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6 votes
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Novel idea: The Apartment
Just finished (re-)watching the Friends TV series ... End of the last episode, sitting in the empty apartment (Joey: "Has it always been purple?" Phoebe: "Do you realize that at one time or...
Just finished (re-)watching the Friends TV series ... End of the last episode, sitting in the empty apartment (Joey: "Has it always been purple?" Phoebe: "Do you realize that at one time or another, we've all lived in this apartment?")
Got me thinking, more as a plot contrivance than the actual plot, a story about an apartment, spanning a century or more, and the various people that lived in it, jumping back and forth across time, linking them together through history ... perhaps even, a la "Ship of Theseus", spanning multiple centuries and multiple homes/dwellings that occupied the same space.
So specifically, I'm wondering if anyone can think of any novels that adopt this idea, or anything similar, as a primary vehicle for their storytelling?
I have a vague recollection of a short story or novella in 2ndary school, about the life of a redwood, and the various people and animals that lived in and around it over the centuries ... and also I recall reading "A Winter Tale" by Mark Helperin -- a semi-fantastical novel about the city of New York ... oh look, apparently, they made it into a movie, too.
But those two are the only examples I can think of that come close to this idea.
PS: I love to write fiction, and someday I may even finish a novel ... but generally, I get about halfway through, figure out how it's going to end, and then lose interest ... so if anyone with more ambition likes the idea, you're welcome to it.
ETA: I'm not looking for the 10,000 variations of "oooh, haunted by the ghost of a person that died here 20 years ago". Broader, covering a longer timeframe, multiple substories interwoven into the same living space, you get the idea.
10 votes -
A feud in wolf-kink erotic fanfiction raises deep legal questions about copyright and authorship
18 votes -
Download the 'Nevertheless, She Persisted' short fiction bundle for free, starting this International Women’s Day
10 votes -
The tragic story behind The Eye of Argon, the worst fantasy book ever written
7 votes -
Jo Nesbø: ‘We should talk about violence against women’
4 votes -
Echoes of the City by Lars Saabye Christensen review – sacrifice and strength in postwar Oslo
5 votes -
The decade in young adult fiction
6 votes -
Fascinated to Presume: In defense of fiction
3 votes -
Is Tolkien's prose really that bad?
Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so...
Recently I was reading through a discussion on Reddit in which Tolkien's writing and prose were quite heavily criticised. Prior to this I'd never seen much criticism surrounding his writing and so I was wondering what the general consensus here is.
The first time I read through The Lord of the Rings, I found myself getting bored of all the songs and the poems and the large stretches between any action, I felt that the pacing was far too slow and I found that I had to force myself to struggle through the book to get to the exciting parts that I had seen so many times in the films. Upon reading through The Lord of the Rings again recently my experience has been completely different and I've fallen in love with his long and detailed descriptions of nature, and the slower pacing.
Has anyone else experienced something similar when reading his works? Are there more valid criticisms of his prose that extend beyond a craving for the same high-octane action of the films?
13 votes -
Book Review - Turn Of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Turn of Mind is a mystery. It's for the most part written in journal format. Interestingly it's a journal that sits in the house of a person with Alzheimer's disease. Jennifer White was an...
Turn of Mind is a mystery. It's for the most part written in journal format. Interestingly it's a journal that sits in the house of a person with Alzheimer's disease.
Jennifer White was an orthopedic surgeon in Chicago. Once brilliant, Dr. White is now in the later stages of the disease and the journal is written in by family members and housekeepers to help her remember who she was and who she is. A fractured portrait emerges of a cold and strong minded woman who has had a full life that she remembers in bits and pieces. Amidst the pages is mention of a neighbor, Amanda, who has been murdered. Slowly things come together for the reader while Dr. White's disease progresses into confusion.
Yet she still has moments of lucidity, remembering the details of her profession, where she was considered one of the best and most respected hand surgeons in the country. Her deterioration is something she's at times very aware of, and it is this that makes the book so powerful.
