What are you currently reading?

[vers la flamme]

William Faulkner's Light in August

Enjoying this greatly, and kind of plowing through it; I'm about halfway through. Real page-turner. Faulkner's prose is brilliant: though more straightforward here than in AILD, it's still deeply psychological and very disturbing. The last three or four chapters have delved a lot more deeply into the character of Joe Christmas, who is kind of a violent sociopath, but a fascinating character. I seem to get the impression that Faulkner's books are all quite different from each other in style, tone, and technique, even if they share some common ground in terms of thematic material. This book seems to have something to say about race, though I cannot figure out what that something is just yet.

[Mandryka]

A bit like Magic Mountain, with a ship instead of a sanitorium!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Capote, Miriam.

[vers la flamme]

William Faulkner's Light in August

I finished it this morning. Pardon my French, but that book was absolutely fucking phenomenal! I loved it, and can't stop thinking about its characters, its themes, its world, and Faulkner's brilliant prose in which thoughts, places, and memories, real and false, come to life in equal measure. If As I Lay Dying didn't get me there on its own, Light in August has made me a believer. I want to read all the Faulkner I can get my hands on, and I'm sure I will in time, but I don't want to burn myself out so I think I'll take a break for a bit. I did go to Barnes & Noble today and picked up a copy of The Unvanquished, so I think that will be next, when the time comes.

Who else has read this book? I wonder if it left as big an impact on anyone else as it did me. It seems most would agree that it belongs in the upper echelon of William Faulkner's work, but it is usually placed somewhat below the "holy trinity" of The Sound & the Fury, As I Lay Dying & Absalom, Absalom!—having only read one of these, I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other. But I do think I liked it better than As I Lay Dying. That may change with rereading, as I'm sure I didn't pick up on everything there is in AILD on the first read, but for now I can say that Light in August was the book to sell me on Faulkner.

P.S. I'm glad I read it in the month of August.

[Karl Henning]

A book written by a friend of mine from Buffalo Daze: Gary Barwin: Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted

[André]

I finished it this morning. Pardon my French, but that book was absolutely fucking phenomenal! I loved it, and can't stop thinking about its characters, its themes, its world, and Faulkner's brilliant prose in which thoughts, places, and memories, real and false, come to life in equal measure. If As I Lay Dying didn't get me there on its own, Light in August has made me a believer. I want to read all the Faulkner I can get my hands on, and I'm sure I will in time, but I don't want to burn myself out so I think I'll take a break for a bit. I did go to Barnes & Noble today and picked up a copy of The Unvanquished, so I think that will be next, when the time comes.

Who else has read this book? I wonder if it left as big an impact on anyone else as it did me. It seems most would agree that it belongs in the upper echelon of William Faulkner's work, but it is usually placed somewhat below the "holy trinity" of The Sound & the Fury, As I Lay Dying & Absalom, Absalom!—having only read one of these, I wouldn't be able to say one way or the other. But I do think I liked it better than As I Lay Dying. That may change with rereading, as I'm sure I didn't pick up on everything there is in AILD on the first read, but for now I can say that Light in August was the book to sell me on Faulkner.

P.S. I'm glad I read it in the month of August.

It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.

[vers la flamme]

It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.

I only just heard about Intruder recently, and I really want to read it. Sounds like a good one.

[JBS]

It's a really great book. I should re-read it myself, as it must be min 15 years since I last read it.

Do give a look at Intruder in the Dust, one of Faulkner's 'simplest' opuses, and a really endearing work.

I read both As I Lay Dying and Light in August for high school English classes. I remember AILD as being more understandable but LIA as going deeper into human psyche.

Read Sound and Fury about 20 years ago. Didn't like it. I've read Intruder in the Dust twice. It is a "simpler" book but bear in mind Faulkner supposedly wrote it as a sort of response to Kill A Mockingbird, to support the idea that the South could sort out its problem of racism without external intervention. It's not fair to call him a racist or a Lost Cause advocate (if anything he was its enemy) but he couldn't completely escape being a white Southerner .

