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[Jacobi]

I want to tell you about the two last books I've read, because they were pretty earth-shattering to me and they were also recommended in another GAF thread.

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's tale

This is basically the wet dream of a fanatic "Christian", I want to say guys that like and buy those freaky comics and think gay people should rot in hell. So basically islamic fanatics attack and the US government more and more gets batshit crazy. In the end, the country "Gilead" remains, which bases its laws literally on old testaments quotes (some of them are made-up). All of citizen (besides the wealthiest) live a very controlled life, but I don't want to give away too much. This book made me realize how free I am, but on the other hand it made me realize that I should try to stop the madness, which happens political-wise.

P.D. James: Children of Men

The first suprise for me was that P.D. James was a woman, but it doesn't really matter. I found the movie to be very awesome. How does it compare to the book? The movie is more of an hommage to it, there are some characters of the book in it, but they behave quite differently and overall the progression of story is also different. The book is much more darker and the new society of England is very fleshed out. I found the characters to be very interesting and I had to stay up until 5am to finish the book.

I can recommend these books to anyone, true classics.

 

[JCX]

I read the book before the movie came out, so you can imagine how surprised I was when the fishes turned out to be a large terrorsit organization. I think both are good. The book is more emotional while the movie is action oriented. There was one part of the movie I didn't like.

Spoiler

The one scene I was looking forward to was when the main character is watching the elderly being loaded onto boats to die. Turning it into a lame box suicide kit was lame

 

[Captain Glanton]

Atwood said in an interview that THT is about how men are responsible for all the oppression and crime in the world, basically how men are inherently bad, and that the world would be fine if women were in charge.

It's sort of upside-down reactionary politics.

 

[Jacobi]

Reading the book didn't change my opinion and yeah, you can also only load a certain amount into a movie.

That scene was also fucking brutal, hit me pretty much... Just like

Spoiler

"I killed Natalie"

 

[Jacobi]

Atwood said in an interview that THT is about how men are responsible for all the oppression and crime in the world, basically how men are inherently bad, and that the world would be fine if women were in charge.

It's sort of upside-down reactionary politics.

I guess then I understood it wrong, but I had the feeling that she also critized how the wife's behaved, which seemed to have relatively much power in the household. Also the aunts.

The book reminded me very much of Jesus Camp BTW

edit: sorry, i wanted to edit...

 

[Witchfinder General]

The Handmaid's Tale is one of the best books I've evr read. An excellent dystopia with a fresh perspective.

 

[mosaic]

We were shown the motion-picture rendition of The Handmaid's Tale in ninth grade. My hormonally engorged body couldn't see beyond the part where Duvall has a three-way with his wife on the bottom and the handmaid in the middle of the "sammich." TURNED. ME. ON.

 

[Mike Works]

Children of Men was easily my favorite movie of 2006 (pissed it didn't get an oscar nod). I started reading the book about 3 months ago eager to experience, and had difficulty getting into it. I'd never read PD James before, and maybe it was knowing that the book was written decades ago by a woman combined with the difference in pace and action, but I just found there was far too much unnecessary description on scene and setting. I'm pretty sure this is one of the aspects of her writing she's most heralded for, so I dunno, maybe it's just not for me.

 

[Jacobi]

Children of Men was easily my favorite movie of 2006 (pissed it didn't get an oscar nod). I started reading the book about 3 months ago eager to experience, and had difficulty getting into it. I'd never read PD James before, and maybe it was knowing that the book was written decades ago by a woman combined with the difference in pace and action, but I just found there was far too much unnecessary description on scene and setting. I'm pretty sure this is one of the aspects of her writing she's most heralded for, so I dunno, maybe it's just not for me.

Are you reading like 2 sentences a day? Yeah, in the beginning she describes the everyday life of the main actor, but there's also some action later if you long for that. The society that came out of the incident was what interested me the most though.

We were shown the motion-picture rendition of The Handmaid's Tale in ninth grade. My hormonally engorged body couldn't see beyond the part where Duvall has a three-way with his wife on the bottom and the handmaid in the middle of the "sammich." TURNED. ME. ON.

