Elena Ferrante - The Neapolitan Novels

I've just started listening to MBF on Audible. Too early to really tell whether it's my thing or not.

I did smile at the scene with the dolls. Give it a go once its out on DVD

Weird! I just started the second book.

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.

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.

Wondering if the audiobook narrator puts on a comedy italian accent for every mention of the stradone.

why film this

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

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.

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

xp. def seems like something that could be a prestige cable show

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

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.

Her Guardian columns, now being collected in book form, are surprisingly feeble.

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

Publisher tweeted the beginning:

It begins like this. #ElenaFerrante #NewNovel Translated by Ann Goldstein. pic.twitter.com/wHoNW5yBB2

— Europa Editions (@EuropaEditions) September 9, 2019

Europa Editions
@EuropaEditions
·
6h
We don't yet have a title or English publication date.

We now have all of that and more (news):
https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a29609124/elena-ferrante-the-lying-life-of-adults-announcement/

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/03/elena-ferrantes-form-and-unform/

right on: It’s an intriguing thought experiment to consider the difference between this long work, L’amica geniale, and the short novel that Lenù produces at the end of volume 4, simply titled Un’amicizia (“A Friendship”). That book, whose publication revives Lenù’s literary celebrity, proves the end of Lila and Lenù’s relationship. Lenù speculates about what makes Lila turn away from her when it comes out, but none of her guesses seem to strike at the implicit truth, visible to Ferrante’s readers if not her narrator. It is perhaps the novella’s static precision and taut shapeliness, so unlike L’amica geniale’s long, ungainly battle between form and unform—between, in Lila’s paraphrased words, “telling things just as they happened, in teeming chaos” and “work[ing] from imagination, inventing a thread”—that makes it such a dishonest and inauthentic betrayal of the truth of their lives, both together and apart.

Then again, we can only guess, as Lenu does, because Ferrante doesn't include the text of the short novel, just a few of the narrator's brief summaries, flashlight passes. But yes, this is the great tension to be sought, as precision, however (necessarily?) static to some degree, and omg taut shapeliness gimme more, 'til time for more unform.

“work[ing] from imagination, inventing a thread” which of course is part of what Ferrante does, ditto both friends, in their own ways.

Finished Troubling Love (1995) (her first book) and happy to report that the style, themes, rhythms were all there from the beginning.

I do think Ferrante's pre-quartet novels are a species of writing in itself that that deserve a mapping out. Short, intense, sharply unreliable ways to talk about trauma and abuse in families that take it away from the documentary. Thinking of Marie Darrieussecq's My Phatom Husband (1998) and The Helios Disaster (2015) by Linda Knausgard. Previous generations were perhaps using half-blank historical events to bake these themes in: Cassandra by Christa Wolf (1983) and Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian (1951). Maybeee...if anyone knows more like it then please recommend.

This June 9, Ferrante’s international publishers will gather to discuss the art of translation, Ferrante’s work, the worldwide success of her Neapolitan quartet, and the author’s new novel, The Lying Life of Adults, coming September 1, 2020. The conversation will include a multilingual, transnational reading from the new book, and a panel conversation with celebrity Ferrante fans. It will conclude with an audience Q&A.

Elena Ferrante’s “star translator” Ann Goldstein will be joined by novelist, biographer, and short-story writer Roxana Robinson (Sparta, Cost), author and academic Merve Emre (The Ferrante Letters), comparative literature professor and Ferrante scholar Tiziana de Rogatis (Elena Ferrante’s Key Words), author and Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (The Tyranny of Lost Things), and others.

Preorder The Lying Life of Adults at Bookshop.org.

You are invited to join thousands of fellow readers from around the world at this unique celebration. It is happening online, on a laptop computer or smart phone near you, in our virtual #PiazzaFerrante.
Register above.

If you enjoyed Europa’s #OurBrilliantFriends After Dinner Book Club and Watch Party series, you will love this international celebration of translation and reading.

Registration for this event is free, but please consider making a minimum donation of $5 when you register.

All proceeds will benefit the PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund, a long-standing and recently expanded fund intended to assist fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists who are unable to meet an acute financial need—especially one resulting from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
More info:
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=24b74ea1f8a82219b78215f23&id=a11255d396&e=14ba70a7b5

Update today:

Dear Friends,

A private funeral service for George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis on May 25th, has been scheduled for June 9th in Houston.

