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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 20, 2012 21:21:36 GMT
I thought we might have a thread for books that for some undefined reason you just can't finish. I don't mean utterly crap books, or literature or even books which are monumentally awful and thus fall into the 'got to read' Vault category avoided by others. Just ones where you try and fail.
Lilith by George MacDonald is mine. First discovered it years ago in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and started it then gave up. Since then I'm on my fifth time and this time I only have a chapter to go; but I suddenly feel I might look at the Benson shorts again and then it will probably be ten years before I wearily start again.
It was first published in 1895. The Ballantine edition came out in 1969 and I must have begun reading it around 1979.
Macdonald is superb at children's short stories and seems an all round good guy. Apparently he was a Christian universalist, believing that everyone will be saved after purgatory and this book written late on in his life is essentially about purgatory.
There are some classic bits, not least the start - it opens in a Library in an old house and evokes a brilliant eerie atmosphere as the protagonist - called Vane (yes, sounds like vain) starts entering the other world.
I won't go into the plot except to say that he journeys around encountering beasts and people and particularly, he falls in with Lilith, essentially a witch.
The plus side is that some of the descriptions are really fantastic - the dance of death, the crypts, the eerie desert, the witch herself. The negatives are the Christian bits really, where Adam enters the scene or the little children appear and everyone goes a bit loveydovey.
The book is a strange mix of Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus, The Wizard of Oz and Hope Hodgson's Nightlands. It's definitely unique, it's definitely in some senses a classic of the genre but...I just can't finish it.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 20, 2012 23:28:07 GMT
Funny, I had exactly the same experience with Lilith when I tried to read it about twenty years ago. I remember admiring MacDonald as a person (I believe that you're correct about his worldview), enjoying his books for children (such as The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie), and being excited about the concept of Lilith. Starting out, I made good headway; the book seemed rich with motifs and symbolism. Its circular plot and distancing style ultimately defeated me, however. I've never gone back to it.
Good luck with it this time around.
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Post by cw67q on Sept 21, 2012 9:45:53 GMT
Good idea for a thread Craig. I did read Lilith, but for most of the book I was in a trance like state no longer taking in the details. I loved the start with the creepy house & the crow but lost intertes when the all out fantasy started. I have found this with other similar books which start with a slightly sinister edge before tipping into all out other-dimension weirdness. I tend to prefer the edgy introduction to the main course. I gave up on the worm ourouwhatsit not long after the transition to the other world and didn't care much for the Sound of His Horn after the main charcter gets transported elsewhere. The latter is the only Sarban tale that I don't care for although I did finish it and will probably give it a second chance one-day as I love the rest of his output. More recently I didn't finish the long tale "the Great Circle" in the Whitehead Wordsworth, which follows a similar trajectory to the other works above. I'm trying to view it as a sign of maturity that I will put down a book unfinished if I'm not enjoying it, or skip a tale in a collection that doesn't appeal to me, something I found very difficult to do in the past - Chris I thought we might have a thread for books that for some undefined reason you just can't finish. I don't mean utterly crap books, or literature or even books which are monumentally awful and thus fall into the 'got to read' Vault category avoided by others. Just ones where you try and fail. Lilith by George MacDonald is mine. First discovered it years ago in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and started it then gave up. Since then I'm on my fifth time and this time I only have a chapter to go; but I suddenly feel I might look at the Benson shorts again and then it will probably be ten years before I wearily start again. .
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Post by David A. Riley on Sept 21, 2012 11:12:20 GMT
I couldn't finish Lilith either.
On the other hand there are a few Stephen King novels I've never been able to finish as well. Cell I made three attempts at and gave up each time.
