what are you reading?
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Monsieur Arkadin
- Posts: 412
- Joined: Mon May 27, 2019 5:56 pm
Re: what are you reading?
Working through Bolano's Savage Detectives. It's... alright. I don't know. I haven't felt particularly moved or engaged by anything. Just sort of, mild enjoyment.
mild enjoyment is usually what i've felt with bolaño. i think the skating rink was the only thing i've read by him that moved me more than that. he's just... sort of... fine.
"Most esteemed biographer of Peter Barrington Hutton"
i'm reading margery allingham's tiger in the smoke, which since i hate everyone in britain right now, is fairly enjoyable. but it's this version in the macmillan collector's library, a small hardback, the pages are bible-thin and edged with gold leaf, and the hardback under the dust jacket is covered with an embossed pattern and the object itself is just a delight to hold and read. just a shame that i've pretty much read most of the ones i already want to in that collection...
Read another Friedrich Eisenlohr, Hunger nach Glück (1932), which was even better than Quintett 1928 (1928). Eisenlohr still seems to write and structure his novels like plays at that point in his career, so I guess I should pick up some of them sometime. Next one up is Die Schwestern Aldringer (1940) though, which I've also recently bought. He reminds me a bit of a simpler, more straightforward version of Ferenc Molnar, so far.
Also started something new by August Strindberg today, The People of Hemsö (1887), which already has me hooked, though it is as gripping and almost as brilliant as The Red Room (1979).
I put down Stendhals The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) for a few weeks after finishing half of it (part one), but intend to finish it this month or the next. It's definitely lots of fun, and must have been a huuuge inspiration for Jean Giono and his The Horseman on the Roof (1951). Giono's protagonist Angelo must have been modeled on Stendhal's protagonist Fabrice del Dongo, though Giono is a far better writer and a much more intriguing psychologist than Stendhal at this point in his career. So far, it almost seems like Angelo is an idealized version of Stendhal's del Dongo character, so for me the greatest pleasure lies in this imaginary bond between those two works of art, which I didn't expect at all, when I started reading this novel. Let's see how del Dongo will develop throughout the second part.
Also reading a German monograph on Glauber Rocha, which at least discusses all of his narrative feature films extensively. It's really a shame that there seem to be so few books on Rocha not written in Portuguese (and why aren't those translated???).
Also started something new by August Strindberg today, The People of Hemsö (1887), which already has me hooked, though it is as gripping and almost as brilliant as The Red Room (1979).
I put down Stendhals The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) for a few weeks after finishing half of it (part one), but intend to finish it this month or the next. It's definitely lots of fun, and must have been a huuuge inspiration for Jean Giono and his The Horseman on the Roof (1951). Giono's protagonist Angelo must have been modeled on Stendhal's protagonist Fabrice del Dongo, though Giono is a far better writer and a much more intriguing psychologist than Stendhal at this point in his career. So far, it almost seems like Angelo is an idealized version of Stendhal's del Dongo character, so for me the greatest pleasure lies in this imaginary bond between those two works of art, which I didn't expect at all, when I started reading this novel. Let's see how del Dongo will develop throughout the second part.
Also reading a German monograph on Glauber Rocha, which at least discusses all of his narrative feature films extensively. It's really a shame that there seem to be so few books on Rocha not written in Portuguese (and why aren't those translated???).
Last edited by wba on Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
currently conrad's secret agent, next up graham greene's the power and the glory
OLIVER TWIST, which I seem to have never read before.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
in the spirit of christmas, i have started pascal (born in 1948) quignard's sex and terror, and so far i love it. (could easily involve cinema in all his talk of death-filled fascinated desperate gazes)
anyone ever read any pascal quignard before? he's new to me, but we're going to be friends.
anyone ever read any pascal quignard before? he's new to me, but we're going to be friends.
