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20 days ago

Do you have any hot slop recs? I am going on my honeymoon soon but really struggle with focused reading while drinking. I'm curious if anyone has recommendations for decent beach reads

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15 days ago

I read Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedies on my honeymoon in Hawaii it rocked

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19 days ago

Luv me Carl Hiaasen, simple as. Only one I've returned to recently is Strip Tease, which is great, but I also remember liking Stormy Weather and Tourist Season.

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19 days ago

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin❤️ it’s not slop but it is fun and sexy

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19 days ago

Congratulations! I don't know if it counts as hot slop, but when I am drunk I like to read Dashiell Hammett.

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19 days ago

He elevates the genre to a whole other level

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19 days ago

I was at the beach a few weeks ago and read Out - Natsuo Kirino. very fun thriller and I got so into it that I got badly sunburnt while reading LOL

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19 days ago

I've read Out twice! Pretty good, though it kind of falls apart in the last 50 pages or so. Someone on this site just reviewed a different Kirino novel too. I think reading crime novels is a great way to get a handle on other cultures, since they inherently deal with law which is the structure of a society and tend to dispel any lingering idealism. For instance, it's a lot easier to get misty-eyed over Spring Snow than Out or In the Miso Soup.

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17 days ago

should I finally read spring snow? I put it on my kindle a year ago now, and I also loved the other mishima I've read, but I just can't bring myself to start it for some reason.

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17 days ago

Yeah I'd recommend it, prob the best thing I've read by Mishima

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20 days ago

If you like crime, I'd buy anything from Hard Case Publishing. They reprint mysteries alongside new stories. I particularly like Donald Westlake (he also went by Richard Stark). It's premium slop.

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20 days ago

I think Ishiguro is a good beach read. His books are a little depressing but they are sentimental enough to make you feel something. Also I'm going to be crucified for this but I did ENJOY reading Sally Rooney. She sucks but I don't regret going through her books. FINAL ANSWER: Normal People by Sally Rooney and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro.

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20 days ago

Why would you be crucified for liking Sally Rooney? Man, people here kind of suck if they make you feel like that about an author. She's great.

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20 days ago

Sally Rooney sucks. This is when I make fun of you for calling her 'great.' She's an awful writer.

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20 days ago

Her head is full of jellybeans and her visage is the mask of a goblin. If 'great' is Sally Rooney then we live in opposite land. I'd rather read the packaging on a six pack of toilet paper than her 'writing'. And I'd rather wipe with Normal People.

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19 days ago

Cool it with the Hibernophobia

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19 days ago

Thank you shitehead. With such a fine and eloquent name, you truly are the last standing pinnacle of taste and culture today. I would like to tell you though that trying to be Naked Lunch levels of disgusting is an easy thing to achieve. Anybody can talk about showing paper up their ass and taking it out like it's a paper tissue box. The reason one doesn't is because it achieves no value. A person who has true taste and doesn't try to undercut an argument by proudly standing as an opposition would know that the more things you are able to enjoy, the better your life is. Enjoying Burroughs and Orwell is all and well, but you can't claim taste if you can't FIND enjoyment in other things.

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19 days ago

If you're just a person who consumes whatever media and only judges its quality based on how good it makes you feel, then you are not engaging with art. Saying "I felt X when Y character died" is not good. Sally Rooney is not good. It filled my stomach like a fast food meal. I like her but she is trash. Keep your identity and person out of art. Orwell also sucks btw. As does Burroughs.

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19 days ago

I am fascinated by what you mean by "engaging with art" because if it's not how good it makes you feel or what message you take away from it then I am very confused what else could it be?

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19 days ago

Specifically, how YOU feel. Still life paintings are a good example of this. Look up Red Peppers by Félix Vallotton. You cannot appreciate that painting in your current mode because a plate of peppers will not evoke any euphoria or tragedy within you. You won't be able to attach your identity to a plate of peppers. The beauty is in the vision, the execution and the aesthetics of its culminating parts. Every element, from the colour, the lighting and the texture within the empty space, makes it beautiful. Vallotton doesn't use sensationalism or sentimentality. Point at a single part of that painting and tell me how it's ugly; you can't. Take away the bright colours and flashing lights from Rooney's novels, and she is nothing. As I said before, look at the culminating parts of a work. Her characters are shallow, their actions are tropes, and the writing is plain bad. It makes you feel good? Cool. But it's ugly as hell.

