Puzzled respect to the person who voted for the Heinlein.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 March 2021 11:16 (three years ago) link
Props to the other person who voted for Blanchot.― pomenitul, donderdag 11 maart 2021 1:20 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― pomenitul, donderdag 11 maart 2021 1:20 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
https://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq313/doctorcasino/thumbsuposama.gif
― A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 11 March 2021 11:50 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1949
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 March 2021 13:12 (three years ago) link
It was the only one in the list I'd read! Also a classic example of his distinctive style of epic YA space adventure, that still manages to include an author-substitute character blathering off at great length while parroting his quite frankly barmy political views.
― fuck this for a game of soldiers (Matt #2), Thursday, 11 March 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
Death Sentence by Maurice BlanchotConcluding by Henry GreenSnow Country by Yasunari KawabataFuneral Rites by Jean Genet The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness
All good, not bad. Probably would've voted Blanchot as well.
I Capture the Castle sounds good, although it isn't my thing.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 March 2021 16:53 (three years ago) link
one of the things i enjoy about I Capture the Castle is that it functions as a charming and well written bildungsroman, but it's also low key a skeptical take on high modernism, particularly the type of experimental fiction exemplified by Ulysses. Cassandra in the novel feels a bit anxious about her father's literary work and how it's nothing like her own, and one imagines Smith felt similarly about figures like Joyce. i mean, i like Joyce well enough, but i still appreciate the seriousness of Castle's engagement with the gendered anxiety of literary influence. and i prefer Smith's immersive realism to high modernism tbh. also she's funny about the Joycean thing without being cruel or unfair.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 13 March 2021 19:48 (three years ago) link
oh, that's a really interesting aspect of it that I hadn't considered/remembered. I haven't read that book in a long time but it's on my shelf, maybe I'll reread it now that the weather is nice. (It's the sort of book I want to read outside.)
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:16 (three years ago) link
it's worth rereading! it's less sentimental and more...flinty than i recalled it being when i first read it in my early 20s.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:26 (three years ago) link
truly in the Austenian line
― horseshoe, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:27 (three years ago) link
i remembered Simon as romantic and dreamy, but his behavior seems pretty shitty and self-indulgent on a reread, for example.
oh, definitely! She's so going to outgrow him.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:30 (three years ago) link
I went on a kick of trying to track down all of Dodie Smith's novels after I read I Capture the Castle, and the rest of them are not anywhere near as good but I still liked them.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:32 (three years ago) link
i sometimes mean to find the rest of them, too! maybe i'll try again.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 13 March 2021 20:36 (three years ago) link
It Ends With Revelations is probably my favorite of them. Not great, but very readable.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 March 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
"i mean, i like Joyce well enough, but i still appreciate the seriousness of Castle's engagement with the gendered anxiety of literary influence. and i prefer Smith's immersive realism to high modernism tbh."
Interesting to come up with this in the late 40s, years after Joyce has passed away. Surely the kinds of novels that Smith or Joyce were publishing were going to be published?
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 March 2021 10:42 (three years ago) link
not sure i follow your question...i guess Smith still had a bee in her bonnet about Joycean experimental fiction in the 40s!
― horseshoe, Sunday, 14 March 2021 21:20 (three years ago) link
Sorry yes was just a reflection on the discussion I probably shouldn't have posted.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 March 2021 21:27 (three years ago) link