[Chris]

I loved TVC, about up to the point where she decided all Vampires are liberace-gay, which completely killed it for me.

I'm about 1/2way through book 2 of Malazan.

[Vince]

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

A fascinating book. Some of the info on quantum physics makes my head swim, but I'm learning

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by Chris

I loved TVC, about up to the point where she decided all Vampires are liberace-gay, which completely killed it for me.

I'm about 1/2way through book 2 of Malazan.

Ummmm...the vampires were always pretty gay, from day one...

Having said that, towards the end they all become slightly more heterosexual...

My disertation is on vampirism and sex, so that's pretty much what I'm focusing on with them at the moment...

[Shikaru]

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

Got about half way through this a few weeks ago and I just started it again tonight. It's been pretty good so far, quite different from my usual reading (mostly fantasy type stuff).

[Chris]

Originally Posted by distressed_romeo

Ummmm...the vampires were always pretty gay, from day one...

Having said that, towards the end they all become slightly more heterosexual...

My disertation is on vampirism and sex, so that's pretty much what I'm focusing on with them at the moment...

Which book do they get less gay in?

I liked everything up to about Vittorio, it seemed like at that point Rice just turned the Gay Dial up 500%, it actually made me uncomfortable to read. It'd be 12 pages about one dude describing how beautiful and glisteny another dude is.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Chris

Which book do they get less gay in?

I liked everything up to about Vittorio, it seemed like at that point Rice just turned the Gay Dial up 500%, it actually made me uncomfortable to read. It'd be 12 pages about one dude describing how beautiful and glisteny another dude is.

I completely agree. I don't understand how DR can say they got "less" gay. I read about 4-5 Vampire Chronicles books and I read them in order. They seemed to get gayer and gayer as they went on. Turning the Gay Dial up 500% is a good description.

Originally Posted by Shikaru

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

Got about half way through this a few weeks ago and I just started it again tonight. It's been pretty good so far, quite different from my usual reading (mostly fantasy type stuff).

I had the first book of that a few years ago and I just stopped reading it halfway through because I thought it was really boring. I bought it because it had been recommended to me by a store clerk at Kinokuniya or someplace like that. I ended up selling it to a used book store and thought, "I'm not buying the other books."

I like Haruki Murakami's stuff though. By him, I've read "Sekai no owari to haado-boirudo wandaarando" (something like "The End Of The World and a Hard-Boiled Wonderland"), "Nejimakidori Kuronikuru" (something like "The Screw-Winding Bird Chronicle"), and "Supuutoniku no koibito" (something like "Sputnik's Lover"). They were all very interesting, but "Noruei no Mori" (Nowegian Wood) was just so boring to me... I couldn't get through it.

[distressed_romeo]

Originally Posted by Chris

Which book do they get less gay in?

I liked everything up to about Vittorio, it seemed like at that point Rice just turned the Gay Dial up 500%, it actually made me uncomfortable to read. It'd be 12 pages about one dude describing how beautiful and glisteny another dude is.

In the last few in the series she begins to reinstate more heterosexual norms; Quinn and Mona in 'Blackwood Farm' and 'Blood Canticle', for instance, actually have a fairly straightforward heterosexual romance, which is pretty unheard of in the earlier books in the series. There are more clearly defined boundaries between the homosexual/bisexual characters like David Talbott, and the heterosexual ones, as opposed to all the vampires' sexuality being more polymorphous. There's less emphasis on things like Marius and Armand's pederastic relationship, or Lestat's faintly incestuous relationship with his mother. If you read 'The Vampire Armand', she's careful to place Marius and Armand's relationship in the context of the period it's set in, so it doesn't look like she's condoning man/boy relationships.
I'm guessing this shift is due to her slow return to Catholicism over the years, although I'm not sure I'm actually going to put that in the essay, as examiners don't really like you attatching biographical significance to everything in an author's work...

Man, I need to get out of the flat for a bit...got essays on the brain.

Actually, 'Vittorio' was one of my favourite installments of the Chronicles, although I'm also one of the few people who liked 'Violin', so I should probably just shut up...

[Buzz762]

Currently reading Dr. Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body. I decided I wasn't up to snuff on angiology, so I figured this would better my knowledge in the area.

[Berger]

Just finished The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bordain. Really a good book if you were a fan of A Cooks Tour or No Reservations.
Makes me want to cook again

[technomancer]

Kelly McCullough - WebMage