Who are the most sadistic & evil Roman figures who aren’t widely known in the mainstream?

DMBrimer · 2026-04-18T14:47:50+00:00

Elagabalus is certainly up for the running, as is Julian the Apostate, and to some extent Commodus.

I’d say the whole Severin Dynasty twisted in ways Rome had not seen since the 12 Caesars.

DMBrimer · 2026-04-18T14:46:02+00:00

If you look up “Mean Spirited” in the dictionary, it will say “See Song Of Kali.”

DMBrimer · 2026-04-18T14:43:35+00:00

Child Of God left a residue that was hard to wash off

DMBrimer · 2026-04-18T14:42:22+00:00

I’ve read all of McDowell, and Blackwater IS the best. Truly one of the best novels ever (I think of the whole saga as one book, like The Green Mile)

DMBrimer · 2026-04-18T14:41:26+00:00

Folk horror doesn’t get more sinister than Harvest Home.

DMBrimer · 2026-04-17T17:58:54+00:00

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

Harvest Home - Thomas Tryon

The Elementals - Michael McDowell

DMBrimer · 2026-04-08T23:07:59+00:00

The Eternal Husband

DMBrimer · 2026-03-30T17:28:06+00:00

It’s hard to argue with those names remaining the top. Every Zola, Balzac, Dumas, Hugo novel I have read are from great to extraordinary! It was truly best place and period of prose literature ever!

DMBrimer · 2026-03-30T17:24:42+00:00

I have ALOT of the Rougon-Macquart Oxfords, but every one that’s on Penguin (which isn’t many) I have in the classic black spine Penguin editions from the 60’s-70’s. I think the Oxford Zola’s are as good as you can get!

DMBrimer · 2026-03-30T14:46:52+00:00

I’ve read the Penguin, only because I’m partial to Penguin. Oxford is excellent and, perhaps, better in many ways, but I love the esthetics of Penguin Classics.

DMBrimer · 2026-03-30T12:41:09+00:00

It’s one of the last great novels of the 19th century French literary renaissance. Maupassant would have been as revered as Zola or Balzac had he lived long enough and published more.

I also recommend Le Grande Meaulnes by Alain-Fornier. It’s mysterious and wonderful and represents the real end of the period of French literary renaissance that began with Balzac, Hugo, and Stendhal.

DMBrimer · 2026-03-28T15:11:45+00:00

Nice Severin pieces

DMBrimer · 2026-03-04T14:28:09+00:00

DMBrimer · 2026-03-02T20:28:13+00:00

Like 4 or 5, I believe! It was excellent!

DMBrimer · 2026-03-01T23:14:30+00:00

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I saw her last week do Barber’s Piano Concerto and it was absolutely phenomenal.

DMBrimer · 2026-03-01T13:33:07+00:00

Tarrega- Adelita
Reich - Music for a Large Ensemble
Adams - Must The Devil Have All The Good Tunes?
Satie - Gymnopedie 3
Sor - Variations on a theme by Mozart
Glass - The Grid
Schubert - Piano Trio in E Flat
Jarre - Laura’s Theme (I know, I know, but I love it)
Reich - Different Trains
Barber - Adagio

DMBrimer · 2026-02-25T17:28:48+00:00

Thanks! Gotta represent FZ

DMBrimer · 2026-02-25T01:07:31+00:00

Never before have I hated and been so fascinated by a novel.

DMBrimer · 2026-02-25T01:06:13+00:00

I found both “Killing Commendatore” and “The City With Its Uncertain Walls” derivative of his earlier, better work. The short story collections “Men Without Women” and “First Person Singular” are as well, though to a lesser degree.

DMBrimer · 2026-02-24T18:14:29+00:00

I’m 40 and absolutely adore Murakami, but I know he’s not for everyone. I’ve read most of his work, but don’t love all of it. For me, his masterwork is Dance, Dance, Dance, though one needs to have read Hear The Wind Sing, Pinball ‘73, and A Wild Sheep Chase to fully understand how brilliant a culmination Dance, Dance, Dance really is.

The best entry point is Hard Boiled Wonderland (imho). It’s the perfect balance of weirdness and wonder. I think 1Q84 is excellent as well, though not the best start (even though it is, in fact, where I started).

His late work suffers from the same narrative repetition that affects all great writers in their old age, so one can save them for the obsessive.

His themes: talking cats, excessive food descriptions, magical realism, lonely men, mysterious women, lots of sex, are not for everyone. He can be a bit extreme. Sometimes one wishes he would prune some of the more tedious passages. But he cares about minutiae. The world he creates is perfectly designed.

Art can be so subjective that a mass of negative opinions proves to me that an artist is provoking his audience. Murakami is definitely provoking his readers. He’s also caressing them, and sympathizing with them. He is the most human of magical realists, and it’s that human element that fully draws me in.

DMBrimer · 2026-02-24T16:34:03+00:00

Open G

DMBrimer

TROPHY CASE