tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post1735115770845311922..comments2024-03-27T06:42:26.250-07:00Comments on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: A Tour Around the Library of Imaginary BooksKatherine Langrishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-8661414992115674062012-01-17T14:27:21.048-08:002012-01-17T14:27:21.048-08:00I have always loved the little glimpses you get in...I have always loved the little glimpses you get in 'slaughterhouse five' of Kilgore-trout's short stories. Trout is a writer of pulp science fiction who cheerfully admits that he has great ideas but cannot write. my favourite is the story of the tree that evolves instead of leaves and fruit, silver and gold nuggets that it draws up from the earth. the tree florishes because it's roots are fertilised by all the blood that is spilt by people killing each other to get at the riches.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-84005768630249633602012-01-17T01:16:00.931-08:002012-01-17T01:16:00.931-08:00Fabulous - I'll be in the back. Shout if you ...Fabulous - I'll be in the back. Shout if you want to lock up....Freyalynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11911845535682123517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-43590763717285673112012-01-16T13:21:54.532-08:002012-01-16T13:21:54.532-08:00Am lost in admiration, Kath! A wonderful post!Am lost in admiration, Kath! A wonderful post!Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-1972117342577910842012-01-16T12:22:27.600-08:002012-01-16T12:22:27.600-08:00And Marcus, I love the idea of the poem written in...And Marcus, I love the idea of the poem written in smoke signals!Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-82401876838628761802012-01-16T12:19:07.999-08:002012-01-16T12:19:07.999-08:00Fiction cubed is an even more intriguing extension...Fiction cubed is an even more intriguing extension of L-space... and I don't know the book, so thankyou, Erik! <br /><br />Book Maven, Mr Casaubon's notes should surely be in the archive somewhere - in a box, I imagine, with maybe a dry pressed flower left from Dorothea's wedding bouquet... who knows with what thoughts she placed it there?Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-30494994904075489952012-01-16T07:19:02.628-08:002012-01-16T07:19:02.628-08:00I immediately thought of Mr Casaubon's Key to ...I immediately thought of Mr Casaubon's Key to All Mythologies! An imaginary book in the sense that he never managed to write it.<br /><br />By that criterion I have many "imaginary books" of my own.Mary Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-1474654811802205852012-01-16T07:05:50.032-08:002012-01-16T07:05:50.032-08:00One of the things I do in my blog is describe book...One of the things I do in my blog is describe books found only in the Babel Library. - such as a poem written in smoke signs and a play which ends with the actor's suicide.<br /><br />It's in Portuguese, this language almost nobody speaks, but you can try a <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=pt-BR&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Falmanaque.wordpress.com%2Fcategory%2Fbiblioteca-de-babel%2F&act=url" rel="nofollow">Google translation</a>.Marcos Fariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09799037117497024875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-34973374858601088812012-01-16T06:51:59.697-08:002012-01-16T06:51:59.697-08:00I love Roderick Townley's "The Great Good...I love Roderick Townley's "The Great Good Thing", which is a delightful and moving fantasy about an imaginary book of the same title and what happens when the only known copy of that book burns and the characters have to escape into the mind of the reader to survive... this comes perilously close to being fiction-cubed (for reasons that I can't elaborate without giving away too much of the plot - but it's well worth hunting down!).Erikhttp://amongmiracles.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-63264063644645568702012-01-16T04:55:00.223-08:002012-01-16T04:55:00.223-08:00This is a lovely post! Can't think of any exam...This is a lovely post! Can't think of any examples but so lovely to read Stella Gibbons. I've just bought her novel WESTWOOD. The poem is beautiful too from the wonderful ASB.adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15826710558292792068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-36159571195350826632012-01-16T04:46:14.718-08:002012-01-16T04:46:14.718-08:00Excellent! And yes, the Biblioteca de Babel was a...Excellent! And yes, the Biblioteca de Babel was also on my mind (perhaps UU Library is only a branch of it!)Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-5786462895152044032012-01-16T03:28:59.947-08:002012-01-16T03:28:59.947-08:00The first title that came to my mind was "The...The first title that came to my mind was "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism", by Emmanuel Goldstein, from Orwell's "1984". <br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Oligarchical_Collectivism<br /><br />Then I remembered a short story I read when I was a kid. It was written by Nelson Slade Bond, first published in 1941, and it's called "The Bookshop". It's about an author who finds a small book store which sells only works that were never actually written. The most perfect books, that only existed as concepts in the mind of their authors, who were never able to write them down: "Cannon Mills", by Jane Austen; "Agamemnon", by William Shakespeare; "The eye of the gargoyle", by Edgard Allan Poe; and so on. Eventually the protagonist discovers that the book he's trying to write is already there too.<br /><br />Ad of course there are all those textbooks from the Harry Potter universe. <br /><br />Anyway, all of those are not only in the UU Library, but also in Borges' Biblioteca de Babel.Marcos Fariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09799037117497024875noreply@blogger.com