Lol, that scene is practically the anti-sex in the book.

 

[echoshifting]

Great reads. Have you read The Road yet? Check that one out next.

 

[bob_arctor]

Children Of Men ordered from Amazon. Word. The Road I'm borrowing from a friend.

 

[SickBoy]

Glad to see impressions of the book (CoM). I asked a little while after the movie came out if anyone had read it and the thread went nowhere).

 

[Jacobi]

Great reads. Have you read The Road yet? Check that one out next.

Written by whom? I mostly have to buy translated books that's why I'm askin...

 

[echoshifting]

Written by whom? I mostly have to buy translated books that's why I'm askin...

Cormac McCarthy. It swings away from dystopia towards the apocalyptic but it's still a great, fast read.

 

[Jacobi]

Cormac McCarthy. It swings away from dystopia towards the apocalyptic but it's still a great, fast read.

Sounds amazing. Kinda like Dragon Head (what I've read of it on amazon)

 

[Waku]

I found the CoM Book to be a horrible trainwreck. It starts out nice with the overall Setting but half way through it kinda starts going nowhere and just completly falls apart at the End. And yeah, mentioned above, so much boring in depth descriptions of just useless things that add nothing. Very disapointing.

 

[Captain Glanton]

I guess then I understood it wrong, but I had the feeling that she also critized how the wife's behaved, which seemed to have relatively much power in the household. Also the aunts.

The book reminded me very much of Jesus Camp BTW

edit: sorry, i wanted to edit...

That's how I read it too. Then a friend told me about the interview. I thought that the women were partly responsible for their own behavior, but I was wrong; she meant it to be completely the men's fault.

 

[Mike Works]

Are you reading like 2 sentences a day? Yeah, in the beginning she describes the everyday life of the main actor, but there's also some action later if you long for that. The society that came out of the incident was what interested me the most though.

I'm not still reading the fucking thing, jesus christ. I dropped it after a couple days.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Do dystopii come in quadrilogies?

 

[ivysaur12]

The Handmaid's Tale is one of the best books I've ever read. Seriously, amazing book. I probably should order Children of Men.

 

[White Man]

I'm not fond of The Handmaid's Tale. I guess it is effective at its intended purpose, but the whole subjugated woman/MAN BAD thing is so overt and in your face that it's kind of distracting. We get the message! We got it pages and pages ago. If I want misandry, I'll go to The Cuff on Dyke Night and see a much more interesting variety of it.

Also, misandry coming from a woman is just like BITTER TEARS IN RAIN! HAHAHA MARGARET, WE WON, YOU'VE LOST! NOT BECAUSE OF ANYTHING YOU DID, BUT BECAUSE OF HOW YOU WERE BORN! GOD HATES YOU!!!

 

[Jacobi]

I'm not fond of The Handmaid's Tale. I guess it is effective at its intended purpose, but the whole subjugated woman/MAN BAD thing is so overt and in your face that it's kind of distracting. We get the message! We got it pages and pages ago. If I want misandry, I'll go to The Cuff on Dyke Night and see a much more interesting variety of it.

I think I read a censored version

 

[Witchfinder General]

I'm not fond of The Handmaid's Tale. I guess it is effective at its intended purpose, but the whole subjugated woman/MAN BAD thing is so overt and in your face that it's kind of distracting. We get the message! We got it pages and pages ago. If I want misandry, I'll go to The Cuff on Dyke Night and see a much more interesting variety of it.

Also, misandry coming from a woman is just like BITTER TEARS IN RAIN! HAHAHA MARGARET, WE WON, YOU'VE LOST! NOT BECAUSE OF ANYTHING YOU DID, BUT BECAUSE OF HOW YOU WERE BORN! GOD HATES YOU!!!

