I have coveted everything and enjoyed nothing: what are you reading in Spring 2024?

Ferit Edgu - The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales

You can read about it here: https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-wounded-age-and-eastern-tales

The interesting thing besides the subject matter of a state subjugation of its people is the formuts written in: which is these bunch of prose poems that do alternate between looking more like poems and then looking like prose pieces at other times, a push-pull between the forms as the violence of the situation, and the beauty of its surroundings, is related

finished The Factory which i am now pitching to Netflix as "Area X meets Kafka in Japan". we'll see if they bite.

now reading The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee. non-fiction book about Christopher Columbus's bastard son's quest to build the most comprehensive library on earth. including prints, posters, and pamphlets. dude was nuts.

Took a break from The Magic Mountain to read Henry Green's Loving. I kind of admired it more than I loved it. It took a while to get to grips with the elliptical dialogue but it's clearly a masterpiece of dramatic irony, culminating in the various shenanigans about the lost ring. And the humour is drier than a sun-bleached skeleton in death valley - excellently done but I can't say it raised more than a sly grin. But that last line! What a joker. I'm certainly not put off reading more of his, maybe my appreciation will develop.

Somewhat disappointed it didn't really fulfil the promise of the conversation that inspired it :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_(novel)

I think that its in line with my experience. I connected with some of Green's novels more than others while finding everything he wrote accomplished and very fine.

Trying to get Strangest Genius on the stained glass windows of Harry Clarke finished after not paying it attention for too long. Book by Lucy Costigan with a lot of photos of the windows in.
I do like Harry Clarke, he seems influenced by Aubrey Beardsley while adding in his own elements.
Oversized book which has contributed to it not being paid as much attention. But seeing the images now a lot of it is pretty breathtaking.

Rashid Khalidi 100 Years War On Palestine
really good book on the oppression of Palestine since the end of WWI when the Ottoman Empire lost control of it and I think a bit before that but book came out in 2020.
Author's family and he himself have been involved in various roles throughout. I wondered if my Dad knew him cos his dad was in the UN and lived in the same New York suburb but it appears to have been a few years earlier than I know my dad was there.
Very good book.

I'm almost done with Wellness, this season's The Corrections and Rabbit novel: one of those The Way We Live Now books that 50 years hence Nathan Hill hopes will show Americans what we cared about in the 2010s.

There's always some damaged, usually older character, occasionally brought forward, in all the Greem novels I've read so far, and that's life, that's what all the people say, along with the humor and sex and gossip and booze---in Loving, the old butler is dying for a start, then the slick guy takes his place, but has his own health or psychosomatic detours, bad vibrations, despite the arrow ov sexnluv, also Doll the daughter-in-law's sex quandary, some desperation on his gf's friend-colleague's part, and the alky older lady-in-service---but the most emotionally involving ones I've read so far are Blindness, Living, Caught, and the memoir/testifyiin' Pack My Bag.

we've been talking about henry green on here for 20 years. that's kinda cool.

I finished Pragmatism. I would be interested to read more contemporary reactions. From today’s perspective many of the ideas are commonplace: That there is no capital T absolute and universal Truth. That truth is a process. That my truth and your truth may prove to be incommensurable. Etc. I guess that’s because James’s views won out, at least in American popular consciousness, and not because he was stating the obvious.

I wonder what Henry thought about that. Did he acknowledge his own subjectivity, or think of himself as uncovering the ultimate Truth? Both?

It feels like I've been leaning heavily on detective/crime fiction lately, but my library hold on Cotton Comes to Harlem came in, so it jumps to the head of the queue.

I wonder what Henry thought about that

He wrote William some letters that were quite effusive in praise and agreement.

Why the devil I didn’t write to you after reading your Pragmatism –how I kept from it—I can’t now explain save by the very fact of the spell itself (of interest & enthrallment) that the book cast upon me: I simply sank down, under it, into such depths of submission & assimilation that any reaction, very nearly, even that of acknowledgement, would have had almost the taint of dissent or escape. Then I was lost in the wonder of the extent to which all my life I have. . . unconsciously pragmatised. You are immensely & universally right. . . .I feel the reading of the book. . .to have been really the event of my summer.

https://library.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/static/onlineexhibits/james/marriage_family/4_9.html

Thanks!

