Lilacs Out of the Dead Land, What Are You Reading? Spring 2022

I picked up that How To Watch a movie a few weeks ago so have had it in the pile on the bed. So will give it a shot when I get a chance then.
Also picked up a few books on film making from the mid 80s that sound like they might be along the same lines if things go by the label on the tin. may be out of date but i assumed basic principles would remain. Came from the same charity shop i think . If i actually got around to reading every book I picked up things would be so great.
All of them look interesting. I think one of tehm has an interview with George Miller that's about 30 pp long.

finally delving into an olaf stapledon omnibus i picked up going on 15 years ago now. kind of in the hg wells philosophical sf mould, though with a thirties era quasi-marxist sociological bent. liking what i've read so far.

How to Watch a Movie seems like a candidate for DT's worst book - rambling, under-researched, very much 'will this do?'. Feels a bit like DT was given the title by a publisher and then, as you say Pinefox, just dashed off the usual old stuff about the usual old movies.

The best thing I've read by him in recent years was his book on the Warner Brothers, perhaps because the relatively narrow subject kept DT more on point.

Is that a new / recent book, WF? Interesting.

I'm impressed that you have read enough DT to be able to judge. Looking at a list of books inside this one, I saw that I had read maybe a majority of books by him from ... well, 2004 to 2016. That's not much, actually. He has probably produced about 10 since 2016! And I'm afraid I haven't read a single whole book by DT from earlier than 1996 - though of course the bulk of the Biographical Dictionary dates from c.1975.

You're right in that I was underestimating DT's productivity - and his Wikipedia entry doesn't even include the Warner Bros book, reviewed here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/books/review/david-thomson-warner-bros.html

The 21st-century titles I've yet to see, let alone own, are Try to Tell the Story (2009), Murder and the Movies (2020) and A Light in the Dark: A History of Film Directors (2021). I've got Why Acting Matters (2015) and Sleeping With Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire (2019) (remaindered in Judd books!) on the to-read pile.

The book i picked up and thought sounded like it should be along teh same lines as How To Watch a Movie is How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media by James Monaco which does look like it has been well regarded. the edition I got came from 1981 so may have been deeply upgraded over the last 40 years. Think it may have some insight from the time, not sure how things have changed in teh world of film studies., Have been hearing taht locally at least teaching art has become a lot more commercial orientated.
So could be taht some older texts have better perspective on the actual art form and could be I picked up the edition that turned up. Far as I can see technology has changed a lot and the idea of commerciality has possibly increased, studios driving things to make money more though maybe taht is something that has come and gone several times over the history of cinema.
Anyway it's a book I need to get around to having a look at. & maybe How To Watch A Movie is one I should skip. Well have both so will see.

I read TRY TO TELL THE STORY last year. It's a personal memoir of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. So it doesn't just rehash, though familiar films are mentioned. I'd have to recommend it for anyone who likes DT.

I might go for A LIGHT IN THE DARK. If I found that other book in Judd I would snap it up.

I'm reading The God of Small Things. Seems to be one of those books that delights in turning up the stone of the world and showing the horribly slimy things underneath, to the point of making you think that everyone is awful, everything is hopeless and there's no point caring about anything. Not that these things shouldn't be written about, but I'm certainly not enjoying it. Also not a fan of the non linearity.

The DT book I most liked in the last decade was Sleeping With Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire

you WAR AND PEACE folks -- which translation did you read?

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (but not during the pandemic)

Agatha Christie - They Came to Baghdad. The only other non Marple/Poirot Christie book I have read was 'Why Didn't They Ask Evans' which I enjoyed but this did seem a little bit of a stretch away from that. The main protagonist is a complete liar and goes to Baghdad on a whim chasing a guy she has just met. there then follows some unconvincing spy business. Quite fun.

Pevear and Volohonsky

I also read it at the beginning of the pandemic, the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude, revised by Amy Mandelker (the Oxford World Classics edition).

