Badmovies.org Forum

I'd  like to start a thread recommending classic novels.

If you like SF try "voyage of the space  beagle " by A. E.  Van Voght. (Vote)

This title seems funny today,  but it was a refference  to the ship Darwin said on when be wrote his origin of species book.  It's a SF adventure about a huge starship from earth sent out to explore  the galaxy.  A lot of classic SF has origins in this book. The premise is pure star trek, an alien that  implants itcs embryoes inn humans is encounrered. Not all aliens are aggressive and hostile,  some actually try to communicate peacefully, with unintentional unfortunate results caused by deep diffefences between them and humanity. A lot of philosophy is discussed and the idea of an organization dedicated to fundamentally improving humanity is introduced.

The dialog is a bit outdated and some of the terms are laughable today. A large feline like alien is called "p***y" by the humans.  Worse, the energy pistols the humans carry,  which today would likely be called disruptors,  are called "vibrators".  

All right, stop the beavis and butthead laff already.

Itcs an intelligent novel and despite the outdated scie ce and launaguage itcs worth reading.

"Catch-22." Hilarious wordplay throughout. My type of black comedy. I'm surprised I didn't read it as a teenager.

"Lolita" is IMO the greatest novel written in the English language, although it's a little "advanced." The subject matter (child molestation) is even more shocking and controversial today than it was when it was published in the 50s. A great way to "read" it is to listen to Jeremy Irons "books on tape" version.

If you like catch 22 you might enjoy "bill the galactic hero", a SF action parody thast has been compared to C22 quite often.

"Lolita" just made people  scream because it came out and said what people know had been happening since time immemorial.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64430.Bill_the_Galactic_Hero (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64430.Bill_the_Galactic_Hero)

The HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson is not only almost like reading poetry at times, it's also damn scary!

"i am legend" blew me away as a teenager, and still does whenever i read it.

INFERNO by LARRY NIVEN and JERRY POURNELLE

oh yes, and ringworld. i loved it, it got me into serious scifi as a teenager.

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD 

don't whack me, but i HATED that book almost as much as i hated ethan frome. sorry.  :thumbdown:

You are stupid.   :thumbup: 

you know better, lol! :thumbup:

That's right.   :teddyr:  


PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by JANE AUSTEN   Great book, the 1940 film adaptation is superb.  

Couldn't finish that one in high school, plan to try it again as an adult.

There's a reason people are still reading it after 200 years.  I read the book decades ago, but the film is wonderfully faithful and amusing; I think the first time I saw it was in the English class where I read the book.  Decades ago.  

[EDIT: were to where]

seriously rev, i'd suggest the 1940 movie first, THEN read the book. and THEN watch pride and prejudice and zombies, a romp& a 1/2, lol!

Thanks guys, I'll be fine. I liked LOVE & FRIENDSHIP (based on a lesser known Austen novella) a lot.

I gave that novel to my sister-in-law a few years before I lost her.  She loved that English stuff and old fashioned names and monsters!  Perfect! 

I'm not a niven fan anymore but I liked "protector" and "a world out of time".

I enjoyed Ira Levin's ROSEMARY'S BABY and the STEPFORD WIVES very much.

i read the stepford wives at the age of 15, with my momma. it scared the living SNOT out of both of us because it was just TOO close to some of the people in my hometown...

Speaking of scary books from the 70's I have a 1st edition of the EXORCIST by William Peter Blatty. That book scared the s**t outta me. When I first read it in 1974, I was 12.I still believed in God. I mean f**k- I spent time in a Catholic orphange with nuns all over the place. I still like nuns to this day.

i read it around the same age, terrified me. then the movie came out and i LAUGHED through the whole thing the first time i saw it, lol! now, it MIGHT be because it was a double feature at the drivein and the original night of the living dead was the first movie. THAT one scared me witless, and the exorcist just... didn't, after watching NOTLD.

If you  want old fashioned, rip roaring,  gosh wow space opera sci-fi, try reading "3 from the legion" by jack Williamson.

The legion of space is old,  old school SF. How old? In one scene a radio is disabled by having itcs tubes smashed and itcs lead acid battery jars broken and emptied.

There are tentcled aliens from another star system, traitors, cowards,  heroes,  an alien world and a beautiful woman who knows the secret to the most powerful  weapon in the universes to rescue.

It's really old school sci-fi but classic stuff.

WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by SHIRLEY JACKSON... I have not seen any film.  I read a few things by SHIRLEY JACKSON including The Haunting of Hill House (which might be considered her masterpiece) and if you dig her style, CASTLE is her best. 

