Big cortazar fan over here - hopscotch is good fun and really feels like a mid-60s Dylan mise-en-scene to me (been awhile since i read it, maybe it was just all the bohemians sitting around drinking wine/mate and having melodramatic arguments). I prefer his short story collections and poetry though, something about brevity brings out the best in his writing.
Xxp
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 16 October 2016 20:30 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I prefer the short stories as well.
― Special Derrida Blues (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 16 October 2016 20:32 (eight years ago) link
Am interested to read one of these extensively researched novels about the settlement of Texas by Paulette Jiles.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 16:31 (eight years ago) link
In the Woods, Tana French. So far, an involving crime procedural slash character study with lots of tactile detail and jokes.
― slathered in cream and covered with stickers (silby), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 16:33 (eight years ago) link
started A Month in the Country today
― flopson, Tuesday, 18 October 2016 17:53 (eight years ago) link
As in the old joke, "last week I spent a month in the country"?
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 18:07 (eight years ago) link
Jiles wrote an SF novel which looked interesting, bur i have not read it yet: Lighthouse Island.
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 23:13 (eight years ago) link
She's apparently a huge Jack Vance fan.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 00:03 (eight years ago) link
Cool, thanks Οὖτις, I'll have to check out the stories - I knew he wrote Blow-Up, but aside from that have no idea what the rest of his work is like. 1/4 into Hopscotch, I can see how the constraints of a short story/poem would be a good thing.
― Federico Boswarlos, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 01:51 (eight years ago) link
My fave short story of his us probably Axolotl (sp?). Fave collections are Cronopios et Famas and Around the Day in 80 Worlds. As far as poetry goes Save Twilight is excellent. He also did some comic book in the 70s that i would v much like to read an english translation of, i forget the title.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 01:56 (eight years ago) link
He was IN a comic in the 70s, unauthorised, an experience which he turned into this: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/fantomas-versus-multinational-vampires
Did not know he had written them too
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 02:08 (eight years ago) link
"Axolotl" is a good one. The main English collection which is called something like Blow Up and Other Stories is full of good stories. I like the Spanish collections Bestiario, Las Armas Secretas and Ceremonias. I guess the last one is just a combination of the first two. He has a great story about Charlie Parker called "The Pursuer," told by a clueless music critic narrator.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 02:15 (eight years ago) link
Much as I like his short stories, I've never actually made it through a single one of his novels.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 02:17 (eight years ago) link
i think i even read hopscotch both ways? possibly?
yet all i remember is mate
― j., Wednesday, 19 October 2016 03:17 (eight years ago) link
I read that first as the English word "mate" and not the Spanish word for the herb beloved by the Argentines. /bilingual puns that you had missed
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 12:37 (eight years ago) link
every story in the Blow-Up short story collection, er, blew my mind. my favourite was the one about the family that live in a big house with a tiger. also the newest edition is very pretty imohttps://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/612R7sXddlL.jpg
― flopson, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
it's only a hundred and some pages so i'm trying to savour every page of A Month In The Country as long as possible. such a dream
― flopson, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 14:42 (eight years ago) link
ah yes sorry James yes the Fantomas thing is what I was thinking of
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 15:14 (eight years ago) link
The Cortázar story you are referring to is Casa Tomada/House Taken Over and yes, it's a good one. Think the English collection is comprised of the collections I mentioned already plus those from Final del Fuego.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 16:30 (eight years ago) link
Truth be told, I know he is the poster boy of Boom translators, but Gregory Rabassa's work leaves me kind of cold and I don't have the skill and stamina to read a long novel in Spanish. Maybe I should look for which Cortázar novels were translated by Paul Blackburn and read one of those.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 16:47 (eight years ago) link
Cool, thanks all! Will seek out the Blow-Up collection, perhaps after finishing Hopscotch. I'm enjoying it - all of the jazz is a pleasant surprise (apparently Cortazar played trumpet himself), although the Latin-Franco machismo and La Maga as a manic-pixie-dreamgirl avant la lettre grates a bit (I guess it could be read parodically? but that seems quite charitable. . .)
I do wish my Spanish were good enough to read in the OG. Maybe one day.
― Federico Boswarlos, Thursday, 20 October 2016 23:47 (eight years ago) link
Every time I read Balzac I wonder why we read Dickens.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 October 2016 23:54 (eight years ago) link
You and Joyce.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 20 October 2016 23:55 (eight years ago) link
That reminds me, I need to read more Balzac. I enjoyed the two I've read: "Cousin Bette" and "Pere Goriot". I've yet to read any Dickens novels. I started "Bleak House" once.
