Tell me about it. It’s pathetic one of these threads isn’t up at all times and they usually get only a few dozen replies at most
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 Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
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What are you reading?
Tell me about it. It’s pathetic one of these threads isn’t up at all times and they usually get only a few dozen replies at most
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Ape Out Shirt $21.68 |
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I've been reading Nietzsche all year, rereading the Antichrist at the moment. This is masochistic on my part because he annoys me immensely but I feel some strange compulsion nagging me to keep reading him as though there is something important just around the corner that I'm missing. The word document which functions as my journal is littered with little sperg outs at and quotations of him.
can't stand that narcissistic frick.
just finished one bullet away by nathaniel fick, read it right after generation kill by evan wright.
loved generation kill. pretty basic matter-of-fact presentation but it works well given the author is a reporter and the subject matter. some of the shit the marines say is fricking hilarious while a lot of the stuff that goes on in the invasion is pretty harrowing. very interesting book. one bullet away was a lot more brief than i expected. getting an alternative perspective on similar events from generation kill was interesting and i liked the heavier introspection from fick, but i can't help but wish there was more from him about the invasion. really enjoyed the parts from him going through OCS though, always been curious about that as a civilian.
definitely on a military kick right now probably gonna read storm of steel next.
tried getting into nietzsche with twilight of the idols and it's already filtering me. feels like there's an entire history of philosophy you have to know before even attempting to understand this guy. or maybe i'm just a brainlet. probably just gonna go back and reread plato.
I’ve always felt it’s the spirit or essence of Nietzsche that is appealing. Too many readers seem to get bogged down in the specifics and Nietzsche often said contradictory things or had opinions about everything which bogs readers down. I’ve always seen Nietzsche as the poet or artists’ philosopher. I read him as harnessing individual creativity and meaning. He is appealing to those who look at a crowd or society and feel like they don’t get it or they’re left out. He’s like Emerson with a dash of Blake and a few other writers thrown in. Most importantly you yourself have to find what Nietzsche means to you as he’s been co-opted and hated by every group of people.
>Too many readers seem to get bogged down in the specifics and Nietzsche often said contradictory things or had opinions about everything which bogs readers down
interesting, that's pretty much what happened with me. a lot of his ideas so far seem pretty vague and his presentation of ideas felt very unfocused, at least from what i've read so far in twilight.
>Most importantly you yourself have to find what Nietzsche means to you as he’s been co-opted and hated by every group of people.
i'll keep that in mind, thanks. will give him another try.
I'm reading Dune at home and listening to audiobook of crime and Punishment while at work
I too am reading Dune at home right now. Literally just started it
I tried reading it once years ago when I was a young kid, but I got filtered by the opening and dropped it. I'm giving it a proper go this time. I decided to get that nice hardback trilogy collection so that I'm extra motivated to read it
Should probably be the other way around.
>I work at home and read Dune while listening to the audiobook of Crime and Punishment.
I bought Atlas shrugged, not knowing how fricking long it is and working my way through that. Though I'm thinking of taking a break after part 1. I don't agree with all Rand's philosophy, especially the stuff with more capitalist tendencies of "you will work and you will be happy!" but overall I still enjoy it.
Also picked up Brave New World but I'm only 2 chapters in.
What's your job that you can listen to audiobooks while doing it?
I usually read while commuting, but it sucks that it limits me int books I can read, since I don't want to take my expensive hardcovers on the bus with me
Its all right so far, well written and good story but a little thin on theme which does not really develop and I don't see it going anywhere in the final 20 odd pages. Thematically it is more a bloated short story than a novella but it is still short enough that the lack of thematic development does not detract much. If my view changes I will report back later tonight after I finish it.
Reading notes from the underground and listening to musashi audiobook. Usually try to have a "hard" reading book and a "chill" listening book going at the same time.
I'm enjoying notes although its been slow going, I keep stopping to think about whatever some line will prompt out of my brain. I don't empathise with the underground man but have a lot of sympathy for him, honestly feels like the book is even more relevant today with people shutting themselves away from the world.
