What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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SimonNZ

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 28, 2020, 02:13:24 AM
Bryson must have written about 50 books on as many completely unrelated subjects. The only one I read was A Walk in the Woods, which I greatly enjoyed.

A Walk In The Woods would be my favorite of his travel books. Around about 2000 i read everything he'd written up to that point and thought his work was Mother Tongue. Since then I'd have to add that his book on Shakespeare was unexpectedly excellent. But I'll read anything he does. Only the one on Australia was an actual letdown.

LKB

Blue Water Sailor, by Don Sheppard.

An account of life as a mustang posted on a USN destroyer, ca. 1960. Quite enjoyable, and fairly revealing.

$:),

LKB
Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen...

vers la flamme

I've just started Honoré de Balzac's Père Goriot yesterday; I'm about a third of the way into it. So far, so good. Such great characters, including the city of Paris, a character itself. I can see how Dostoevsky was influenced by some of these themes as well as Balzac's style of writing.

Brian

Quote from: SimonNZ on December 29, 2020, 11:19:48 PM
A Walk In The Woods would be my favorite of his travel books. Around about 2000 i read everything he'd written up to that point and thought his work was Mother Tongue. Since then I'd have to add that his book on Shakespeare was unexpectedly excellent. But I'll read anything he does. Only the one on Australia was an actual letdown.

I haven't read any Bryson in 5-7 years but at the time my favorite of his travel books was The Lost Continent, where he travels around America's rural small towns. It seems to be unpopular because it's more caustic and ruthless than his other travel books, which are kinder and more generous in their descriptions of the locals. Wonder how that book stands up now.

AlberichUndHagen

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 31, 2020, 02:24:06 PM
I've just started Honoré de Balzac's Père Goriot yesterday; I'm about a third of the way into it. So far, so good. Such great characters, including the city of Paris, a character itself. I can see how Dostoevsky was influenced by some of these themes as well as Balzac's style of writing.

I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).

AlberichUndHagen

Finished fairly recently the third part of Mann's Joseph tetralogy. Liked it quite a bit, the characterization of Mut-em-enet was superb. My progress was much slower than with the first and second parts however. It may take some time before I'll start the last part, since I am moving out and it stresses me quite a bit.

André

Indeed, Mut-em-enet is quite the character. But so is her husband in his own way, an imposing yet highly fragile man. The way he rewards the two quarrelling small persons at the end is priceless. It reminds me of Sarastro similarly treating Monastatos in The Magic Flute. And the story of Joseph's watch in the Cretan loggia is also a great piece of writing.

Mandryka

#10367
Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 10:14:48 AM
I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).

Are you sure they were making love?

It's  important to the ideas in the book that we're never clear what they're actually doing. If you read the scene in Du Côté de Chez Swann carefully you'll see that it's at least suggested that the two women know they're being watched and are staging the thing as a sort of joke to wind him up. And (though I haven't checked this for about 20 years) I think there's a moment much later on, in Albertine Disparue maybe, when he's pretty well finished with Albertine, that Gilberte comes to see him and they discuss what he saw through the window in terms which make it unclear what was really going on. This is Proust's point -  unknowability.

I should add that there's plenty of explicit lesbian sexuality in the book. I'm sure that  Proust didn't feel the need to hide it. Think of that scene where the women's tits go hard when they dance with each other, or, better, Charles Morel seducing young girls and then passing them on to Albertine to finish off. But it may be true that all the women who have lesbian sex also have straight sex - while it's hard to imagine Charlus with a woman.

I'll just add that the whole scene seems weird to me, but maybe I'm really sexually naive. Have you ever had S&M sex by getting your partner to break a photo of their dad? I mean, it doesn't sound very hardcore to me - but I'm not a lesbian.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

SimonNZ

Not currently reading Dante, but have a few Dante-related books buried it may be time to put near the top of the pile:

Italy begins year of Dante anniversary events with virtual Uffizi exhibition


currently reading this, having not yet been able to find a copy of Absolute Friends:


AlberichUndHagen

Quote from: Mandryka on January 01, 2021, 01:36:18 PM
Are you sure they were making love?

