General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf this were all a novel...who would be the author...?
...I think a collaboration between Dante, Shakespeare, Kafka, Philip K Dick, Hunter Thompson, and Harlan Ellison might--just *might*--be sufficient for the nightmare we're facing. Indeed, I often wonder if we *are* living in a peculiarly hellish fictional construct. That's almost a reassuring thought--because then, it wouldn't be true...
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,887 posts)Stuart G
(38,449 posts)It was great, twisted, remarkable, convoluted, fascinating..whatever...??.............................It was ..........
"The Brothers Karamazov "
maveric
(16,446 posts)Seriously.
OldHippieChick
(2,434 posts)StarryNite
(9,461 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,908 posts)Possibly in collaboration with Peter Straub. Their joint novel The Talisman is the ONLY book that ever gave me nightmares.
malaise
(269,211 posts)This is beyond the Heart of Darkness
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)imanamerican63
(13,820 posts)MFM008
(19,823 posts)........
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)unblock
(52,355 posts)any name author is way too good to come up with such drivel.
nope, this story reads like something someone wrote for high school project and got a c- at best.
PatSeg
(47,634 posts)and we only know a fraction of what all happened. If it was a movie, I'd walk out. Who would believe such an outrageous figure like Trump could end up in the White House? Steve Bannon, Carter Page, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Maybe as a comedy, but not terribly funny either.
The reason no one has ever written such a story, is because no one would read it or believe it.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,214 posts)This whole thing is our collective Kafkaesqe experience.
unc70
(6,121 posts)Many of the others seem to have too much religion or philosophy. Others are too subtle.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)But this one is so loopy and bizarre, I suspect it might be right up another Floridian's alley: Tim Dorsey
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)Just read his latest, The Pope of Palm Beach. I thought about him, bit thought not enough folks here would know his work.
Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)I read novels set it tropic settings during the Winter, especially when it's a dank 40 degrees in California, and Tim Dorsey is always a welcome addition to my reading stack.
I just placed a hold on The Pope of Palm Beach up at my Podunk Carnegie library. Thanks for the heads up.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)Shames is a stich, old stuff but funny as hell.
Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)My benchmark for everything Florida, was John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee. Back in the day, I remember anxiously waiting for his next installment.
Have you read Bob Morris? I was just starting to like Bob Morris' Zack Chasteen then he just stopped. Bummer.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)I have not read Morris. I think you'd like Hall. There's another series I am trying to remember, set in Florida, the character is an attorney. I hate senior moments.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)Interesting, the person who hipped me to McGee forty years ago also recommended McBain. Perhaps I should give it another try.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)Senior moment again.
Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)My dank 40 degrees California days are waning.
rzemanfl
(29,571 posts)mixed up in my senior moment. I don't find the series I am thinking of in the list of McBain's writings. Like most senior moments it will come to me when least expected.
John1956PA
(2,659 posts)lapfog_1
(29,227 posts)we are on a planet of absurdity.
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Only he could capture the absurdity of it all.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)moondust
(20,014 posts)Victory at Yorktown
(35 posts)One of my favorite authors. That title fits.
MrsCoffee
(5,803 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,744 posts)Assume the worst of those in power.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,372 posts)Just for laughs
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,372 posts)Donald Trump would be Lord Walder Frey.
Oh, wait, did it end well for Walder Frey? Maybe not so well.
shraby
(21,946 posts)malchickiwick
(1,474 posts)Leghorn21
(13,527 posts)I should read that again, LOVE IT - read it decades ago, and still quote the line, for no particular reason, (the guy goes into a bar and has been hired as the cleaning man) - -
Where they keep them mutherfuckin broom?!
Response to Leghorn21 (Reply #55)
GusBob This message was self-deleted by its author.
malchickiwick
(1,474 posts)...published posthumously after JKL passed far too young. Won the pulitzer. Great line, BTW, and you've convinced me I need to read it again too. It's been a decade-plus.
GusBob
(7,286 posts)I was gonna pick that one
malchickiwick
(1,474 posts)Great minds, right GusBob?
GusBob
(7,286 posts)Would bluster against Trump!
pnwmom
(109,000 posts)dameatball
(7,400 posts)pnwmom
(109,000 posts)LAS14
(13,783 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)mainstreetonce
(4,178 posts)Donnie and the Puddy Factory
madamesilverspurs
(15,810 posts)sdfernando
(4,947 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Although Kafka, Orwell and Vonnegut are good choices as well. I would throw in another one: Margaret Atwood, author of "The Handmaid's Tale.
babydollhead
(2,231 posts)VOX
(22,976 posts)Chayefskys work had the rage necessary for tackling the high-stakes weirdness.
Hunter S. Thompson would be equally up to the task.
enid602
(8,659 posts)Xaviera Hollander
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,468 posts)oasis
(49,426 posts)mythology
(9,527 posts)Trump reminds me a great deal of Ignatius J Riley.
BlueTsunami2018
(3,505 posts)A horror show like this could only be written by a master.
lpbk2713
(42,769 posts)People at the higher levels are corrupt, inept or insane. Or any combination of the three.
Louis1895
(768 posts)Complicated spy and corrupt government story.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Leith
(7,813 posts)or Mary Shelley
Docreed2003
(16,880 posts)Leghorn21
(13,527 posts)my man James Ellroy - hush hush and on the Q-t, baby
syringis
(5,101 posts)The current circus reflects pretty much his writing style
longship
(40,416 posts)Only Bokononism is going to get us through this.
The fourteenth book of Bokonon is the best explanation of what is now happening.
"Sometimes the pool-pah," Bokonon tells us, "exceeds the power of humans to communicate." Bokonon translates pool-pah at one point as "wrath of God."
...
"What hope can there be for mankind," I thought, "when there are such men as Felix Hoenikker to give such playthings as ice-nine to such short-sighted children as almost all men and women are?"
And I remembered The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon, which I had read in its entirety the night before. The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon is entitled, "What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?"
It doesn't take long to read The Fourteenth Book. It consists of one word and a period.
This is it.
"Nothing."
And so it goes.
Demsrule86
(68,703 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)Then scoffed and said to himself, "I can't write this. No one would believe it even as fiction!"
TryingNot2Freak
(19 posts)lame54
(35,328 posts)McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)highplainsdem
(49,044 posts)article notes.
Wounded Bear
(58,728 posts)Clunky, stilted, unrealistic, self absorbed, preachy.
LisaM
(27,843 posts)This has modern absurdity written all over it, and Pynchon is so shadowy himself he could easily be sitting in on all the meetings without anyone realizing it.
Laffy Kat
(16,388 posts)On one of his trippiest days.
lapucelle
(18,356 posts)Kafkaesque
Comes from the author Franz Kafka, and refers to the style with which he wrote his books.
Basically it describes a nightmarish situation which most people can somehow relate to, although strongly surreal with an ethereal, "evil", omnipotent power floating just beyond the senses.