I just ordered The Geography of the Imagination. I don’t have much experience of Davenport outside of browsing the table of contents which make be buy it on a whim, and his Greek translations. What am I in for?
Guy Davenport
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I just ordered The Geography of the Imagination. I don’t have much experience of Davenport outside of browsing the table of contents which make be buy it on a whim, and his Greek translations. What am I in for?
Comments are closed.
Sorry, can't help, OP. But this is something that seems really interesting and I just ordered a copy thanks to your thread. So have a bump.
A guy as well read as James Joyce and Ezra Pound, and arguably smarter than both. Geography of the inagination is the best non-fiction written on art and art history by an American, post-war.
His short stories are also pretty good. Joycean density and allusiveness in condensed form.
This is good to hear. I’m eagerly anticipating it now. Any other recommendations in the same vein?
Glad to indirectly help you find a book lol. Did you get the one that was released like a week ago?
Every force evolves a form is another great essay collection.
Tatlin! is his most praised short story collection. There is a bunch of shit, Davenport was a polymath. He was a very good painter as well. There is some book of hos drawings I believe.
Also have you read Da Vinci’s Bicycle? Seems like a strange book. I sampled some of it and I’m not really sure what to make of it
Yes I have read it. If Joyce who wrote Ulysses wrote short stories, this is what it would look like. Despite the analogy, Davenport is completely his own thing (he never even uses stream of consciousness)
Yeah, part of the reason I started looking into him more was because of an essay by George Steiner that was really high praise. I’d previously known him as a name and a translator but never put much thought into him outside of previewing DVB. I’m eagerly awaiting TGotI, and I hope to give him a more serious look in the future. Seems like a really interesting and gifted man. Wonder why he isn’t known more?
Steiner was ass. He loved him at first but then hated him when he found out that Guy's ideology didn't align with his. Davenport told this in an interview.
I wasn’t aware of that. The essay was still good though and full of high praise. I don’t condone Steiner’s change of opinion but unfortunately it’s pretty common for people’s opinions to change once they find out ideologies run against theirs. This board is certainly susceptible to it but perhaps they consult Wikipedia first before taking a stance
Holy frick stay in TrueLit please
Was this guy a poofter? Some of the subject matter certainly seems so, but from his biography it appears not…
Well….take a look at apples and pears….he seemed to like guys on the younger side….maybe 15-16
I’d say you made a good choice, it’s certainly one of my favorite essay collections.
Is this going to be a decent paperback edition? I find it somewhat odd that The Geography is being reissued as part of a series.
I’ll post when I get it. I’m not too familiar with this publisher
As an aside, anyone read his letters with Hugh Kenner? And as an aside on that, how is Kenner’s work, especially on Joyce?
It's been a while and I only read a few essays but I remember it well enough to recommend it when relevant.
It's a pretty good collection, as is The Hunter Gracchus. D was buddies with Thomas Merton and Wendell Berry back in the day-- the Kentucky trio.
He was also buddies with Ezra pound when Pound came back. He features in one of his stories in Da Vinci's Bicycle.
Very cool fact from Wikipedia bro
Kek. Yeah, ok
It looks new and pristine as if never once opened.
Means absolutely nothing and still doesn’t refute what I said, lil wikipedia guy
It's been my experience that perpetrators are fond of accusing others of their own 'crimes' --
You're trying too hard
>my experience
Means nothing, lil wikipedia guy. Why are you seething?
>seething
Kek. Perfect example
Any more facts from his Wikipedia you want to share, mr wikipedia?
No, actually, I only shared the one I happened to know. Sorry that prompted seething on your end but hey, (you) do you
youre bad at this
hes trying too hard to fit in
I've never heard of it before. Is this book actually a hidden gem? Or is it one of those obscure mediocrities that midwits obsess over in order to appear as if they have hidden knowledge?
Just r/TrueLit schlock
Here's the thread OP saw there and wanted to post here https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueLit/comments/197ip8v/guy_davenport_deserves_your_awe/
The comments aren't exactly better than they are here.
More like the book was released by this publisher the 16th or 17th and I’d had it on my radar for a while. An anon recommended it earlier this year when I was posting about his Greek translations when I got it. Nice job trying to derail the thread but I don’t go on Reddit, unfortunately.
Lying is a sin, anon.
You are aware that your having been aware of its having been posted on reddit means that you are also le reddit boogeyman, right?
Don't listen to the morons. It's a hidden gem. It'll be right up this board's alley. Davenport was an Ancient Greece scholar of the 1st rank.
>Davenport was an Ancient Greece scholar of the 1st rank.
Another wikipedia fact! Very cool!
That wasn't me you fricking moron.
yeah but it was linked on plebbit, so it can't be that good can it?
Anyone know where I could read his translation of Ancient Egyptian maxims?
Just checked ABE and there's only 4 volumes available, the cheapest for $25 (includes shipping). Live near a few universities and am going to check their catalogues now, but would be interested in learning of an on-line resource too.
The pathetic redditors have posted the reddit link, so why not get something useful out of it.
Good read
https://unherd.com/2024/01/the-labyrinth-of-guy-davenports-mind/
Bing Bing Wahoo! Here's an updoot