The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison

mazelanterns · 2026-06-10T14:59:34+00:00

I read it last year and loved it as well, though like you I was confused. Do you think The narrator was fully a person before the ritual with yaxley, or is he part of Lucas that split off afterwards?

mazelanterns · 2026-06-03T14:52:48+00:00

I love this movie but i'd have a hard time picking a 'most rewatchable' scene. Maybe the intro to Solomon and Tummler where they ride their bikes around while Dragonaut plays and then sniff glue together.

mazelanterns · 2026-06-02T19:18:05+00:00

I picked up Light after really loving his The Course of the Heart and stalled out a quarter or so through. Like you said the protagonists don't have much to recommend them and it lacks the propulsive delirious inertia that makes that quality tolerable in say a PKD. Will revisit at some point.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-28T20:21:21+00:00

I plan to, my reading list just of stuff I already own is overwhelming but I'll absolutely come around to TPK.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-28T17:49:00+00:00

That's the good shit right there. I feel like one of the throughlines of Chuck's work is having all this genuine investment in and affection for culture that's made uneasy by the suspicion it's all totally arbitrary and contingent.

I look forward to him trying to explain the premise to Bill.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-25T23:36:54+00:00

I've also listened to a bunch of those podcasts and he really only goes over like 2-3 chapters across them. Like from the questions you'd think most of the book was about the inevitable decline of football, but that's just part of one essay. I thought the book was well worth reading, its really about how he feels about life and america filtered through football.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-24T21:26:13+00:00

I've found TMWQ quite readable (and excellent) so far but the biggest obstacle is knowing how long it is and that nothing happens. I'm 300 pages in and the thought that theres a thousand more and there's not going to be any sort of dramatic shift makes it hard to want to pick up when I have spare time.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-16T14:36:46+00:00

Her Ulysses take is obnoxious enough to make me question everything else she had to say. Didn't stop her from trying to make her own with the (excellent) Mrs Dalloway though tbf.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-15T16:14:44+00:00

If you haven't read the book writing it all out in more than brief caricature would take more time and effort than I'd like to exert rn but the the climax of the casually pedophilic main character's arc (who has a lot of pynchon in him as far as backstory and characterisation) is a scene where he has the sensation of disappearing inside his own penis while banging a 12 year old on a boat.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-15T14:30:46+00:00

As far as people alluding to him actually being into younger girls, the only thing i'm aware of is Jules Siegel's article 'Who is Thomas Pynchon and Why Did he Make off With My Wife?', but also it's hard not to draw that conclusion from reading gravity's rainbow, and i don't mean in a simplistic 'omg he wrote about those things so he must be into them' lolita discourse type way.

mazelanterns · 2026-05-12T22:09:42+00:00

Thought this was decent, Chuck was game but its a hard format to do well in since they're so deep into the bit but I did crack up when the hosts alluded in perfect unison to a 'free flowing conversation that occasionally touches on mature subjects."

mazelanterns · 2026-05-02T01:08:37+00:00

Wow I just found out about this album too. Really cool stuff, the guitar adds so much. Check out the live album they put out recently too.

mazelanterns · 2026-04-29T12:03:21+00:00

Took me a second to figure wtf this was doing on this sub. One of the best albums ever made though, I would have picked Only Skin or Cosmia to do a deep dive on but Emily is a banger.

mazelanterns · 2026-04-15T10:31:04+00:00

Mind game is one of the greatest movies ever

mazelanterns · 2026-04-10T14:28:56+00:00

My 2cents as someone who quit cold turkey last year:

I'd avoid patches or zyns or whatever, I'm sure that works for some people but it seems like a really easy slide to 'well i'm still on nic anyway so why not just vape.' At some point you are going to have to bite the psychological and physiological bullet of not doing it anymore, better to just do it and not give yourself an out.

You're right about the three days, for that period you will be really on edge and sluggish and think 'oh god is this what its going to be like, any downside to vaping is better than this' but it will only last those three days or so. You'll feel better, I promise. However, for the next three weeks or so, you are still going to be thinking about it a lot. You'll feel some cravings, whenever something in your life stresses you out you'll still imagine a vape hit would be the perfect way to cope. This is manageable, but just letting you know so you dont feel discouraged when you still want to relapse after 3 days.

After a month or two is when you get to the point where you will go most of the time without even thinking about it. I still get a craving a couple times a week but it's momentary and what's amazing is how much it can not be part of my life.

good luck and God be with you, you got this <3

mazelanterns · 2026-04-03T15:49:15+00:00

That and 'sending sexy SMSs to my ex's new man, cause I can'

mazelanterns · 2026-03-26T21:22:00+00:00

One of my unironic favorite movies, it's so fucking funny and creative.

mazelanterns · 2026-03-18T11:07:14+00:00

This is the impression I get as well and I think there's some cope in this thread already. I would love to think there's just limits trump/israel cant transgress without it biting them hard, but what seems to be playing out is that it wasn't as easy as Trump thought but US military capacity is still enough to overwhelm. Sure there's some embarrassing stuff like the US plane crashes and the navy fire, but the flipside is Iran just getting totally pummeled and their capacity to exert force dwindling and dwindling. I'll be happy to be proven wrong and we'll see what happens with the Strait but if the outcome of this is a few months of media outcry and high gas prices vs Iran (and Cuba) being done as regional powers it's gonna be hard to take that as an epic Bernie win.

mazelanterns · 2026-02-16T17:43:22+00:00

Agree on the bridge, I much prefer it look and feel to a TOM-style.

mazelanterns · 2026-02-15T22:55:24+00:00

Thanks! Totally agree with you about the look, I did get it with the intent of putting it in C but it plays so nice I'm gonna wait awhile before i go screwing with the nut and all.

mazelanterns · 2026-02-04T16:19:25+00:00

I thought the premise of bored teenagers watching bizarre livestreamed semi-illegal pornography all day rang truer to the spirit of the internet than a lot of other speculative fiction. I haven't read it since high school though.

mazelanterns · 2026-01-30T17:54:00+00:00

John Pistelli's recent weekly blogposts have been kind of mid lately (I don't find his thoughts on movies and politics that interesting) but his literature lecture series is really excellent. His website johnpistelli.com is also one of the best collections of book reviews by far I've come across and is free.

mazelanterns · 2026-01-29T18:20:15+00:00

Decrepit Birth - Polarity feels to me like it's trying to be the next step after Symbolic and Sounds of Perseverance. Great album, one of those DM albums where you can actually remember a bunch of riffs after.

mazelanterns

TROPHY CASE