(http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/c/ca/WHVLWSLVDN1971.jpg)

i like pretty much all of shirley's stuff. somebody did make a movie of castle that i saw last year, it made absolutely no sense at all. here's the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQg-nUoMCBo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQg-nUoMCBo)

Since people here seem to like horror novels i'll toss this in because I read it and remember it as being pretty good horror.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_(Herbert_novel)

DO NOT CONFLATE THIS WITH THE ABYSSMAL HORROR MOVIE "THE DARK"!!!

(http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/c/ca/WHVLWSLVDN1971.jpg)




I also like SHIRLEY JACKSON, not a devotee, but as far as writers go, close... There apparently is a movie from last year, but I have no interest in it. 

I gave my own copy of WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE to an old friend this past Christmas.  It was a trade paper copy probably a publisher like Penguin that I'd owned for decades, but remained unread.  I have not read a copy with the cover I used for illustration, but that cover is cool.  Though... misleading?  What is apparent in that story was the kind-of witchcraft Merricat practised which is entirely personal subjective emotional... That's a fabulous book...  and that cover strangely accurate.   

 

i'm serious. don't waste your time on the movie, it's THAT bad. i threw tv bricks.

:hatred:

Speaking of William Peter Blatty, here's the episode of You Bet Your Life which he appeared on before he became famous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrnzDMbFHkY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrnzDMbFHkY)

Shirley Jackson is like Poe or Lovecraft. It's more mood. Hard to capture on film.
Myself- I love Shirley. Her short stories (i.e. A Day With Peanuts) are f**ked up. A Trip to the Dentist is plain down right terrifying.

Read a couple of Shirley Jackson novels (one of which was We Have Always Lived In The Castle, enjoyed the story if not quite the ending quite as much. Was hoping for more vengeance on the locals lol).

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by KURT VONNEGUT 

Billy Pilgrim is coming unstuck in time...

The little birdie say "Poo-tee-weet". 

I read ROSEMARY'S BABY several times when I was around 12 - 13 years old. Loved it. I read THE STEPFORD WIVES when I was in my 20s. Liked it more than the Katharine Ross movie, but not nearly as much as I liked ROSEMARY'S BABY.

Some other favorites:

* THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME - I've read this several times over the past 40+ years. Love it.

* DRACULA - What's not to love about this one?

* THE CAINE MUTINY - The movie with Bogey is excellent, but the book is infinitely better.

* 1984 - I don't think I've ever read a more depressing book. But it has tremendously vivid characters and settings.

* A CATCHER IN THE RYE - I only read it once, but it was a real page turner. I should read it again.

* THE BRONX ZOO by Sparky Lyle - Classic, you ask? Yes. It's a great book about baseball (specifically, the 1978 season). Also, one of the funniest books I've ever read. Laugh out loud funny. I read the whole book in 2 sittings. I could barely put it down.

Guess who tonight's final JEOPARDY question was about? 

You guessed it!  SHIRLEY JACKSON !  They mentioned fame 'cause of a 1948 story (but didn't name "The Lottery"). 


(http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/c/ca/WHVLWSLVDN1971.jpg)

thanks for the tip on the baseball book, burgo! perfect present for brad, he's a baseball fiend.
AHD, ain't life weird sometimes?  :cheers:

Coincidence?  I am unconvinced.  I was one of the kids too young for THE DOORS but who got into that band big time around 1979... ?  Suddenly, it was a trend.

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/50/ff/5a/50ff5a215a9729c9d3966c0f30cf7b1c.jpg)

i use the word resonance instead of coincidence, generally.

I dig it.  "Coincidence" was my word to describe, in a pedestrian way, my own experience.  I was a bit surprised by the obscurity of the framing (I'm great on years and they gave one) so I knew the "question" was Who is SHIRLEY JACKSON?  It resonated and was cool. 

If someone who says they never read Shirley Jackson I just wanna slap them with a fish. And if I seem snobbish- well, I don't give a f**k.

I think a lot of people have read SHIRLEY JACKSON but don't realize it.  The first time I read "The Lottery" it was a reading assignment in school; it had first been published in The New Yorker magazine in 1948.   :thumbup: 

And the LOTTERY ain't even close to her best story.
It's just something she wrote that folks could wrap there head around easy.
Most of her stories are not easy to pigon hole. They're f**ked up in ways that make you question your own sanity, sometimes.

Prob'ly not her best.  But it is her best remembered short.  And I don't agree with your assessment.  Many people were outraged that her story had been published at all!  It's a landmark. 

It IS her best remembered. But far from her best. And it's only known by people who read
Shirley Jackson.

 i thought you might " get" it. it's not explainable, really, it just.. works better to explain it, resonance.