The narrative often lapses into Jennifer's past memories of both her parents and her children. This adds authenticity to her mental condition but also made me impatient for what seemed to be more important details. As Jennifer is interviewed by police officers and pulled into interaction with her grown son and daughter, we can begin to understand the horror of this disease, especially regarding how hard it is to trust people who may be trying to manipulate the sufferer for their own purposes.
I'd put this near the top of my list for books enjoyed in 2019. It brings to mind The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, narrated by an Aspberger's spectrum person. Turn of Mind is a hard book to read, but it's even harder to put down once you get into it.
4 votes -
In "The Testaments", Margaret Atwood expands the world of "The Handmaid’s Tale"
8 votes -
Ta-Nehisi Coates talks to Jesmyn Ward about writing fiction, reparations, and the legacy of slavery
4 votes -
Disappointed love and dangerous temptations: Textile factories and true crime
4 votes -
Women Between the Wars: In Jean Rhys’s novels, women exhibit a particular kind of English suffering, a perfect illustration of the female condition in the interwar years
7 votes -
Eight crime writers who wrote other forms of literature, including literary novels, memoirs, and even works of history
7 votes -
Jo Nesbø, master of Norway noir, returns with his creepiest yet
5 votes -
Torn apart: The vicious war over young adult books
11 votes -
Novelists have condemned the Staunch prize – for thrillers without violence against women – as a ‘gagging order’, after organisers said the genre could bias jurors
7 votes -
Romance novelists write about sex and pleasure. On the internet that makes them targets for abuse
9 votes -
How the hell has Danielle Steel managed to write 179 books?
13 votes -
A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction edited by Jack Fennell
7 votes -
A roundtable on faith depiction in SFF
5 votes -
Shaelin Bishop - I Will Never Tell You This
6 votes -
Staining The Timbre - Review: "The Hillbilly Moonshine Massacre" by Jonathan Raab
3 votes -
Nothing but the truth: The legacy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
5 votes -
From Agatha Christie to Gillian Flynn: Fifty great thrillers by women
5 votes -
Murder and the missing briefcase: The real story behind Harper Lee’s lost true crime book
5 votes -
Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the mysterious author
9 votes -
The state of play of Nigerian SFF today
5 votes -
Climate change fiction is rethinking the ecoterrorist
9 votes -
The myriad drumbeats of Afrofuturism: Afro-Brazilian speculative fiction
9 votes -
The most prescient science fiction author you aren’t reading: Feminist dystopian fiction owes just as much to this woman — who wrote as a man — as Margaret Atwood.
8 votes -
Kosoko Jackson’s book scandal suggests YA Twitter is getting uglier
12 votes -
Fifty shades of white: The long fight against racism in romance novels
5 votes -
Free short story vending machines delight commuters
12 votes -
Romance and erotica is the top revenue-generating literary category in the US, accounting for more than half of all mass-market paperbacks sold
8 votes -
The greatest lesson you've learned from classical fiction?
I am currently enjoying a very thought-provoking semester of American Literature. Prior to this class, I wouldn't have considered fiction as useful in my everyday life, as opposed to something...
I am currently enjoying a very thought-provoking semester of American Literature. Prior to this class, I wouldn't have considered fiction as useful in my everyday life, as opposed to something like a self-help book. What I've found is exactly the opposite, and I have found novels such as Great Expectations to be even more influential than anything I've ever read.
So I ask you all, what is the greatest lesson you've learned from classical fiction?
12 votes -
The rise of robot authors: Is the writing on the wall for human novelists?
4 votes -
Can anyone help me remember a sci-fi short story about disintegrating weapons and nuclear winter?
I'm trying to recall a short story I read about 10 years ago in English class in school. It would probably be fair to call it "sci-fi", but I'm not sure how important that is. What I remember: the...
I'm trying to recall a short story I read about 10 years ago in English class in school. It would probably be fair to call it "sci-fi", but I'm not sure how important that is.
What I remember: the story was set in the midst of an escalating arms race, Cold War-style, and the characters were chiefly military personnel (I think).
At some point, a chief actor obtains technology that is designed to (from memory) "disintegrate all weapons (certain materials/metals?)" within a vicinity.
I believe the technology is then used, and what ensues is a world-enveloping nuclear winter. I'm not sure how the weapons disintegration tech leads to a nuclear winter. It's also quite possible that I'm conflating two separate stories I read in that class.
