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What are you reading? — Page 11

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Since I'm a huge fan of "Dexter," I decided to read "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" by Jeff Lindsey.

 

Currently, I'm writing a novel titled "Justice/Revenge."  The treatment has received great reviews.  

"Wipe them out... all of them."

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I loved the Hyperion Cantos so fucking much that I decided to read Simmons' other great sci-fi epic:

I finished ILIUM the other day and I just started OLYMPOS. I know I won't love them half as much as Hyperion, but I enjoyed ILIUM quite a bit. Imagine if the Greek Gods lived atop Olympus Mons on Mars, and recreated the Iliad down to the smallest detail. It's not as simple as that (if that sounds simple...) and sometimes it's all a little much, but there are two other main stories - one involving two biomechanical Shakespeare-loving robots on a mission to figure out what the fuck is happening on Mars, and the other involving humans on Earth who live very much like H.G. Wells' eloi  - that made up for what the Trojan War story lacked.

It's chock full of incredible ideas, but it just doesn't have the character depth that made Hyperion my favorite science fiction book since Dune.

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I just listened to a recording of Neil Gaiman reading his short story, "A Study in Emerald".

Loved it. Pretty crazy and cool mixing H.P Lovecraft and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Bingowings said:

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

?

Bigoted nutcase?

Doesn't boycotting his fiction because you don't agree with his personal views make you sort of a bigot as well?

 

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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xhonzi said:

Bingowings said:

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

?

Bigoted nutcase?

Doesn't boycotting his fiction because you don't agree with his personal views make you sort of a bigot as well?

 

No it makes me a selective consumer, especially seeing as the chap in questioning is bigoting my crowd.

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I will never Huckleberry Finn because Mark Twain called the Book of Mormon "chloroform in print" and repeatedly misrepresented it.  No penny of mine will support the descendants of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, even if he did wander around the Enterprise-D for a bit!

While I jest, and don't wish to start an argument, I can't help but agree that there are many people who disagree with me in a number of ways, some very personally, but that doesn't mean they intend evil or that I will boycott their products.  If so, you'd never see me on a website devoted to a product conceived and developed by George Lucas.

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Evil people rarely intend to do evil or even recognise themselves as such.

I can't boycott much of his work because I purchased them before discovering how repellent his views currently are (like those Gary Glitter records I still have but can't ever play out loud).

In the rest of my finite lifespan there will be other authors.

I don't see how I'm supposed to be obliged to continue to purchase his books.

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Bingowings said:

xhonzi said:

Bingowings said:

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

?

Bigoted nutcase?

Doesn't boycotting his fiction because you don't agree with his personal views make you sort of a bigot as well?

 

No it makes me a selective consumer, especially seeing as the chap in questioning is bigoting my crowd.

I thought your crowd was supposed to be tolerant?

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Bingowings said:

Evil people rarely intend to do evil or even recognise themselves as such.

I can't boycott much of his work because I purchased them before discovering how repellent his views currently are (like those Gary Glitter records I still have but can't ever play out loud).

In the rest of my finite lifespan there will be other authors.

I don't see how I'm supposed to be obliged to continue to purchase his books.

Of course.  If you feel no compulsion to buy his stuff, then I of course don't mean to force you do it.  I just don't think that alone is enough of a reason not to.  If it helps, I've never read Huck Finn anyway ;)

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xhonzi said:

Bingowings said:

xhonzi said:

Bingowings said:

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

?

Bigoted nutcase?

Doesn't boycotting his fiction because you don't agree with his personal views make you sort of a bigot as well?

 

No it makes me a selective consumer, especially seeing as the chap in questioning is bigoting my crowd.

I thought your crowd was supposed to be tolerant?

I haven't accused him of being raped into Mormonism. I haven't politically lobbied against him or his ideas (beyond declaring I don't want to buy his work anymore).

'My crowd' is a broad church.

If I found out he was in the room with me I might have polite words with him but if says that sort of thing to the wrong person and he might well get truck in his mouth.

