great.

[driveway]

Any author with the balls to name his main character "Hiro Protagonist" is awesome by definition. Good pick.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

With the second pick MMM and the Three Mustardeers select in the category of Science - A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson



As the title suggests, bestselling author Bryson (In a Sunburned Country) sets out to put his irrepressible stamp on all things under the sun. As he states at the outset, this is a book about life, the universe and everything, from the Big Bang to the ascendancy of Homo sapiens. "This is a book about how it happened," the author writes. "In particular how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since." What follows is a brick of a volume summarizing moments both great and curious in the history of science, covering already well-trod territory in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, chemistry, physics and so on. Bryson relies on some of the best material in the history of science to have come out in recent years. This is great for Bryson fans, who can encounter this material in its barest essence with the bonus of having it served up in Bryson's distinctive voice. But readers in the field will already have studied this information more in-depth in the originals and may find themselves questioning the point of a breakneck tour of the sciences that contributes nothing novel. Nevertheless, to read Bryson is to travel with a memoirist gifted with wry observation and keen insight that shed new light on things we mistake for commonplace. To accompany the author as he travels with the likes of Charles Darwin on the Beagle, Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton is a trip worth taking for most readers.

[RougeUnderoos]

After considerable hemming and hawing (and occasional harrumphing) my pick is the novel "No Great Mischief" by Alistair Macleod in the Can Lit category.



It was first published in 1999 and tells the long story of a Scottish immigrant family that move to Canada (Cape Breton) and, well, they, you know, live. Have kids, work, die, eat, move away, all that kind of stuff that real humans do.

On the back of the book Alice Munro said this... "You will find scenes from this majestic novel burned into your mind forever".

Now I might not put it quite that way, but that sums it up for me. It's been several years since I read it and there are still scenes burned into my mind. I still remember what everyone looked like (to me). Just thinking about a couple parts makes me kind of cold. It was cold in the olden days, dontcha know?

There are maybe a couple others in this category that I could have picked that I like just as much or more, but everyone's heard of them (old Jewish guy with cigar, frizzy haired woman). This one isn't so famous so I figured I'd throw it out there.

And that, my friends, is the start of the third round.

[sadora]

Team papercuts is happy to select as their 3rd round choice, in the Graphic Novel category, J. Michael Straczynski's:

RISING STARS



The story follows the lives of 113 people who were in utero when a mysterious "flash" hit their town. As the children grow up, they demonstrate different supernatural powers. Straczynski approaches the story from a real world perspective. What good is being invulnerable if you can't do anything else? How do you get paid if you want to be a costumed crime fighter? What if you just want to be normal? How does the government protect normal people without trampling on the civil rights of those with powers?

[octothorp]

I'm going to keep the graphic novel category going and pick Art Spiegelman's landmark pulitzer-prize-winning series, Maus.



It tells the story of Art Spiegelman's father, a Aushwitz survivor, as well as the difficult relationship between father and son. Spiegelman explores clever use of anthropomorphism throughout the story, and simple, elemental drawings. The narrative flips through time from the concentration camp to through to the modern day, and stops in between. Far from sentimentalizing his father, Spiegelman portrays him as difficult, beligerent, and occasionally racist. It's a very personal and moving work in both story arcs that it deals with.

This isn't the first graphic novel of its style, but it definitely took the adult non-fiction graphic novel mainstream, and in my mind it's deserving of all the accolades that it received.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Dang it, octothorp! That's the whole reason I picked up an extra graphic novel category!

[Circa89]

My third round selection in the Category of American Literature is
The Sun Also Rises.
Ernest Hemingway

PublisherCharles Scribner's Sons (USA) Publication dateJune 1926 (USA) & 1927 (UK)
Plot Summary by Wiki
[edit] Plot summary

The novel explores the lives and values of the so-called "Lost Generation," chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual fiesta and bull fights. Barnes' genitals had been mutilated as the result of an injury incurred during World War I; he is subsequently unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley, though his anatomy still compels him to be attracted to her. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip to Burguete, deep within the Spanish hills, with companion Bill Gorton, another veteran of the war. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.

There are a great deal of choices in the American Lit Category so I didn't want to pick too early but I had to have this on my Roster. I understand Hemingway is a love him or hate him kind of author but put me down in the love him category. I was living in the south of France when I read this book and therefore it may have affected me more than if I was in North America at the time of reading. I loved the "man's man" feel of the book, the gutteral no nonsense approach to writing. the sparse use of language and the abrupt approach to story telling really hit home with me. Like the Old Man and The Sea I really enjoy Ernest Hemingway's storytelling abilities. When the book is over you aren't looking for the sequel, the story is complete unto itself.

I am reading For Whom the Bell Tolls right now and I hope I enjoy it as much as the other novels I have read of his

[Ronald Pagan]

Good picks on the Maus and Sun also rises. Definetely were on my list.