What are you reading in 2025?

[Autumnal]

I’d read that thing, jian.

 

[prabe]

It was actually completely unintentional, I didn't realize they were by the same author until the cashier at Barnes & Noble pointed it out. But yeah, I had planned on skipping that one lmao. I might give My Heart Is A Chainsaw a read at some point just because I love the title. I'm interested in some of his non horror books, he mentions Joe Lansdale as an inspiration and I'm a big fan of Hap and Leonard, and I'm still hoping The Bottoms gets an adaptation at some point, but his horror stuff doesn't move me at all.

The thing about My Heart Is a Chainsaw is that there are two books that come after it. Most of what I've seen from Jones is Horror, except for some of his very early stuff, which is barely readable. Lansdale is awesome, whatever genre he's writing in.

I will point out that I enjoyed the heck out of I Was a Teenage Slasher, in spite of not liking slasher movies, and in spite of not liking most of the music the book's characters live for. On the other hand, I seem to enjoy reading Horror much more than you do, in general, so that probably explains most of the difference.

 

[jian]

I’d read that thing, jian.

Thank you, Bruce, I’ll try and keep it short.

Let’s start with Joe Dredd, whose creator always said that he “was the warning, not the hero.” Dredd is a man of character and integrity, but he’s also an unquestioning enforcer for a brutal fascist state, and the longer he lives (and the longer people write him) the less he can avoid the fundamental immorality and cruelty of his position and the society whose values he defends. Dredd is no physical coward, but he is a moral coward, and so he tries to take the easy way out by choosing the Long Walk. Sadly that doesn’t take, and he is returned to police his city to hope that death comes for him cleanly.

Similarly, Miyamoto Usagi is a man of courage and morality in a society which is deeply unequal, sexist, and oppressive, and which relies on the fanatical obedience of its warrior (“servant”) class to a corrupt and vicious ruling aristocracy who owes them no loyalty in return. As a wandering hero he can follow his conscience as he could not have when he was a household samurai, but he (and Sakai) also clearly sees how terrible the society whose values he once defended is, and how little difference one swordsman can make. Usagi is therefore compelled to embrace mono no aware, how life is fleeting and how one can only live in the moment, and hope for a clean death on his warrior’s pilgrimage.

 

[Autumnal]

I like it. Thanks.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I think it’s always been a bit cruel, but I think he’s less sentimental about it. I think Sakai has realised more as he goes along how horrible that era of Japanese history is, and he’s less able to romanticise it as he once did.

I’ve got a whole thing comparing Usagi to Judge Dredd about that sort of disconnect.

Same, I'd read that Read it, very nice - agree.

I mean medieval and pretty much every society before it everywhere was pretty terrible for most (wish we knew more about Cahokia). The promise of the 20th century was to pull "most" up out of the terribleness. I'll avoid politics except to say that it's unclear that it is still the promise of the 21st and on into the 22nd - Dredd's time. Guess we (I mean, my notional grands and great-grands) will see how things go.

 

[Autumnal]

As Orchestral Maneuvres in the Dark put it (voice repeats in English after Chinese):

 

[Hriston]

I finished reading The Roots of the Mountains, by William Morris, last night. It felt like a bit of a slog, probably because I was reading it every night before falling asleep, and I've had a tendency lately to doze off pretty quickly, so it took me a long time to get through it.

Its influence on JRR Tolkien is apparent from the beginning. It concerns the people of "the Dale", an idyllic mountain valley also called Burgdale, and their dealings and relationships with the people of other nearby mountain valleys, Rose-dale and Silver-dale, which, in context, are both simply referred to as "the Dale". I think this probably influenced the naming of Dale in The Hobbit.

It also seems to be the inspiration for the Aragorn-Arwen-Eowyn-Faramir love quadrangle in the LotR. A similar set of relationships figures somewhat more prominently and is more tightly knit, with the protagonist, Face-of-god's, father's relationship with the Bride, his betrothed, adding a further complication. Another point of comparison is the young war leader's love interest, the Sun-beam, being from a people who live in a remote place in the mountain-wastes called Shadowy Vale whom we are at first led to believe to be supernatural "wood-woses" (the Sun-beam is said to have the beauty of one of the gods) but are later revealed to be normal men distantly related to the Dalesmen.