I found it hard-going at times, and took a few breaks, but it's definitely lingered in my imagination in the last two years.

I read the Constance Garnett long ago, and might possibly find fault with it today, but back then, no prob: her non-modernist 1904 English seemed to suit the material. It's online now, public domain, if you want to check it out. This guy briefly comments on four translations (his fave, just for reading pleasure, is Anthony Briggs' version):
https://www.tolstoytherapy.com/best-translation-war-and-peace/

This guy Oops, sorry:

Hi, I’m Lucy! I’m a British writer, adventurer, reader, and author of Mountain Song: A Journey to Finding Quiet in the Swiss Alps.

i've read other P/V (so to speak) translations and found no fault with them, but honestly i probably picked them because the editions have looked nice. but i've seen some things questioning them and the fact that P doesn't actually read russian. might try the briggs version if i can work up the will

anyway ty for your answers

One thing I wasn't expecting out of W&P is how vivid and visual it can be, especially the battles. It somehow finds ways to bring you into these incredibly detailed scenes without any confusion. (Though I also had Wikipedia on standby.)

Finished Monolithic Undertow which seemed to drop in quality a bit. Between getting Flipper's line up pretty confused. & some iffy description of metal related music. It was an ok read. Not sure if it turned me onto much stuff I wasn't previously aware of.
So took that back and got

Hood Feminism by Nikki Kendal
Which I've been waiting for a copy of since the start of the year. But queue for next copy has been getting confused. Library website said I was next in line and then it went to someone else a couple of times.
Well here now.
So will get through it over next few days.

IMO the P&V translations are horribly stilted and full of odd grammatical choices and badly chosen words. P’s solo translation of the Three Musketeers (from French, a language he actually speaks) is a really dreadful piece of work. I don’t know how faithful it is, but the Briggs translation is very readable, and readability is key for me in a book that length.

you WAR AND PEACE folks -- which translation did you read?

Briggs. Very good indeed!

Pausing Thomson to return to Steven Connor, THE MADNESS OF KNOWLEDGE.

Read some smaller things, finished 'Toot Sweet' by Daniel Owen this morning. Nice little book of poems from a poet who is now better known as a translator from various Indonesian languages.

Hood Feminism Nikki Kendal
Glad I've finally got hold of this. Have been wanting to actually read it for a while. BUt seemed to clash with it disappearing from local book shop shelves. So inevitably will turn up on a charity shop bookshelf next week when I've read this library copy.
Articulately written by black ex-army writer who talks about being able to code switch which helps massively in trying to fit in to roles in places. Seems to cover space taht I've read in other writers talking about white feminism. Also have heard some podcasts discussing this work. People have said that this may work better as a primer for people who are white, privileged and needing to become more work than for people who are having to deal with the situations she has faced. Though does always help to hear that one is not the only one facing some things of course.
I'm enjoying it and finding it a quick read. Think I read about half of it last night. So may be looking for more writing by her.l

Angela Davis An Autobiography
Has taken me way way too long to get to read this. It sat ontop of a shelving unit for most o fteh time I have lived in this flat and a bit before that elsewhere. Not sure why I didn't read it when i got it cos now taht I am doing so it is a great read,
Writer talks about her education and imprisonment. She starts already arrested for the case that may have made her famous where her associate George Jackson's brother kidnapped a judge in protest of Jackson's treatment in Soledad prison. She had bought the gun and became public enemy number one or something along those lines. So she was arrested which i think is the start of teh book but again I'm reading this intermittently so read that bit a few months back. Hopefully now going to get this done in one sequence now instead of with major gaps. IT has replaced Soldaten as my bathroom book. Not ideal but about time i got through this. I think she is a pretty great, clear writer.
Glad that she is still around and doing the occasional webinar etc . Am enjoying her. So will probably read a lot more of her and hopefully in much shorter time.
Book was edited by Toni Morrison another writer i need to read a lot more by.