OLIVER TWIST is splendid until things take a turn for the better for Oliver.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
winding down the year with sylvia townsend warner's book of linked stories the kingdoms of elfin, nominally i guess about a bunch of faierie kingdoms but really an excuse for warner to use her scalpel mean sentences against a number of cloistered societies and the outsiders who somehow run into their orbit (or who are run out). not sure yet if i love it on the level of lolly or mr fortune but there is something sharp and unsettling about it that i can't quite figure out.
also finishd maigret defends himself, a minor late simenon mystery that nonetheless had a smart and genuinely sad explanation for the seemingly conventional mystery plot. and as usual for simenon exactingly mean description of rooms and houses and all of that.
also finishd maigret defends himself, a minor late simenon mystery that nonetheless had a smart and genuinely sad explanation for the seemingly conventional mystery plot. and as usual for simenon exactingly mean description of rooms and houses and all of that.
I'm halfway into Dorothy B. Hughes IN A LONELY PLACE (1947), and though i love the Bogart film that was made a couple of years later, the novel (so far - 100 pages in...) has almost nothing to do with it.
It is excelllent though, and written entirely from the perspective of a serial killer.
Need to read more by Dorothy asap!!
It is excelllent though, and written entirely from the perspective of a serial killer.
Need to read more by Dorothy asap!!
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
Ugh. OLIVER TWIST has been rescued from Certain Death by a bunch of people so resolutely good and pure that they become torture to read about.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
yeah, that one’s maybe the weakest i've read by him. really got to dragging toward the end. no wonder the orphanage scenes are the most famous.
"Most esteemed biographer of Peter Barrington Hutton"
Here's an odd one for you. The other day, one of my regular bus drivers gave me, unbidden, a copy of a self-published book he wrote. Despite me not asking for it, he clearly expected me to read it and report back to him as to what I thought about it. Since I have to ride with him almost every day, I felt a bit obligated to comply rather than have to deal with the alternatives, as he is a strangely brusque fellow in the best of circumstance and I don't really want the hassle of finding out what the worst might be. Anyway, I've read half and the book is a strange thing. It's a bit like the equivalent of one of those passion project low budget movies that some eager would-be directors sometimes make, where the generally expected rules of fiction aren't really understood, much less followed, but where the enthusiasm for the making carries its own kind of fascination.
The plot, such as it is, is about a group of five seniors living in Chicago during the major heat wave of 1995 where several hundred people died. During that event, they all rather haphazardly and inexplicably decide to move across country and find a new life together, despite not really being very close friends before hand. That's the first chapter and the next few chapters outline the plans they make for the trip and then the journey across country in an RV and buying a home together in upper Washington state. Each part is given over to rather mundane details of the things they need to do for the plan and in these brief digressions into random practical facts or explanations, like the best way to shop for an RV or how to catch a ferry with an RV and trailer. Halfway through the book there's virtually no conflict at all either between the various main characters or those few people they interact with that are given space and name. There is minimal dialogue and interaction with outside characters save for a few brief encounters with people who inevitably find their trip inspiring and want to help or are otherwise won over by the group's desire and attitude. The interactions between the characters, when described, are mostly in that same sort of vein, an explanation of a possible avenue of disagreement that is quickly resolved by voting within the group, which all works out for the best.
After talking to the bus driver about the portions of the book I'd finished, he told me he doesn't even read much fiction, but he's always reading non-fiction, mostly American history and the like, and that's readily obvious in the book. It's a story that is basically a cover for his history and interests, overlaid with some moral values to ease it along. It's not exactly badly written, though there are times where the description seems to assume an awareness of the events the bus driver hadn't actually provided and some minor difficulties in transition between events because of that. But for all that it is kinda fascinating for not really fitting into any usual category of professional writing. There is something oddly pleasing about the lack of conflict and minimal attempts to delve very deep into character. The matter of fact-ness of the book just pulls everything along. The practicality and niceness of the characters keeps their lack of in depth description from feeling missed exactly as that seems almost besides the point, whatever that point might be. The premise of the story is likewise somehow balanced between the banal and the unusual, as the relative rarity of having a story about five seniors making a new life together in a quasi-commune, without even the idea of a commune itself being raised, is outside most commercial fiction's realm. Like some of low budget movies, it doesn't really fit into normal critical range of response over good and bad since it isn't even on the same map as most novels, it's off doing its own thing. (Which is all for the good since I could at least honestly tell the bus driver I was enjoying reading it, though obviously without qualifying why I was in detail.)