Anyone have any idea what short stories I could be thinking of? This would be at the very latest pre-2010 stuff, and knowing my English teacher (old bloke from Yorkshire) probably 20th century. Probably.
7 votes -
Top ten books about building cities. From Mary Beard’s Roman history to Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction, Jonathan Carr chooses the best writing about citizens’ eternal challenges
3 votes -
What are the best science fiction short stories, novellas, and novelettes you have ever read?
I developed a taste for short science fiction and would love to know which stories you lovely Tilda Swintons like the most!
29 votes -
What's the deal with Proust?
I've never read Marcel Proust, and I know very little about his work. But every serious reader of literature I know absolutely gushes over him, but never seems to be able to explain what's good...
I've never read Marcel Proust, and I know very little about his work. But every serious reader of literature I know absolutely gushes over him, but never seems to be able to explain what's good about it or what the books are even about.
The scarce pop-culture references I see to his work (like in "Little Miss Sunshine") seems to cast an affection for Proust as kind of a mark of being an unmoored and depressive romantic.
So is he worth reading? The full collection of "Remembrance of Things Past" is nearly $100, so that's not a trivial amount to invest. Is there a recommended/definitive translation or edition I should read? What should I keep in mind or be open to if I do try giving it a shot?
By that last question I mean like, I'd have hated "Catcher In the Rye" if I wasn't told ahead of time to approach it from the mindset of a 15 year old boy. Or I kind of hated 'Madame Bovary" but when explained to me that this was Flaubert's exercise in trying to make people see themselves in an adulteress, a generally reviled archetype, and this was groundbreaking for the time lets me at least appreciate it for accomplishing what it's set out to do. Are there any literary contexts like I this should have in my head before I delve in?
11 votes -
Don Winslow: Think of it this way. Mexico has a US drug problem
7 votes -
If you were a sack of cumin
7 votes -
Food and fiction: Memorable meals in literature
8 votes -
What social responsibilities do fiction authors have (if any)?
In 1977, Stephen King published a novel about a school shooting called Rage. It is somewhat infamous, as it has been connected to instances of real-life school shootings. King, in response,...
In 1977, Stephen King published a novel about a school shooting called Rage. It is somewhat infamous, as it has been connected to instances of real-life school shootings. King, in response, allowed the story to fall out of print and has never reissued it. The novel has a lot in common with other YA stories and tropes: a disaffected protagonist, meddling/out of touch adults, and newfound social connection with peers. While the main character is undoubtedly disturbed, the novel feels somewhat uncritical (or potentially even supportive) of his actions.
Certainly fiction is a space where authors are free to explore any point of view or theme they wish. The beauty of fiction is that it is limitless and consequence-free. No people are harmed in Rage because there are no people in it. Its characters are merely names and ideas--they are a fiction.
Nevertheless, Rage addresses a real-world phenomenon, and the beauty of fiction is that it doesn't live as a lie. As Ursula K. Le Guin writes,
"In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little..."
We like fiction because it resonates with us, exposing us to themes that can affirm, shape, or challenge our mindsets.
With this dichotomy in mind, I'm torn between whether authors should be free to explore anything they wish from the safety of make-believe, or whether they have a social responsibility because their words carry messages and ideas that directly impact lives. I'm not sure what to think, and I can come up with great arguments for both sides. What's your take? What social responsibilities do fiction authors have (if any)?
19 votes -
Margaret Atwood writing sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, coming out in Sept. 2019
11 votes -
Pretentious, impenetrable, hard work ... better? Why we need difficult books
7 votes -
Good whodunnit/crime investigation books?
What are for you the best modern whodunnit/criminal investigation books? I'm interested in books like Sherlock Holmes where there are clever deductions but also books where everybody knows who the...
What are for you the best modern whodunnit/criminal investigation books? I'm interested in books like Sherlock Holmes where there are clever deductions but also books where everybody knows who the criminal is but they need to find evidence and the bad guy seems to always be two steps ahead (kind of like Daredevil season 3 with Wilson Fisk).
10 votes