I simply sank down, under it, into such depths of submission & assimilation that any reaction, very nearly, even that of acknowledgement, would have had almost the taint of dissent or escape.

William was not often so generous about Harry's fiction, especially later in life.

btw I consider William James one of the great American prose stylists, bringing that malleable hardness of Twain, Crane, and U.S. Grant to explain abstruse concepts.

William was not often so generous about Harry's fiction, especially later in life.

Well, I'm sure he never would have criticized Henry to any outsider, but it's true that he had a bit of older brother syndrome and presumed to make some comments in private letters wondering why Henry couldn't just write a straightforward romance of the type he enjoyed by, say, Robert Louis Stevenson. And it's true that Henry had the patience of a saint in letting these ill-advised judgments roll off his back. Their relationship was very close, despite being separated by an ocean for many years, and there are some touching moments. Henry was always a favorite uncle of William's offspring. On William's deathbed be made his wife promise that she wouldn't let Henry die alone when his time came (a promise that she kept).

watched Shardlake, thought I'd trt the first CJ Samson book from which it's been adapted, Dissolution. Crap tv, crap book tbh. It's hard to blame Samson for not being as good as Mantel, but it's also hard not to compare. Oddly, one of the problems is shared by both the adaptation and the novel, which is Shardlake himself. In the TV series, it's seeing his bloody face pull the same expression a thousand times an episode, and in the novel it's a related invariability in his mode and pose. Shardlake is in fact persistently and tediously moralistic and somewhat stupid, something he himself recognises. In addition, the who in the dunnit is immediately obvious, and the whole has a flavour of 'modern police procedural transplanted to the 15th century'.

Martin McInnes - In Ascension. Fine. It was fine. It's oddly lopsided in its construction, as McInnes gets the various things he needs to get into place into place. The thematic emphasis is a bit bosky. It's almost all worth it though for the fantastic central sequence of the space journey itself, which has a mesmerising ambience and has been thought through in detail. I felt totally immersed for the entirety of this section. For those who've read it, or those who aren't going to read it, or those who don't mind admittedly rather abstract spoilers: The figure of eight temporal/evolutionary bootstrapping felt a little trite to be honest: things like Dark and 1899 never quite work for me on that basis - these things need to leak in some way to avoid being alienating imo.

Well, I'm sure he never would have criticized Henry to any outsider, but it's true that he had a bit of older brother syndrome and presumed to make some comments in private letters wondering why Henry couldn't just write a straightforward romance of the type he enjoyed by, say, Robert Louis Stevenson. And it's true that Henry had the patience of a saint in letting these ill-advised judgments roll off his back. Their relationship was very close, despite being separated by an ocean for many years, and there are some touching moments. Henry was always a favorite uncle of William's offspring. On William's deathbed be made his wife promise that she wouldn't let Henry die alone when his time came (a promise that she kept).

Well put. There's a lovely photo of Henry 'n' William from the final years.

https://i.imgur.com/QnBphLX.jpg

Ernesto Sabato - On Heroes and Tombs

After finishing Cotton Comes to Harlem my overall impression is that Himes was excellent at creating an atmosphere grounded in Black culture, but juiced up considerably in terms of criminality and sexuality. He writes action sequences well. He isn't afraid of being silly or outlandish as long as he's being entertaining. It's pulpy, but he's having some fun with it.

I'm probably going to start next on The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus, Hans J.C. von Grimmelshausen. The author was a soldier in the Thirty Years War, which provides the setting. It's considered a classic in the literature of war, graphically depicting war's violence, its irrationality, and its cruelty, but also the black humor it inspires. My edition is from 2018, with a new translation by J.A. Underwood.

I enjoyed the von Grimmelshausen. Came across it in the local library in the 80s think I got part way through it and then wound up finishing it 20 years later as a college University book but could be remembering that wrong.
Anyway, yeah pretty grotesque satire on philosophy and things.