Oh, and Hodgson's The Night Land defeated me too.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 21, 2012 11:23:59 GMT
Oh, and Hodgson's The Night Land defeated me too. I love Hodgson's work and have read practically everything he ever wrote--except for The Night Land, which I've deliberately avoided out of fear that it will defeat me. A few months ago I was at a used bookstore and saw both volumes of an attractive two-volume Ballantine edition of the novel. I was tempted to give it a shot, but in the end I walked away. didn't care much for the Sound of His Horn after the main charcter gets transported elsewhere. The latter is the only Sarban tale that I don't care for although I did finish it and will probably give it a second chance one-day as I love the rest of his output. I liked The Sound of His Horn, but not as much as Ringstones or The Doll Maker. I'm still waiting for a chance to read his "The King of the Lake." More recently I didn't finish the long tale "the Great Circle" in the Whitehead Wordsworth, which follows a similar trajectory to the other works above. I was thinking about warning people about "The Great Circle." It's a big old mess. I'm trying to view it as a sign of maturity that I will put down a book unfinished if I'm not enjoying it, or skip a tale in a collection that doesn't appeal to me, something I found very difficult to do in the past I still have a very hard time doing this. If anything, I've found it more difficult as I've gotten older.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 21, 2012 11:44:20 GMT
I read all of LILITH, I believe, but I was quite young and was in bed with a fever. Like everyone else here, I have never finished THE NIGHT LAND, although I tried many times. My great project, however, is to one day finish a novel by Olaf Stapledon. Any novel by Olaf Stapledon.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 21, 2012 13:03:40 GMT
I finished the Night Land. It wasn't the easiest of books but it was consistent - which is possibly one reason Lilith is such a chore. I'd recommend reading the Night Land on holiday late at night somewhere lonely and carrying no other books. I think the effort would be rewarded. It seemed to require a a lonely mood to get into but once in that mood it just rolled along.
I've skimmed a few King books and given up uninterested. I think it is definitely a mark of maturity to stop reading something crap; perhaps a recognition that time is too short to waste. But the books below (perhaps excepting Cell) are considered classics of their genre for good reasons and you feel you ought...
The Great Circle Whitehead Lilith George Macdonald Cell Stephen King Night Land Hodgson The Sound of his Horn Sarban
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Post by Knygathin on Sept 21, 2012 13:30:30 GMT
. . . put down a book unfinished if I'm not enjoying it, or skip a tale in a collection that doesn't appeal to me, something I found very difficult to do in the past. - Chris Same here. I wonder, why is it like that? What is going on here? What am I so afraid to miss? Is it a stamp in the mind from schooldays, "You have to finish your assignment!!!"? Or having been brought up with the message, "Don't be a quitter!"? What's the harm? We can't have control and read every story there is anyway. Is it not enough that some other fellow has read it?! The story is already discovered. And if it is so important, that it is vital to human existance, then we will be told about the contents anyhow. And the "completist demon" that shows up its ugly face, whenever we have found a writer we think we love. Making life miserable. What's that all about? Same thing here. When younger, I used to be a one-author fan, and completist, thinking my few discovered authors had to be the best in the world. Being so centered, one misses a lot else. Since then, I have found there are varied talents, and have spread out my reading over many writers, trying to capture the very best from each, because there is not time enough to read it all. I think I can live with missing some. My soul will not be lost. . . . The spirit already knows of it all. sorry Taken as a whole, The Night Land must be one of the greatest literary works ever. It stands in a parallel dimension. Perhaps my most impressive reading experience yet. I never got through Richard Burton's Arabian Nights. Although I desperately want to. Only read a few pages, and then gave up. I may try again. I couldn't finish Lilith either. I read Phantastes instead. For me it's the Christian perspective that weighs it down. Tried to get into Dune. But too much politics. Being older now, I think I will accept it more easily. And I could not continue reading Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar past the first few chapters. Too saccharine and affected. But The Metal Monster I almost place alongside The Night Land.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 21, 2012 13:47:39 GMT
And I could not continue reading Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar past the first few chapters. Too saccharine and affected. Completist though I am, I bailed on The Ship of Ishtar after reading about a third of it.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 21, 2012 13:59:46 GMT
It would help if THE NIGHT LAND were in English, rather than in some bizarre language that Hodgson himself made up. (The same goes for Burton's "translation" of the ARABIAN NIGHTS, of course.)
I find the high esteem in which Hodgson is held a bit baffling. He may have been a visionary---although his visions involve giant octopi attacking ships a bit too often---but he was certainly no skilled craftsman. With the exception of a few short stories, his tales are generally horribly clunky and badly constructed.