Given the circumstances of Floyd’s death and the subsequent widespread reactions, June 9th will undoubtedly be a day more suited to reflection than to celebration.

For these reasons, we have made the decision to reschedule the #OurBrilliantFriends event. The event will now be held on Tuesday, June 23rd, at the same time.

You will not need to register again. You will receive a reminder email about this event closer to June 23rd, and an email with details on how to join shortly before the event starts.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your support.

Best wishes,
Europa Editions

reminder, for Tues.

https://img.evbuc.com/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F103421898%2F277252655646%2F1%2Foriginal.20200612-152347?w=800&auto=format%2Ccompress&q=75&sharp=10&rect=0%2C0%2C2160%2C1080&s=8816b22454618ad653d2bff332355214
if can't see that, basic info:
Date And Time
Tue, June 23, 2020

3:00 PM – 4:30 PM CDT
Same participants as above, maybe more? Free etickets etc:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/our-brilliant-friendsafter-lunch-book-club-tickets-104692616434?aff=ebdssbeac

New novel is nearly here:

"Ferrante’s fiction reminds us that sometimes you need someone else to help gather the scattered fragments of your existence. A writer is a friend who can [give] you the beginning and end you need—if not in life, then in fiction." @TheAtlantichttps://t.co/xOFaDts1kL

— Europa Editions (@EuropaEditions) August 10, 2020

The few of these I've read are def worth picking: A Manual For Cleaning Women, The Year of Magical Thinking, The Lover, some of the stories in Dear Life, and Gilead, which I'm reading now. I hope to get to the others (although I keep being put off by Zadie Smith's nonfiction, which can start well and go sideways).

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/21/elena-ferrante-names-her-40-favourite-books-by-female-authors

Only two duds of the nine I've read - Normal People and A Little Life. But they're event books, if you care about that kind of thing. Love Gilead, would also stan for Outline and Memoirs of Hadrian.

Surprised Ferrante engaged in that kind of thing.

Available March 15, 2022
$20・176 pgs・9781609457372
Europa Editions is excited to announce a new collection of essays by Elena Ferrante on the “adventure of writing”—her own and others’. From the author of My Brilliant Friend, the New York Times best-seller The Lying Life of Adults, and The Lost Daughter, come four revelatory essays offering rare insight into the author’s formation as a writer and life as a reader. Ferrante warns us of the perils of “bad language”—historically alien to the truth of women—and advocates for a collective fusion of female talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of her most beloved authors.

Three of the essays in this collection are lectures that will be delivered publicly by actress Manuela Mandracchia in Bologna on November 17-19 as part of the “Umberto Eco Lectures” series.

La scrittura smarginata
The Umberto Eco Lectures by Elena Ferrante
Performed by Manuela Mandracchia

November 17, 18, & 19
8:30 pm CEST・2:30 pm ET

World premiere

Live-steaming available on the Facebook pages of
ERT, Teatro Arena del Sole; Unibo; & Edizioni E/O.
YouTube livestream via ERT & Unibo

The event will be in Italian with English subtitles.

Wednesday, November 17, 8:30pm CEST (2:30pm ET)
Pain and Pen

Thursday, November 18, 8:30pm CEST (2:30pm ET)
Aquamarine

Friday, November 19, 8:30pm CEST (2:30pm ET)
Histories, I

Unibo:
FB https://www.facebook.com/unibo.it
YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emiliaromag

ERT / Teatro Fondazione:
FB https://www.facebook.com/ErtFondazione
YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emiliaromag

Teatro Arena del Sole:
FB https://www.facebook.com/arenadelsole.it

Edizioni E/O:
FB https://www.facebook.com/edizionieo

Event produced by: Centro Internazionale di Studi Umanistici “Umberto Eco”, University of Bologna & ERT / Teatro Nazionale. In partnership with: Edizioni E/O.
Be there or be quadrato.