The plot, such as it is, is about a group of five seniors living in Chicago during the major heat wave of 1995 where several hundred people died. During that event, they all rather haphazardly and inexplicably decide to move across country and find a new life together, despite not really being very close friends before hand. That's the first chapter and the next few chapters outline the plans they make for the trip and then the journey across country in an RV and buying a home together in upper Washington state. Each part is given over to rather mundane details of the things they need to do for the plan and in these brief digressions into random practical facts or explanations, like the best way to shop for an RV or how to catch a ferry with an RV and trailer. Halfway through the book there's virtually no conflict at all either between the various main characters or those few people they interact with that are given space and name. There is minimal dialogue and interaction with outside characters save for a few brief encounters with people who inevitably find their trip inspiring and want to help or are otherwise won over by the group's desire and attitude. The interactions between the characters, when described, are mostly in that same sort of vein, an explanation of a possible avenue of disagreement that is quickly resolved by voting within the group, which all works out for the best.
After talking to the bus driver about the portions of the book I'd finished, he told me he doesn't even read much fiction, but he's always reading non-fiction, mostly American history and the like, and that's readily obvious in the book. It's a story that is basically a cover for his history and interests, overlaid with some moral values to ease it along. It's not exactly badly written, though there are times where the description seems to assume an awareness of the events the bus driver hadn't actually provided and some minor difficulties in transition between events because of that. But for all that it is kinda fascinating for not really fitting into any usual category of professional writing. There is something oddly pleasing about the lack of conflict and minimal attempts to delve very deep into character. The matter of fact-ness of the book just pulls everything along. The practicality and niceness of the characters keeps their lack of in depth description from feeling missed exactly as that seems almost besides the point, whatever that point might be. The premise of the story is likewise somehow balanced between the banal and the unusual, as the relative rarity of having a story about five seniors making a new life together in a quasi-commune, without even the idea of a commune itself being raised, is outside most commercial fiction's realm. Like some of low budget movies, it doesn't really fit into normal critical range of response over good and bad since it isn't even on the same map as most novels, it's off doing its own thing. (Which is all for the good since I could at least honestly tell the bus driver I was enjoying reading it, though obviously without qualifying why I was in detail.)
Last edited by ... on Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
i like that the review [of the book] mentions wanting information about how he came to write it. kind of ties in to what you're talking about, though again from a different angle.
fiction writers who don't read much fiction probably isn't overly common, but melville does come to mind as someone who pulled it off really well. he mostly read less conventional fiction and lots of nonfiction, and his works are sui generis. you're probably right to not mention why you're enjoying it, since he'd probably want you to see it through the same eyes that he used to write it, but there's something a bit postmodern about your approach to it which is not necessarily a compliment to him given what seems to be his approach, but certainly isn't the wrong way to read it either.
fiction writers who don't read much fiction probably isn't overly common, but melville does come to mind as someone who pulled it off really well. he mostly read less conventional fiction and lots of nonfiction, and his works are sui generis. you're probably right to not mention why you're enjoying it, since he'd probably want you to see it through the same eyes that he used to write it, but there's something a bit postmodern about your approach to it which is not necessarily a compliment to him given what seems to be his approach, but certainly isn't the wrong way to read it either.
Last edited by brian d on Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Most esteemed biographer of Peter Barrington Hutton"
Heh. Yeah, that's the book. And now that I think of it I'll pull the title out of my previous post so it won't pull up in a search, just in case. The Melville reference is sort of apt if you really, really squint to see it. There's none of the exuberance of writing itself and not whole chapters dedicated to whale biology, or the equivalent, it's a much, much more minimalist affair, where the digressions last a couple sentences and conversations are noted as occurring without actually being given in dialogue. It's all very practical and matter of fact, which oddly suits the story about five practical people who had one flight of fancy. It's interesting to me, but probably wouldn't be so to most looking for some enticing fiction.
greg you're way too nice.
