THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: TVC15 on December 17, 2007, 02:53:15 AM
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I started Lolita last night. What a banger of a start. It has one of the most gorgeous openings I can recall reading in recent memory. I can't believe english wasn't Nabokov's first language.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palette to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
:o
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THIS PALE FIRE IS OUT OF PALE CONTROL
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THIS PALE FIRE IS OUT OF PALE CONTROL
About the opening to Lolita (stolen shamelessly from a blog):
“Princedom by the sea”- a quote from edgar allan poe’s poem “Anabelle Lee”. (goes on to say, “I was a child, and she was a child, in our kingdom by the sea.”
Humbert’s first love? Oh yeah. Annabelle Leigh.
And wait, of course one more layer, because Poe loved a 13 year old girl, just like humbert.
That is fucking awesome referencing. There is nothing in the book that indicates that is a Poe reference in the beginning. The only way you could know about that would be to be a Poe scholar or something, or at least be able to recite Poe poetry by memory.
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I got that reference but then Anabelle Lee is hardly advanced Poe studies, GUY
hell, if you remember that, The Raven, and the Cask of Amontillado you are like 90% of the way to Poe reference victory. Even his well-loved other works (Masque of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher) don't lend themselves as well to referencing
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I got that reference but then Anabelle Lee is hardly advanced Poe studies, GUY
Sorry, my english studies were focuses on writers that could actually write, meaning Poe took a back seat. I probably haven't read Poe since I was Lolita's age.
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well at the age I read a lot of Poe my favorite SF author was Asimov so clearly WRITING TALENT WAS NO PREREQUISITE TO ROCKING
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Emily Dickinson > Poe
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oh COME ON
that's low
Emily Dickinson is the second worst woman poet of all time (#1 is Sylvia "Pop'n Fresh" Plath)
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:o
I LOVE THE BELL JAR in a totally emo way. It is one of those repugnant Every 18 Year Old Reads It And Is Moved books, like the even more shitty On the Road, but I still find it pretty moving, mainly because Sylvia Plath's suicide after the book was completed makes it somewhat chilling.
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Honestly, what I hate most about Sylvia Plath is the way the cult of Sylvia has demonized her husband, Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes was awesome! He wrote non-shitty poems and The Iron Giant. Sylvia was totally crazy and would have killed herself no matter WHO her husband was!! FUK U SYLVIA
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Wait wait wait. . .you are only siding with Ted Hughes because he wrote a FUCKING CARTOON you like, aren't you? BE HONEST!
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NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe?
NO!!!!!!!!
I liked his poems too. Better than Sylvia
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My 18 Year Old Changed My World book was alwas Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, anyway, mr cartoon gay.
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actually I think the reason I chose Ted is because of the INCREDIBLY ham-fisted metaphors in Sylvia's poems where she was always like, oh my husband is a baby-raping Hitler. it was like Godwin's law with bad line breaks. I figured that whoever she was vilifying, I would have to take his side
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I am not very familiar with Plath's poetry. I believe I would think very highly of her even if I were though. I am very familiar with Joyce's typically horrible poetry, and I still worship him.
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I've never read Joyce's poetry, only Dubliners and Ulysses. I guess that's why I still think he's awesome!!!
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Read Portrait of the Artist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS TE BEST!!!!!
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oh wait I read that too. SORRY I forgot about it. honestly Dubliners was much more affecting to young bookfag Patel
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I think very highly of Dubliners as well, but I try not to compare a book of short stories to a novel, mainly because I am a rational human being that refrains from comparisons of two unlike things.
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I wasn't comparing them! I was just saying which one ROCKED MY FACE and which one was all, "yeah that was good"
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I wasn't comparing them! I was just saying which one ROCKED MY FACE and which one was all, "yeah that was good"
You clearly lack the soul of an artiste! Probably why you have chosen giant robots over suicidal poetry writing waifwhores!
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You clearly lack the soul of an artiste! Probably why you have chosen giant robots over suicidal poetry writing waifwhores!
but...but I love Tori!
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You clearly lack the soul of an artiste! Probably why you have chosen giant robots over suicidal poetry writing waifwhores!
but...but I love Tori!
Much like Tori, y kant u reed?
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Pale Fire update:
ARRRRGH PALE FIRE MAKES ME SO MAD
THE POEM IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND ALL KINBOTE CAN THINK ABOUT IS HIS STUPID DUMBASS COUNTRY
F U KINBOTE
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<3 you will learn to love Kinbote
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I am quite skilled at voluntary Stockholming