lrb is definitely terrible at reviewing fiction by women, and at getting women to review anything written by men
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 23:19 (seven years ago) link
lanchester? mainly does the big stunt pieces now (which i never read bcz i don't think he understands economics AT ALL)
i really like Lanchester on economics & finance. what don't you think he understands?
― flopson, Tuesday, 18 October 2016 23:27 (seven years ago) link
Ditto
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 18 October 2016 23:44 (seven years ago) link
Wait, Michael Hoffmann the poet and translator?
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 00:40 (seven years ago) link
xyzzzz, the fact that you think the LRB would run an investigative journalism piece exposing Ferrante's identity makes me think you can't ever have read the LRB.
--- 'Its infested by male London literary scene morons who waste pages on any ink that the likes of McEwan and Amis publish.'
As far as I can recall, they have reviewed the last two Amis and McEwan novels and absolutely trashed them. That takes pages, and ink, but it's probably not welcome to Amis or McEwan, and it doesn't suggest intimacy between those writers and the paper. Nor does it suggest that the reviewers are morons.
I agree with what Local Garda said upthread. No one is defending this outing. All are agreed it's bad. The gender element is overemphasised.
Mark S also correct that feminist theory is hardly the major exhibit in the NYRB. Half their articles are about 'can the Dems retake the Senate this Fall???'
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 08:50 (seven years ago) link
Re: Lanchester (from ) here
I started Whoops! but (again)* didn't get very far -- and some of the reasons Capital is bad (as per this superb thread) also apply. JL seemed to spend a lot of time over-carefully explaining fairly simple things I already understood and then nervelessly sweeping past stuff that really needed dwelling or on getting inside. (I have a close friend who used to be a banker who agrees about this; and talking to him about the sector makes me think that Lanchester's dad's connections and understanding may well not actually give as much purchase on the finance&trading world of the early 00s as you'd expect; that banking had in some key way slipped into a new phase, and that this was what needed exploring…)*In many ways I am the world's most distractable person when it comes to reading, probably because proofing has been my day-job for such a long time.
*In many ways I am the world's most distractable person when it comes to reading, probably because proofing has been my day-job for such a long time.
"AT ALL" upthread was a bit overstated, yes -- but this^^^is my problem w/lanchester
― mark s, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 09:20 (seven years ago) link
In fact, the last Amis was trashed by michael hofmannXp
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 09:30 (seven years ago) link
Hey, found Michael Hofmann's ever-amazing poem "Marvin Gaye" onlinehttp://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/marvin-gaye/
along with an interesting blog post about ithttp://robmack.blogspot.com/2008/06/14-marvin-gaye-michael-hofmann.html
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 11:02 (seven years ago) link
That poem doesn't seem at all good to me, though the last line has some force.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 11:05 (seven years ago) link
^vmic
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 11:55 (seven years ago) link
Guess Hofmann views himself primarily as a critic.
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 16:48 (seven years ago) link
As much of a poet/critic/translator.
There has been a lot of interesting fiction - and translations of older fiction - published in the last few years the LRB have not bothered with. Instead they are happily indulging the likes of Amis and McEwan. Yes I know they are bad reviews (I've read the odd one), but why publish at all? That goes for Kundera's last book - its an entertaining review (Hoffmann again) but its such a slight nothing of a book to bother with in the first place. They have no economic considerations to consider so what is this all about?
The NYRB are giving much coverage to the election...given that there is an election on! But there have been one or two pieces discussing the relationship between Hilary and feminism, given the data showing younger women were seemingly casting their votes toward Sanders in the primary season. They constantly provide commentary on women's issues. Its no more or less than class or Wall Street, but the editorial team should be wholly aware of all those issues when that article by this tabloid reporter dropped in and they didn't bat an eyelid. They cover it!
