Maureen’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

p.s. martyn, thanks for starting the topic. i love poe's poetry --except for the bells, i hate the bells.

Keith wrote: "... now, we know that poe was an aesthete, abhored allegory, but christ, that unmissable idea of one's conscience "walled up" but still very much there suggests that poe's obsessions got the better of him. i ask you FF-ers: do you think poe had a guilty conscience that "guided" his work, or did the supreme aesthete simply dazzle me with a calculated effect? "

hey keith! thanks for making me think about poe -- i haven't in a while, and he and i have had a long association. i'm going to go read the poetic principle again, and some of the other essays and stories, and come back to this. it's certainly an interesting question you pose though i don't know i would have characterized it as a "guilty conscience" so much as a highly insecure and resentful one. i have no doubt poe relished any story where he could demonstrate an act of getting even, of showing them.

while i want to refresh myself, and then come back to this, my gut says poe had very little control over anything in his life so even when he prescribed rules for literature, he would also flout them when it suited. i think a lot of what he wrote he thought would be marketable, but i think his talent shone through with what you term "the power of his effect", and that he could not manufacture that effect. i think he was too wasted out of his gourd, too out of control: lost, angry, and very sad about his life, about the people he could never hold onto, and i think the power of his hell came through to us in these gothic stories because on some level he understood them better. a. gordon pym is one of my least favourites -- i felt its length, and thought poe must have too, that he cranked it out. i suspect that the genre was harder for him to relate to, and that's why it didn't resonate for me as much.

p.s. i haven't bought it yet -- do you recommend any specific edition?

i'm in! moby dick is not required reading here in canada so i'd love to read it my favourite group! i do know it's a key novel for a lot of great writers. and i have read a lot of speculation about homo-eroticism in this book. :)

hugh just posted that link from the new yorker that swanny posted and reminded me we had this thread going at one point. i found the hornet's nest entry the worst of the lot (and yes, i'm aware he died, and there have been other people involved). as i noted in my review, i also really hated that monica figuerola, workout queen who doesn't want a man forever, but thinks she may be falling in love with blomkvist, even though she thinks he should work out more. goddamn she was annoying. :)

i used to have nyartholotep (we called him leppy for some reason) and cthulhu but i gave them away...

whoot! glad the peer pressure worked! :)

Slowrabbit wrote: "wasn't there a cheap trick song, "she's taut".."

i hope not, or there could be a copyright battle on my hands in the distant future. i just re-read this thread and enjoyed it all over again. thanks for reminding me it existed, patrick. :)

and in other word fun: i want to bolster my love for the word:

retrocity: a retro item that is an atrocity

also, the buxton family (as close as i can get to a family of my own) has been adding "bro" to everything. they now say "bro my god!" or for short, "bro M G", and are quite pleased with themselves. :)

Jodi wrote: "Hi. Maureen invited me. Ben introduced me to Maureen. Sort of. That's all I know for now. Hi."

hurray! welcome jodi! i still owe you an email -- it's half-finished! it's thanksgiving in canada so i have to eat lots of turkey! but expect to hear from me soon! and feel free to poke around in old threads, or let us know what you're reading in that thread. everybody's really friendly. :) mo/xo

Jcamilo wrote: "Wait,long? I must be losing my touch. Maybe now I will have to refuse a nobel.
Talking about it, i think this is my facebook, but I do not like anything there. http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile...."

the "long" has more to do with me not being here on goodreads as often as i should be, oro! it has nothing to do with your nobel-winning sense of humour. :P

Jcamilo wrote: "Patty wrote: "So Mario Vargas Llosa won. It's been a long time since I've read Aunt Julia and the script writer. I didn't particularly like it, but maybe it's time to try again. Any suggestions for..."

ha! oh, oro -- it's been too long since you made me laugh. michael just joined facebook and was looking for you... but i told him i didn't think you were on it but perhaps you are one of the 7467 people who "like" jorge luis borges on facebook, or the 9049 people who like "borges" and i just don't know it. :)

robert, yes, i did read the stand in high school, and actually found it infinitely more gripping. that said, his books are entirely too long and have been for some time. in recent years i have protested vehemently against the under-editing that keeps book fat so people get good value... so i don't think it's the form, necessarily, so much as the crappy writing. i'm tempted to start a thread on this to vent our spleen -- i'd love to know your final thoughts on the book.

and now back to bring it back: i have not found any of the mario vargas llosa books i have read to be over-long whatever their other failings might be. they are paced well, and the writing is tight. hurray for a story being told at a good clip! :)

patty! the one i liked the most was called Who Killed Palomino Molero? -- possibly because there was a mystery at the centre of it. the other ones i have read have a lot of weird sexy times in it.

i just got done reading what may be the biggest waste of my time this year: the passage by justin cronin, and i came to good reads to find out if it was once again, just me, but it looks like there are at least a few others who agree with me. on the plus side, this doorstop of a book makes the stieg larsson books seem like sparkling jewels to me. i have to post a review but now i am going to bed. :P

and also, i have a strong desire to listen to the theme of the fall guy right now -- i can't think why. :)

wow. i am so out of the loop as to what is going on over here.

anyway, i am so glad you are doing a group read of this -- i haven't read it before but based on what patty said about it, and what i'm hearing here, it reminds me of how much i loved egil's saga, and i am surprised that none of you (aside from neil, and abby) seem to have read that-- though adrian may not have bothered to add it to his list. so if you do end up loving this one, i highly recommend reading my favourite viking saga. :)

anyway, i'm going to get at this soon, and hopefully you won't all be done talking about it by then. :)

sorry shel. i know it's tough to see these messages -- that's what i felt like after missing last year...

anyway, it's wonderful to be back but i do wish at least there was some way we could also be closer to each other but still keep everything that we already have. impossible i know, but that's what all my dreams seem to be -- except for the ones about stones i find in water :)

also, tuesday night looks like it will be lasagna night! :)

hi robert!

i love the word skullduggery (apparently it is spelled with one "l" in britain and canada because my spell-check is angrily underlining it)! any friend of patty's is a friend of mine... looking forward to meeting you! :)

on a purely practical note, i don't know if it was ever pointed up anywhere, but we aren't supposed to check in on sunday until 4 pm... i think brian initially said something about 2 pm? anyway, if anybody was planning on getting there before 4, you shouldn't! :)

Shel wrote: "Guys -- I'm sorry to report that at the last moment I won't be coming.

But the good news is, I got a fantastic job that starts next week!"

ach -- the timing! i remember saying sometimes a job comes first... sadly, not at the times we want them to come.

congratulations on the new job! what will you be doing?