Musashi is good, hits a lot harder knowing it's historical fiction and a lot of these duels actually occured.
How does Nietzsche annoy you?
Quite a few reasons frankly.
>his relativism, which yes 'perspectivism' is still relativism and doesn't answer any of the problems inherent to it
>his absolute refusal to explain his ideas in a systematic manner
>the way he caricatures Christianity seems to me a legitimate criticism of some Christians but certainly not the entire religion
>his characterization of 'will to power' is so vague that it is genuinely unclear what he means by it. Sometimes it sounds like he is talking about a mere tautology, that all motives are technically exerting power on the world, shaping it according to your will; sometimes it sounds like he is talking about a metaphysical force which underlies the progressive creation of new forms of being(eg evolution); sometimes it sounds like he is merely talking about a psychological tendency in which people mask their lust for power (and I think that's a rather reductive view of psychology), etc
>whichever definition we take for his will to power it still blatantly contradicts his relativism
>his essays about art are ridiculous. The early essays make it sound like he believes the object of art to be something like the Kantian Noumenon or Schopenhauer's will, but he later abandons these sorts of distinct metaphysical claims and starts just waxing poetic in a manner which makes it impossible to know what he is actually saying, and then even later on he starts to just reduce art to psychological motives, which is just unpleasant.
>he is himself utterly guilty of the hyper-critical mindset he castigates others for. He lionizes the yes-sayer but he is not a yes-sayer himself at all, he is incredibly negative.
>the concept of the ubermensch is even more poorly defined than the will to power. Just literally no coherent definition of it at all, apart from vague gesturings towards 'good breeding' and the usual business about vitality and whatever which does not actually answer anything
>I find his politics a little bit cowardly and self-serving
There is more but I think that is enough
Is there a lit bookclub running these days? My friends dont share the same autistic taste we seem to have cultivated here.
Calling whatever's cultivated here "taste" is a stretch.
Cool stuff, I need to finish rereading Dante someday. I don't know if I'll ever have time to do the Balzac deep-dive thing but I'm glad it's paying off for you.
The Wen Xuan (medieval Chinese poetry anthology). As with any old anthology the selection is probably not exactly what we would choose if we were compiling it now, but it's got some absolutely incredible stuff. Sima Xiangru and Yang Xiong are the highlights, but I also quite liked Pan Yue's "Westward Journey" as a poetic introduction to some of the main themes of Chinese historiography.
I wouldn’t exactly say I’m doing a deep dive on Balzac but more that I’m starting to see the bigger picture he presents. I read a few of his books years ago, enjoyed them, but detached from his output they are weak. Once you start to get that panoramic view you realize why Balzac has the reputation he does. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Doing a true deep dive in Balzac would be daunting. I do want to read Louis Lambert and Seraphita again. They are very strange and polarizing. It’s the metaphysical, mystical, Swedenborgian Balzac that few know. I think his philosophic works are his most personal and paint a picture of Balzac and his relationship to his prodigious output of books
Can you read Chinese?
>Once you start to get that panoramic view you realize why Balzac has the reputation he does. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Would you mind elaborating a bit on this? I have always been deeply unimpressed by Balzac but I never read enough to get the sort of panoramic view you refer to
He’s similar to Proust but in a much more dramatic way; Balzac was a man who desperately wanted to be rich and never was a man of exclusively letters and not of life. He presents an immense panorama of France in the first third of the 19th century; the city, the Provence, the country, the rich, the poor, the soldiers, they’re all there. It makes Balzac an epic poet of sorts of the barbarous industrial age beginning and he should be seen as a prophet of sorts. I’ve heard that Marx was a huge Balzac fan and it makes sense. Kinda ironic for a royalist (I think) to show a cross section of society that led to the idea of Marxism. The society Balzac portrays is one of lust, greed and everyone is either a wolf or a sheep. When you combine Balzac’s portrayal of 19th century France with his desire to be rich and his lack of an outer life you see an internal struggle that manifests itself in an interesting way. I’m no Balzac scholar so maybe someone can expound some more. Individually his books leave a lot to desire though I wouldn’t say they’re bad. Taken as a whole it’s an impressive achievement especially as he is one of the pioneers in realism. He reminds me of Goethe as I both see them as “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” writers
Interesting thoughts, I do really like the idea of such a wide-ranging realist project, where the author is able to conjure up a truly full, living picture of a whole social and cultural world, informed by a consistent ethos. How do you think Zola compares in that regard?