There is a rhetorical aspect to the gender element at play, but given what's happened its fine.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 18:20 (seven years ago) link
― mark s, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 09:20 (nine hours ago) Permalink
so your friend who is a banker confirms your suspicion that he is not good because he explains things you already know..? (lol). also, who is his father? someone important in finance? can't find anything googling
― flopson, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 18:25 (seven years ago) link
someone on the thread i linked to said they skimmed an interview with JL in which he said his dad was a banker -- that's all the lead i have, it may be nonsense, he may be self-taught
no my friend confirmed that he over-explains the easy stuff and skips past the tricky stuff
basically if someone is not bothering to explore or explain the bits i think need explaining then i stop reading them -- i agree this is not the same as "knowing nothing" but for my purposes it is the same as "not knowing enough", since the bits i need to learn about are the bits not yet being explained properly
i could go back and reread whoops! and report to you exactly what those are but it seems a bit pointless, as you're happy with what you're getting (and seem to be making heavy enough weather of my post)
― mark s, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
All good, mate. just thought maybe there was some good dirt on Lanch i didn't know about, and was curious is all. ftr I like him because he is a good elucidator of the simple yet tricky to the uninitiated basics of finance (even though I studied this stuff & should be among the initiated)
― flopson, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 19:03 (seven years ago) link
All good, mateAre we talking about Cortázar on this thread too?
― Sketches by T-Boz (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 October 2016 23:16 (seven years ago) link
re: Lanchester. I probably need Economics explained that way. The problem with the pieces is that it still feels abstract, the need for education in this stuff has never felt greater and Lanchester never feels like its bridging the gap.
I quite like to take economics classes. I know certain branches of Momentum were doing some. Delivery of an understanding of how this stuff works (or when it doesn't and why) sounds like a good battleground. Lanchester is just not in that conversation.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 21 October 2016 08:40 (seven years ago) link
yeah sorry flopson, i was in a foul temper on wed eve and that was leaking out sideways a bit
― mark s, Friday, 21 October 2016 09:00 (seven years ago) link
FYI Ha-Joon Chang's 'Economics - A User's Guide' is a much better primer in that vein than anything by Lanchester.
This is OTM.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 October 2016 09:47 (seven years ago) link
What would you consider some of the tricky stuff he evades? Most recent Lanch I read was the Bitcoin one and it was great
― flopson, Friday, 21 October 2016 14:38 (seven years ago) link
i have NO idea what you guys are talking about on here now. though you did inadvertently make me go listen to miami bass on youtube the other day:
"I started Whoops! but (again)*..."
― scott seward, Friday, 21 October 2016 16:14 (seven years ago) link
Finished. No more will I see the figures I have come to know walking along the stradone and think to myself: "what the hell is a stradone anyway?"
― quis gropes ipsos gropiuses? (ledge), Wednesday, 2 November 2016 09:14 (seven years ago) link
i too am finished and now i'm at a loss. anyone got any good articles about the novels to recommend?
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Friday, 16 December 2016 14:32 (seven years ago) link
I like Dayna Tortorici's overview of Ferrante's fiction; there's also Ferrante's Paris Review interview.
― one way street, Friday, 16 December 2016 16:36 (seven years ago) link
The second half of the final book feels as long as the rest of them put together. I'm still enjoying it, I've just slowed waaay down after flying through everything else.
― sam jax sax jam (Jordan), Friday, 16 December 2016 18:01 (seven years ago) link
How words build up in these incredible inedible edifices, then collapse, and some people start over, some just endure, maybe stash some of the pieces. Also the shuddering implosions and aftershocks of Mid-20th Century, and later, especially in Italy, if only because that's where the characters are born and bred, but also it makes a great example. The narrator Elena/Lenu is maybe afraid of falling into the void within her edifice, her facade, so she's always drawn to, and afraid of Lina/Lila, the magnetic control freak who sees the void in all things, sometimes cynically, sometimes freaking right the fuck out---so much uncertainty---though no doubt the narrator sets herself up for the punchline.
― dow, Saturday, 17 December 2016 05:10 (seven years ago) link
Not saying either of them is right or wrong to feel the way they do (although the narrator also invites our sympathy, and her great frenemy is a badass babe even as a crone). It makes sense, when you know where they're coming from.
― dow, Saturday, 17 December 2016 05:14 (seven years ago) link
Then again, for example, do we have to have an actual literal earthquake in there, even at that point? I mean of course it has consequences and shit, but oh well getting apoilery I guess but who among you are really surprised it's in there, even if you haven't gotten that far. I'll shut up now though.
