04-15-2018, 09:57 AM | #16 | |
o saeclum infacetum
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04-15-2018, 10:19 AM | #17 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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Speaking of things I did like, or at least found interesting... I did and didn't like this. It definitely pulled me out of the story when I had to take in that these chapters were supposed to be his thesis (you start trying to re-evaluate your assumptions), but the fact that they also seem to be telling part of the intended story was at the very least interesting. It seemed obvious that you were supposed to take the events seriously, and after getting past the thesis-thing, they continued to be parts that I found more interesting than the contemporary story with the blundering Michael. |
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04-15-2018, 10:26 AM | #18 |
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Ok,there's almost no chance I'll manage to finish this piece of overblown, self-indulgent, dreck, but perhaps, if I can get to where it supposedly gets better. Right now I'm taken with the comparison of his overly wordy thesis with entire passages that shouldn't be there, and the overly wordy text of the book itself. Perhaps Fry is self-aware enough as a writer to make a commentary on his own work?
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04-15-2018, 11:24 AM | #19 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Oh my. I thought I would read the book today as a break from working on my income taxes. But maybe I'll clean the toilet instead.
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04-15-2018, 11:55 AM | #20 | |
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OK, I'm being perhaps a bit harsh. It has moments of humour, though only if you can 'read it' in your head with Stephen Fry's droll, dry, voice. I had the same response to his Mythos, I'm afraid. I fear book length writing is not his medium. |
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04-15-2018, 12:22 PM | #21 |
Wizard
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The book was a mixed bag for me.
Stylistically, the screenplay portions didn’t work. He made a good argument about the rise of the Nazi movement being independent of Hitler. However, he weakened his argument somewhat by putting Gloder in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Rgt, and having Gloder start the Nazi movement in Bavaria taking over Drexler’s DAP. Why not have Gloder start elsewhere, if he wanted to demonstrate the inevitability of the rise of the Nazi movement? |
04-15-2018, 12:44 PM | #22 |
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Fry impressed me enormously as a reader for Audible and I also heard him give a fine interview about his belief system on television. However, I felt in his retelling of the Greek myths in Mythos he did indeed get in the way of the raw archetypal power of those narratives. Still, I was looking forward to this book. Sadly, I found it a self-indulgent exercise which simply didn’t work for me. The sheer wordiness was off-putting and it didn’t even strike me as a decent exercise in alternate history. I found myself trudging through the book thinking about how much better Philip K Dick deals with similar subject matter.
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04-15-2018, 01:17 PM | #23 |
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Self-indulgent! That's the word I was trying to pin-point while I read this book. I kept thinking OTT, trying to show off too much, UGH! I read a book sample when it was nominated which is why I didn't vote for it. So, I started with low expectations but was keeping an open mind. I just found it generally irritating and campy. The main character was just annoying. Like others I didn't like the movie script narrative. Also I didn't like the tone when it would switch to the war scene dialogue. It seemed off - not enough transition from the modern scenes.
I think it had more potential than it achieved, and I think Fry had the capability to achieve more if he hadn't gotten in the way himself or if he just got over himself or something like that! I know very little about Stephen Fry. Never watched or followed him. When I would travel in England while his travel show in America was showing, there was lots of talk in the office and the pubs about it. People would hear my obviously "not-English" accent and wanted to tell you about the places they saw in the series. |
04-15-2018, 04:16 PM | #24 | |
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04-15-2018, 04:39 PM | #25 |
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My first experience of Stephen Fry was as Jeeves, in the BBC/Masterpiece Theater versions of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. (With Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster.) Then as a PR executive in Absolute Power. Though he got his start in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, which I didn't see until much later when it was on Amazon Prime. He has (or can have) the absolutely perfect haughty butler voice.
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04-15-2018, 06:41 PM | #26 |
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He also did a lovely Pooh in the audiobooks of Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, as part of a wonderful cast taking part and all having a lot of fun.
To get back to the book, I was left wondering just who his target audience was. I suspect it was young and silly undergraduates, who might think it funny to insert narrative sections into a thesis, and also think it all terribly clever. There’s one good thing about this book - we all seem to be pretty much in agreement about it! |
04-15-2018, 06:49 PM | #27 |
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No doubt he is a gifted narrator. His Harry Potter was superb. (And not available to Americans.)
I'm at 60% and soldiering on. I said I'd read the selections for the new club, and I'm determined to do my best. |
04-15-2018, 07:28 PM | #28 | |
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Finally we found common ground. |
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04-15-2018, 07:41 PM | #29 |
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I was in my 3rd/4th year of college. I think I would have enjoyed this LESS then than I did now.
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04-15-2018, 09:21 PM | #30 |
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