>Can you read Chinese?
Even the Chinese can't read this particular Chinese, it's full of obscure proper nouns (animals, plants, place names, historical figures) and "rhyming binomes" describing specific kinds of movements, textures, visual effects, etc., where they tack on a second character for the sake of rhyme/alliteration with the first one, regardless of whether or not anyone knows wtf it means. I am reading David Knechtges' wonderful and meticulously annotated translation.
I’ve only read a couple books by Zola so I don’t have much of a grasp of him. I’m not even really sure of the difference between realism and naturalism tbh. I suppose from what I’ve read of Zola his characters few more “real” where someone like Balzac uses more stereotypes or monomaniacal characters. I don’t think the latter is necessarily worse (like all literature, it depends on what the writer is capable of). In fact I think sometimes those romanticized or caricatured situations or characters become more “real” as they crystallize into almost an archetype that anyone can relate to. I do think Balzac’s influence on 19th and 20th century is huge, and he doesn’t get the credit he should in this board. Same with writers like Austen and Stendhal. Their influence on the novel was tremendous and a line can be drawn from one of them to any later book most of the time. I suppose Balzac is one of the harder writers to break into though, because that involves a huge amount of reading before a shape or vision start to form
Within the last year I started loving those classical chinese poets. I can’t read it in its original but I love Kenneth Rexroth’s translations. So much is portrayed in so few lines, much of it potent philosophical with such common images or things, like autumn, dew on the grass, the sound of birds…the images take of philosophical importance. I’ve always appreciated the eastern view or spirituality. It feels healthy and primal. I wish I could see an alternate timeline where something like the Tao Te Ching or Dhammapada is the guideline text in the west. Nothing against the Bible but it’s been distorted and misused. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter and the same thing would happen. I just think the west could be more contemplative and accepting
If you're interested in foundational novels you should try Samuel Richardson, you can definitely look at someone like Austen as being in conversation with him. I agree that realism can be overrated and it all comes down to the effect the style produces, I just meant in terms of the expansiveness of his attempt to render some version of his real-world surroundings.
>I suppose Balzac is one of the harder writers to break into though, because that involves a huge amount of reading before a shape or vision start to form
Yeah that's why I say I probably won't get around to it, too much other stuff out there, but it's an admirable achievement nonetheless.
>Within the last year I started loving those classical chinese poets. I can’t read it in its original but I love Kenneth Rexroth’s translations.
Ah ok, it's you again, should've known you'd be the only one on here reading interesting and different stuff. I think the anthology I'm reading is a pretty good counterpoint to the currents within Chinese poetry that you're referring to, the Han dynasty imperial poets were maximalist in the extreme. But the more understated style is indeed incredibly beautiful and soul-nourishing.
>Samuel Richardson
Aren’t his novels epistolary? I cant stand that type of novel even though it can be used to do certain things more effectively than a normal novel can. I must have been traumatized by reading something in school and it stuck with me. I’ve had an irrational dislike of them forever. It’s odd those because I like quite a few letter collections. I should give them another shot and try to keep a more open mind. I’ve wanted to read Dangerous Liasons for a bit but can’t get over my grudge
Regarding Chinese poetry I’ve pretty much stayed safely within the Tang Dynasty and some of the really early stuff. Are you familiar with the Tian Wen? It’s intrigued me for a bit but I’m not even really sure exactly what it is and if it’s something I’ll like. My admittedly half assed google searches have just turned up vague results
And thanks for saying I read interesting stuff, I suppose lol. I try to read eclectic stuff that opens new doors if I like it. I think I’m pretty good at adjusting myself to a variety of writing (not epistolary though lol). There is so much out there if a reader keeps an open mind and looks for stuff to take away or appreciate
Yeah it just seems like you read a lot and you enjoy exploring different things and talking about them, which shouldn't be that rare on a literature board but here we are. I just appreciate it, it's encouraging to see someone else's similar but different journey, since your tastes are somewhat offset from mine.
