I'd go Emigrants -> Austerlitz -> ROS in that order
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 November 2021 15:39 (two years ago) link
The Rings of Saturn is such a singular book, that essay was pretty badly written and misses the point completely. It is very funny to start it with an Americanized bad parody though, what an idiot. I remember being like 19 or 20 and having to finish a college essay very quickly and doing the same thing (writing the essay in the voice of Rings of Saturn probably mixed with Gaddis' Agape Agape). Years ago a friend and I were at a bar talking about how it's probably impossible for Americans to write in certain styles, like, in an American version of Austerlitz where would the characters meet, in Albertsons?
― Bongo Jongus, Wednesday, 17 November 2021 15:48 (two years ago) link
at a hilton in austin - work conference
― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Wednesday, 17 November 2021 17:11 (two years ago) link
spend every sentence inserting "like" and "y'know" and "the Dolphins suck"
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 November 2021 17:13 (two years ago) link
i'm trying to read rings of saturn and i really don't get it. the writing and observations don't seem interesting enough to carry the peripatetic structure. i find it very dull and impossible to focus on (it should be noted that i get dumber with each passing year). what am i missing?
― na (NA), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 15:31 (one year ago) link
Maybe try Austerlitz.
― dow, Wednesday, 1 March 2023 17:26 (one year ago) link
austerlitz is better and much more memorable imo
― ꙮ (map), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 17:58 (one year ago) link
thirding Austerlitz. I had the same trouble you did, n/a.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
Austerlitz is a better book imo
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 18:23 (one year ago) link
you gotta kinda be losing your mind or going through a divorce to get in the rings of saturn zone, then it's pretty funny
― Bongo Jongus, Wednesday, 1 March 2023 18:45 (one year ago) link
I was about to type this out again lol
Years ago a friend and I were at a bar talking about how it's probably impossible for Americans to write in certain styles, like, in an American version of Austerlitz where would the characters meet, in Albertsons?
― Bongo Jongus, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 7:48 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Bongo Jongus, Wednesday, 1 March 2023 18:46 (one year ago) link
lol at rings of saturn behing a divorced guy book
― ꙮ (map), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 19:31 (one year ago) link
It took me so long to read and finish Rings Of Saturn. It wasn't until towards the end that I realised why it was so slow going. I hadn't noticed how idiosyncratic and exhausting a lot of the sentences were for a start. And yeah, often the subject matter veers strongly into "Why should I care? Why is this important?" or simply "Where are you going with this?" And yet somehow I'm glad I did read it. I don't think I'll forget it in a hurry.
― the forces of darkness making making us laugh ourselves into DEATH?? (dog latin), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 19:51 (one year ago) link
Austerlitz definitely the better book but Rings of Saturn is still extraordinary. Twinned with Last Year at Marienbad in my head.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 21:51 (one year ago) link
I like the whole cult that's grown up around Rings of Saturn 'walks' and, despite the intimate knowledge he had of the landscape, the number of odd elisions and outright geographical falsifications Sebald included in the book.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 21:54 (one year ago) link
there’s a whole fucking biography of joseph conrad in the middle of this thing
― na (NA), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 23:25 (one year ago) link
hell yeah there is
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 1 March 2023 23:46 (one year ago) link
otm
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 2 March 2023 00:40 (one year ago) link
that's the grandest part
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 2 March 2023 00:41 (one year ago) link
the passages about the now-lost North Sea fisheries are peculiarly affecting
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Thursday, 2 March 2023 09:49 (one year ago) link
i made myself finish rings of saturn. there were some chunks in the middle that i got into just as interesting as historical anecdotes. but i found the book as a whole very tedious and i'm still in the woods re: the point
― na (NA), Monday, 13 March 2023 14:17 (one year ago) link
the segment i liked was joseph conrad/roger casement/the chinese dowager princess/the old english manor that is crumbling with the old family still living in it. but i still feel like i would have gotten just as much out of reading the wikipedia page on casement e.g.
― na (NA), Monday, 13 March 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link
Also I had to order a Borges anthology and break to read some of that halfway through
― the forces of darkness making making us laugh ourselves into DEATH?? (dog latin), Monday, 13 March 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link
I have read it convincingly argued that the concluding section of TROS is all holocaust-related, but I can't find the article
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 13 March 2023 16:15 (one year ago) link
Almost all of it seems to be atrocity-related at least
― the forces of darkness making making us laugh ourselves into DEATH?? (dog latin), Monday, 13 March 2023 18:46 (one year ago) link