The Lost Daughter

R, 122 minutes

Coming to Netflix Friday, Dec. 31

An appealing take ( also, had wondering where the hell Ed Harris was)
https://www.nashvillescene.com/arts_culture/film_tv/maggie-gyllenhaal-s-i-the-lost-daughter-i-aims-at-a-cherished-institution/article_cd936764-5d0f-11ec-8990-7701b03a82ef.html

i watched this on netflix last night and it's honestly not very good -- my unkind capsule twitter review was "like THE DURRELLS except everyone is horrible"

i haven't read the novel but my sister has and she was also disappointed -- chatting to her abt it just now as she drove me back home to london we agreed that the central performance is interesting and watchable in itself but maybe somewhat adrift from the book's key character (if this matters), that the flashbacks are probably the best and most convincing streches of the film, that key character then and key character now don't really jigsaw into one another in any readable way, and that the village (and most of the rest of the dramatis personae) is way too full of NPCs

ed harris is fine but he doesn't have much to do

ha I had the opposite response: the flashbacks bored me whereas the present-day material felt lived-in and odd (kudos to the editing).

The book is my favorite Ferrante, a condensation of the Neapolitan novels if you don't want to read them.

i thought this was p good (also have not read the book); the flashbacks are convincing but the present day stuff works better imo, agree with the editing/perspective being why it is effective; felt some possible illusions to death in venice whether intended or not

Well the ending was a very clunky copy of Ozu's Late Spring.

rude to keep posting my tweets abt this film but also rude not to lol:

"olivia coleman and jessie buckley are good tho i don't see how the latter grows up to be the former affectwise -- but i thought the entirety of the "other family" was thin stereotypy stuff (probably not helped by switching the locale from southern-most italy to a greek island)"

i think the reason i preferred the flashbacks was that the children in it -- especially the older child -- were more filled out and wilfully characterful: mum with her two kids was very dense and complex. dad was an NPC. the child of the other family was one of the many NPCs that made up the bulk of that family. also i don't think it's well conveyed that coleman remains *at time of story* an Academic PowerhouseTM: she came across fubsier and more hapless, with flashes of command -- like all that was actually past her. but i can't pretend that i missed this or reacted against it while watching (have not read novel; contributed to my sister's disappointment, as she has also done time in the academic salt-mines) -- not being "like the book" is not necessarily a sin…

we (sister and i) did have a good conversation abt how "conferences be like that!" -- tho more often in the fending off than the partaking lol. the academic scenes were very cartoony but i didn't mind that bcz academics SUCK j/k

The flashbacks were more powerful I think bcz it dramatised the complications around motherhood a bit more (this is one of the themes that run throughout Ferrante's writing). In the present day you get a glimpse into the price paid but I wasn't too convinced about the connection the main character makes with the young mother.

Well the ending was a very clunky copy of Ozu's Late Spring.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, January 3, 2022 10:43 AM

Paul Schrader is praised for doing something like that in every film now.

I watched this with my mum on New Year's Day (!) and really enjoyed it. Haven't read the book but I've read the first two Neopolitans. I didn't realise it was a Ferrante story till I read the summary halfway through the movie, and then I was, like, immediately, "Okay I get this now."

There are many moments of easy-to-ridicule earnestness (EVERYONE TAKING EVERYTHING VERY VERY SERIOUSLY) and on-the-noseness (OH NO A METAPHOR FELL ON MY BACK) but Colman is terrific and the story is compellingly (if slightly first-ime-director-showoffishly) told.

I'll disagree about the NPCness - for me the point was to experience the Colman character's alienation, so it kind of makes sense that no one's really "knowable" or makes sense.

I appreciated watching a movie that was miserable without being punishing or over-dour, and recognises that there are ups as well as downs.

We both thought the ending was annoying though

What is NPC? You guys.

Non Phungible Coleman.

non-player characters = eg these lads

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.661487109.1166/pp,840x830-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.u1.jpg

Oh yeah, Proust did that too, and I thought of it as maybe being influenced by visual arts: principals surrounded or among massed turds I mean swells at social gatherings (not really parties unless Charlus shows up)

Paul Schrader is praised for doing something like that in every film now.

― Chris L, Monday, 3 January 2022 13:40 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

01/07/2022 pic.twitter.com/WHwa78CZja

— paul schrader's facebook posts (@paul_posts) January 8, 2022

01/26/2022 pic.twitter.com/VTfrHg0NeC

— paul schrader's facebook posts (@paul_posts) January 27, 2022

maybe get back to us when paul schrader writes a book

Another one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn0SL4pi2a8