The epistolary format doesn't really register as mattering that much for me but yes that's what Pamela (and the others I assume) is. It just stems from the fact that fiction itself was sort of a dirty word at one point, so it was a workaround to get away with telling a first person story from a perspective other than the author's own, in a situation like that of Pamela where she wouldn't really have any occasion to write her own memoirs (as opposed to something like Defoe's Roxana where the story is a little more outlandish and remarkable, thus making the memoir conceit make sense).
Yeah Tang dynasty is definitely the peak, but for me it's really interesting to see the level of variety that exists across the different periods. Tian Wen is short, the whole Chinese text of it fits on my computer screen. It's by the first real known poet of China, Qu Yuan, and it's included in the Chu Ci, which is a collection of his works plus a fair number of other pieces inspired by him. Haven't read it yet but I'm going to either before I finish the other anthology or right after.
What do you plan on reading next after Balzac?
>Horace's Odes & Epodes
Nice, any that stand out to you in particular?
That Shakespeare speech is the goat.
>Nice, any that stand out to you in particular?
1:5 is absolutely stunning.
>What slender youth, besprinkled with perfume,
>Courts you on roses in some grotto's shade?
>Fair Pyrrha, say, for whom
>Your yellow hair you braid,
>So trim, so simple! Ah! how oft shall he
>Lament that faith can fail, that gods can change,
>Viewing the rough black sea
>With eyes to tempests strange,
>Who now is basking in your golden smile,
>And dreams of you still fancy-free, still kind,
>Poor fool, nor knows the guile
>Of the deceitful wind!
>Woe to the eyes you dazzle without cloud
>Untried! For me, they show in yonder fane
>My dripping garments, vow'd
>To Him who curbs the main.
Oh god yeah that one is amazing. Took me a while to really appreciate Horace but he is incredibly skilled.
I’ve always ignored those early English novelists like Richardson, Defoe, Goldsmith, Fielding but I should really give them a shot. I’ve often been pleasantly surprised if I set aside my prejudices or preconceived notions, not that I have something against them exactly, but more they’ve never really interested me. I was reading a book on the history of literature some months ago and the way those novelists were framed has kinda loosened my disinterest somewhat.
As far as what I’m reading next it’s probably a reread of The Divine Comedy in a different translation to freshen it up. Balzac I’m planning on spreading out as I usually do with short story collections. I also am waiting to get a different translation of Cellini to see if it gives a newish feel while revisiting a favorite. Going through a bit of a Roman/Italian thing at the moment. Also got Livy’s first book that I want to get around to soon. I’m also waiting on the Everyman’s Library release of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Ive only read it once a few years ago and feel I can appreciate it more as I’ve focused a lot on Lawrence recently. I also got Plotinus a couple days ago but feel I need to brush up on Plato after taking a peak. The version I got has an introduction which included a historical context of Plotinus and his influence and I found it fascinating. It definitely doesn’t appear to be an easy read though so that’s probably something I’ll go through slowly. I usually keep a handful of books out I want to read and when I finish something I’ll pick based on my mood
For Chinese poetry, what are your favorite collections?
They're all great writers, it's just that they come from a time when values were more set in place, and so you don't get the soul-searching depth of some of the 19th century novels. But for history of the novel they're very important, and if you can enjoy Austen you can probably enjoy them too.
Dante is always good, I really need to go back to him now that I'm a better reader when I initially read him under the influence of the modernists. Plotinus does sound cool, I don't have much patience for reading philosophy but his concepts are interesting and I read an excerpt that had a really nice poetic style.
Roman/Italian seems like a fun niche too, that whole Renaissance world and the times leading into it are awesome. I would highly recommend both Horace and Tibullus for Latin poets, but I'm sure Livy will be great - I'm starting to appreciate historical writing more as I get more into Chinese culture, since they value it so highly.
