Your favourate scene from a book

mrblue

The confrontation between Frodo & the Leader of the Ringwraiths at the ford of Rivendell.

*the driver of this world is dead at the wheel*

mrblue

Quiet, you sad internet fatboy dumbo geek.

Get out & meet some people. Maybe if you weren't such an A-r-s-e-h-o-l-e you would have some social comitments & have better things to do than randomly insulting people over the world wide web.

Get a life.

damo

you sad fuc ker

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

That's one of mine too mrblue- but not my fave at is happens. My top scene from a book would have to be the scene at the end of 1984- where Winston realizes his true feelings about Big Brother.

Close behind would have to be

***Pip's re-acquaintance with Estella at the end of Great Expectations

***The Abbe Faria's final parting words to his cell-mate in the Count of Monte Cristo

***Captain Nemo's ruthless ramming manouvere of a hated warship in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

***The heroic and sacrificial end that Sidney faces at the end of A Tale of Two Cities

***Gandalf's resolute stand against the Balrog in the Mines of Moria

***Thetis imploring her son Achilles not to fight on the day he is destined to die- and his subsequent refusal to quit the field of battle in the Illiad

***Paul's final duel with Feyd Rautha in Dune

***Odysseus outwitting the Cyclops in the Odessy

***The final courtroom scene from L'Etranger (the Outsider)

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Veritas Veritas Veritas=

[This message has been edited by Bob the Unlucky Octopus (edited 07-05-2001).]

TwoShedsJackson

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by damo:
you sad fuc ker</font>

Good one, coming from someone who puts 'q3tourney4, face me and meet your maker, face me and be 0wned' in his sig

nesf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bob the Unlucky Octopus:


***Gandalf's resolute stand against the Balrog in the Mines of Moria

</font>

Love that one myself, also...

Perrin and Egwene when confronted by Whitecloaks, and Hopper takes a lance etc.

Book 4 I think

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by nesf:

Perrin and Egwene when confronted by Whitecloaks, and Hopper takes a lance etc.

Book 4 I think </font>

Believe it or not, that's in TEOTW, the first book My personal fave from the Wheel of Time is Rand's personal quest for revenge against Rahvin in the Fires of Heaven (book 5 I think). Very close behind would have to be his capture and Taim-led rescue in book 6. The series has degenerated however- and Jordan's rehashing old character information without really expanding the story. The last book I truly enjoyed in the series was book 7- A Crown of Swords.

Let's hope his next offering is written with a little more character development.

Oh, and while I'm at it- here's another scene from a book- Count Roland's stand at Roncevall to save Charlemagne's retreat is another classic piece of literature. It might be considered story-poetry in the manner of Chaucer- but I'll include it anyway

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Veritas Veritas Veritas=

nesf

I stand corrected I'm reading the 9th at the moment so my heads totally fuzzed, 25 page chapters??

I like the fisrt scenes of Chade in "The Assassins Apprentice" by Robin Hodd

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by nesf:
I stand corrected I'm reading the 9th at the moment so my heads totally fuzzed, 25 page chapters??

I like the fisrt scenes of Chade in "The Assassins Apprentice" by Robin Hodd</font>

actually, the last 40 pages of book 9 are excellent. now if you could remember all the plot lines, theyd fall into place. much earth scorching and sweating and power weilding

Loomer

What a great question!
Off the top of my head:

1. (Quite sad)When Boxer dies in Animal Farm

I'll think of some others

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by nesf:

I like the fisrt scenes of Chade in "The Assassins Apprentice" by Robin Hodd</font>

Those are some great scenes there- Chade is a great "mentor" character to our poor royal ******* hero. The last 40 pages of book 9 resolved a lot of plot-lines, but in a most ham-fisted fashion.

************SPOILER ABOUT NOVEL's PLOT***********


I mean- the cleansing of saidin was way too easily accomplished by the characters- I was expecting something more demanding and provocative of the characters. One is left pondering- well if it was that simple, why didn't they do it before? I like the way the lives of several of the Chosen hang in the balance after the final page of the book however. We can only guess what Moridin's plans are now...presumably they would involve the True Power in some shape or form Tbh, my favorite parts of book 9 were seeing Mat Cauthon's character for the first time since the middle of book 7. He must be my favorite character out of all three of the ta'vern- Perrin is too noble, Rand too obvious, Mat is a mystery to most of us as readers- Jordan's clearly holding something back with him- that's what is going to make me fork over my 6 pounds and buy book ten when it comes out