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  Violent assaults by homosexually oriented characters ocur at a vastly greater rate as assaults by straights against gays and bis'. With rates that radically out of wac I don't believe ANY homosexual has any business carrying on as if THEY are the great victims. The Wyoming (Utah?) robbery thing was a great tragedy but they FINALLY found something they could pretend was straight on gay. It didn't matter that it looks like a couple of mean drunks got bombed out of their skulls and got a little carried away trying to scare him into not going to the cops. THIS is the great singular case of gay bashing? I don't care about what consenting adults do in private homes or private clubs. I have a problem with Heteros promoting or exhibiting freaky hetero stuff while in public in front of other peoples children. I am also horrified by the targeting of other people's children and confused teens (regressed children.) Anyone who dares to have a problem with these things are instantly demonized and dehumanized and targeted as politically incorrect enemies. That is dispicable beyond words. HOMOSEXUALS believe wholeheartedly in TURNING and many target children and confused and vulnerable teens. There are MANY credible studies, TWINS being among the most notable, that proves that this proclivity is essentially determined by ENVIRONMENT. There is NOTHING credible to indicate it is due to what would be the shortest lived genetic mutation in human history.
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Who here has paid money to see a Roman Polanski film? Sean Penn fawns over dictators but how many of you avoid his films? Still, I get how having a visceral objection could impede enjoyment. So I don't blame Bingo in that regard. I know people who still refuse to eat Chick-Fil-A though they talk about how delicious it is. People see evil in chicken and I doubt the chickens thought themselves evil.

The blue elephant in the room.

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I don't see why it is a big deal to boycott something you disagree with. Especially if the person creating it whose ideas you are seeing or reading and who is gaining profit from your consuming is someone who expressly dislikes/disliked what you are.

Roman Polanski disgusts me, and I won't see his films. Sean Penn is an asshole, and I avoid his work, but I don't really see fawning over evil dictators to be as bad as drugging and raping minors or publicly expressing prejudice views against people who are different than you.

I don't see a problem with someone liking Polanski films, but I have a hard time separating the man's work from the deeds he did, so I don't. I certainly can't blame Bingo for not wanting to waste money on anything Card related.

In fact, I find the "flak" he is getting and the suggestion that behaving that way is akin to bigoted behavior that is making him boycott it in the first place to be really bizarre.

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thejediknighthusezni said:

  Violent assaults by homosexually oriented characters ocur at a vastly greater rate as assaults by straights against gays and bis'. With rates that radically out of wac I don't believe ANY homosexual has any business carrying on as if THEY are the great victims. The Wyoming (Utah?) robbery thing was a great tragedy but they FINALLY found something they could pretend was straight on gay. It didn't matter that it looks like a couple of mean drunks got bombed out of their skulls and got a little carried away trying to scare him into not going to the cops. THIS is the great singular case of gay bashing? I don't care about what consenting adults do in private homes or private clubs. I have a problem with Heteros promoting or exhibiting freaky hetero stuff while in public in front of other peoples children. I am also horrified by the targeting of other people's children and confused teens (regressed children.) Anyone who dares to have a problem with these things are instantly demonized and dehumanized and targeted as politically incorrect enemies. That is dispicable beyond words. HOMOSEXUALS believe wholeheartedly in TURNING and many target children and confused and vulnerable teens. There are MANY credible studies, TWINS being among the most notable, that proves that this proclivity is essentially determined by ENVIRONMENT. There is NOTHING credible to indicate it is due to what would be the shortest lived genetic mutation in human history.

If these are your actual views, you can get right the fuck out of this thread.

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     ^Fuck you :(     A boycott is a VERY DELIBERATE attempt to HARMMM another HUMAN BEING or group of HUMAN BEINGS. That is ALWAYS a BINARY and NEVER a NEUTRAL activity. If one sets out to VERY DELIBERATELY HARM ANOTHER, it either serves the ultimate good or it is an act of GREAT EVIL. That is why anyone who contemplates VERY DELIBERATELY HARMMMMING another HUMAN BEING to ANY DEGREE should consider long and carefully whether they are truly on the side of the angels. XXXOOO :)
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Wow. 