I haven't read many collections, or much Chinese poetry at all yet really - just single author editions of Wang Wei and Du Fu, plus the Classic, plus a very short selection of Li Bai, plus ~2/3 of the Wen Xuan, and then just bits and pieces here and there. Du Fu accounts for more lines than all the rest combined probably, the guy was prolific. De Gruyter is the best publisher for academic translations of Chinese poetry, their edition of his complete poems runs to almost 3000(!) pages. Sorta close to done with it but I'm savoring the last couple volumes while I try out other stuff. Can't wait to try their Li He and Cao Zhi.
>Bely’s Petersburg
If you asked about this a while ago, I was probably one of the people who replied telling you to read it. Really happy to hear you liked it, I'd love to hear more specifically what you think about it.
No I’m not the anon who made that post about Petersburg, but all the same I’ll share some of my thoughts about it
He creates such an atmosphere! There’s a lot of good prose to build up imagery, but there’s a subimagery that he captures so well. And the book almost feels like poetry at times. The way he repeats certain descriptions and events, sometimes changing them slightly or adding to them. Like you don’t know he’s building up this undertone until after he has. The writing style is really really just so cool.
Other than it being written well, the interactions and portrayals of various characters are simply so funny. The comedy has surprised me pleasantly.
It’s a work of genius, the only book that has successfully made me 1) want to reread this book despite not having finished it and 2) want to reread other books as it has left me with the impression that maybe I’ve missed the point of these other works.
Sorry for not being articulate. I don’t write as much as I’d like and it really shows when I go to write even a simple response like this one
That’s the good/bad thing about reading; once you start to see the larger picture you now are a better reader than when you first started and that kinda renders your impression or thoughts on the first books you read obsolete. But it’s a catch 22 in that you need to read to get to that point but that means you’ll need to reread and it’s a never ending cycle, if that makes sense. Speaking of Tibullus and Horace I got this strange book recently called Poets in the Landscape by Highet. It deals with some Roman poets; it’s part biography, part translated poetry, part ancient travelogue, part modern travelogue. I’ve never seen anything like it. You’ll read about someone like Virgil then Highet will give a history on the farmlands he grew up and sometimes describe what they are like in current times. It’s just strange and genre defying. I kinda like it though
Anyway, I actually decided to pick up the Decameron and reread a few stories at random tonight. I always forget that I consider it one of my favorite book until I actually start reading it, oddly enough. It’s just one of those books that always seems to put me in a better mood and pick me up
ETA I’m also reading some Vasari. Don’t feel like starting a proper novel length book yet so just shorter works at the moment
Very well put, it's frustrating in a way but always fascinating.
That sounds really cool, I love seeing authors placed in historical context like that, just in the sense that it draws the connection between our real mundane world and the imaginative worlds of the poets.
I feel that way about many things, I can't properly summon the mental image or recollection of what I like about it but then I actually get into it and it's far, far better than I could've imagined.
Yes he excels in so many ways, from technique to philosophy to characterization to sheer imagination. It never quite gelled as a whole for me due to how rooted it is in its context but I should probably spend some more time rereading and reflecting on it.
What other books did it make you want to reread?
>I’m not even really sure of the difference between realism and naturalism tbh
Naturalism lets the narrative carry theme completely, no symbolism or larping or exposition by the narrator and the narrative and the characters are made to reflect reality with all their ambiguities as much as possible.
Realism attempts naturalism but makes certain concessions to the reader who is primarily middle class, everything good is essentially middle class even if they are not. So, the one farmhand has essentially middle class values (but is actually better than the middle class) and mostly speaks like the middle class just a little more honest (better) and the other farmhand is vulgar and dirty and jerk offs in everyones porridge, they are a thinly veiled bit of good vs evil symbolism. Then you have the rich person who is beyond well spoken and obnoxiously clean but shares the same personality traits of the vulgar and dirty farmhand as nod to ambiguity and to give the story a villain.
Anna Karenina
In love with it so far, I'm absolutely enthralled with the Levin chapters, I can see myself in him in some ways.