i need my literature to do my thinking for me
(i'm still on the quignard, it's a slow page a day because every paragraph sends me into ecstatic dreaming and we haven't even got to the sex stuff yet, haven't fallen this hard for a book since my last dalliance with klossowski, though last year's xmas read - agamben's pilate, was sweet too)
i need my literature to do my thinking for me
(i'm still on the quignard, it's a slow page a day because every paragraph sends me into ecstatic dreaming and we haven't even got to the sex stuff yet, haven't fallen this hard for a book since my last dalliance with klossowski, though last year's xmas read - agamben's pilate, was sweet too)
BARON WENCKHEIM'S HOMECOMING -- Laszlo Krasznahorkai's big old book. We'll see how long I last. These pages-long sentences are really something.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
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Pretentious Hipster
- Posts: 203
- Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2018 1:27 am
About a quarter into The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Like Discipline and Punish but focuses more on race. Phenomenal book so far. I found a list of the best leftist books and will go slowly through it.
i'm reading this. it's pretty good
i'm reading william hazlitt's table-talk, a collection of his essays filled with those long sentences that seem incomprehensible in idiotic brexit britain today.
most exciting thing so far is seeing his approx 200 yr old contemporary references to mr kean, and me only having just recently watched the approx 100 yr old film about same. connects me to the thread of a culture in ways completely incidental to the grotesque flag-waving of the cretinous unforgivable cunts currently plunging this country into the approx dark ages.
most exciting thing so far is seeing his approx 200 yr old contemporary references to mr kean, and me only having just recently watched the approx 100 yr old film about same. connects me to the thread of a culture in ways completely incidental to the grotesque flag-waving of the cretinous unforgivable cunts currently plunging this country into the approx dark ages.
ahh good you're still here, i was worried 
Whoa I'm reading Table-Talk too!
Rosenemil (1935, Netherlands) by Georg Hermann
Takes place in 1903 in Berlin and is probably basically a portrait of society at that time and place wrapped in a love story, and 100 pages in we're still during the first day (albeit in the evening and not in the morning anymore, wherw the novel began). Most of the dialogue is written in the Berlin idiom.
So far, it's DE-LIGHT-FUL!!!
Takes place in 1903 in Berlin and is probably basically a portrait of society at that time and place wrapped in a love story, and 100 pages in we're still during the first day (albeit in the evening and not in the morning anymore, wherw the novel began). Most of the dialogue is written in the Berlin idiom.
So far, it's DE-LIGHT-FUL!!!
"I too am a child burned by future experiences, fallen back on myself and already suspecting the certainty that in the end only those will prove benevolent who believe in nothing." – Marran Gosov
Finished BARON WENCKHEIM'S HOMECOMING, and all was very very very good indeed until, with a few pages to go, it just took a turn and well....
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
I'm reading Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, and it's very light and enjoyable if you can get over the feeling that the whole system it's taking place in is irredeemably broken and horrific. I hate the English class system, I hate hunting, I have never been on a horse and would like to keep it that way.
I'm also reading Alexandra Kleeman's You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine which is somehow triggering even though I don't have an eating disorder, which I guess means it's good. I've read a slate of books recently which are all written by young American women in a very acerbic style - Catherine Lacey, Otessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler... Not sure where this one ranks yet, I loved the shit out of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and really liked The New Me, so if it's anywhere in the same ballpark, I'd be very pleased, but it's pretty hard-going.
I'm also reading Alexandra Kleeman's You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine which is somehow triggering even though I don't have an eating disorder, which I guess means it's good. I've read a slate of books recently which are all written by young American women in a very acerbic style - Catherine Lacey, Otessa Moshfegh, Halle Butler... Not sure where this one ranks yet, I loved the shit out of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and really liked The New Me, so if it's anywhere in the same ballpark, I'd be very pleased, but it's pretty hard-going.
Reading Alexander Theroux's DARCONVILLE'S CAT, which may be beyond me at present.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
Looks interesting - there's this cliché of novels about literature professors having affairs with their students but I actually haven't come across very many. Talented family! Too bad it's 700 pages long, I struggle with long books.
I kind of bailed on DARCONVILLE'S CAT -- too much eloquence all over the place, an extended chapter written as a verse drama was one flourish too many. Moved on to Westlake's WHY ME?, a tasty comic crime novel that had me pretty helpless with delight. I don't often laugh out loud while reading, but a scene of barflies seriously discussing the existence or non-existence of Dolly Parton had me giggling for a while.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.
Nathanael West's A COOL MILLION, possibly the bitterest work of art about this USA thing that I've ever encountered.
These matters are best disposed of from a great height. Over water.