Grass, no did not give up on Davy, enjoyed it very much. See my 9/6-9/7 posts. We can still trade off when your ready, give me an e-mail. I like Steinbeck too. If you've never read Dumas' Three Muskateers, you should try that. Its one of my favorites of all time. I'm liking Count of Monte Cristo, a little slow going and your right, its hard getting used to reality again.

Ahh yes, I see. "Good, not great" hmmm. Pangborn was a closet homosexual and in a lot of his writing you see him trying to work out this inner turmoil. There's often this "outsider looking in" quality to his material, especially when it comes to the battle of the sexes. I've read a story by him that's very similar to RB's "The Rocketman" with the twist being that the rocketman is gay. That story is called "The Night Wind". It was kinda disturbing and made me feel awkward. His novel A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS had the same effect on me.

Bot/Grassy, interesting dialogue here. However, since I have been given the gift of nitpicking, and since the orthographic nit I want to pick seems to be a recurring one, I must offer the following: "...when your ready..." should be "you're" (contraction of "you are"), and "...Dumas' Three Muskateers" should be "Musketeers" (soldiers armed with muskets, though I believe we only ever encounter these three with swords).
No offense meant, you know - I'm much harder on myself!
By the way, talking of Steinbeck, I'll be playing on Cannery Row Friday!

You remind me of a leprechaun who cannot pass up a pair of dirty shoes without stopping to clean them.

Yo robo weez gotta chat like this. c-ya L8R. That'll keep the lil' laddy busy.

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 09-13-2006).]

Begorra!

Hey, Cannery Row is near enough to L.A. for a little sidetrip. C'mon, the clock is tick-tick-ticking! Make your pilgrimage and "Go west, young man"! Load up the truck wicho belongins, da mutt rides up front wichoo, set gramma up top on her rocker, and GO!

So, yer not from around these parts, are ye?
Cannery row is about an hour's drive from where I live. L.A. is about 5 hours!

Oh yes, I am a native Californian. I thought you lived in Florida, for some reason. I've been to Cannery Row many times. We used to have our family reunions in Big Sur about halfway between our SoCal and NorCal contingents. So, you're also up north? I'm in Sac-Town. Ever been to Solvang?

Where to start, where to start! That little string of banter betwixt ye two had me busting out laughin. Seriously! B-Two, considering the context of these boards, I don't think we have to adhere to The Oxford American Language Guide. On a somewhat more deeper personal level, let me add that you are not my daddy, teacher, or mentor, so please in the future refrain from nitpicking, as you so eloquently put it, my spelling and language structure. I feel manners are equally important, of which I consider it an infraction to consistently point out others errors in grammar, they may not have had the advantages you received. That said, I do consider you a friend, and I would say the same to any friend. If it somehow makes you feel better, it can only be shallow and momentary. The true way to feel good inside is always strive to compliment the other person.

Grass, regarding Davy, I really did find it very enjoyable. It just wasn't on the level with some of the others I have read lately. I think he relied a little too much on the shock value of sex to charge his story. Ray and others have only to infer it very briefly and it works much more beautifully. How are you liking Man in the High Castle? Any better than before? Getting back to your statement about not being able to read classic literature after sci-fi, I think your wrong there. No matter what genre it is, I think if the writer is skilled enough, the story will sweep you away, and you beleive it no matter how unreal or fantastic the situation may be. It, for me, was like that reading Way Station. At first, I was like, this is a little far fetched, then as I read further, I was swept away into the story. I wish you would read Three Musketeers, its one of my favorite books. Moby Dick blew my mind too. Happy reading to ye!

Getting tired, see ye phantasmic peebles later...

JUST GOT BACK...

from Ray at Encino/Tarzana Library!

Great Crowd!

Ray was is good form...

Will post picture tomorrow (14th)...

have to run...(yeah, I know the hour.......)

No way, Robo. I'm telling you that this has happened to me and many other folks I know of. We had a discussion about it at Asimov's a year or two ago. No matter how good the author, there's this thing pulling at the back of my brain, telling me, "this is crap--boring, unimaginative crap and a complete waste of time" but I know this can't be so. My mind is all screwed up, because I can see in my hands I'm holding Hemingway or Twain or Chandler or London. Surely THEY are not crap! It must be me. It's some strange phenomena which happens to some people (perhaps not you) after reading SF exclusively for a very long time.

Oh, hey almost forgot. Pangborn and DAVY, was it underage sex? I think I remember someone warning me about that. Pangborn definately seems to have had some issues regarding sex. In MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS there's this weird pedephile type of thing going on and I just couldn't take it after a while. It's between a man/alien and a little girl. I only had 30-40 pages left when I just had to put the thing down. Then in that story "The Night Wind" there's another very strange sexually charged thingy going on between a man and a boy. Weird stuff. KarlB over at Asimov's is a big Pangborn fan and after I pointed all this out to him it kinda hurt his feelers a bit, I think. Personally I think Pangborn was molested as a child, in fact I find it rather obvious based on his apparent fascination with the subject.

I can see what your talking about in that going from sci-fi to classic fiction is a more regimented thing to do. I am finding that to be true while reading Count of Monte Cristo. Much more slow going and there is a tug to put the book down. Its the pace and type of writing, but I'm sticking to it and enjoying it quite a lot. It seems like I breeze through science fiction, probably too fast. To switch is not impossible, you just have to work at it. But it probably is impossible if you don't want to or aren't ready to. Davy did deal with underage sex in a few parts. It was flashbacks. The whole story is told in first person and there is three main time frames weaved throughout it. It didn't rock my world or anything, it was somewhat erotic to me. Morgan's Altered Carbon was much more graphic and did rock my world in a few parts. I'm not saying that I didn't like Davy though, just that it wasn't a classic like some I've read. What Steinbeck did you read recently?

I blew through OF MICE AND MEN in two days. It's a small book but that is still very fast for me. I just couldn't put it down. I read it in High School (as an assignment) many moons ago and didn't really care too much for it. The rebel in me hates being told that I MUST read something almost as much as being told that I CAN'T read something.

Grassy,
Q: "So, you're also up north?"
A: Yup. Santa Cruz Mountains.

"I'm in Sac-Town."
I was very close to a family that lived on J street (I think).

Q: "Ever been to Solvang?"
A: Ya, sure, ya betcha. (I'm of Scandihoovian descent myself.)

Bot,
As I said, no offense meant. Only trying to help. Believe me, I'm aware of how annoying I am at times.

Have you read "Tortilla Flats"?
I can't recall if it's that or "Cannery Row" that has the frog-hunting scene, but it's hilarious.