Another strong point of resemblance is the way Morris describes the "Dusky Men" who are the story's primary antagonists and are described as a sadistic, all-male society, wielding crooked swords, and being "long-armed like apes." I think the resemblance to Tolkien's orcs is obvious.

Of course, there's also the propensity of the author to punctuate the action with verse by having his characters burst into song, a feature this novel shares with The House of the Wolfings, Morris's first foray into modern fantasy which also features the "Mirkwood" as a location which figures prominently. All in all, The Roots of the Mountains seems to have had even more of an influence on Tolkien's work.

Eta: Another point of interest for fans of Tolkien is the colophon at the end of the Project Gutenberg EBook version I was reading (emphasis added):

CHISWICK PRESS:---C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.​

 

[jian]

I finished reading The Roots of the Mountains, by William Morris, last night. It felt like a bit of a slog, probably because I was reading it every night before falling asleep, and I've had a tendency lately to doze off pretty quickly, so it took me a long time to get through it.

Its influence on JRR Tolkien is apparent from the beginning. It concerns the people of "the Dale", an idyllic mountain valley also called Burgdale, and their dealings and relationships with the people of other nearby mountain valleys, Rose-dale and Silver-dale, which, in context, are both simply referred to as "the Dale". I think this probably influenced the naming of Dale in The Hobbit.

It also seems to be the inspiration for the Aragorn-Arwen-Eowyn-Faramir love quadrangle in the LotR. A similar set of relationships figures somewhat more prominently and is more tightly knit, with the protagonist, Face-of-god's, father's relationship with the Bride, his betrothed, adding a further complication. Another point of comparison is the young war leader's love interest, the Sun-beam, being from a people who live in a remote place in the mountain-wastes called Shadowy Vale who we are at first led to believe to be supernatural "wood-woses" (the Sun-beam is said to have the beauty of one of the gods) but are later revealed to be normal men distantly related to the Dalesmen.

Another strong point of resemblance is the way Morris describes the "Dusky Men" who are the story's primary antagonists and are described as a sadistic, all-male society, wielding crooked swords, and being "long-armed like apes." I think the resemblance to Tolkien's orcs is obvious.

Of course, there's also the propensity of the author to punctuate the action with verse by having his characters burst into song, a feature this novel shares with The House of the Wolfings, Morris's first foray into modern fantasy which also features the "Mirkwood" as a location which figures prominently. All in all, The Roots of the Mountains seems to have had even more of an influence on Tolkien's work.

Ha, I didn’t realise that William Morris, of Arts and Crafts fame, is reckoned one of the first fantasy writers in English! Thanks for telling us about that. I knew about News from Nowhere (early utopian fiction). I see The Wood Beyond the World is considered quite influential on C S Lewis, too.

 

[billd91]

My wife and I have started in on the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. We’re currently reading Carl’s Doomsday Scenario.

 

[jian]

Same, I'd read that Read it, very nice - agree.

I mean medieval and pretty much every society before it everywhere was pretty terrible for most (wish we knew more about Cahokia). The promise of the 20th century was to pull "most" up out of the terribleness. I'll avoid politics except to say that it's unclear that it is still the promise of the 21st and on into the 22nd - Dredd's time. Guess we (I mean, my notional grands and great-grands) will see how things go.

Thinking about this and some G K Chesterton quotes (e.g. “the poor object to being governed badly; the rich object to being governed at all”) I think that not only do we live in the most financially unequal times in recorded history which are getting more so every day, we live in a time when our richest benefit from the highest levels of stability, opportunity, mobility, and protection.

Sure, your average feudal lord had a level of power over life and death over his peasants that few people have now, but he was also basically a mafia boss (as was everyone he knew) and his position was fairly precarious.