here for it

Having different literary taste

(The Shipping News is unreadable, Annie Proulx is overrated, and that whole ‘lyrical’ style that North American writing workshops promote sucks and should be shelved.)

Albuquerque is awesome if you like congealed melted cheese on everything. Or, and this may be just my anecdotal experience, getting hassled by crazy people in the street or pickpocketed.

That’s not much of an answer as to why it’s inherently disrespectful to observe only a part of a particular religion’s practices.

These are two different things, though :)

Why is it inherently disrespectful? Who says?

Well said.

I totally disagree, both with respect to how her statement comes across, with respect to the substance of her practices.

It’s a completely wild, comic ride, while at the same time being pretty deeply unsettling - and moving. The observations and language are remarkable, and each of the characters is completely unforgettable (literally).

Holy smoke, I conflated the two of them.

Edited because I AM A DUMBASS.

Huh, I would feel better if I picked the underdog.

Hastur cf’tagn.

I bet he could.

I am nuts about Shirley Jackson, and The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are two of the most wonderful, scary, moving books that I know.

I also loved Possession when I first read it, but it’s super uneven, as is her Babel Tower.

I was just thinking about Machen and Chambers recently, nice to see someone has been subject to the same brainwaves!

I never read his atheist stuff, but The Selfish Gene and (even more so) The Extended Phenotype were revelatory when I read them.

I could never get into Dostoevsky. Every book of his that I read just disappeared from my mind.