― dow, Saturday, 17 December 2016 05:20 (seven years ago) link
But Lina/Lila really does try, in her way, to be free, and live life, and deals the only way she can see---kinda cracking my heart some more, thinking about it again without wanting to---damn, girl!
― dow, Saturday, 17 December 2016 05:28 (seven years ago) link
(On AMC by the end of the decade, I bet, and that may be the best way to experience it.)
― dow, Saturday, 17 December 2016 05:29 (seven years ago) link
btw just found a series of podcasts: Radio Ferrante
Might check one or two.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 10 April 2017 21:26 (seven years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/29/elena-ferrante-writing-again-publisher-says-neopolitan-series-novel
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 November 2017 18:04 (six years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/18/elena-ferrante-to-become-guardian-weekends-new-columnist
Not sure this is a good idea - Ferrante is someone that (as she says) needs privacy and space ("remove oneself from all forms of social pressure or obligation"). Not sure how turning out pieces on deadline fits into that. Hope I'm wrong.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 January 2018 18:51 (six years ago) link
bought my mom Days of Abandonment for xmas and she loved it
― flopson, Saturday, 20 January 2018 23:51 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntoN-sDFvZc
― abcfsk, Friday, 31 August 2018 06:31 (five years ago) link
I've just started listening to MBF on Audible. Too early to really tell whether it's my thing or not.
― Scritti Vanilli - The Word Girl You Know It's True (dog latin), Friday, 31 August 2018 09:51 (five years ago) link
I did smile at the scene with the dolls. Give it a go once its out on DVD
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 31 August 2018 10:32 (five years ago) link
Weird! I just started the second book.
― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 August 2018 11:01 (five years ago) link
Every so often I half bake a theory about how Lena and Lenu are actually the same person, the narrator vocalising different halves of their personality, or Lena writing Lenu as the life she would like to have had, but I don't want to read the books again or go too far down that rabbit hole for fear of ruining these amazing characters for myself.
― Matt DC, Friday, 31 August 2018 11:15 (five years ago) link
For real though the second half of the fourth book feels super rushed and would have worked better as a fifth novel in its entirety.
― Matt DC, Friday, 31 August 2018 11:16 (five years ago) link
Wondering if the audiobook narrator puts on a comedy italian accent for every mention of the stradone.
― Winner of the 2018 Great British Bae *cough* (ledge), Friday, 31 August 2018 11:45 (five years ago) link
why film this
― ||||||||, Saturday, 1 September 2018 07:19 (five years ago) link
They're popular books, that's why
I've gone back and forth on it, personally, but do I often get 'prestige TV' producers putting big money and talent behind a story about two poor smart girls in Naples growing up dealing with their intellects? No, so I'll take the change of pace even as it'll obviously not represent the book experience
― abcfsk, Saturday, 1 September 2018 08:05 (five years ago) link
Why not film? Not only is it popular but you can film it. One of her earlier books has already been made into an Italian film.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 1 September 2018 12:16 (five years ago) link
finished vol 1, sure everyone's already gone over the various ways it's great but she really does such an incredible job of conveying the social logic that underpins the community
― devvvine, Thursday, 6 September 2018 22:11 (five years ago) link
xp. def seems like something that could be a prestige cable show
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 6 September 2018 22:42 (five years ago) link
Mildly annoying how the suthor seeks to 'connect' to Ferrante in the interview - that aside its pretty good.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/magazine/elena-ferrante-hbo-my-brilliant-friend.html
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 1 November 2018 17:02 (five years ago) link
Having not read the novels (yet): this series is, at times, absolutely mesmerizing en wholly captivating. The four actresses playing both the kids Lena/Lila and teenagers Lena/Lila are so natural and display just the right amount of mystery/ambiguity. They're directed masterfully. Been quite a while since I saw such an engrossing show. Can't wait to dig in the novels.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 3 January 2019 18:04 (five years ago) link
Her Guardian columns, now being collected in book form, are surprisingly feeble.
― And according to some websites, there were “sexcapades.” (James Morrison), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 01:28 (four years ago) link
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god - new Ferrante novel will be published in Italian on 7 November. I am going to faint. https://t.co/TZvMLiI6Qi— Barbara H. (@behalla63) September 9, 2019
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 9 September 2019 11:49 (four years ago) link