It's not that bad and I wouldn't call it misandry (I'm not even convinced misandry is actually correct like the term nymphomaniac). If you want "in your face" read some Marion Zimmer Bradley.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Children of Men was easily my favorite movie of 2006 (pissed it didn't get an oscar nod). I started reading the book about 3 months ago eager to experience, and had difficulty getting into it. I'd never read PD James before, and maybe it was knowing that the book was written decades ago by a woman combined with the difference in pace and action, but I just found there was far too much unnecessary description on scene and setting. I'm pretty sure this is one of the aspects of her writing she's most heralded for, so I dunno, maybe it's just not for me.

It starts off painfully slow (about the main characters past, why he is what he is, influences and throws in some present foreboding stuff). Its not till you get to the (Omega?) part of the book where it really picks up (basically sort of where the movie starts). The movie still wildly deviates from the book though.

 

[Jacobi]

It starts off painfully slow (about the main characters past, why he is what he is, influences and throws in some present foreboding stuff). Its not till you get to the (Omega?) part of the book where it really picks up (basically sort of where the movie starts). The movie still wildly deviates from the book though.

First Part is Omega, second one Alpha

 

[Mike Works]

It starts off painfully slow (about the main characters past, why he is what he is, influences and throws in some present foreboding stuff). Its not till you get to the (Omega?) part of the book where it really picks up (basically sort of where the movie starts). The movie still wildly deviates from the book though.

yeah, i read up to the part where he meets that women in the church, which actually started becoming a little interesting, but by that time i was giving the book a second or third chance, and game of thrones just sucked my attention up completely

 

[valparaiso]

'dystopias', goddammit, 'dystopias.'

 

[White Man]

It's not that bad and I wouldn't call it misandry (I'm not even convinced misandry is actually correct like the term nymphomaniac). If you want "in your face" read some Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Well, it has been 10 years since I read it. But seriously, which would you rather have: Dyke Night at The Cuff, or The Handmaid's Tale. I think the option I present is much more interesting.

 

[shintoki]

I'm going take a guess here, not many ever read any of Saramago's Works' Not specifically Dystopias, but takes allot of the same traits there share.
Funny enough, I'm about to start reading Seeing

Anyways, this thread just convienced me to go out and read the handmaid:lol

 

[hey_monkey]

Re: CoM (book), I just found it hot and cold. Parts were amazing and parts really dragged. I think it could have benefited wildly from better editing. The result is that, while I remember loads of details and moments very well (because they were beautifully written and intense), in my memory, the overall story of the novel is very murky in my memory.

I don't dislike it at all. I'd recommend it with reservations is more like it. I probably won't read it again, either, which says a lot, I guess. I'm a huge repeat reader.

 

[JzeroT1437]

Atwood's style really threw me out of the book. I enjoyed the way that a third of the story was gradually told through flashback, yet the way that she continued developing the world, sometimes going as far as to dedicate chapters to its description later in the book (IE the "walk" taken towards THT's end) seemed unwieldy. Perhaps the book's larger problem is that it fails in making Offred a character you really empathize for. I formed more of an emotional attachment reading Valerie's note from V for Vendetta, which is a one page illustration (or 3-minute long voiceover, depending on your medium), than I did during the whole of the novel. The only real driving force behind Atwood's book is Moira, and even that ends ambiguously and anticlimactically.

As for Children of Men, I enjoyed it, but felt that the way it was divided was pretty crap. My friends swear by it, but the film has an overly-obvious division between act 1 and 2, where act 1 is all character development and act 2 is nothing but INSANELY LONG ACTION SEQUENCES. It was a good movie, but could have been better balanced.

 

[Jacobi]

Movie and book are quite different though. I'd say there's less action in the book, the book has more twists though (although some can be forseen).

 

[Blablurn]

handmaid's tale is awesome. nice story! I read it during school and we had some interesing discussions about it. i like these dystopian stuff.

 

[bob_arctor]

Reading The Children Of Men. It's a little dense but is picking up pace with the introduction of Julian. There are some beautiful passages and some very sad ones as well. Good stuff.

 

[Count Dookkake]

'dystopias', goddammit, 'dystopias.'

I thought mine was more subtle, but :lol .