Topic: Nintendo Life Book Club

The Master & Margarita is my favourite Soviet era book although I've not ready that many to be honest. I think I picked it up after hearing Patti Smith (or was it The Rolling Stones but I'm not a huge fan of them so maybe not) were inspired by the book for one of their songs.

Whilst it is a satire about the godless modern life with interplay about good and evil, freedom in an unfree world and all that I however just liked it had a talking cat with a tommy gun in it!

@jump
It's Sympathy for the Devil, but I bet Patti is probably a fan as well. Behemoth is such a fantastic character, who can beat a demonic cat?

Manuscripts don't burn
(Which, I reckon, Ben Marcus responded to with Texts can be hacked)

@moomin - think that will be my next purchase. Cheers

The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin is worth checking out as well. Neat piece of experimental fiction. Maybe a bit indulgent for some but I dug it.

It sounds like an absurdist version of The Waves by Virginia Woolf, so will have to add that to the list as well

@Rambler Yeah they both wrote songs inspired by the book but I can't remember which one actually made me think to read it. I specifically remember buying the book after seeing it in the shop and thinking to myself "Oh, that's the book from that song". I'm leaning towards Patti as it might have been around the time I was listening to the old skool CBGB bands whilst I'm not really a Rolling Stones fan but that song is big enough to make me curious about it. I've actually found a few books I really enjoyed as they influenced musicians I like such as Perfume inspired Kurt Cobain, With Teeth by NIN started out as a concept album based on The Lathe of Heaven, Birds of America was an influence of St Vincent etc.

In any case I've started reading First Person Singular which is a collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami. I'm a fan of his work even with how pretentious he can be but you can't away that he's got mad skills when you spend three pages reading about cooking spaghetti like it's epically beautiful poem.

Tried reading the Moviegoer by Walker Percy but after 90 pages I just wasn't feeling it. Now I'm reading War & War by László Krasznahorkai. Kind of difficult to follow along at some points because each paragraph is a long uninterrupted sentence with dozens of commas that trip me up mentally. Otherwise I like it.

@moomin I've had Moviegoer on my to read list for awhile now after hearing it's basically The Divine Comedy but at Mardi Gras. Any issue with it so it should be skipped or were you just not in the right mood for it?

Not in the right mood; if it's on your list then I'd say still go for it definitely.

I finished War & War which may very well have the bleakest ending of any novel I've read. Spoiler for anyone who cares.

It ends (more or less; the epilogue I couldn't really grasp) with a link to the website the protagonist Korin spent most the novel working on. He was copying the text of an anonymous manuscript he found in an archive by chance; so profoundly touching to the suicidal Korin that he decides to upload it into digital immortality to give his suicide some kind of meaning (even though, as he claims, "my life had none"). When you go to warandwar.com (the link) you get a 404 message:

"Not Found
The requested URL / was not found on this server.

Additionally, please be informed that this home page service has been called off due to recurring overdue payment. Attempted mail deliveries to Mr. G. Korin have been returned to sender with a note: address unknown. Consequently, all data have been erased from this home page."

Now I'm reading Omensetter's Luck which is the debut of William H. Gass, who wrote my favorite novel The Tunnel

@jump
I read Perfume due to Scentless Apprentice as well! Suskind also wrote a great novella that was available in the Bloomsbury Quids editions (their posh version of Penguin 60s), but I'm damned if I can remember what it was called. Google suggests a different novella...

@moomin - László Krasznahorkai is the author of Satantango, isn't he? I keep meaning to read that. The film is amazing. Gass is another writer on my everlong list.

OT - but that reminds me of the film Orfeu Negro. It's a version of Orpheus in the underworld, but set during carnival in Salvador do Bahia

@Rambler The only other book I read by him was The Pigeon, is that the one? It's about a guy who has a break down as he sees a pigeon at his flat which is as silly and brilliant as it sounds.

@jump it was about someone turning to stone? It's been about a billion years since I read it

Started Pale Fire by Nabokov and ordered a few cheap books on ebay. Gonna dive into Goethe finally, since I've enjoyed German lit so much.

@moomin
Pale fire is amazing

I've heard as much. I really like the framing device employed.

@moomin I take it you've read House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski?

Picked up the Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania last year and found it really insightful. It's very clear that all the devs working on that game were in love with the original. Especially loved the full-page character renders and the notes on the soundtrack!

I was disappointed when I got the VII-VIII-IX Ultimania book tbh. I was expecting more obscure trivia and developer interviews etc. Also they barely covered VIII compared to the others.

Does the VII Remake Ultimania have more nerd trivia?