The Literature Thread.

[Grind]

My favourite book is Facebook

[Taiko]

Yeah I remember reading this Stephen King short story years ago that had me really buzzed out. Can't remember the name of it but it was all about this really thick fog rolling in to the town where the main character lived. He saw it coming from ages away and thought it looked a bit weird but didn't think much more of it. When it hit he was in the supermarket and it was so thick you couldn't see more than a few feet out the window. And then when people left the shop they got mutilated and ripped apart by all these crazy monsters in the fog! They had to camp out in the supermarket and do all this buzzy shit to try survive. Wasn't exactly the greatest novel ever written but was a page turner for sure. I wonder how many books that dudes written? Over a hundred maybe?

 

That was called "The Mist", and was made into an so-so film (directed by the same guy that turned a few other little known Stephen King books like the Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile into films). It was decent in that it created a nice sense of tension, but was pretty mindless in every other regard.

The Mist is one of the best horror/thrillers to come out of mainstream Hollywood in years imo. And, if you can, watch the b/w version.

[Dold]

My favourite book is Facebook

 

no teef required

 

[sam b aka Antic]

Dark Star Safari By Paul Theroux.

 

Dark star safari is a novel with a strong autobiographical streak written by Paul Theroux. The book charts the authors trip across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town travelling the entire journey by land, sea and train. Picking up the book all I knew about the author was that he is the father of British television presenter Louis Theroux but having never read any of his books before I did not know what to expect.

 

I really enjoyed Dark Star Safari, I found it to be a very personal and endearing memoir of an African expedition. Viewing the African landscape through Paul Theroux's lens was an oddly surprising experience, particularly because the description of it had little to do with the rise and fall of hillsides, the shape of trees, the path of waterways or the movement of animals. Paul Theroux's guided tour is one that charts the lay of the social, political, financial, racial, governmental and historical land before mentioning the flora and fauna that many would consider to be the cornerstone of a good African yarn. Having lived and taught there in his younger days his perspective is valuable not only for the care and consideration he has for the place and it's people but also for the often damming comparisons he is able to draw between Africa's stagnation from then, to now. The book was first released in 2003 so maybe not “now”, now, but still...

 

Overall his perception of Africa's progress could be summed up with the statement, “slim to none.” However it is not this conclusion that makes the book fascinating, rather, it is the way that he arrives at this conclusion that gives the book it's charm and ultimately lends weight to his argument. Travelling light he largely shuns the comfort and security that his skin pigment and financial stability could secure him. He travels by overloaded buses, trains and cars and experiences the places as a travelling (albeit white), local might. His interest in the areas he travels through is palpable and is evidenced by a broad knowledge of the many different historical factors that have influenced the decay and decrepitude that he sees around him.

 

But it is the human element of this tale that I enjoyed the most. Mr Theroux goes to great lengths to track down people who he may get a good story from or who may offer a more balanced perspective to an issue he is investigating. He comments a lot on other writers, drawing comparisons between the Africa Hemingway or Joseph Conrad depicted and the Africa he sees and experiences. There is a remarkable frankness to his communication with the reader. He celebrates his sixtieth birthday during the course of the novel and displays sadness about the slow inevitability of old age. It is a topic that is returned to throughout the book and hints at a sadness or regret within our faithful, sometimes cranky Narrator.

 

One particularly interesting viewpoint that I had never considered before is raised over the issue of humanitarian aid in Africa. Theroux feels that aid does more to harm Africa as a whole and that far from lifting it from poverty it cements it further into a cycle of corruption, mismanagement of resources and further decay. A good point is made when he observes that most aid in Africa is planned by foreigners, and implemented by foreigners with little or no consultation or communication with the people who it is meant to be helping.

 

With a continent as large as Africa and the well researched, passionate and opinionated Paul Theroux as a guide it would be simplistic of me to believe I could sum up Dark Star Safari in a short communication like this, however I can certainly recount the overall experience I had of reading it. While it took some time for me to really get into and I found myself reading it at a slower pace than I normally do I was drawn into the vivid and detailed account of this unusual, exciting and at times dangerous trip. I learnt a lot more about Africa, it's turbulent and often violent history and the deeply entrenched nature of many of it's problems. Paul Theroux may be (and probably is) right in his assessment of Africa as the bleak, dangerous, often backwards place he lovingly paints it to be, but it is not the facts, figures and research that makes his perspective compelling. It is his dogged determination to chase down unique people with unique stories and to recount them to the reader in passages of simple, verbose yet clear language that paints a larger picture than the space the passage occupies on the page should allow.

[perceptualChaos]

tldr sorry Sam lol! I actually got given that book as a gift several years ago but never read it... think I gave it away for free when I came to Japan

 

Check out the BBC top 100 list - it's pretty good.

[sam b aka Antic]

Ha ha true! Yeah it took me a bit to get into it but I'm glad I finished it. Definitely wasn't super easy read but is a sweet book all the same.