I fricking loved Levin interacting with his brother, Nikolai, the scene of them saying goodbye lives rent free in my mind.
Dostoyevsky is my favorite Russian author but Tolstoy might replace him if I like his other work
started reading this a couple days ago. strikes me as the type of novel where the beauty is revealed almost entirely through the characters that inhabit it, as opposed to the prose itself (although it might just be p+v fricking with me). have you read anything interesting about it? i've been reading through some of nabokov's notes (https://www.rusliterature.org/vladimir-nabokovs-lecture-on-anna-karenin-1877/), which provide reasonable insight into tolstoy's life and style, although i haven't finished reading the whole thing. i wonder if there's anything else like this out there
>he type of novel where the beauty is revealed almost entirely through the characters that inhabit it, as opposed to the prose itself
This is literally the book which contains the phrase "He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking" in its opening scenes
i'll take that to be reflective of p+v, then. oh well. it's still been nice so far, and if it's anything like the big dostoevsky novels, the reading experience will probably improve as i continue (and remain good for further readings)
I haven't read much, if any notes about it. Saving that for after I finish.
Also reading P&V lol
I do agree that Tolstoys characters are the main draw rather than the prose
>The Red Inn by Balzac
Just finished this short story and enjoyed it. It took a turn I wasn’t expecting and made me reevaluate the theme or message of the story. I feel like Balzac can only be fully appreciated when you start to read a lot of his writings and putting the pieces together to show a rich tapestry he created. I just got a collection of his short stories so I’m probably going to read a few more and revisit other Balzac books I’ve read years ago.
>Dante by Auerbach
I started this again because I’m planning on reading Dante again in a different translation (in b4 learn Italian). I read The Divine Comedy some years ago and enjoyed it but didn’t fully appreciate it until I read more. I read Auerbach’s book some months ago which shed a lot of light on Dante that I wasn’t even aware existed. I got sidetracked before actually rereading Dante so I’m freshening up now
Probably going to start some of Plotinus tonight and see if it’s worth sticking with. He’s been on my list for a while
Just finished the Dark Forest (the sequel to Three Body Problem). Now going to finish Project Hail Mary which I dropped a while ago.
almost finished the "Consider the Lobster" essay collection by DFW. first time ever reading the dude after seeing him nonstop here. everything so far has been really good, except the one essay where he talks about the dictionary (way too stupid to understand that). 8/10 would recommend so far
i always liked the dostoevsky essay in that collection. what was your take on it?
just finished the book mate. it made me feel pretty stupid for even pretending to understand notes from the underground. it's crazy that the abridged version of joseph frank's Dosto book is like 900 pages. the profile of the radio host with all the crazy annotations might have been my favourite because its unlike anything i've ever read before
Been reading monte cristo. It's been a bit slow, I don't feel spark for it anymore. I should've read shorter books because there's usually an end in sight but with this 1200+ page book, there's no end in sight. Should've started with 200-300 page books. Don't think I'm ready for 1000+ pages.
I was named after a character in that book. Is it good?
Hello Count
Yeah it's a slog after the first 2-300 pages and only picks up again at the very end. Read it a few months back.
>2-300 pages
I'm exactly at that point. I read 2-300 pages in a few days, now I'm stuck.
I just finished Dune and I didnt like it. It was the most 5/10 book Ive ever read. The new movies did a significantly better job of presenting the world than the book did. Needless to say I still will be reading dune messiah soon.
I started Fathers and Sons by Turgenev today, and I love it, its so comfy. I also am working through To A God Unknown by Steinbeck, I think that is super comfy too.
just started sapolsky - determined. before that was dharma bums by kerouac, which turned way out better than expected.
if you liked dharma bums, you might like big sur even more.
read that dang ol thing 3 times.
It's on the list, thanks.
Reading pic related right now, it's a travel book by italian author Aldo Busi where he vists Morocco and other places, has a lot of sex with men, gets raped (and doesn't seem to care much), muses about his society and foreign society, and gives extremely poignant advices on what writing is, and how to write etc.