Do like Chester Himes too.

Reading Pride and Prejudice. I’ll go ahead and say that I had absolutely zero appetite for this sort of thing when I was in school. But having “lived” more, met more people, “grown”, etc, I’m super riveted. Lizzy rules so hard. This is a real all timer, isn’t it?

I think that reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell last year helped warm me up to it or something, I can imagine characters in each showing up in both, especially the haughty arrogant ones.

I'm still reading that insane book about Columbus's kid and its truly blowing my mind. I guess I never really knew anything about Christopher Columbus. I'm only up to the part where he goes on his 4th trip to the new world and he takes his 12 year old kid with him and 5,000 gallons of wine and the batshit insane book that he wrote about the prophecy of the islands and the second coming and they won't let him on the island he discovered so he has to sit out a hurricane in the ocean on his boat. and right before he got there 24 ships left for Spain and 23 of them get wrecked in the hurricane except for the one carrying Columbus's gold! Prophecy! I can't believe this shit is real...

anyway, i took the day off because my allergies were so damn bad and i've been listening to music and thinking of things I want to write about and I picked up my copy of Conversations by Steve Reich and its him having pandemic conversations with his friends and a lot of it is a victory lap were Steve says *wasn't it cool that time i did that one thing* and everyone is like *OMG Steve that was so awesome and it changed my life* and i haven't stopped reading it for hours. I can't stop. I do speed up and slow down my reading somewhat imperceptibly and keep time with a maraca as i go.

but there is a ton of food for thought too and that thing he did that one time WAS really cool and it totally CAN change your life. #itsgonnarain4ever

Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians by Pierre Clastres translated by Paul Auster
anthropologist in Paraguay in the early 60s meets a tribe of previously forest dwelling indigenous who have just moved to the land managed by a farmer. Very interesting study.

The Production of Space Henri Lefebvre
French philosopher looks at the meaning of space. Seems interesting, maybe a bit abstract.

Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir George Clinton
pretty good memoir by the PFunk innovator. Been interesting reading the story behind his main bands. I'm now in the late 80s/early 90s with him so coming towards the end of the book and with music a little less familiar to me. Still pretty interesting. Drugs have had a lot of influence including some negativity. He's also had some financial troubles. But he's surviving and still making creative music. Also helped Sly Stone out. This has been a good read. I want to read Sly's book too.

Reading Pride and Prejudice. I’ll go ahead and say that I had absolutely zero appetite for this sort of thing when I was in school. But having “lived” more, met more people, “grown”, etc, I’m super riveted. Lizzy rules so hard. This is a real all timer, isn’t it?

yes! and a similar journey for me on Austen. i was v scornful at school, and it was only later, possibly even beyond university, i realised she was a great author - that there was considerable stylistic innovation which was intrinsic to the depiction of manners, the development of psychological insight and in general just the fun to be had and humour to be found in the books.

Onto The Age of Extremes. One thing that rules about this is… Hobshawn has this super compelling professor-ly way of writing about history where he is inviting you to speculate and think about why certain things were so before “explaining”, but he does in such a graceful way that isn’t explicitly didactic, it’s just the magic of a really great writer stimulating lots of thought in the reader.

Hobsbawm. Hobshawn is my sock account

Want to read that, thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold is Jane Austen in Space (Opera), judging by (many comments online and) my gateway, Memory, in which son of regal legends and personal oddball-career-juggling space navy officer/mercenary Miles V. is summoned to home world for social ceremonial reasons, witty intrigue thereby also into security biz office politics, Le Carre-worthy, and unexpected police procedural thereby, also trip way out of town--references to What Has Gone Before brief,clear, and only mentioned when necessary for context. A banger, though need to read Miles back in Space per se for more flash and action out there (though this incl. a tantalizing taste).

Just finished A Month In The Country which was recommended by an ilxor. It was just great.

i love that book.

