Benny Profane is killer.
The art theft bit is great too but the constant self referencing and jumping about pissed me off. Some gratuitous (I thought) rape stuff in the colonial bit too - I understood the point being made but it was hard to read.
Anon, you’ve probably read the Red Riding stuff from David Peace but have you read any of his Tokyo books? He’s done 2 and the final one comes out next year. The second book in the trilogy is called Occupied City and is phenomenal.
I haven’t no - I read GB84 too but never got round to the Tokyo ones - will check them out.
On the subject of Tokyo books, @anonymity/@hugo, just read a book called Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada which seems all too relevant at the moment with the anniversary of the Fukushima disaster as well as the economic shift of countries such as China who are now looking inward, in addition to nationalism being rife across the world.
The essence of the book is an old man’s guilt coming to terms with a contaminated (in actuality, but metaphorically too) landscape where Japan has essentially cut off ties from the rest of the world, and how he mourns the present internalised surroundings with limited opportunities for the young because of the ineptitude and neglect of his contemporaries.
Quality stuff.
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That sounds great.
The Occupied City book I mentioned is about a bank robbery where a guy posed as a doctor during the US occupation and told everyone they needed a vaccine as there was an outbreak of something, he poisoned and killed everyone in the bank and then robbed it. But it’s widely speculated that the wrong person went to prison for it, an artist who was forced into a confession. It’s a true story.
‘Hyperion’ is a great sci fi, Snurp.
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Yes that’s next on my list! I’m away for a couple of weeks and it’ll be waiting for me when I arrive back home.
From my list I read these ones so far:
The Man in the High Castle - Found it hard to get into, didn’t finish. Maybe I’ll try again later. Preferred Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep (which is what Blade Runner is based on)
Stranger in a Strange Land - Martian brought back to earth, special martian powers, fitting into society on earth.
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Post apocalyptic book about a technology focused catholic order trying to prevent mankind nuking itself to death over and over again. One of the first I read, it got me hooked.
Starship Troopers - You’ve all seen the movie, the book is more serious, a few fascist ideologies but great action. I think it was pretty controversial when it came out.
A Case of Consciense - Catholic priest surveys another inhabited planet, ethical conundrum ensues. It was alright.
Mars Trilogy - About the process of settling on and terraforming Mars. A lot of people don’t like it as it goes into SOOOO much detail. It can be hard work to read but it’s extremely interesting and very plausible technology compared to a lot of other sci fi
Ender’s Game - Total adrenaline rush
Neuromancer - Cool cyberpunk atmosphere but a bit meh
Foundation Trilogy - Was ok, interesting at first but found it a bit contrived. Asimov’s writing is so easy to read though, so it keeps you absorbed
Rendezvous with Rama - Same guy who wrote 2001. Similar atmosphere to 2001, epic “Visuals” really well described.
Flowers for Algernon - Amazing concept, made me cry. They should study it in school, everyone would have so much more empathy.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Really cool, colony on the moon fighting for independence from Earth, building anarchist society
Babel-17 - Hard to get into but very interesting concept, all about how linguistics can change the way the mind works
Dune - Epic, everyone should read.
This is IPOI btw krill!
Edit, soz for formatting
Ah nice one, I have a bunch of good sci fi books to lend you. Give me a shout when you are back from Dubai and i’ll bring a few out for you.
I recommend ‘The Doomed City’ by the Strugatsky Bros.
It’s a thinly veiled conversation about soviet communism, set in the future/past/alternate reality. Banned until after Yeltsin’s time. It’s worth a read.
Having considered Our Band to be the last great writings on those bands, I’m looking forward to this a lot. Nothing strange about this being coffee table anyway, they toured with a band of kids ten years ago.
That looks like it’d be worth a good ol’ look.
All this talk of ‘Our Band’ reminds me: is everyone digging the Meat Puppets new lp, with the OG lineup again? They sound just like the Meat Puppets used to, but more grown up, and a bit countryfied. Good stuff.
Happens to the best of them, doesn’t it? I was never into Meat Puppets, seemed a bit… Predictable? Nice?
looking for something new so that ‘our band…’ is next on the list.
cheers guys.
Whoa whoa whoa, predictable? Not the Meat Puppets surely, they went on some mad side roads and wacky diversions to get where they ended up. Hit and miss yes, predictable no.
“Nice”, however… yes definitely. Proper harmless. Just in it for the tunes and the drugs and a good time. Quite a change from most of their SST labelmates. You can be forgiven for not really caring though, I guess…
I think that’s it. If they’d been on Homestead or something I’d have understood, although still probably not liked them, but I think that’s it - felt wrong having them amongst the SST (other) bands.
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Totally, and that’s fair enough. I must confess to not paying them much attention until all the Nirvana fans heard Kurt say they were his faves. Then i did a lot of catching up, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
A friend put ‘Oh Me’ off Meat Puppets II on a mixtape back in the late 80s. I love that album.
Have you seen the Blind Eye Sees All video? They were so far out at that time.
Just realised that Meat Puppets aren’t even in ‘Our Band…’. I’m tripping. Apologies all round.
Weird. I wonder whose chapter it was I skipped then…
