FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: masterofsparks on September 17, 2008, 09:20:53 AM
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I started thinking about this because I recently tried (and failed) to complete Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I figured some of you might have some fun examples. What are some examples of albums/books/movies/something else that defeated you?
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'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts.
For once, I'll just wait for the movie.
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I started thinking about this because I recently tried (and failed) to complete Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I figured some of you might have some fun examples. What are some examples of albums/books/movies/something else that defeated you?
I rue the day I purchase Finnegan's Wake...what was I thinking???!??!?!?#@?$!$
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2000: A Space Odyssey - I have completely given up on this one and I don't think I'll ever try to watch it again.
Matrix 2 - I got dragged to the movies to watch this but I fell asleep in about 15 minutes.
House of Leaves - It was interesting but by the time I got half way through, I had lost track of what was going on. I'll have to re-attempt this soon- I bought the damn book.
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Odd, was talking about this in the pub last night. I think I've always made it through to the end of a book or a film (unless it was a stinky turd, then I'd switch it off - I'd consider that me defeating it, rather than the other way around) but I never got past track seven of Sumday by Grandaddy. I like it up to that point ('Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake') but then I develop a disinclination to listen anymore and find something more interesting to do.
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Odd, was talking about this in the pub last night. I think I've always made it through to the end of a book or a film (unless it was a stinky turd, then I'd switch it off - I'd consider that me defeating it, rather than the other way around) but I never got past track seven of Sumday by Grandaddy. I like it up to that point ('Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake') but then I develop a disinclination to listen anymore and find something more interesting to do.
'The Warming Sun'!!! Listen to it! "Experience (boo-boom) the experience once again"
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I skipped about 200 pages of Gravity's Rainbow (towards the middle) and it didn't really affect my comprehension of the novel one way or the other. I've read a few of Pynchon's other books - in general, I like the shorter ones better. War and Peace has been sitting at my bedside table for about two years, with a bookmark at around page 160.
I've walked out of/stopped watching many, many films, but usually I feel like I've defeated them rather than vice versa.
I fell asleep during The Fog of War, to my shame.
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I gave up a quarter of the way through Remembrance of Things Past.
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Infinte Jest. I tried to read it in high school but it was too big of a mountain for me to climb. I'm probably slightly better equipped these days.
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Lots of things. Tons of books, tons of TV shows. Especially TV shows. Not that many films though.
James Joyce. The Sopranos. Dostojevskij. Blade Runner.
Given my anal nature, I usually just skip things completely if I feel there's a risk I might bail on them.
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I made it through most of the first Lord of the Rings, but fell asleep intermittently throughout the sequels. It's not that they were too challenging intellectually, it's just that I kept being reminded I was 33 years old and actually trying to make an effort to understand these complex relationships between elfs and goblins and whatever the hell. The depressingness of that triggered my sleep reflex.
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Let's see what my Netflix history has to say:
-The original Tarkovsky Solaris
-The Ninth Configuration
-Little Murders
-Downtown 81
-Crimewave
-Atlantic City
-Forbidden Zone
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That's an awesome list of films!
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That's an awesome list of films!
I really like Blade Runner, so I figure we are not entirely going to see eye-to-eye on this.
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-The Ninth Configuration
Oh, yeah. Me too. I liked most of the rest of the films on your list, though.
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I got to the point in David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas where he picks up with the endings of the six stories and realized I didn't care how any of them turned out or how they were related.
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man, I loved cloud atlas.
I have never finished a super mario bros. game.
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I wouldn't call it entertainment, but I read about half of the Fountainhead and said, 'nope'.
I think they may be a dying breed but whenever I encounter a Randhead I want to curl up and teleport away.
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2000: A Space Odyssey - I have completely given up on this one and I don't think I'll ever try to watch it again.
I have watched 90 some films on the AFI Top 100 list and this one was by far the least interesting. I like other Kubrick films, but that one is boring with a capital oring.
Also Finnegan's Wake, and I gave up on Ulysses, too, about the part where he spends 5 pages eating a kidney and talking about how he loves the taste of urine.
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I wouldn't call it entertainment, but I read about half of the Fountainhead and said, 'nope'.
I think they may be a dying breed but whenever I encounter a Randhead I want to curl up and teleport away.