I kind of want to quote statistics at you, but I'm not even going to bother. You sound pretty stuck in your ways and closed minded. If you would like to learn a thing or two, or think I'm totally wrong and you can teach me a thing or two, stop ranting and raving and let's have a real discussion.

 

However, a few surface things I'm going to address, a boycott isn't an attempt to harm anyone. A boycott means to disassociate oneself with, withdrawing engaging in business or communication with what you are boycotting. Yeah, it is very deliberate. That is kind of the point. A boycott isn't harming anyone, beyond the point that they aren't getting financial gain from you. As an example, if I decide to boycott Chick-Fil-A, I am possibly harming them by not giving them my business, but my business is something they have to earn anyway (usually by providing solid products I deem worthy of spending my money on). I have no obligation to buy food from Chic-Fil-A. Nobody does. If enough people decide to boycott them based on real or perceived policies toward homosexuals, this could potentially hurt their business, but, providing that business to Chic-Fil-A is the consumers' prerogative to start with.

The way you talk about it HARMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMING HUMAN BEINGS, makes it sound like you are making boycotting out to be the equivalent of an organized effort to go out into the streets with baseball bats and beat people's kneecaps off. This leads me to believe you're either being extraordinarily hyperbolic, you have no idea how boycotting works or what it does, or you are just a little out of touch with reality.

Also, I haven't heard a whole lot of stories about homosexuals attacking and violently assaulting people. Though I have no doubt it does happen, you have people of every sexual orientation with tendencies for violence. Curiously enough, a good number of psychopathic males tend to be homosexual or bisexual. Don't misread what I am saying though, many psychopaths being homosexual does not in any way equal many homosexuals being psychopaths. There are a lot of reasons for the tendency of psychopaths to engage in homosexual behavior, and those reason make perfect sense when you go into them, and we can if you'd like, but from what I've seen, you don't seem the sort who is open for discussion.

Not too long ago, in the politics thread I believe, we had a lengthy discussion regarding the idea that homosexuality and child molestation go hand-in-hand. Again, I'd be happy to provide you numerous links to numerous studies done by numerous groups that have proved this myth to be nonsense. I attempted and failed to find any sort of data indicating that homosexual men have a higher rate of molestation of underage boys than heterosexual men. Let me know if you'd like these links, and if you find any data to the contrary, by all means, I'd love to have links to those.

Finally, you claimed that homosexual on heterosexual assault occurs at a far higher rate than heterosexual on homosexual violence. You seem to act like there hasn't been a long history of brutality toward homosexuals. If you ever sit down and talk to an older gay man (in the USA at least), you'll find that he can likely tell you story after story of humiliating or violent things done to him by homophobes. Every older gay man I have known has been subjected to cruelty that makes my stomach turn. The US also has a long history of lesbian rapes, the justification being that if she learns what a dick feel like she might change her ways and go straight. There is a good reason why the term "in the closet" exists. Traditionally for homosexuals being open about your sexual orientation has been an invitation to cruelty, humiliation, violence, and molestation. If you think nothing like this still happens in America, then you are greatly mistaken. There is still plenty of fear and hatred towards gays, and plenty of people who still act on that fear and hatred.

 

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Perhaps I should boycott every author who espouses a POV that pisses me off. Of course, if that were to happen, I wouldn't have a thing in the world to read beyond street signs (and even those might have to go).