[vers la flamme]

Another recommendation from our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh... Yukio Mishima's Five Modern Noh Plays



Brilliant, so far. I'm only on the second play. I'm going to watch some youtube videos of classic Noh drama so I can get a bit of context around what this very old art form is supposed to be all about. But even just as literature, I'm finding it impressive. The plays seem to have an almost dreamlike character. I don't know if this is something traditional, or whether it's Mishima adding his own flavor to the form. But like I said, I'm enjoying it. I recently tried to read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but had to put it down about halfway through; I just wasn't connecting with it. Everything else of his I've read has really blown me away, and looks like this shouldn't prove an exception. A unique talent.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Another recommendation from our friend Dry Brett Kavanaugh... Yukio Mishima's Five Modern Noh Plays



Brilliant, so far. I'm only on the second play. I'm going to watch some youtube videos of classic Noh drama so I can get a bit of context around what this very old art form is supposed to be all about. But even just as literature, I'm finding it impressive. The plays seem to have an almost dreamlike character. I don't know if this is something traditional, or whether it's Mishima adding his own flavor to the form. But like I said, I'm enjoying it. I recently tried to read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, but had to put it down about halfway through; I just wasn't connecting with it. Everything else of his I've read has really blown me away, and looks like this shouldn't prove an exception. A unique talent.

+1. Traditionally, No(h) dramas are centered on surreal, ghostly, and mystical beauty. I would say that today No is only popular among a few intellectuals in Japan. I like these modern No plays by Mishima. I imagine that the translation by Donald Keene, Columbia Univ. professor emeritus who received the prestigious Order of Culture from his majesty Emperor of Japan, is very elegant. My edition has other works, including Dojoji- a humorous and ironic play. But I think it is in "Death in Midsummer and Other Stories." 

[vers la flamme]

+1. Traditionally, No(h) dramas are centered on surreal, ghostly, and mystical beauty. I would say that today No is only popular among a few intellectuals in Japan. I like these modern No plays by Mishima. I imagine that the translation by Donald Keene, Columbia Univ. professor emeritus who received the prestigious Order of Culture from his majesty Emperor of Japan, is very elegant. My edition has other works, including Dojoji- a humorous and ironic play. But I think it is in "Death in Midsummer and Other Stories."

I don't know the original Japanese, but I am impressed with Keene's translation. Very direct, and elegant, as you say. I would love to read Death in Midsummer & Other Stories, available from the great New Directions publisher, some of the stories are also translated by Dr. Keene. Of Mishima's short fiction, I only know the great Star, which I have as a standalone, very short novella; I read it in an hour or so.

These plays remind me a bit of Beckett.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

The scriptures , prophecy of Michel DE Notre Dame,= Nostradamus, before he was a joke but all his prophet came true in the end boiling down to a real prophet a genuine one.

He predicted stuff , that actually happen great fire of London U.K, Hitlers, the fall of the Tsar, every bloody thing he predict came to life, how science explain this?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

There are many short stories written by Mishima, but only few of them have been translated in English. The stories featured in Death in Midsummer are very good, imo. I haven't read Beckett, I will look for some of his works. In case the below is an article, including an interview, of Donald Keene.

https://medium.com/@oliverjia1014/the-story-of-donald-keene-the-american-who-became-japanese-6644898f56b0

[vers la flamme]

There are many short stories written by Mishima, but only few of them have been translated in English. The stories featured in Death in Midsummer are very good, imo. I haven't read Beckett, I will look for some of his works. In case the below is an article, including an interview, of Donald Keene.

https://medium.com/@oliverjia1014/the-story-of-donald-keene-the-american-who-became-japanese-6644898f56b0

That was a fascinating read! Thanks!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. David Eagleman. Fun book!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

That was a fascinating read! Thanks!

It seems to me that you read a lot of Keene translations!

[vers la flamme]

It seems to me that you read a lot of Keene translations!

I've read a handful and been impressed by all of them, with the obvious caveat that I don't know the Japanese originals. His translations (and introductions) of Dazai's two major novels were both very enjoyable reads. Seems he just died in 2019, aged 96.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I've read a handful and been impressed by all of them, with the obvious caveat that I don't know the Japanese originals. His translations (and introductions) of Dazai's two major novels were both very enjoyable reads. Seems he just died in 2019, aged 96.

Did you read Shayo?  I didn't know.

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Did you read Shayo?  I didn't know.

Yes, I read it in a single day back in May, I think I was away from the forum at the time. I really enjoyed it.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Utilitarianism. J. S. Mill.