*************END OF PLOT SPOILER**************

Yet another favorite scene of mine- from Timothy Zahn's The Last Command, where C'Baoth introduces Luke to a very familiar looking figure indeed- that and the following climax made great reading- and made sense of the title.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=E Pluribus Unum=

nesf

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WhiteWashMan:
much earth scorching and sweating and power weilding</font>

lol

you robert jordan in disguise perhaps??

damo

it was not a random insult, i found not only the topic and the idea of the topic to be pretty sad but your favourite scene out of some nerdy fantasy book corrisponded well with my instant mental image of you, haw
and CASTOR TROY you great bloated freak, you misinterpret my location message, hardly surprising as it is your nerdy kind i wrote it to make a mockery out of

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by damo:
it was not a random insult, i found not only the topic and the idea of the topic to be pretty sad but your favourite scene out of some nerdy fantasy book corrisponded well with my instant mental image of you, haw
and CASTOR TROY you great bloated freak, you misinterpret my location message, hardly surprising as it is your nerdy kind i wrote it to make a mockery out of</font>

welcome back damo. how are you?

mrblue

Oh dear Damo,

You seem to have made the mistaken assumption that I give a s.h.i.t about what someone I have never met, & never want to, thinks of me.

I think I am fairly secure with my choice of a scene from Lord of the Rings. It was after all one of the best selling books of the last CENTURY. A lot of people, from a lot of different countries, are behind me on this one.

Still, it is nice to see that a complete stranger has 'a mental image' of me. The only dim imagining I have of you is something close to the fat b4stard from the album cover of "You've come a long way baby" by Fatboy Slim. While I appreciate that you can't get much attention or company in your life, do you think that you could go whimper on someone elses topic. You bore me.


*damo you, woman!*




[This message has been edited by mrblue (edited 09-05-2001).]

TwoShedsJackson

Damo's been in the Literature board twice now, very impressive. I don't think I can take much more of this 'mockery' from a 17 year old fu<kwit like yourself Damo.

--Kaiser--

Fu<k off damo, The Lord of the Rings is the best book ever written, dont get mad because your reading never went past Anne and Barry in school..

back to the thread,

-Gandalf and the Balrog in Lord of the Rings

-The end of Lord of Chaos, with the battle at Dumai Wells

-Fraternity of the Stone by David Morrell, the part with the two agents in the darkened room, sneaking around

-The Riding of the Sandworms and the final battle near the end of Dune

-Odysseus outdoing all the suitors for his wifes hand

-Paradise Lost, Lucifer escaping from hell, through the void, to get to Earth

-Enders Game, final battle which wins the war

-2001: A Space Odyssey, The appearence of the Monolith in Prehistoric times, and its consequences

-Foundation Series, (cant remember which one, but where the foundation planet is finally revealed)

-Childhoods End, the description of the new utopian society created by the aliens

and i'll probably come up with some more

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by damo:
it was not a random insult, i found not only the topic and the idea of the topic to be pretty sad but your favourite scene out of some nerdy fantasy book corrisponded well with my instant mental image of you, haw
and CASTOR TROY you great bloated freak, you misinterpret my location message, hardly surprising as it is your nerdy kind i wrote it to make a mockery out of</font>

Just a question damo- are you trying to dig yourself a hole so deep you can't even see the sky? It would seem so.

Your description of Lord of the Rings as a "nerdy" choice smacks of an immaturity I can only begin to hint at. It's also highly hypocritical- but more of that in a moment.

The Lord of the Rings isn't just "one of the most popular books of the 20th Century" but THE most popular. The London Times editorial section said, and I quote: "The English-speaking world is divided into two halves- those that have read JRR Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings, and those who are going to." Why on earth do you think New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson have spent over 200 million dollars on the making of the feature film? To cater to a small geeky minority? Grow a brain ffs.

As to describing us as geeks- I look under your name and see: ****- Freak- 534 posts- how the hell is that not geeky? Pot calling the kettle black damo?

You may not be a geek- I don't know you(I don't want to to be perfectly honest)- but at the very least you're a horribly socially maladjusted individual. As for insulting Castor Troy- believe me, you don't know what you're letting yourself in for- any other moderator might simply edit your post to read "I am dumber than $hit, please don't kill me as a service to the online community"- but CT would just destroy you with his acerbic tone if he so chose. Rightly, he hasn't bothered. If you can't be constructive or keep a civil tongue in your head, I take great ironic pleasure in telling you to f*ck off and die.