I wish they were a dying breed, but I think you may know fewer of them because you're getting older. Early 20s seems to be a prime time for these jackasses. Only the real jerks manage to hold on to this "philosophy" past age 25 or so.
Angelina Jolie is a fan!
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2000: A Space Odyssey - I have completely given up on this one and I don't think I'll ever try to watch it again.
I have watched 90 some films on the AFI Top 100 list and this one was by far the least interesting. I like other Kubrick films, but that one is boring with a capital oring.
Also Finnegan's Wake, and I gave up on Ulysses, too, about the part where he spends 5 pages eating a kidney and talking about how he loves the taste of urine.
I think you guys should check out the sequel. It's way better (except for some of the garage psychedelia near the end)
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Dave Eggers, Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
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Gravity's Rainbow actually defeated me twice. Third time is the charm, I'm sure.
Most recently, the John Adams miniseries kicked the crap out of me. I stuck it out through 6 of the 7 parts, but that was my aboslute limit. I tried twice to sit through the 7th, each time thinking "Well, I hate it and it's boring hell out of me, but I might as well waste one final hour on it." And each time I switched it off before the opening credits were over. I just can't close the deal on that snoozer.
What does happen at the end of that, then, anyway? Does he turn into Two-Face or something?
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He beats Jefferson in a "first person to die is a tosser!" contest.
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The computer game MYST.
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Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I love most of her other work, but this book... "One must do this. One must have this" One one one. Apparently this is a very important feminist essay, but I couldn't finish. I'll take The Yellow Wallpaper over that intellectual word bath any day.
Oh, and MYST. Totally. I even had the secret help book.
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The computer game MYST.
Myst is not that bad
Riven is literally impossible.
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The computer game Impossible Mission. "Stay a while, stay... forever!"
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I'm constantly defeated by books in general. I can't concentrate long enough because I sit down to read and I start thinking about other things. It's not a time issue, I have all the time in the world. Once I get into a book I can't put it down but my biggest obstacle is getting to page 40 or so without losing focus. It sucks because I love finishing a book.
Also, video games. Almost every video game has a spike in difficulty around the halfway point that I just can't handle because I don't play much. So, I either turn it to easy which turns the difficulty and the fun factor way down or just give up. I don't even try to play online!
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I wouldn't call it entertainment, but I read about half of the Fountainhead and said, 'nope'.
I think they may be a dying breed but whenever I encounter a Randhead I want to curl up and teleport away.
I wish they were a dying breed, but I think you may know fewer of them because you're getting older. Early 20s seems to be a prime time for these jackasses. Only the real jerks manage to hold on to this "philosophy" past age 25 or so.
Angelina Jolie is a fan!
Yeah, according to the Wikipedia Rand nerds:
Many notable individuals have acknowledged that Rand significantly influenced their lives, including: Bob Barr, Sinan Çetin, Roy A. Childs, James Clavell, Edward Cline, Chris Cox, Mark Cuban, Paul DePodesta, Steve Ditko, Terry Goodkind, Alan Greenspan, Hugh Hefner, Erika Holzer, Angelina Jolie, Billie Jean King, Anton LaVey, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Mentzer, Frank Miller, Ron Paul, Neil Peart, Robert Ringer, Tracey Ross, Kay Nolte Smith, John Stossel, Clarence Thomas, Vince Vaughn, and Jimmy Wales
So many douche bags united behind a dumb cause. You can throw all those people in my hate pit.
I've given up on so many things. I've probably defeated two video games because once I get frustrated I can't stop thinking about what a waste of time they are. I've given up on many movies and books but they're all usually still on my "To See/to Read" lists. More recently, I tried the new Battlestar Galactica and John Adams but just gave up.
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Vince Vaughn!
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Proust except for "Swann's Way"
Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex"
Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" trilogy-- I only finished "Titus Groan" before I remembered I don't like fantasy/sci-fi.
Ditto many, many novels by Philip K. Dick
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Every single video game I've ever played, with the exception of some sort of Mary Kate and Ashley horseback riding Gameboy Color game I had in 4th grade.
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The computer game MYST.
Seconded! Gave up on this, AND gave up on Riven. Decided I could pull rusty levers and solve puzzles IRL, dude.
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Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex"
yes! perfect example.
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All computer games.
Films by Satyajit Ray (sorry, Rajput, I really tried!)
