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  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    It might have had. Fleming was good at reconstructing plot points and/or settings or characters and turning them into parts of his own Bondverse.

    I read it somewhere that it might have been an influence but I'd need to read the novel to be sure that it was. As it stands, they both contain general brainwashing anyhow.

    It might have merely been a common trope at the time. A Clockwork Orange was also written around that time and Burgess wrote at least one other novel where the hero is "reeducated".
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    It might have had. Fleming was good at reconstructing plot points and/or settings or characters and turning them into parts of his own Bondverse.

    I read it somewhere that it might have been an influence but I'd need to read the novel to be sure that it was. As it stands, they both contain general brainwashing anyhow.

    It might have merely been a common trope at the time. A Clockwork Orange was also written around that time and Burgess wrote at least one other novel where the hero is "reeducated".

    Yes, you're probably right, actually.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    If I was still an academic I could write a pretty good essay about it.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Ludovico wrote: »
    If I was still an academic I could write a pretty good essay about it.

    Go for it! What kind of academic area were you involved in?
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    The CORPUS HERMETICUM by Hermes Trismegistus. Translated by G.R.S. Mead after a 3rd Century Egyptian copy.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    'Declarations of War' - short stories by Len Deighton. Gosh the man can write, and his research is always meticulous.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    If I was still an academic I could write a pretty good essay about it.

    Go for it! What kind of academic area were you involved in?

    Originally French literature but I also taught French theatre and also existentialist literature.
  • valentinzukovskyvalentinzukovsky
    Posts: 503
    The Kind Worth Killing By Peter Swanson
    Scared To Death By Rachel Amphlet
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    If I was still an academic I could write a pretty good essay about it.

    Go for it! What kind of academic area were you involved in?

    Originally French literature but I also taught French theatre and also existentialist literature.

    Very interesting!

    So you were fluent in French then? Perhaps you were French Canadian?
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    Yes I am a native French speaker and indeed French Canadian.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    edited February 2017 Posts: 45,489
    THE LOVE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE

    French letters from 1128 originally written in Latin. What I am reading is an English paraphrase from 1722.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    Quarry by Max Allan Collins a book about a hitman in the seventies.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    Finished reading The Manchurian Candidate. Now reading, and revisiting, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    THE DIVINE COMEDY (1306-21) by Dante Alighieri. English translation by Henry F. Cary from 1888.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    THE DIVINE COMEDY (1306-21) by Dante Alighieri. English translation by Henry F. Cary from 1888.

    You like your old literature. :)
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Not having read that book is a huge gap in my cultural education.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    Not having read that book is a huge gap in my cultural education.

    Well, you're much better read than I!
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,125
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    Not having read that book is a huge gap in my cultural education.

    I read it at uni. A monument of Italian literature. I also hated it.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    There's nothing like being forced to read a book for the good of your education to instil lifelong loathing.

    Yeah, I'm looking at you, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    True. I am not far into it yet. I find it interesting, but don t see it as masterpiece.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    There's nothing like being forced to read a book for the good of your education to instil lifelong loathing.

    Yeah, I'm looking at you, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.

    I'm looking at anything by Jane Austen...
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    THE STAND - Complete and Uncut - Stephen King. Read the original back in about 1981 and really enjoyed it. This version however see me struggling a little. Found some of the stuff that's been put back in unnecessary (Frannie's mom) and boring, yet other bits (Trashcan Man's meeting with The Kid) really great. This is taking a bit longer than I imagined to read but getting there. Next up Richard Bachman's The Long Walk.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,186
    @Lancaster007

    The Long Walk is the only "King" book I have read. I have never gotten past page 100 or so in Salem's Lot and have more or less given up on King. He's not a writer for me I guess though I'm still planning on reading IT someday.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    King's non-fiction 'On Writing' is a fantastic book. I'm too scared to try anything else of his, though.
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Nothing at the moment. This is what happens when one tries to read too many books at once: I was reading 5!!! :-t
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    @Lancaster007

    The Long Walk is the only "King" book I have read. I have never gotten past page 100 or so in Salem's Lot and have more or less given up on King. He's not a writer for me I guess though I'm still planning on reading IT someday.

    Can't be everybody's cup of tea. But I have to say I loved Salem's Lot and IT is fantastic, very well worth a read. If I had to recommend one it would be the excellent The Dead Zone.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Getting back in to the saint books again.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,186
    A Universe From Nothing
    by Lawrence Krauss

    Some cosmology. Brain food. I love it.
  • QsAssistantQsAssistant All those moments lost in time... like tears in rain
    Posts: 1,812
    I just started the second Jack Reacher book, Die Trying. I finished the first, Killing Floor, awhile back and liked it so much that I went out and bought the next three books.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    Thunderpussy wrote: »
    Getting back in to the saint books again.

    You show great taste

    O:-)
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