Finished The Magic Mountain, and Living by Henry Green. Living is much bleaker than Loving, though it does perhaps end on an ambiguous, if not fully optimistic, note. Set in a factory in Birmingham it's almost like a case study in how not to run a business, if it is truly based on his own experience then it doesn't speak well of the state of the british manufacturing industry in the mid 20th century.

Started on Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett. It has a technique quite similar to Green, the dialogue is generally unleavened with adverbs or descriptions of the speaker's thoughts or attitude. Unlike Green it's almost all dialogue, there's very little description of anything else, which makes it even tougher going. And the 'did they really speak like this back then?' energy is off the charts:

I have not the least objection to the office. Such sensitiveness would rather deserve the name of self-consciousness. And I shall be supported by the thought of their reception.

This from someone being asked to carry some grapes back for his wife.

For a short book it takes a long time for the drama to kick in, when it does it's hard to know how to take it or how much irony is present, it could be deeply serious or high farce (when a character is not once but twice found unintentionally eavesdropping on the reveal of major family secrets I start to strongly suspect the latter).

Ivy has been such an inspiration to me. I considered getting an IC-B tattoo in the past. just her name. though maybe a drawing of her iconic hair-hat would be cool.

we've been talking about her for 20 years on here too a la henry green! the G.O.A.T.s never die.

Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Maturin. Heavy on atmosphere and verbiage. Not sure I'm going to stick with it, but there is something about the story that keeps me going. Plus, I like the title.

that sounds like some kind of pulp fiction but there are two different penguin editions, an oxford world classics and a folio society version

I think it's usually considered a typical example of Gothic fiction.

Samuel Beckett - Wat

Watt, that is

watever you say

Wat is it good for

parker young - cheap therapist says you're insane

book of endearing funny and short short stories

xxxxpost Henry Yorke/Green dropped out of Oxford and started as a trainee on the foundry floor of Pontifex & Sons, under his company director-father's eye, while the alternate Henry/Bertie Woosterish heir's father died and son went directly to captain's cabin, without much understanding of how the workers and the overall biz worked. Thinks all the older guys will do fine when laid off, because pension, but the author knows that the workers don't think it's enough to live on. (He prob also knew, like a lot of people did, that World War I had decimated the younger work force, although I don't think he bothers to mention it, maybe seems obvious to his contemporary readers.)
Pontifex lasted another thirty-odd years, might have held on until the very belated post-WWII British economic lift of the 60s, if Henry hadn't gotten so far into his cups, dunno.

in the book it's less like a business more like a school playground, with cliques, rivalries, bullies, apparently no oversight or strategy or evaluation.

I have read a few books and chaps recently, but today arrived Diane Williams' Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, which was featured on Dennis Cooper's blog last week. Two stories in and I am hooked— can't believe I've never read her before.

she's awesome. her collected stories was one of the books that made my pandemic more livable.

oooh thanks for the rec

Obviously GoodReads isn't a good marker for *anything* but I still tend to use it as a database and for logging recommendations: *Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine* has an absurdly low rating on there - to the point where it seems almost pointed or targeted. What's that about?

After "Pragmatism" by William James, I read its wilder, woollier and more metaphysical sequel, "A Pluralistic Universe", in which James endorses panpsychism and a strong form of the Gaia hypothesis. Now I'm reading (for the first time) "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" by David Hume, a work which James frequently refers to and argues with.

...Diane Williams' Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, which was featured on Dennis Cooper's blog last week. Two stories in and I am hooked— can't believe I've never read her before.

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Tuesday, May 14, 2024

She does sound interesting.

I haven't thought about Dennis Cooper in years. I think I've blocked him out

Closer (1989), Frisk (1991), Try (1994), Guide (1997), Period (2000)…

I read those books and am still haunted by them. They are supposed to celebrate the beauty of the pain and suffering of gay men but are really degrading and sadistic. I just can’t get on board with that kind of transgressive writing

xxxpost William could be as adventurous as Henry in his own way----here's young William on the Thayer expedition to the Amazon,several levels discussed: https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/19208 (also got on well with his student Gertrude Stein)