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Post by Knygathin on Sept 21, 2012 14:54:20 GMT
I find the high esteem in which Hodgson is held a bit baffling. He may have been a visionary---although his visions involve giant octopi attacking ships a bit too often---but he was certainly no skilled craftsman. With the exception of a few short stories, his tales are generally horribly clunky and badly constructed. I don't know about the craft, but The Night Land is all about the vision. The weird atmosphere. The inventions. The unique mentality of the people, finely cultured and consistent, shaped by the harsh conditions and evolution far ahead of us.
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Post by andydecker on Sept 21, 2012 15:37:57 GMT
Where to begin? I also never finished Dune. Put it down to the reviews-syndrom. Never browse too long in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction/Fantasy. You don´t need to read the books later. Started half a dozen times with Moorcocks Cornelius quartet. Have them both in the original and the translated version, and I never could complete A Cure for Cancer. Same goes for The Brothel in the Rosenstraße. I got stuck after the first half, which I adored, and still couldn´t finish it. I also used to buy every Stephen King novel. But after having a backlog of four or five novels sitting unread on the shelves I just gave up. Still havn´t read Bag of Bones after the first few chapters. Have not touched his work in years. Hodgeson´s Nightland was actually translated in the 80s. I know I read it. Still have zero recollection. Same goes for William Morris. And of course Gormenghast. I have a nice edition, and still couldn´t make it past chapter 2. After I saw the tv-adaption, I wondered if I really have to
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 21, 2012 15:43:46 GMT
It would help if THE NIGHT LAND were in English, rather than in some bizarre language that Hodgson himself made up. (The same goes for Burton's "translation" of the ARABIAN NIGHTS, of course.) I find the high esteem in which Hodgson is held a bit baffling. He may have been a visionary---although his visions involve giant octopi attacking ships a bit too often---but he was certainly no skilled craftsman. With the exception of a few short stories, his tales are generally horribly clunky and badly constructed. I know what you mean but I was kind of caught out by Hodgson having read him a while back in the youthful melee where you went for everything. I recently tried to plough through one of the octopi books and really disliked it. Then prompted by a keen vaultee I tried it again and found it enjoyable. he seems very much a mood writer.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Sept 21, 2012 16:24:57 GMT
I also never finished Dune. I've never started it, though I did read the first sequel, Dune Messiah (it was OK, but only OK). I also saw the David Lynch movie, which isn't what I would call good but is sort of fascinating in its own awkward, unique way. I find it highly quotable, in part because everyone talks in such a declamatory style. And of course Gormenghast. I have a nice edition, and still couldn´t make it past chapter 2. Peake can be slow going. I remember skipping over the "Bright Carver" chapters of Titus Groan and browsing through parts of Gormenghast. I've never attempted to read Titus Alone. Perhaps the best point of entry for a horror fan would be the novella "Boy in Darkness," which pits a youthful Titus against a demonic being called the Lamb. I find the high esteem in which Hodgson is held a bit baffling. He may have been a visionary---although his visions involve giant octopi attacking ships a bit too often---but he was certainly no skilled craftsman. With the exception of a few short stories, his tales are generally horribly clunky and badly constructed. They're devilfish, not octopi! I can understand where you're coming from on this. Hodgson loved to re-use ideas, and I've lost track of how many of his stories involve ships entangled in sargasso and/or menaced by devilfish. Missing girlfriends and derelict ships, with or without hordes of rats, also figure prominently. Of Hodgson's four novels, one is widely (though not universally, it seems) regarded as unreadable, another starts out well and falls apart as it goes ( The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"), and yet another is wildly inconsistent ( The House on the Borderland, of which I like the house-under-siege material but not the cosmic whatever). Nevertheless, I'm a fan of his work, particularly The Ghost Pirates (his one tightly focused novel) and the short stories. Of the latter, I particularly like "From the Tideless Sea," "The Voice in the Night," "The Derelict," "The Call in the Dawn," "Demons of the Sea," and "The Habitants of Middle Islet." Roger Zelazny was evidently a Hodgson fan as well, as anyone who's read The Changing Land probably figured out. So was somebody writing for the television show Lost, which included a character named after a Hodgson character (Captain Gault).
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Post by Shrink Proof on Sept 21, 2012 17:17:10 GMT
And of course Gormenghast. I have a nice edition, and still couldn´t make it past chapter 2. After I saw the tv-adaption, I wondered if I really have to Probably not. I couldn't make it beyond a few chapters either. It was like reading cement.
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