It's  important to the ideas in the book that we're never clear what they're actually doing. If you read the scene in Du Côté de Chez Swann carefully you'll see that it's at least suggested that the two women know they're being watched and are staging the thing as a sort of joke to wind him up. And (though I haven't checked this for about 20 years) I think there's a moment much later on, in Albertine Disparue maybe, when he's pretty well finished with Albertine, that Gilberte comes to see him and they discuss what he saw through the window in terms which make it unclear what was really going on. This is Proust's point -  unknowability.

I should add that there's plenty of explicit lesbian sexuality in the book. I'm sure that  Proust didn't feel the need to hide it. Think of that scene where the women's tits go hard when they dance with each other, or, better, Charles Morel seducing young girls and then passing them on to Albertine to finish off. But it may be true that all the women who have lesbian sex also have straight sex - while it's hard to imagine Charlus with a woman.

I'll just add that the whole scene seems weird to me, but maybe I'm really sexually naive. Have you ever had S&M sex by getting your partner to break a photo of their dad? I mean, it doesn't sound very hardcore to me - but I'm not a lesbian.

A very good point. I may assume too much. I guess it is mainly Balzac's writing style which makes me prefer him to Proust. Sometimes Proust's sentences are so long (I swear there are some length of an entire page!) that I forget how they started when I get to the end. Although since memory is a very important part of In search of lost time, this may be very fitting, no?

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#10370
Kiss of the Spider Woman, by Argentine writer Manuel Puig.
A friendship between a transsexual avoiding a real-world and a socialist revolutionary in Argentina.

Mandryka

Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 02, 2021, 06:44:52 AM
A very good point. I may assume too much. I guess it is mainly Balzac's writing style which makes me prefer him to Proust. Sometimes Proust's sentences are so long (I swear there are some length of an entire page!) that I forget how they started when I get to the end. Although since memory is a very important part of In search of lost time, this may be very fitting, no?

There's a great musicality to his way of handling French which may not come across in translation -- the long sentences in French are mostly fine if you read aloud!
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

vers la flamme

Quote from: AlberichUndHagen on January 01, 2021, 10:14:48 AM
I've long been intending to read Pére Goriot. I much prefer Balzac to Proust. I wonder why Marcel Proust who wrote In search of lost time in 20th century, was so steeped in victorian-like hypocrisy that he needed to disguise the lovemaking scene of two lesbians while Balzac wrote about lesbian relations rightfully without any kind of shame and openly almost 100 years earlier in La fille aux yeux d'or. And yes, there is an "openly" homosexual character of Charlus in Proust but I take it this to be once again an implication of Proust's sexist views towards women. And I believe Charlus is referred to specifically as "aberrant", not homosexual.

Must seek out Pére Goriot at some point. I've heard it's very much like King Lear (not that I'm a huge fan of that work).

No comment on Proust; I've read nothing of his. What other Balzac have you read? I'm trying to decide where to go next.

Biffo

Quote from: vers la flamme on January 04, 2021, 02:40:45 AM
No comment on Proust; I've read nothing of his. What other Balzac have you read? I'm trying to decide where to go next.

Lost Illusions follows on from Pere Goriot more or less chronologically; It has a different protagonist but Rastignac and Vautrin both reappear.

steve ridgway

Dr. Lee Know - Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine.


vers la flamme

Quote from: Biffo on January 04, 2021, 03:40:05 AM
Lost Illusions follows on from Pere Goriot more or less chronologically; It has a different protagonist but Rastignac and Vautrin both reappear.

Damn long though. But this is the one I was looking at for next. I'll have to see if I can track down a cheap copy.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: steve ridgway on January 04, 2021, 07:45:40 AM
Dr. Lee Know - Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine.

Looks very interesting. I need to get a copy.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

The Gambler, Dostoevsky.
FD wrote the fine novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. Because of the time constraint, he dictated the story to a stenographer, who would become his wife later.

vers la flamme

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on January 07, 2021, 03:08:02 PM
The Gambler, Dostoevsky.
FD wrote the fine novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. Because of the time constraint, he dictated the story to a stenographer, who would become his wife later.

Never read that one. I'm interested now, I'll have to check it out.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#10379
Quote from: vers la flamme on January 07, 2021, 03:21:59 PM
Never read that one. I'm interested now, I'll have to check it out.

Please do so at your convenience. This could possibly be the most entertaining work by FD. Just like his other novels, the personal characters in the novella are well-defined, contrasting, and realistic. I like the grandma in the story.

Ed. Of course, P composed the music for the operatic adaptation of the novella.