Bonfires In The Sky: What Are You Reading, Winter 2021-22?

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I just deleted a long further explanation of the book's shortcomings as I see them. Nobody needs that. Comic books are enjoyed worldwide by millions every day. It makes no sense to criticize them for not being good literature when their readers do not want or expect good literature.

you aren't exactly wrong about the series' shortcomings but nor does ilb really need its own bargain-basement neil degrasse tyson

friendly reminder that comic books are a medium, not a genre, and as such capable of accomodating as many different kinds of story as, say, the novel

It makes no sense to criticize them for not being good literature when their readers do not want or expect good literature.

My less friendly response is that this is utter horseshit.

I have been interested in when the stigma and association with comics and lack of artistry or communication level came. Since it isn't true in all cultures.

Or to puty that another way, it seems like in the West or possibly the English speaking west there is an association of combination of text and graphics that it is for children or the lesser educated. Which is definitely not true elsewhere and elsewhen.

Not all cultures are capable of producing Matt

>>> friendly reminder that comic books are a medium, not a genre, and as such capable of accomodating as many different kinds of story as, say, the novel

Yes, I agree with this medium / genre distinction.

It makes no sense to criticize them for not being good literature when their readers do not want or expect good literature.

Yeah, even as quite the admitted snob when it comes to a lot of lit stuff, this doesn't make any sense, but I'm chalking it up to not having been exposed to the right comics.

I will say that it took comics like Black Hole, the Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, and L&R to really allow me to see how the binary isn't just "trashy superheroes" vs. "graphic novels." As Daniel and others have put it, as in any medium, there are more trashy elements and more high-minded elements, and everything in between. Seems really limiting to shut oneself off from it!

Not all cultures are capable of producing Matt

In fact I think most cultures have at least one cock-and-balls face cartoonist.

I apologise for my ignorance

Many xps: I read patchen’s sleepers awake a long time ago, sort of splurgy proto-Beat prose along with v appealing (to me, then) typographical experiments

& I read duras’s wartime notebooks *checks notes* last May (ha another one I failed to include in my wdyr 2021 list, why do I bother ffs) & even in incomplete or draft form the power of the voice is overwhelming, must read more

Speaking of, I read nothing at all in the first half of January but I made up for it by kicking off with joy williams the changeling, 10/10 masterpiece holy shit. I don’t even know what to say about it except that the sentences are perfect and inflected with a real strangeness and it’s very funny and also belongs in the corpus of great horror fiction imo. Then I went straight into her new novel harrow, which I read half of yday & is fucking me up somewhat. It’s unsparing & free of easy sentiment & yet it’s one of the bluest books I’ve ever read, captures the feeling of These Times perfectly: the world is gone, goes dismally on still

Joan Didion's Where I Was From is an immersive memoir of delusion, collective and personal: the past tense in the title denotes a life-long, sometimes excruciating process of pulling away, like some of her ancestors did from the Donner Party, just in time, from a sense of California pioneer heritage as identity---a phrase repeated from one of many amazing documents included, a letter from a girl who stayed with the Donner Party, "never take no cut-offs, and hurry along as fast as you can"---hurtling via "rugged individualism," sometimes including radicalized survival moves, into dependence on outside money: the main chance, the sweet deal, act now!
She was no fan of the hippies, right? So would not be thrilled to know that her alternation of narratives is like nothing else in my reading experience except Neil Young's Waging Heavy Peace---A Hippie Dream's space-time groove. But where he launch from, say, frozen Western Canada '64, to sunny-smoggy L.A. '67, to leafy polio-y South Ontario '53 to Honolulu and back to Cali at the time of writing (ca. 09, I think), her momentum covers even more ground by going deeper and faster, though carefully (incl. evocative phrasing times pacing that encourages the reader's thought, rather than racing along), in, typically a page or two of detailed exposition, storytelling that is forensic without a whiff of the clinical, or not too much of one(a little bit is bracing, as befits the daughter of a dry land, also a flood plain, long since watered into an artificial paradise and money pit). A page or two soon amounting to a section that may end with a little leap of logic, a cliffhanger, even, but it's okay, she'll come back to fill in some of the gap, in good time.
So I was thinking about this (departure from and with) Neilian grooves, when I came across a brief excerpt from Christopher Hitchens' take on another late Didion book, about her daughter: he refers in passing to "slight syncopation, in the manner of Bob Dylan": the second line of the syncopation here could be the penny of awareness and warning dropping, bouncing off the through-line of destiny as many Californias rise and fall, sometimes crash and burn, as depicted here. (A unity, detected pretty quickly by mark s, is anxiety, a current that runs through all her work, as she in part critiques here, also now finding her debut novelRun River, despite some appealing quotes, to be a case of "pernicious nostalgia.")
Should add that the whole thing is also very entertaining.

So much in a 226 page trade pb.

