A Book Thread

[Jim North]

If they're something like dolls from Barbarella.

Those things gave me nightmares when I was a kid.

I'm still not entirely certain why I was even allowed to watch that movie when I was a kid.

[Bustertheclown]

Every kid needs a little surreal 70's sci-fi in their life.

[Tellurider]

I could never get through Barbarella. I get to the part where she has sex with the guy and his moving house/car thing goes in crazy circles on the misty alien planet as a sort of "this van's a-rocking" thing and I go "nothing is happening and it's boring" so I change the channel.

[McDuffies]

Hmmm? Barbarella is by no means a cinematic masterpiece, but I wouldn't describe it as boring, it's not less eventfull than average 60ies movie. Granted it's far from MTV editing that is a norm today, but that's a good thing.

Those things gave me nightmares when I was a kid.

Yeah, there were pretty scary, several notches scarier than in the comic.

[Pairwise]

In the middle of both Einstein's Relativity, which is amazingly accessible and so far highly recommended to anyone looking for a general understanding of his work; I have no more experience with physics than what I learned in high school and I haven't had any significant problems. The second is The Idiot by Dostoevsky. The latter is a little cumbersome to read if you haven't tackled him before (I've a bit of a man crush on that bushy old man, so I'm used to his style), but if given the chance, it's a marvelous book. Dostoevsky has such a unique voice: he's very conscious of the fact that he's writing this down and rarely allows the audience to forget that. More so than any other work, it really feels like you're being told the story, with all the personal bias that comes along with a raconteur.

[Wendybird]

I'm also trying to find some good examples of illustrated novels, where the illustrations are integrated and complementary to text, but given that "illustrated novel" is interchangeable with "graphic novel" for certain folk who just don't want to be pigeonholed in their pompous descriptions of comics, it's proving difficult. Anyone got any leads?

If you're looking for something fun, you could try Pratchett's The Illustrated Wee Free Men. I read the original text-only version first and enjoyed it, but with the illustrations I think it is much improved. It's the only novel-length book I can think of that I would consider fully illustrated, and I can see why. That is a whole lot of painting to do.

I've seen a few books that are more artsy and integrated. One that stands out is The Poison Diaries. It's shorter than Wee Free Men but definitely not a children's book in the same way. It's a gothic tragedy in the form of a sketch journal.

I'm also interested in these sort of things so if anyone else has found other examples I'd like to hear about them too.

[BrownEyedCat]

If they're something like dolls from Barbarella.

Those things gave me nightmares when I was a kid.

I'm still not entirely certain why I was even allowed to watch that movie when I was a kid.

Neither am I. I watched about half of it with my adult friends - one of whom was soon to be married at the time - a little while ago, and the soon-to-be-married one was horrified.

It was hilarious.

[McDuffies]

Neither am I. I watched about half of it with my adult friends - one of whom was soon to be married at the time - a little while ago, and the soon-to-be-married one was horrified.

It was hilarious.

Meh I watched all kinds of crap when I was a kid.