Ok, the description and group rules...

[AB]

were a joke. I would think that would be obvious, as the comments are quite offensive.

[William Akin]

sometimes jokes are in bad taste, is all.

i'm sorry if you found the comments offensive, but i stand by them. that is the point of the forum, eh? intellectual discussion? would i be me if i didn't challenge your assumptions, sir?

i will stand by my points:

-the expatriated status of the characters in those works of fiction reflect a deeper symbolic intention on the part of the authors. (i'm surely not just talking here. i will stand by the statement that i have spent more time in a single day dissecting the voice, style, and meaning of Hemingway's work than most readers or writers will spend in a lifetime.)

-Crichton is a hack, plain and simple.

-Palahniuk skims and rapes the indie wall at Powell's in Portland, steals what he likes and then waters it down for the masses.

-there is little actual depth or substance in either of their works.

-Ayn Rand was a ranting sow with little if any true ability to understand the significance of true art, not to mention an utter blow hard. drunken barflies tell better stories, with more heart and meaning.

you've read Kundera and Calvino; you can't see the differences between their work and that of the three aforementioned writers?

[AB]

Ok, so now I must speak. At the age of 15, while still believing that Christ would split the sky and if I were not appropriate in all I said/did/thought that the Rapture would pass me by, having expatriate leanings was quite beyond what my parents would have ever hoped for me. So I apologize, but reading them and learning that they had spent time living an expatriate life was insanely romantic to me. Even though living the life of an expatriate is not romantic, I recognize there are still moments when it still seems that way to me. I live in Hiroshima, dude. How cool is that? (Even though it is not remotely cool.)

Haven't read Crichton since before university. I am 34 now. Enough said.

I prefer Palahniuk's non-fiction to any of his fiction that I have read. I keep giving him chances, I guess, even though Pygmy was a colossal waste of my time and money. I was quite bitter after reading it, but I saw Survivor a long time ago and every so often I just read a really easy book. (I read Shutter Island for one reason: Scorcese directed the movie) One I don't even have to think about...just read to chill out and enjoy a (hopefully) well-told tale.

Fountainhead: ok, this is your biggest dick move yet. The reason I loved the Fountainhead was because it had a protagonist I could root for. I LOVED Howard Roark and how he simply let people know that they could suck it. He was true to himself, and he did it his way. Sitting alone in an apartment in downtown Indy at the age of 23, shortly after arriving back from backpacking Europe by myself, Howard Roark was a complete badass to me. I stick by loving the book for Howard Roark alone. Fuck the philosophy behind it or Ayn Rand or whatever I am supposed to associate with the author. Howard Roark held me...I worried about him. I wished good things for him. I hoped he would stay together with Dominique...I was into it, just as much as when I finished Rabbit, Run (Updike) and was devastated after Rabbit's wife drowned the baby in the tub. So that's why I dug that book. Couldn't even get into Atlas Shrugged and Anthem bored me to tears.

I have read almost every book by Kundera, because he is an author whose characters speak to me, about things that are real to the human condition. I have loved all of his books. So I very clearly see the differences between such authors and the authors you are disparaging.

Further, I think Hitchens is insanely clever, and I love his arguments against god, particularly since I was fed such a load of horseshit about god while I was growing up. So much so that I remember, when 13 or so, hearing a train toot it's whistle in the middle of the night, and, fearful and believing the angel Gabriel was blowing his trumpet to alert the Rapture, fell to my knees to make sure I was clear with god. What Hitchens writes about is a position I have come to quite clearly in my life. And I'll take the peace I've gained from it over the inanity and bullshit I grew up being spoonfed any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Good day, sir.

[William Akin]

good job.

still, i really love Encyclopedia Brown but that doesn't make me want to give those books five stars.