That Steven Connor book Pinefox mentioned sounded interesting from looking it up on goodreads and elsewhere. I can't see it on the Irish library system but can see a few other titles by him including Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical Things which is about design of everyday objects and values imbued into them by people from what I'm seeing. So may order that. Or slow down on orders to give me some breathing room. Probably have books to last me a few years if I did this more systematically. But am finding so much great stuff from charity shops etc

PARAPHERNALIA is super. Recommended for anyone interested in objects.

Whomst among us

I read the Design of Everyday objects about 20 years ago around the same time i read The Inmates Are Running the Asylum on computer interface which i thought could be extrapolated to a basic interface between man and technology. So this sounds interesting, may go ahead and order it then.

Reminding me of a remarkable book, Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by pioneering researchers-therapists Gail Steketee and Randy Frost. Thanks to Elvis Telecom and Stekete-student quincie for recommending this on the Ageing Parents thread.There really can be, at times, a visionary quality to the hoarder's drive for self-affirmation, triumph over depression and anybody who says nay, no matter how mundane or literally shitty the Stuff---although some of it, in some hoards,is not bad, can even be fabulous---but always there's too much of it, frequently mashed up together---though when you get to rich people filling up all their properties,omg (William Randolph Hearst got bailed out by Marian Davies, but the swells in this book may not).

(And yes, there's a bit of self-recognition from time to time.)

Both of the Steven Connor books mentioned have Look Inside features up on Amazon which is useful. Haven't looked on there much cos evil like but that is handy.

xpost Mostly it's not swells, more typically traumatized people who happen to have a house to fill and enough income, say from a life insurance policy of a spouse, or it's been going on a long, long time, gradually driving away spouse and children.

Anyway, said visionary takes were not what I was expecting.

Just finished the first section of Trust, the new novel by ILB darling (?I think?) Hernan Diaz. Second section starts off kinda dry so I didn't get far with it; also I'm mildly annoyed because I've been reading paper+audiobook concurrently, and the audiobook switched narrators, but I like the first narrator and wish he would have just done the whole thing.

It's really good, though, and I will definitely be finishing it. I can't wait to see how the various sections line up with one another, or fail to.

Highly recommend my sister in law Eleanor Limprecht's third historical fiction novel "The Coast," about an Australian leper colony. I thought it was excellent.

I saw the Norton Intro to English Lit at a charity shop and considered buying it to fill in some of my literary gaps. Does anyone read these for pleasure of does it just feel like homework?

[xp from way back] Yeah, the Towles book was overall extraordinarily well written. There were maybe a few too convenient plot points, but overall it was a very well-crafted book with, for me anyway, a lot of emotional resonance. I agree with scampering alpaca that the last chapter was unexpected, and in many ways at odds with a good part of the rest of the book; I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

xpost I have read sections of Norton anths just for infotainment, should prob get back into that.

Perhaps "edification" would be the more seemly term.

I just finished reading "Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West" by Anne Hyde. I thought the idea of focusing on a handful of prominent mixed indigenous/European families, who happened to have fairly extensive written records reaching back to the 18th century, was a fruitful one, providing a more personal angle on some familiar historical events and shedding new light on some more obscure ones. An enjoyable and thought-provoking book.

Will make a note of that one.

All The Real Indians Died Out and 20 other myths about Native Americans.
Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker.
This was the only other book on the Irish library system than An Indigenous People's History of The United States by Dunbar Ortiz. I had hoped her more recent work might be somewhere in there. But this is pretty good, refuting widespread misconceptions about the native population.
I had ordered this through the interlibrary loan system and something else appeared. Subsequent searches made it look like this was a misfiring of the other book or something. So it was great to see this was coming. Even better to get it.
Quite a good read. Very informative. I definitely want to read more Dunbar Ortiz will look out for Gilio-Whitaker too.

