In the mornings, with the dread of a long day ahead, your voice soothed me and gave me strength

[porphyre]

For those who are new here, and there do seem to be a lot of you, here is a published book you should buy a downloadable copy of and my story in it.I would like to say this is going to be my last six:thirty a.m. awake for awhile now that I finally have a job, but I know that would be a greedy lie. My face down unhappiness has been heaping lots of

Comments

[porphyre]

I'm not insisting everyone read Dostoevsky, but really, isn't it better to use the time pleasurably then to simply use it because it's there?

[porphyre]

One of Ryan's favourite stories to tell about me is from when we were living together and he came home to find me asleep, curled around a book. When he went to slip it from my hands, I went into "protect the baby" mode and attacked him from my very deep sleep, my fingers infallibly, though feebly, tapping him right on the solar plexus.

[mocks]

Escapism? Noted your own rather unusuallly high negative propensity for it, it's pretty common in this part of the world. Fluffy as it may or may be, Futureland is going to be a lot more solid than, say, the V.C. Andrews school of romantic thriller, and those sell, like, a squillion copies a year.

A lot of people don't always have the tools to go looking for better, to be fair, and a lot of people don't even know that there's better out the to look for. But a lot of us simply enjoy, or fall back on, quick and easy immersion in the sights and sounds of somebody else's world; not every piece of fiction need to do double-time, to be anything beyond what it is.

Not an excuse for bad writing, of course, but a book can be enjoyed without it changing your life.

(_I_ think everyone should read Dostoevsky. Reading silly books is no excuse for avoiding good ones.)

[porphyre]

I like fiction, to the point where I will hold it over my own genre as a superior thing. I love what Duncan does, and Hitherbe, and Dee's ficlets. I think it's glorious that people have the ability to create fantastic stories. I don't mean to say that Futureland is bad writing, per se, simply that it feels like it belongs in a wire rack in a shopping market and that's not my demographic.

[wildcherrygal]

Hey I read books of substance and I would like to never EVER read Dostoevsky again. I don't think everyone should read it, or maybe just me.

[porphyre]

Oh sure, abuse my trust in the world, go on. As if it hasn't been beaten enough lately.

[porphyre]

It's not really all that expansive at the moment. All the extension packs hve been recently severed.

[donnaidh_sidhe]

Congrats on the job.

[porphyre]

Thank you. I got it through Lung, alois, (who I should call soon). I'm now the lowest of the low ranking contract clerks for a marketing research firm. I'm going to mail things out and recieve and process them back in. Woo. I'm going to need a portable music player, walkman, discman, anything.

[porphyre]

Please.

Do you mean it reads mp3s off CD's?

[anonymous]

Wow, I totally disagree with your review. I loved Futureland. It reminded me of an understated cousin to Gibson's or Stephenson's work, and personally found it very moving... but then, I'm not as jaded as you are. What can I say? I have a lousy track record when it comes to giving you books.

Also, technically it's a collection of nine linked short stories, not a novel.

Sam

The words don't surround me.

[porphyre]

Technically it says so on the cover. Inside the book, however, is a story in nine chunks, just one story. I finished it earlier this evening and can't say that it redeemed itself.

Part of my problem is I kow I've read a sickening number of books. I used to read one a day before I made a concentrated effort to avoid reading. Every good book, the bar goes up. Every spectacular story, my tolerance for mediocrity shifts. Futureland's the sort of thing I would have read when I was twelve, but I've oved into a different level of appreciation now. Gibson and Stephenson remain complex, but this seemed very.. understated isn't the right term. Thin feels right, to me. Thin and wan, like the ideas were simple and undernourished.

Re: The words don't surround me.

[anonymous]

Hmm. Well, I'd say it's character-based, humanist. I found it to be evocative and moving. Not spectacular, and far from ground-breaking in the idea department, but neither of those was exactly the point. I just feel like sticking up for Mosley here since I'm sure lots of people here would enjoy this book.

One of these days I'm going to loan you a book that you actually like... ;)

Sam

Re: The words don't surround me.

[bloodykitty]

don't mind her. she just likes beating people over the head with her snobbery. :)