White Rage Carol Anderson
black female academic's history of white racism in the US.
I was thinking the term White rage was a description of a particularly intense formof anger like white heat was a description of intense heat. & the application of it to entitled racists feeling discomfort wasa secondary meaning. This shows some particularly virulent examples of pretty institutional levels of racist BS pulled on the black population since teh Civil War. I've just read a scathing account of President Andrew johnson and the destruction of the reconstruction. This leaves him looking like a jackass turd and leaves me wondering to waht extent him being the wrong person at the wrong time caused this or if another person in the role at taht point might have done something a lot better.
I caught a webinar book club on this last year and have wanted to read it ever since. Very depressing

On a similar note, the xp Didion book although very entertaining is also affecting, as the cost, not nearly just financial, accrues, including how the author is pushed/pushes toward a higher degree of understanding/extreme degree of perception and recounting, including (spoiler as warning) her parents' lives and how they end---just so you know, in case you're not into reading about that.

Andrew Johnson was a pro-slavery president sitting at the top spot of an abolitionist party that hated him and he felt the same about them.

In Alasdair Gray I at last read his story 'Five Letters from an Eastern Empire'. Remarkable density and extent of imagination (albeit drawing on precursors including Kafka). Curious that he's known to many of us as an archetypally Scottish and Glaswegian figure when some of his major, fabulist work is totally unrelated to those places. The story is ingenious and, I think, a tragedy.

I move on to a historical story called 'Sir Thomas's Logopandocy', which seems to me perhaps the hardest prose of writing to read that I've yet come across in Gray's work.

It makes no sense to criticize them for not being good literature when their readers do not want or expect good literature.

My less friendly response is that this is utter horseshit.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 19 January 2022 bookmarkflaglink

otm

I read Play It As It Lays!

great novel

At one point, the marketing folks put a cover on that book that showed a man playing chess with a nude woman. Not sure exactly what they were going for.

sales

Seems only fair to reprint an Eve Babitz book with the Didion/Corvette photo on the cover.

The Vintage International trade paperback of Where I Was From has replaced the Didion/Corvette with Eve Arnold's spacious, tight photo: at the bottom, dappled waves of two-story tract homes roll over the hill, rising out of the dry plain of nowhere to 1950 "middle class" worktopia, toward 00s obsolescence---but very pretty, some houses looking like little emoji faces as the sun hits them---sere hill behind them to the left, but waaaaay up in the sweet blue yonder is a jet! This town, Lakeview, is bordered, defined by McDonnell Douglas, name running around the pylon in forward-leaning letters, ready to ascend---past one one of the aircraft industry spokesman dismisses as "green eyeshade," chickenshit coin-poking squints at Free Enterprise: they got the Gov. of Love money tit, they got artistic license, because this is a one-hand-waving-free, rodeo industry: if you want those stars to spangle, here's how.
But by '93, some of the programs are so far over-budget for so long that even the Pentagon, in the Post-Cold-War era---remember?---is getting ready to pull the plug---great found comedy of a glorious flight of eccentric cargo plane through media, even while back at the 'gon debate is over how not if it should be grounded, for more (handed-off) tweaking or pulling of plug.
Contracts are lost, companies are saved by downsizing---McConnell starts to focus on pulling operations back into its St. Louis home, shutting the gates----Didion walks into the Lakeview Center one day---that being the center of town, the shopping center, mall--village, as it was called near where I live: an ultra-modern triumph in 1950---but she says to a clerk, oh I've never seen a home sale booth in a mall before, and clerk says, "Oh, those are just FHA/VA repos."
Ripples spread back to L.A. proper, where the people who have paper on the mortgage holders out there start to feel it in the Beverly Hills, Brentwood etc. real estate market, blaming it on the Rodney King riots.
Meanwhile back in Lakewood, a media scandal erupts, spinning through afternoon talk shows especially: a suburban gang, the Spur Posse, has been accused of rape and other shades of sexual coercion, with pre-memes of "B-but the high school gives out free condomw!" (false, says author), and "blowing it out of proportion"--but this is traced back to a pipe bomb exploding on front porch of a family containing a Spur: it's Spur vs. Spur escalation, turns out---a meeting is held at school, somebody mentions rape, and whole thing gets narrowcast---for a while---yadda yadda at least one Spur goes to prison, and not for rape or bombs---it's like a book-within-a-book, one of several: that's how she rolls.

though her Californias, old and new and old and new and why cant these new new people be like us old right new people

John Aubrey - Brief Lives
Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep
Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent

Aubrey's Lives is outstanding. In an era with almost no parallel in England's literature this really has a place. Obviously "Lives" are a thing, but what makes Aubrey stand out is what I can only conceive as a lack of concentration which can reduce a life to scatterings, juicy gossip, plenty of (tall) tales, with an at times review of the funeral that Aubrey has attended. The other is the Civil War: on which side of the fence did the various participants in these lives stand, and what were the consequences? Its an insight into that particular episode in England's history, too, but you can just bask in the wonderful prose (but that isn't necessarily of note, there was so much good prose and poetry in England then).