When they let you out of your cage at feeding time, take this shovel (/me hands you a shovel) and dig that hole even deeper. I'm sure you will- people like you who get a kick out of posting negative criticism without a thought to other people's feelings always come back for more. I can rest safe in the assurance that I will soon hear the busy scraping of a borrowed shovel as you write your next post. Look forward to hearing from you soon, my poor, sad, underevolved antidiluvian(look it up ).

Back on topic- another scene I should include is from Hemmingway's A Farewell to Arms- the anticlimactic hospital scene at the end is beautiful, understated sadness. Gorgeous reading if you get the chance.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Alea Jacta Est=

mrblue

OK.

This started out as a nice thread about literature, & now look at it. Let's just let Damo be a nonce & get on with the real point of this topic:

Another hot contender for greatest scene from a book -

The scene from "A picture of Dorian Grey" involving the portrait, Basil, Dorian, & "that large vein that runs behind the ear".

Don't want to give the plot away, but that scene left me feeling actually guilty afterwards.


*if I medicine you, you will know that you have been spoken to*

Evil Phil

The end of "Kalki" - Gore Vidal (of course)

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
The Riding of the Sandworms and the final battle near the end of Dune
</font>

aye, agreed.

Sturm's funeral - The Dragon Lance Chronicles

All of The Crow Road by Iain Banks

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evil Phil:
The end of "Kalki" - Gore Vidal (of course)

The Riding of the Sandworms and the final battle near the end of Dune
</font>

aye, agreed.

Sturm's funeral - The Dragon Lance Chronicles

All of The Crow Road by Iain Banks

Couldn't agree more- although his stand on the castle walls comes a close second for me. I actually hear the hymn "Huma...deliver him" after reading that part-seriously- and the starjewel gives the plot that extra dimension. Definately Weiss and Hickman's best set of novels, those.

Couple more scenes to remember- Boo Radley's rescue of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, and the last 20 pages of the Great Gatsby- some great pathos there

Oh, and one more...the descriptive scene of Smaug from the Hobbit- it just gives me the clearest picture of a dragon I've ever read in a book.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Innes en Justidium=

Da Bounca

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Odysseus outwitting the Cyclops in the Odessy</font>

yes excellent part of the story.


the wooden horse part of the aeneid rocks also.

Trojan

I like the scene in Kernigan and Ritchie where they explain pointers.

- The game scenes in "The Player of Games", all of them were very intense [1]

- Multiple different battles etc from Peter F Hamilton "Nights Dawn" trilogy, there's too many in 3000+ pages of excellent sf to differentiate

- ASIMOV (he just deserves his name in lights) - Foundation series when they find the library (can't remember which book, damn I need to read all those again!)

Thats a few off the top of me head

Al.

1. Banks rules! Must read the new one - didn't sneek a peek at your post butcher.

Manach

A dying warrior past his prime, finds strength from somewhere to defy a horde and save an army. - "Legend" by Gemmell

A rather perturbed hobbit finds himself hosting a tea-party for a group of dwarves - "The Hobbit" by Tolkein

The Priest listening to the odd footsteps and saving a soul - "Ft. Brown" by Chesterton

The captain leads a handful of sailors to board a Spanish Xebec, 10 times his frigate's size - "Master & Commander" by O'Brian

Vimes of the Guard giving his version of Dirty Harry with a 6 shot dragon - "Guards, Guards" by Pratchett

The prisoner Ivan at day's end realising that behind the Gulag's wall, he was perhaps the freest man in the USSR - "One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" by Solzhenitsyn

The destruction of Dresden - "SlaugterHouse 5" by Vonnegut

The meeting of John Carter with Tars Tarkis on the sands of Mars - "Princess of Mars" by Burroughs

The End of the World - "Good Omens" by Pratchett & Gaiman

Illkillya

I'll have to think about what is my favourite scene from any books.. but i know what my ones from LOTR are:

In the Chamber of Marzabul in Mordor when they're reading the dwarves story.. "we are trapped.." etc and find themselves in the same situation.

The orcs parting and the balrog coming through

Anborn catching Golumn

The hobbit's return to the shire

Von

Damo is cool.
Bob The Unlucky Octopus is a pretentious fukker.

