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Frivolous, Empty, and Perfectly Delightful (claremont.org)
72 points by never-the-bride on March 20, 2018 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments



Those interested in Wodehouse will also enjoy Stephen Fry’s article on Wodehouse: http://www.pgwodehousebooks.com/fry.htm

Fry played Jeeves in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster and quotes some of my favorite bits of Wodehouse, such as

> Unlike the male codfish, which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons.


My favourite single Wodehouse sentence, on the subject of Psmith's sudden realisation:

"For there was no doubt in his mind that in a world congested to overflowing with girls Eve Halliday stood entirely alone."


"The saddest words of tongue or pen are not 'It might have been', they are "joint checking account'."

(One of the Uncle Fred novels, read long ago.)


I quite like this (extremely accurate) opening:

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”

– The Luck of the Bodkins


Perhaps irrelevant to Wodehouse (who writes farce), but I'm a big fan of 'frivolous, empty, and perfectly delightful' popular sci-fi and fantasy novels, especially if they go multiple books! Sometimes you want an escape from the human condition. Good examples include Mistborn, Farseer, Belgariad (especially), the Martian, Ready Player One (although this was a bit shallow, even for me).

If anyone has other recommendations, would be much obliged.


If you are looking for silly and satire (kind of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), you should read Discworld (41 books, can be read as standalones) - Mort is good starting point

Another recommendation is Howl's Moving Castle (has two follow ups, which are okayish)

you've read Mistborn, are you aware of Cosmere - https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmere/wiki/order

See also: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/lists


I enjoyed Artemis by Andy Weir. If you liked The Martian, you will probably like Artemis.

Hugh Howey's Wool series was a lot of fun to read.

I also have enjoyed all of Daniel Suarez' books, especially Daemon.


The Expanse series (7 books, by James Corey) is an entertaining escape.

Ann Lecke's "Ancillary*" trilogy was in a similar vein.

Pierce Brown's "Red Rising" series is also recommended.


I'm with you on sometimes wanting to just rip through a book, not having deep thoughts, but just turning page after page to find out what comes next.

Really enjoyed the Bobiverse series: http://dennisetaylor.org/. Reminded me a little of Greg Egan, but with a lot less maths and a lot more humour. Helps that the hero is a programmer ;_)

Also the Brilliance trilogy by Markus Sakey. Very entertaining..


I really liked those novels also. I listened to them via audible and they were lovely.


You may well enjoy the Laundry series by Charles Stross


If you enjoy the Laundry series you may also enjoy the Nightside series by Simon Greene. Actually pretty much anything by Simon Greene.


I was trying to guess what this article might be about (since the server seems to be melting and I can't see it), and Wodehouse was my first guess. I think he would like that.


Although it probably is not intended for this use, I enjoy A.E. Van Vogt's work that way.


>Nobody dies in Wodehouse novels or stories. In his fiction there are no wars, economic depression, sex below the neck, little Sturm and even less Drang, with only satisfyingly happy endings awaiting at the close.

Yes. By keeping the world at arm's length he was able to make it a better world.


I assume this was posted so that we can trash the loading bar for being anti-web, punishing users on slow connections. There is no technical reason to hide the core content, which is transmitted in the first request, until every other asset has finished loading.


Not sure why you are downvoted. I fully agree with your complaint.

The site loads slowly even on a decent internet connection - without any good reason.

I'll probably never get why people are constantly struggling to get serving static text (with a few images) right.


Saved by "open link in background tab" - didn't even notice, except the center of the logo faded in before the rest of the logo.


Funny, for me it didn't show the loading indicator until I actually went to the tab and watched it 'load'. Very 90s/modern.


What a surprise, a HN article slobbering all over PG Wodehouse again.




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