Here's a badly translated passage:
>Peter Handke, Falsche Bewegung, 1974, then Wenders' film, 1975, which instead of The Wrong Move (“don’t make false movements”) I would translate So many apparent movements! ("not at all"), has “sachlich” writing, clear and spare, ideal for those who want to learn German. However, this plot, with its deliberate affinity with Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, is leaking from the very first pages: 1) no conflict with the world of work, Wilhelm has always been supported by his mother, who is even willing to sell her supermarket so that her son can write “in peace” (what a shame! one should write as he can); 2) the mother is too witty not to have put an end to her son's ideological depression (very upset because, guess what?, the world doesn't work as he wants) and in any case said mother declares, on a railway platform, that she has no advice to give; and no talented man would ever think of getting rid of a parent so good at farewells to "go and write" elsewhere, as if one place were preferable to another: he could do very well by staying at home and in the meantime he would lend a hand with the suppliers, he would learn the value of the money he always found ready on the bedside table and sometimes he would even choose to write a character who does not take it for granted at the settlement of each chapter.
Overall I am having a lot of fun. He sounds very self-centered in some bits, but the parts about writing are glorious and he says a lot of thing that are very relevant - the question of "money" here goes on for another 3/4 pages about how superseding on a character's financial situation always forces many events in the novel to happen "by chance" (meeting by chance, falling in love by chance) while most people move through life motivated by the vary basic material reasons of having to find jobs, having to get money, having to survive somehow. But a certain kind of writer/intellectual forgets about how fundamental this is for the life of basically everyone else.
Would you mind posting more exerpts where he talks about writing? I find this very fascinating and insightful.
they are kind of long anon, I suggest getting the book. There is a central section of about 30 pages where he starts from "being born" a writer and goes through writing practices up to dealing with publishers. It's extremely interesting and well thought, if you can stomach Busi's non-stop ego tripping.
I'm reading the Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. The novel follows a heretical Calvinist serial killer who believes he is Elected by God and that all the crime he commits against those not elected is justified. The novel is told from the perspective of one of his victims, and then from the killer's perspective, in the form of a journal.
1Q84 by Murakami. I don't if everyone in Japan is as weird as his characters but it makes for an entertaining and sometimes hilarious reading.
Saguaro by Carson Mell
>Beats the shit out of Bob Dylan in New York
>Joins a dangerous gang of cereal mascot illustrators
>Starts a cold war on a satanic cruise
>Survives diving into the ocean and later tying themselves to the cruise ship they had just leapt from for days surviving on rainwater
>Gets stranded in Thailand
A bunch of other stuff too. Highly, highly entertaining and incredible use of simile.
I haven't read a book in months. Actually that's not true because I read the Tao. That's not the title of it but I'm too lazy to remember it. Whatever the main book of Taoism is, I read that.
I think you mean Tao Lin.
Nah that's not it. Its a little teeny tiny book at B&N. Frick, now I'll have to look it up. Muthafricka
The Tao Te Ching. That's the one. I liked it. It gradually made me less of a fricking piece of dog shit
I got filtered by it because they say something like "the tao is the tao that is not exactly what the tao is"
Thats the best part tho.
It's objectively true.
The point of the Tao is just to remember that 99% of shit doesn't matter
I'm reading about ancient civilizations at the moment. Just finished a Daily life in Mesopotamia. Probably going back to reading more of Samuel Noah Kramer's work as well as Irvin Finkel... "
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed" ,"The Cambridge Ancient history" and of course Herodotus's "Histories" all have my interest too. So probably next readthroughs.
roughing it by mark twain
I've been reading Amphitryon, Horace's Odes & Epodes, Washing Irving's Tales of a Traveller, Sinclair's biography on Jack London, and re-reading King Lear.
Good book. Have you read his Joan of Arc yet?
Technically just finished this about an hour ago. Just got into reading recently and holy moly. Not overly complex and deep but such a charming story. A bit heavy handed with comparing life to a game, but very worth it imo. The author clearly has a deep appreciation for games
starting up work again so I'm putting the books down and picking the audiobooks up. got the entirety of public domain lovecraft from librivox for the next day and a half.