Harlots, Whores and Hackabouts A History of Sex For Sale Kate
Great book by the presenter of the Betwixt the Sheets podcast. I caught a webinar with her when the book was being released a few months ago. It has been sitting neglected for a while since I was concentrating on other books I have out.
I picked it up a couple of nights back and read a few chapters and it is well written and a quick read. Filled with images of the relevant eras. Coffee table sized book.
Recommended as is the podcast.

Lightning Striking Lenny Kaye
The curator of Nuggets/ PSG guitarist depicts the scenes around 10 major points in 20th century music. So far I've read him talking about Memphis in 1954. Pretty great.
Think I may look into his other books after this. I was aware he had done music journalism but not read much beyond the Nuggets linernotes. I think he had a book on doo wop I'd heard of but he has several others too.

Angela Davis An Autobiography
Finally getting to read this after it sitting on a shelf out of reach for way too long. Really something I should have got into on first purchase. I may have been busy with other things at the time I dunno.
Anyway very good read now I'm getting into it. She also does really good webinars and other talks so worth looking out for those and her other books of which there are a few.

I'm going to see Lear next Saturday, so I'm re-reading the play and James Shapiro's 1606: The Year of Lear.

Also reading Yannis Varoufakis' Talking to my Daughter About the Economy.

xp typed that on my phone and this is missing the author's surname
Harlots, Whores and Hackabouts A History of Sex For Sale Kate LISTER

who seems to be a pretty good writer and definitely an enjoyable presenter. She has another book I think I'll be looking for after this.
A Curious History of Sex which I think is also in the library system

I've been reading the Lenny Kaye book too Stevo - enjoying it much more than I expected. Was inspired to pick up the ROCK 100 book he wrote in 1977 with David Dalton - 100 capsule biogs of notable pop/rock/soul figures from Elvis to Bowie - stands up remarkably well I think! the Al Green entry is particularly fine.

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU, Sally Rooney. I was a bit underwhelmed by the book of Normal People (tho I loved the tv show), but I thought this was great. Can clearly see how people might find it obnoxious - everyone is very beautiful, very clever, blessed with a beautiful singing voice and/or very rich; the email correspondence between Alice and Eileen is over-ripe with earnestness; Felix felt like a much less substantial character than the other three. But nevertheless I found it very moving!

WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE, Shirley Jackson. One of those rare books that I knew I was going to relish from the very first paragraph ("My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.") The feral fairytale atmosphere put me in mind a little of Night of the Hunter. Are any of her other novels this good?

SUPER-INFINITE: THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF JOHN DONNE, Katherine Rundell. Think I have written on here before about how much I dislike Rundell's kids books, so god know why I picked this up. As with the kids books, Rundell seems weirdly out of time - like she'd be happier writing boys own adventures circa 1912. It's a brisk romp through Donne's life and times which never really gets to grips with the poetry, but is so awestruck by JD's intellectual glamour, it feels like it's been written by Miranda Richardson's Queenie in Blackadder.

O PIONEERS, Willa Cather. Read this for my bookclub. Despite studying American Lit for several years at university, never picked up a book by Willa before and not sure I will again. The bizarrely belated plot felt like an afterthought to what should have just been a memoir/nature journal.

Have also been looking at EMERGENCY by Daisy Hildyard. Got a lot of advance praise but it's not really grabbing me yet - a memoir of a childhood in rural 90s Yorkshire, composed in lockdown.

Incidentally, you can read Lenny's doowop/acapella essay here

https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1567-lenny-kaye-the-best-of-acapella

It's really lovely. Came across it while researching an essay on Patti Smith I was writing last month - supposedly reading it inspired her to track him down and persuade him to play guitar with her...

xp Sounds like if any Cather novel is for you it might be Death Comes for the Archbishop. Tons of atmosphere in that one.

Or A Lost Lady.

Cather was America's best novelist between 1910 and 1935. Read her instead of damn Hemingway.

I have never read Hemingway either :0

But unless she had a sudden personal/artistic rebirth, find it hard to believe that Cather wrote anything in the ballpark of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hughes, Barnes, Larsen etc?

How can you if you only read one novel?