Foucault's Pendulum (but I liked the Island of the Day Before, or some such.)
Rap Music (except for, so far, Public Enemy and Mos Def)
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I wouldn't call it entertainment, but I read about half of the Fountainhead and said, 'nope'.
I think they may be a dying breed but whenever I encounter a Randhead I want to curl up and teleport away.
I wish they were a dying breed, but I think you may know fewer of them because you're getting older. Early 20s seems to be a prime time for these jackasses. Only the real jerks manage to hold on to this "philosophy" past age 25 or so.
Angelina Jolie is a fan!
I think I dropped my copy into a mailbox I was so mad at it. Maybe it somehow wound up at Vince Vaughn's house.
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I know nothing about The Fountainhead besides the fact that the douchey waiter, Robbie, was reading it in Dirty Dancing. Also, Objectivism has always sounded like some sort of cult to me. No thank you.
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2000: A Space Odyssey - I have completely given up on this one and I don't think I'll ever try to watch it again.
I have watched 90 some films on the AFI Top 100 list and this one was by far the least interesting. I like other Kubrick films, but that one is boring with a capital oring.
Also Finnegan's Wake, and I gave up on Ulysses, too, about the part where he spends 5 pages eating a kidney and talking about how he loves the taste of urine.
I've watched 2001 around ten times. It is my favorite Kubrick film and probably my favorite film ever.
James Joyce, though, is a different story. I somehow ended up finishing Ulysses, but I regret doing so. I made it through maybe fifteen pages of Finnegan's Wake.
Dostoyevsky has defeated me several times (esp. The Brothers Karamazov, which I still have not finished reading after several attempts), but he is still one of my favorite writers.
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Oh, and that game "Dwarf Wharf" in the FOT arcade has me totally defeated. I really hate those seagulls.
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Great Expectations
Dickens can suck it.
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Moby-Dick.
The original Police Quest computer game from the '80s (couldn't get past the drug deal in the park).
So many John Le Carre books... Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (also the miniseries), A Perfect Spy, Tailor of Panama... It took me forever to figure out that while I might love the Cold War spy genre, I don't love it's supposed "master".
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Moby-Dick.
Good one. Twice defeated by it - once when it was assigned in school, once a few months ago when I decided I should give it another try, mostly so I could say I finished it. I see a lot of simiarities between it and Gravity's Rainbow, actually - tons of digressions that, based on the amount of page time, seem like they're more important than the "plot."
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I made it through most of the first Lord of the Rings, but fell asleep intermittently throughout the sequels. It's not that they were too challenging intellectually, it's just that I kept being reminded I was 33 years old and actually trying to make an effort to understand these complex relationships between elfs and goblins and whatever the hell. The depressingness of that triggered my sleep reflex.
Same here. I saw all three in the theatre and fell asleep in the middle of all three. Once I had a sense of what a battle sequence was going to be like, I would just check out.
I am currently loosing the battle against Naomi Kleine's "The Shock Doctrine". I keep listening to interviews with her, which is like getting the cliff notes in audio form. Also, I just picked up Chris Elliot's "Shroud of the Thwacker" and can't stop laughing.
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Moby-Dick.
Good one. Twice defeated by it - once when it was assigned in school, once a few months ago when I decided I should give it another try, mostly so I could say I finished it. I see a lot of simiarities between it and Gravity's Rainbow, actually - tons of digressions that, based on the amount of page time, seem like they're more important than the "plot."
I really liked the John Huston movie version of it, though, with Gregory Peck as Ahab. Apparently looking it up just now I found out that Ray Bradbury co-adapted the screenplay, which is an interesting fact I didn't know.
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The original Police Quest computer game from the '80s (couldn't get past the drug deal in the park).
I'm with you on that one -- however, I used to take pleasure in finding new ways to have my character killed.
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The original Police Quest computer game from the '80s (couldn't get past the drug deal in the park).
I'm with you on that one -- however, I used to take pleasure in finding new ways to have my character killed.
My favorite: walk into the path of a dart at the biker club.
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prime-time network television
i love watching television. it's like the internet, but with less work; i can find just about anything on want on it. prime-time television is my...well, whatever joke i would normally put here on a good day.
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More books!