>If Only I Had Told Her - Laura Nowlin
>Nemesis - Rory Clements
The first one's romance and mostly written from a male's perspective. I picked it up because I'm thinking about writing a romance novel after I've finished what I'm working on right now. It's okay.
The second one isn't amazing but it was heavily discounted. It's a spy novel set in WWII. I'm guessing it's boomer-core lit.
As long as he has an air conditioned sleeping car to himself he’s reasonably content. Otherwise he’s an irritable whiner.
Set in 1974 so the vestiges of the hippie hordes on their way to legal hashish and harder stuff are still lingering. He does smoke hash with a few of them but is repulsed by a German heroin addict he shares a sleeper car with. He got along fine with an alcoholic ex-army bong though.
He doesn’t have a lot of interactions with the people in the various places he visits. Of course when he does question people on the significance of some aspect of a Hindu or Buddhist temple or holy site, the locals don’t know enough English to explain or they don’t know either. One young Indian guy tells him, “it’s more the older people who know that kind of thing. You take more interest when you get closer to dying.”
I’m not really learning a whole lot about the countries he travels through but it’s kind of entertaining just how miserable he gets.
Close to finishing Bely’s Petersburg, translated by McDuff. It’s taken a long time to read this one, but easily one of my most enjoyable reading experiences by a large margin.
Just finished Too Loud a Solitude. While I found it compelling in some ways (I like a lot of the later Soviet books) the language was too morbid for my liking. But I’ll probably read another one of his books anyways. Also just read The Time Machine (both books for a bookclub). Didn’t have strong thoughts about it. Kind of reminded me of Red Star except less awesome with less Bolshevism.
Listening to We by Zamyatin - I read it a couple years ago but wanted to revisit it.
Not sure what to read after Petersburg. Considering a reread of Demons (I read the P&V translation previously, but want to try out a different translator, maybe Katz). Also considering reading Bely’s The Silver Dove, but I can’t find it anywhere in ebook format. I also want to get more into Japanese literature, but don’t know where to start, maybe No Longer Human.
Kissing the Mask by William Vollmann. It's a great exploration of what feminine beauty actually is. The chapter where he describes himself crossdressing is a little weird though.
The Searcher - Tana French
I'm reading Dune Messiah and I've lost track of what's going on.
Comfy thread.
Reading a literary translation of the Divine Comedy. Loving it.
I also must finish The Vortex by Jose Eustasio Rivera this year. 2024 is it's 100 year anniversary. I dropped it for no good reason last year. I was enjoying it, just stopped reading.
Geertz “Local Knowledge”
Pirenne “Medieval Cities”
English “Mercenaries From The Age Of Alexander”
Pound “Early Poetical Works”
Almost finished with the top two
I'm 3/4 into Gravity's Rainbow and I feel like I'm havin a concussion
An introduction to tourism - Lickorish, Jenkins
Reading Heda Kovaly's memoir Under a Cruel Star for a communist history course at school. The WW2 part sucks and she suddenly gets better at describing everything post-war so I can see why someone would think the Holocaust was fake if this was they're first impression. The Pianist by Andrey Spilman I think is the most kino Holocaust memoir
It's Wladyslaw Szpilmann
Finally tackling The Big One. Mulligan is very entertaining; the part where they come out of the tower and he starts randomly beating the tall bushes and saying "Down, sir. How dare you, sir," made me giggle for some reason.
Notes From the Underground
This. Forgot how much I love DeLillo’s voice, the meandering realism of half finished thoughts and contradictory actions.
The setup is pretty simple, woman loses her husband, finds stranger in the house. How and why did he die? Who’s the stranger in the house? Also her job is what exactly, contortionism?
The realness of the prose hits the absurdity of the situation hard.
programmed to kill and the histories might start the glass bees as well soon
Vineland, bought in August of 22, and read most of it, gonna finish it up and maybe either reread it or start Gravity's Rainbow
Just finished Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. It's short, decent, but I liked the second part story more than the main one.