Flann O'Brien

i spend fifteen years in therapy and a dude on the internet nails it in one sentence

while seeming to be in despair at being stuck on an island with all this plain ppl nonsense (yet never making an effort to get away.)

He couldn't get away. He was doing pretty well for himself as a young man in the civil service, but suddenly had to support a family of 12. His brother says doing that was his greatest work.

Despair at being stuck, yes. Reading his biography killed a lot of the funniness for me.

is jem casey's much-admired hackery for the working man not close to sean o`casey?

Yes, I think that's the most direct inspiration for the character.

ty pf!

Might read this again, slower

What, this thread? It's worth it.

ASTB

Just re-read the thread, and the others on FOB and STB

Im assuming the f. mcewe post was pinefox. genius.

Man, I don't even think I have a copy of ASTB anymore

I left my copy open and they all got out

:D

at swim two big bottomed birds all over the newsie wewsies

― nakhchivan, Sunday, October 9, 2011 5:46 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Today of all days

ever read this book, darragh? its quite flann-esque

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/SombreroFallout.jpg

no but more than happy with recs ta

The most unexpected book to remind me of the 3rd policeman was the cyberiad by lem. Could they have been aware of each other?

I'm only about 20 pgs into ASTB, but is the wordiness (in the "always use a big word when a smaller one would do" sense) supposed to be a parody of how a wise-ass college student would write?
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:47 (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Amongst other things, yeah. Also a certain Irish addiction to gigantism (also mocked in the "Cyclops" chapter of Ulysses) akin to the "everything's big in Texas" mentality. And folk tale exaggeration in general.
― Why does my IQ changes? (noodle vague), Thursday, 7 September 2006 14:17 (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reading again, astb and thread, and I came to note that Finns opening maundering on music that is good to ear is surely a play at Austin Clarke, and while reading the above I was p struck (nagging at me as it was anyway, having just read it) that the gigantism, the repetitions of metaphor/comparison points in the first Finn section are very likely direct plays at the similarly bounded earthiness of the source material

sorry phone swallowed that post...

anyway reading what ppl, especially Ronan, disliked about astb up thread, idk might it make a difference in reading it to consider the breadth and deftness and adaptability in aping so well all of these Irish literary styles that seems, to me anyway, to be happening here. I'm sure there's more I missing besides, perhaps woof or pf or someone could suggest a full list of the lampooned in the work.

Has anyone read this? http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/cr%C3%A9-na-cille-%C3%B3-cadhain-s-squabbling-corpses-revived-in-english-1.2154852

i don't read novels in dialect

I read 'em with my bowl of Froot Loops and cold milk.

good day for authors named flann something on ILB

have never heard of that, but looks interesting... shades of dostoyevsky's bobok

bought this recently

http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/15647100441380L.jpg

That is definitely in the right spirit

good day for authors named flann something on ILB

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GzumJh2kL.jpg

i'm 60 pages into the third policeman and somewhat drunk. flann o'brien is the holy grail

An excellent primer for astb but I maintain my position above, you need to read a bit of Sean O'Casey et al first

Kind of an ideal state of being imago has going there, tbh

all noted

https://i2.wp.com/www.onegreenplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/coconut-flan1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/d/d1/1984burton.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131102231148

this shit is acatalectic
a-c-a-t-a-l-e-c-t-i-c

It's catholic fyi

It wasn't Catholic enough. He became afraid of it.

OK I got to the guessing-names bit that Father Ted obviously ripped off and was dissolved in laughter on the tube. I wonder how much of Father Ted is just reconsidered O'Brien...

Great holy suffering indiarubber bowls of brown stirabout!

Music tie-in here.

I think it's more likely the novel steals from Ted tbh

well was a rug ever pulled

Have read ten pages of ASTB and it is obviously some kind of personal grail

the list of birds alone has me forever

well, yes

the maritime wren!

read, my child, and learn of the marvels it contains

FOB seems to specialise in these extended bravura sequences where all literature else is cast into a pyre. in 3P it was the underground chamber and i'll be beggared if the cress-green cress of the full seventh of that book's length that is the confusion of the tellings of finn, shanahan and lamont doesn't figure somewhere in the reckoning of which is ASTB's. unless somehow it has greater in store

I don't exactly understand that comment. Can you explain further?

I recommend THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF FLANN O'BRIEN, though not as a way of preserving any mystique.

Myles na gCopaleen’s collected columns are the best, but I read The Third Policeman a while back and it was honestly one of the strangest things I’ve ever read. I need to read it again.

By that I meant that pages 58 through 91 of ASTB make for a truly astonishing passage. I was speculating as to whether the book will have greater in store for me during the remaining course of its pages, of which I have now read 104.

Are you deliberately taking years to read this novel?

Savouring every syllable.