Then onto Chandler's dialoguing and Conrad's moods.

I've begun Soldiers of Salamis, Javier Cercas, based on many favorable comments here on ILB when it came up during the recent 'Favorite Book of (Year)' polling. So far it seems like a very fine bit of storytelling. My only irritation with it is a pure quibble: the battle of Salamis was a sea battle so I keep thinking "but it's sailors of Salamis, not soldiers!"

The second half of Sailors of Salamis is some of the best stuff I've read in the last, I dunno, five years. Great book.

I'm midway through what feels like about half a dozen things. JB Priestley's English Journey, wherein farty old Jack rambles around a Depression-affected England, visiting factories, drinking stale beer and complaining about how ugly everything is. Despite confusingly standing as an independent MP at one point, Priestley does have a coherent Socialist vision but there is a whiff of one-nationism about him. He sentimentalises his subjects rather than giving them subjecthood and, at times, there's a Heart of Darkness feel about some of the places he visits. Despite all of that, I do find him oddly good company.

Also most of the way through Flyboy in the Buttermilk. This is glib, but I could read Tate about anything, all day.

Peter Bogdanovich's book on Orson Welles (This is Orson Welles). I've got about 1/3 of the way through and it's breezy and damn do I wish I was drinking with them. I need to catch up on some films before I continue.

Pauline Hopkins Of One Blood
Black medical graduate reanimates a trainwreck victim then takes off to Africa with a british expedition in a book by black female writer from 1902. Interesting since this is supposed to be a proto Wakanda society. But she seems to be working with some pretty racist tropes and also seems a bit scathing about Arabs.
I stumbled on this on some recommended list possibly historic sci fi or balck sci fi or soemthing. It is included in a book anthology of Black Sci fi from a publishing house that specialises in sci fi and fantasy anthologies. Book has 4 or 5 stories/longer pieces in dating from mid 19th century to about the 1920s which is interesting. I wasn't sure teh whole novel was going to be included since it isw listed as tens of pages shorter than the listing i found for pp in a standalone copy. But format is different and it all appears to be here.

Kehinde Andrews back to Black
I finished this overview of black political movement in the 20th and 21st centuries. Quite interesting. Shares a lot of his own opinions on things. I may be reading too many things at teh same time but I seemed to devour this less hungrily than his New Age Of Empire at teh beginning of last year. Anyway he is a writer and interviewee that I enjoy. So will be trying to read more by him.

Stephen Fry Mythos
fry's retelling of Greek mythology which I've wanted to read for a couple of years. I find his writing pretty readable so will probably read Heroes his 2nd book in the series when I can.
Started this yesterday cos I wasn't in the mood to take in just how bad teh situations described in

White rage Carol Anderson were
just read about the situation concerning brown vs Board of Education and education in general for the black population.
Read that chapter this morning.
Disgusting history. & she hasn't talked about later attempts to overturn what was eventually achieved yet.

a book anthology of Black Sci fi from a publishing house that specialises in sci fi and fantasy anthologies. Sounds good, what's the title?

Black sci-fi short stories : anthology of new & classic tales / foreword by Temi Oh
from Flame Tree publishing.
I've seen a number of anthologies from the publishing house on various aspects of sci fi and fantasy.

(that one should be public domain given 1920 publish date but i can only find a scan at the moment ( https://archive.org/details/HopkinsOfOneBlood ))

I persist with Alasdair Gray's story 'Sir Thomas's Logopandocy'.

It is a formally distinctive work in which eg: a verso (left) page is split into two columns, which carry on on subsequent verso pages, while each recto (right) page carries on another discourse. Thus three, or more, discourses are going on at once. I can well imagine a critic writing 'Gray challenges our reading practices, making us decide whether to read both pages at once, or reach each column in full then go back and read the other -- drawing attention to the practices of reading'. I can't say I find this hugely rewarding, in this particular instance, as the actual contents of each discourse are uninteresting.

Regarding the complex page layout, I'm impressed that Gray was somehow able to set it up. I can imagine ILB poster Tim of Halfpint Press doing something similar, though sadly I can't see him reprinting any Gray as, presumably, it's all been done. (If he did produce a Gray text, I'd buy it.) But poster Tim has printing skills. Did Gray actually have those? How did he do this?

Gray seems to have done a huge amount of historical research to write this story - mainly into Scottish Renaissance history. The content feels to me very obscure, but for some reason the author went into minutiae. Why? What's its interest for him? I don't yet know.