Schwarzfahren

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The Lord of the Rings is the best book ever written</font>

I disagree. The story is very simplistic, melodramatic ( one of the examples that sticks in my head is when some horse dies - can't remember which one - and it says that green lush grass grew forever more over his grave ) and panders to a childish sense of inherent justice. The book works descriptively, and the yarn is good enough, but I had to consciously ignore alot of superfluous schoolmasterish moralising on Tolkien's part to enable me to finish the damn thing. The book is certainly popular, but so are the Spice Girls / Britney Spears. It is naive to judge the value of a book by its sales. If you want to get a big book and laud it for encompassing the wealth and breath of human emotional experience, try War and Peace. I think alot of people get carried away with Lord of the Rings. It's not that good.

---

"Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est"
-Francis Bacon
Schwarzfahren.net

[This message has been edited by Schwarzfahren (edited 20-05-2001).]

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

Of course it's simplistic and melodramatic- but many of the best stories are. The character development in LOTR is fantastic, even if the plot and pathos are left wanting at times. Then again, personal taste is the ultimate judge here- here's an example:

Let us consider a thought experiment- a certain poster on boards.ie(who shall remain nameless) really enjoys the film American Pie- one of the worst films ever made in cinematic terms. I'll hold up my hand freely and say I enjoyed it- not because it was artistically constructed- but because it made me laugh ten years off my life. It was entertainment- not art- but still enjoyable for all that.

As for unimaginative plots- this same poster (still remaining nameless) let us assume, enjoyed the film "Before Sunrise". The plot may be simplicity itself, lack any originality in its construction, but the character development and the glorious romantic pathos make it a superb film!

As such, LOTR should be viewed in the same way- on some levels it's a ripping good yarn, but scratch a few layers off and the subtley of the artwork beneath is well worth reading for. Ironically, the change in scenes, time and collateral events closely resemble War&Peace, another of my favorite books. We could level the accusation at Tolstoy, proclaiming furiously that the amount of minute irritating detail he includes mid-way through the book is unecesssary- but we choose to forgive or overlook that as it is a mere speck of charcoal in a bag of gold- a truly epic story (as is LOTR )

For the time it was written at, and for the genre it created- Lord of the Rings remains a classic piece of literature- and a ripping good yarn. I wonder how many writers can claim to have accomplished as much?

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Vade Retro=
PS- Recognize the "mystery poster" Schwarzfahren?

Greenbean

I can't really pinpoint scenes, so I mention books that really hit the spot.

David Eddings - 2 second one, after pawn of prophecy, it was my first fantasy book and it just hit the spot.

David Gemmel - Lion of macedonia

Ian M Banks - Crowe Road (excellent and not fantasy)

yellum

Iain Banks, Wasp Factory, the bit describing how his brother went mad. That was utterly shocking and I'll never ever forget it.

The bit in fightclub where he beats the shít out of himself in the bosses office.

The bit in fightclub where he signs up for every fight and his face gets ripped to bits and he desribes himself as having a cheshire cat like grin.

Schwarzfahren

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">For the time it was written at, and for the genre it created- Lord of the Rings remains a classic piece of literature- and a ripping good yarn. I wonder how many writers can claim to have accomplished as much?</font>

I don't disagree that LOTR is a craking epic tale, yet you can't equate effusive personal enjoyment of the book with that book being the best book ever written. This, my original point, may have been somewhat pedantic yet, much as I promulagte my literary & cinematic predilictions, I don't claim they are the greatest films ever made. Personal taste is just that -idiosyncratic, and the sweeping generalisation that LOTR is "the greatest book ever written" irked me( Also iresome is the curt dismissal of the topic starter as a "sad fu cker" - very well thought dismissal indeed!)Populist entertainment is engaging and has its place, but much as you espouse the virtues of LOTR, I still don't regard it as serious literature. For example: (a)The simplistic & childish morality in the book (b) How can you regard the book as an epic when there is not a mention of sex, one of the fundamental human drives, in it. I'm sure any person who has an affinity for this book could counter the veracity of these flaws, and I am not going to re-read LOTR just to argue against it, but IMHO enough flaws are evident to preclude it from greatness.It undoubtly is an epic, but essentially a childrens one. My comparison with Tolstoy was to illustrate that books shouldn't be judged as great on their scope, and LOTR is certainly a long book. I think a certain amount of nostalgia and exaggeration coloured the original claim of greatness. However, I do thank you for taking the time to make a worthwhile counter to my point.

---

"Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est"
-Francis Bacon
Schwarzfahren.net