1776
Benjamin Franklin: The First American
Guns, Germs, and Steel
I really want to be a person that can read an entire book about the Revolutionary War or Ben Franklin, but it seems I am not. I couldn't even watch HBO's John Adams without literally falling asleep every episode.
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I really liked the John Huston movie version of it, though, with Gregory Peck as Ahab.
My fondness for Queequeq dated from that movie. It was a few years before I read the book and fell in love with the original.
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I got about 2/3 of the way through "The Sound and the Fury" and I couldn't go on. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just didn't care.
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I got about 2/3 of the way through "The Sound and the Fury" and I couldn't go on. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just didn't care.
How dare you.
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The Apple IIe game Conan The Barbarian. There are more, but that's the one that still bothers me.
Immanuel Kant.
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I wouldn't call it entertainment, but I read about half of the Fountainhead and said, 'nope'.
I think they may be a dying breed but whenever I encounter a Randhead I want to curl up and teleport away.
I wish they were a dying breed, but I think you may know fewer of them because you're getting older. Early 20s seems to be a prime time for these jackasses. Only the real jerks manage to hold on to this "philosophy" past age 25 or so.
Angelina Jolie is a fan!
Yeah, according to the Wikipedia Rand nerds:
Many notable individuals have acknowledged that Rand significantly influenced their lives, including: Bob Barr, Sinan Çetin, Roy A. Childs, James Clavell, Edward Cline, Chris Cox, Mark Cuban, Paul DePodesta, Steve Ditko, Terry Goodkind, Alan Greenspan, Hugh Hefner, Erika Holzer, Angelina Jolie, Billie Jean King, Anton LaVey, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Mentzer, Frank Miller, Ron Paul, Neil Peart, Robert Ringer, Tracey Ross, Kay Nolte Smith, John Stossel, Clarence Thomas, Vince Vaughn, and Jimmy Wales
So many douche bags united behind a dumb cause. You can throw all those people in my hate pit.
I've given up on so many things. I've probably defeated two video games because once I get frustrated I can't stop thinking about what a waste of time they are. I've given up on many movies and books but they're all usually still on my "To See/to Read" lists. More recently, I tried the new Battlestar Galactica and John Adams but just gave up.
Wow! Douchebags galore, and a lot of people I've never even heard of but now suspect of douchebaggery.
Ayn Rand -- everything I ever tried to read by that woman -- ssssscccchhhhhnnnnnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Other writers that make me want to sleep:
Moliere
David Hume
Edmund Burke
William Wordsworth
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Friedrich Nietzsche
Simone de Beauvoir
Poststructuralists
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The Apple IIe game Conan The Barbarian. There are more, but that's the one that still bothers me.
That was so tough.
Another Apple II game that defeated me was Alice In Wonderland by Broderbund Classics. I could never figure out how to get past some freakin' birds in a nest.
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The original Police Quest computer game from the '80s (couldn't get past the drug deal in the park).
I'm with you on that one -- however, I used to take pleasure in finding new ways to have my character killed.
My favorite: walk into the path of a dart at the biker club.
I got my computer to run this game a few years ago and finally finished it, although with the pixellation, I can't tell whether my character actually won the game or if they switched to some other mustachioed cop halfway through.
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I tried 3 times, but cannot get beyond pg.90 of DFW's Infinite Jest.
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I tried 3 times, but cannot get beyond pg.90 of DFW's Infinite Jest.
Yep, that one requires some momentum. The first section is deliberately opaque, and doesn't become clearer until much, much later in the novel.
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The Power Broker
Faces of Death (I was too scared as an 8th grader to get through it)
Don Quixote
Like others, The Fountainhead, Foucault's Pendulum, Riven (Myst was fine, but Riven...)
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I was defeated by the teenage girl episode of The Best Show.
oh, and the movie 300. I Bittorrented it and ended up just doing other stuff on the computer while I kept it playing in a small window on my second monitor. Except for the gay Persian dude's pretty awesome lifestyle, what a horrible piece of dreck that was.
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I read Infinite Jest over the first year and a half after I graduated college. I don't think I'd ever have the time or patience to finish it if I picked it up now.
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True Blood. It didn't defeat me, it defeated itself. That show sucks.
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Interview With A Vampire. Even as a gothic teenager in the mid-90's that book was unreadable. In retrospect, I have no regrets about this "defeat". In fact, I'm leaning more towards calling it a "victory" now that I think about it.