The story is, though, enlivened by small moments of humour, as when the titular narrator forgets something then remembers it.

just realised that Verso books is a Leftist print publishing house. Have put out some really good books but have unfortunately stopped having a differentiation between post to Europe and teh rest of teh world . Shame pesky brexit. I wanted to get a copy of a few things from there. The Omnibus Invention of teh White Race, WEB du Bois Darkwater and some Walter Benjamin but now seeing all post is £10 not what I payed last year and there is a postage category missing.

Nelson Algren Never Come Morning
1940s era book about day to day life in the underclasses in Chicago in the Polish community and others. JUst read the first chapter and its pretty rough.

Owen Hatherley Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances
A collection of short pieces by British writer under the theme of Pete Meaden's description of what mod meant. It looks at things from a perspective tied into architecture among other things. Seems interesting. Will see how I feel after i read afew more.
First piece has music by Marlene Dietrich as a central focus.

D.t. Suzuki The Zen Doctrine of No Mind
populariser of Zen in the West talks about the subject and gives a load of aphorisms.
I was lkooking at this a couple of weeks ago but thought I was overspending so left it in teh charity shop then rgretted not getting it went back and found it this week.

i just finished didion's democracy, thought it was staggeringly beautiful and well-constructed, a novel of "fitful glimpses" as she put it, but these fitful glimpses gradually, invisibly mass into a narrative flow like an underground river

ppl who do not favor her politics will find the main character falling in love with a spook hilarious, but also the book is at least partially about the failure and folly of colonialism and the mean emptiness shared by a family of hardcore colonists, what can you do

i have started reading the sluts by dennis cooper which i will probably finish in two days bc it's like reading a really lurid message board thread

I finished Soldiers of Salamis last night. It's always pleasant to read a book where all the parts mesh together and deliver such satisfaction.

It wasn't journalism by any measure, but it benefited a lot from the author's sense of journalistic restraint and discipline in handling factual material. After so much restraint, the final few pages of unrestrained, almost euphoric, prose came as a surprise. The real weight of the book culminates just at the inflection point where Cercas realizes he knows exactly how he'll write the book. The final burst of relief is like a release from captivity; it says nothing the reader hasn't already concluded, but the abrupt change of tone has value.

I'm reading David Copperfield by Dickens and Blood Meridian by Mccarthy. The opening to David Copperfield was glorious but I got a bit bogged down 100 pages in so put it down for a month or two. But I'm back into it and enjoying it again - Mr. Dick is such an interesting character!

Blood Meridian is astonishing - I'm not sure I've read anything like it.

i am also reading Blood Meridian. spoilers: they have just shot up a small town.

(as above, i prefer Grebt Expectations to David Copperfield, which makes me the only one)

I think I just read that bit too! The violence is so intense.

NYT: Anne Arensberg, Insightful Novelist of Mysteries and Manners, Dies At 84---paywalled of course, but brief wiki bio incl.
Her stories "Art History" and "Group Sex" were chosen for the 1975 and 1980 O. Henry Award Stories collections. After writing her two novellas, Arensberg won the American Book Award for First Novel in 1981 with Sister Wolf while the award replaced the National Book Awards during the 1980s. Her later publications include a novelization of "Group Sex" in 1986 and an additional novel, Incubus, in 1999.
is she good?

Blood meridian is very good

JUst finished Pauline Hopkins Of One Blood
it's a bit gothic or something. Not exactly what I was expecting might compare to an H Rider Haggard or something.
Well I've read it now. Think I was more impressed by WEB du Bois' contribution to this book The Comet. Well will try to get through the rest of it anyway.

also
Carol Anderson White Rage
which is really depressing and aggrovating and did clarify what Shelby County meant. So pretty topical still in a way that one would have hoped might have been corrected. It does go into corruption too which might also be topical. It was published the year taht t got the Presidential role and this copy does add an epilogue covering some of that era

Small Things Like These and Foster by Claire Keegan, short and beautiful and I wept at the end of the second. Now on to The Count of Monte Cristo, I know it's a celebrated example of the genre but at the moment I feel like I wouldn't be too unhappy if I only had similar adventure stories to read till the end of my days. Not sure how he's going to spin it out for another 1000 pages though.

It spins out and spins out and never lets up imo

Make sure you read the Robin Buss translation!

I heard that it originating as magazine instalments meant that is not as coherent as it might have been if it was written as a stand alone book. I know i read an article on teh subject, may be in an Umberto Eco anthology I read.
NOt read much Dumas. have heard about his background him being the son of a black general who had managed to build up his own rank through merit I think. has been a few years since i listened to the Stuff You Missed in History podcast on Dumas pere. But interesting story.

The Alasdair Gray story becomes slightly more cogent: the narrator is interviewed in the Tower of London by an official and they discuss the history of language and the Tower of Babel. The narrator claims that he can reunify the languages of humanity.

The Tower motif strongly echoes the tower of the other story, about the 'Axletree': so I perceive some coherence across the book.