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thejediknighthusezni said:

  Violent assaults by homosexually oriented characters ocur at a vastly greater rate as assaults by straights against gays and bis'. With rates that radically out of wac I don't believe ANY homosexual has any business carrying on as if THEY are the great victims. The Wyoming (Utah?) robbery thing was a great tragedy but they FINALLY found something they could pretend was straight on gay. It didn't matter that it looks like a couple of mean drunks got bombed out of their skulls and got a little carried away trying to scare him into not going to the cops. THIS is the great singular case of gay bashing? I don't care about what consenting adults do in private homes or private clubs. I have a problem with Heteros promoting or exhibiting freaky hetero stuff while in public in front of other peoples children. I am also horrified by the targeting of other people's children and confused teens (regressed children.) Anyone who dares to have a problem with these things are instantly demonized and dehumanized and targeted as politically incorrect enemies. That is dispicable beyond words. HOMOSEXUALS believe wholeheartedly in TURNING and many target children and confused and vulnerable teens. There are MANY credible studies, TWINS being among the most notable, that proves that this proclivity is essentially determined by ENVIRONMENT. There is NOTHING credible to indicate it is due to what would be the shortest lived genetic mutation in human history.

I know you don't live in the same world as most Earthlings but most of that post has nothing to do with what I said. A lot of it is shows a very limited understanding of heredity and and genetics (so some further reading for you there) and gay bashing in doubt??

Honestly you doubt the long history continued to this day of violence and murder visited on gay people just because they happen to be more attracted to the same gender than the other.

Do you even read anything?

I have had one person known to me (a close friend of the better half) left to die of blood loss in an elevator after being 'picked up' by opportunist straight thugs who robbed him and decided as an encore to torture and beat him to death.

A straight friend of mine was beaten up and hospitalised because he was 'thought to be gay'.

There is this infamous case of a guy who survived a bomb blast in a night club set by a neo-nazi only to have his head kicked around like a football.

I myself have been followed and had bricks thrown at my head.

All around the world gay people are being targeted for death by gangs, mobs politicians and clerics.

If you can point to a consistent stream of straight bashing by gays I would be fascinated to read that.

Oh and your linking of homosexuality and child rape is a new low. I mean, even for you.

You seriously need to have a bit of quiet time and contemplate what your fingers are doing when they get near a keyboard.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

Perhaps I should boycott every author who espouses a POV that pisses me off. Of course, if that were to happen, I wouldn't have a thing in the world to read beyond street signs (and even those might have to go).

As I said I can't boycott him as I have already purchased most of the books he is ever going to write.

Unless he becomes immortal and churns out more tales of young men fighting off the 'buggers' (the aliens in the Ender's series are called that... no really).

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Oh, excuse me.  I thought this was the What are you reading? thread.  I didn't realized I'd walked into the politics thread.

*exits*

 

 

*Yes, I know I contributed to the mess.  I think it should just be dropped.  I don't like Card's feelings on the subject either, but I enjoy his books, and that was my only point.

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So I am reading Star Trek: Final Frontier.  Should have read it before reading Best Destiny, as it's the same author and many of the same characters, just written and taking place earlier.  Nevertheless, I enjoy her style and her portrayal of Captain April.

Also I am reading (in this case listening) to the first Harry Potter.  I'd never read any during the hype, partly in private rebellion to the mainstream crowd.  Now that things have died down, I figured I'd start, and thus far I enjoy it.  Charming little story.

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Bingowings said:

Unless he becomes immortal and churns out more tales of young men fighting off the 'buggers' (the aliens in the Ender's series are called that... no really).

Wow! I had no idea they were called that. That is incredibly blatant! Everyone is always telling me even though Card is a dick, it isn't a big deal to read him because his views don't make their way into his books. Like hell!

That would be akin to naming your alien species the "darkies".

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darth_ender said:

Oh, excuse me.  I thought this was the What are you reading? thread.  I didn't realized I'd walked into the politics thread.

*exits*

You're so very anal about topics.

I promise, slight literary related tangents in the what are you reading thread aren't going to hurt you. They rarely ever bite and they've had loads of vaccinations.

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I'm just saying that if I said:

Sadly I paid money for <some guy's> work before finding out he was a gay.

That that would come across as bigotry, would it not?

 

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!