― o. nate, Friday, 21 October 2016 00:21 (eight years ago) link
I recently finished Nicholson Baker's "Vox". A pretty fun, smutty and occasionally sexy novel. Of course the concept of a phone sex chat line is very dated, but in some ways it seems ahead of its time - Internet, mainstreaming of porn, yadda yadda.
― o. nate, Friday, 21 October 2016 00:27 (eight years ago) link
I finished Franco Moretti, THE BOURGEOIS
then Muriel Spark, THE DRIVER'S SEAT
― the pinefox, Friday, 21 October 2016 08:40 (eight years ago) link
Flann O'Brien - The Best of Myles
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 21 October 2016 09:10 (eight years ago) link
― o. nate
I'm reading Cousin Pons and laughing almost every page.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 21 October 2016 10:25 (eight years ago) link
i read a little burton, 'anatomy of melancholy'
sometimes his prose really does seem to be like a word dump, every so often he reaches a point where the commas just start piling up and it's as if expressing a whole thought is a distraction
― j., Friday, 21 October 2016 23:03 (eight years ago) link
― xyzzzz__, Friday, October 21, 2016 2:10 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
would like to read that, never read any of the Myles na gCopaleen stuff
― harold melvin and the bluetones (jim in vancouver), Friday, 21 October 2016 23:05 (eight years ago) link
katherine dunn - geek love
― harold melvin and the bluetones (jim in vancouver), Friday, 21 October 2016 23:06 (eight years ago) link
I just got a copy of that Best Of Myles a couple of weeks back. Found it in a charity shop and had enjoyed the novels I'd read by him . Saw a copy of a book of the same title but different cover today and wondered if the contents were the same since I've seen books of the same or similar title with about 4 or 5 different covers
― Stevolende, Friday, 21 October 2016 23:28 (eight years ago) link
https://es.pinterest.com/pin/257127459952367990/
― Wig Wag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2016 04:07 (eight years ago) link
ooooooooookay...
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Saturday, 22 October 2016 04:31 (eight years ago) link
I've had Blow-Up on my 'get' list for a couple of years now, and I keep finding other things to read. Will need to bite the bullet at some point.
(re-)Reading Jock Colville's diaries (I'm a sucker for 30s-40s British political diaries), and about to start Loque's War Music.
― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Saturday, 22 October 2016 08:48 (eight years ago) link
Flower Confidential about commercial production of flowers by Amy Stewart.
Gang leader For A Day is my transport book.
Boutique is my bog book. Think it's by Melanie Fogg.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 22 October 2016 09:02 (eight years ago) link
Sorry, somebody just happened to tell me last night that there was a recent ballet based on "Casa Tomada" (and a few other Cortázar stories as it turned out) which is what those Pinterest photos are about.
― Wig Wag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2016 12:36 (eight years ago) link
The invention of morel might work as a play (I think reading that, and Sylvia ocapmpo is why someone recommended Blow Up to me)
― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Saturday, 22 October 2016 12:56 (eight years ago) link
Lorrie Moore's Anagrams. I'm laughing after every other sentence.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 22 October 2016 13:00 (eight years ago) link
There was indeed at least one play of a The Invention of Morel which generated some interesting photos I came across once, let's see if I can find.
― Wig Wag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2016 14:07 (eight years ago) link
No can find, it has gone off the Internet, I'm afraid.
― Wig Wag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2016 14:26 (eight years ago) link
Good to know, regardless!
― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Saturday, 22 October 2016 14:47 (eight years ago) link
Judge Dredd: BLOCK MANIA
― the pinefox, Saturday, 22 October 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
Anagrams is lovely. Was about to say more, but do not wish to spoiler.
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Saturday, 22 October 2016 22:22 (eight years ago) link
Just finished Wolf hall. Sublime writing. May move on to Bring Out The Bodies since I have that lying around.May finish off Ford Maddox Ford's March Of Literature since I have that about 200 pages from the end.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 23 October 2016 09:26 (eight years ago) link
you guys, reading... it's just, so swell :')
― flopson, Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:28 (eight years ago) link
Robert Bothwell - The Penguin History of CanadaDerek Parfit - Reasons and Persons, part III: "Personal Identity"
― jmm, Sunday, 23 October 2016 18:43 (eight years ago) link
― Madame Bob George (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 October 2016 19:07 (eight years ago) link
currently reading:
J.R. Ackerley - We Think The World Of You
just got few a couple dozens pages on my commute but so far so good. I love british novels with bracingly smart narrators, of which this is one
― flopson, Monday, 24 October 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
Started reading the Vivienne Westwood autobiography last night when I couldn't drop off to sleep. Had picked it up cos I found it cheap in TKMAxx. Just at a time that I was reading about her in The look by paul Gorman.just picked up a load of new stuff today too.
But hoping Vivienne might be inspiring in garment making.
― Stevolende, Monday, 24 October 2016 16:42 (eight years ago) link