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19 days ago

I looked up the painting. One of the great tragedies in my life is that when I was in New York, the MET was closed so I didn't get to go in. I looked up the painting. Very pretty, and it was painted by skilled hands. But it does evoke a story within me. The way he depicted the peppers was so shiny and the colours that bleed from red to yellow into green. It's realism that makes me go back in time to my grandparents. The older table design and the knife that's so tool-like and not some designer element, the white colours of the walls and tones that are reminders of a kitchen without actually having to see anything of it. It's a different depiction compared to Edward Weston who's photography aimed to show eroticism towards the peppers or even how cookbooks always depict peppers as having one colour and being less reflective, almost giving a plastic-like feel. What I am saying here is that that pepper isn't perfect. But it perfectly achieves what it wanted to. My parting question for you, because I will read your answer but I feel I have said all I wanted, is. What do you think all that skill with light, colour, structure and all the other technical skills that are used in the creation of a piece of art, is for? Because if I wanted perfect symmetry I would draw a square, not try to make a dove symmetric. Technical skills are a crutch, a welcome one, to help the artist express what they desire. Being good at it does not necessarily mean you will be a great artist, the way that being bad at it does not mean you are a bad one. Technical skill is required for the smoothness of delivering a message. But different techniques are available for an artist to do so. Some opt for perfect clarity, telling a story with a crisp message, the way let's say the show House of Cards does, or you can make a piece that is not focused at all and deliberately leaves things hanging and half-finished like the show Atlanta or Sonny Boy. You look for value in art, not expect from it.

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19 days ago

To answer your question, as I mentioned in my previous post, it's about vision. It's the artist's vision of life and how he executes that through feelings, impacts, contrasts, and colour. When I look at a Greek statue, I don't remind myself of an ex-boyfriend and feel sad. I look at the statue for the beauty contained within it. Would the painting be bad if you never visited your grandparent's kitchen? Is your entire enjoyment of the art hinging on sentimental memories? Beauty exists outside of yourself and your identity. Respectfully, that painting has nothing to do with you, and it's not about you. Without you and your memories, the painting would still be beautiful.

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19 days ago

So you read page one of my bookshelf and concluded that I'm a fan of Orwell? Let's ignore what a bitch move your attempt to ad hom is for a moment, that's just not how bookshelves work. But back to the main point and there just is no argument. Rooney is a bag of crap hoisted up by malevolent forces because she's openly communist. This is what's known as A FALSE BILL OF GOODS. Any random two-bit romance schlock writer excels her both in style and story structure. It's funny that you censure me for having a negative opinion of a writer while simultaneously trying to degrade my ability because I swear sometimes. And we both know it's because I have a cock instead of a cunt. You speak like you have the latter. I made a valid criticism against a terrible writer and you tried to make it personal, because you feel I have no right to criticize the golden gash. Well you don't have the high ground, Anakin. And you have no taste, either.

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19 days ago

I am not replying to this. I have a penis. A very big one. The ladies love it. I hope you will find compassion because it is clear it was not ever given to you. I am sorry for insulting you, I am a human too, everything I stand for I will only do 90% of the time. If you want to talk later, I am always open, but this level of hatred towards something is not healthy and if you want to start fresh, you are welcome to. Hope you find peace.

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19 days ago

Ah the "who hurt you sweatty" response. Almost as uninspired as the dreck you read.

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18 days ago

Wifey will be reading the new Rooneyslop so I'll need something similarly (but oppositely) gendered. I do like Ishiguro and I suppose that's exactly the kind of recommendation I'm looking for--I read Remains of the Day on a cabin trip and Klara and the Sun (mostly) on the beach.

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18 days ago

Have you read ASOIAF? I burned through those books when I was a teenager and loved them. I revisited them recently and I can assure you that it is definitely slop but it's fun. Might have to extend your holiday if you want to read it all though. That being said the first book is a bit slow so you might not want to start it on holiday. It's an idea anyway.