Topic: What are you currently reading?

[Harvested Sorrow]

Of course it's good, otherwise I would not have read it a few minutes ago. And it's good because it's not about War, but Peace!

It's Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

This afternoon I spent less than hour watching my lasted DVD purchase: An Elegy for Allen Ginsberg and the next logical step was to reread his 'Howl', prominently mentioned and intelligently discussed by William F. Buckley, Philip Glass and many other of his friends.

I've read Howl once (Mind you, I have a 'censored' version from the Pocket Poet's series but the meaning is still pretty obvious, even if it's irritating) but haven't read the other poems in the volume.  It was quite...odd, intense.   I'm not familiar with that movement or much poetry in general, so it was certainly...different.  Recommended to me by the resident poetry expert at the non-chain used book shop I visit once in a while....Unfortunately, he found a lot of other stuff to recommend too so that ended up being a rather expensive visit.

[orbital]

Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. A belated reading though. My original idea was to read it a couple of months ago, so that I could attend the MOMA screening of Fassbinder's saga which is going on right now. Well I couldn't and thus am not attending the screening 

[uffeviking]

I've read Howl once (Mind you, I have a 'censored' version from the Pocket Poet's series

I didn't even know there is such a thing as a 'censored' version of Howl! Surprised you could get any intelligent meaning out of it, but some is better than nothing!

Those non-chain used book stores are full of treasures, and I am sure your wad of money was sell spent!

[uffeviking]

Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. A belated reading though. My original idea was to read it a couple of months ago, so that I could attend the MOMA screening of Fassbinder's saga which is going on right now. Well I couldn't and thus am not attending the screening 

My mouth still open! Fassbinder's Alexander Platz is finally in a video form? My video supplier and I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come out. If MOMA can show it, a commercially available DVD can't be far behind. I am suffering with you because you had to miss the screening! 

[orbital]

My mouth still open! Fassbinder's Alexander Platz is finally in a video form? My video supplier and I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to come out. If MOMA can show it, a commercially available DVD can't be far behind. I am suffering with you because you had to miss the screening! 

I think MOMA purchased a copy of the 35mm restored version recently, and it is this one that they are showing. I do hope they repeat it 

[Harvested Sorrow]

I didn't even know there is such a thing as a 'censored' version of Howl! Surprised you could get any intelligent meaning out of it, but some is better than nothing!

Those non-chain used book stores are full of treasures, and I am sure your wad of money was sell spent!

It wasn't censored to much of an extent and was actually labeled as 'un-censored'...apparently they STILL had to censor it to an extent.  I should have clarified:  Remember the line 'And the mother was fucked' (I'm paraphrasing, been a while since I read it)?  Instead, in the 'un-censored' version (I refuse to refer to it as that with any legitimaticy because I'm a stubborn sort) it has 'And the mother was ****ed'....good job guys, we really couldn't figure that one out.

I believe it may have censored some other curse words here and there, too.

Indeed.  Nine Lives Bookstore....named for the nine cats that live there which means a person will either love the store or find it to be the bane of their existence.   I spent a good $45 to $50 (unusual for me in one haul from a single book store) but got plenty of good material.  Everything from a complete OOP translation of Sa'di's The Rose Garden to Rimbaud, to Howl.

[uffeviking]

'And the mother was ****ed'....good job guys, we really couldn't figure that one out.

It will help to figure it out when you insert Ginsberg's word  'finally' before the f word. 'Finally' is the word clarifying the act. But of course that still does not help to figure out everything in 'Howl'; entertaining challenge to the dumbing-down attempt we are being exposed to! 

[karlhenning]

Who are they? The Fuggers? Their family started in the 16th century and still some of them around, but I didn't know they were in the recording business! 

This album here, Lis.

Note track 16, "I Saw The Best Minds Of My Generation Rock."

[uffeviking]

That was an easy sell, Karl! NewburyComics has it for a little over 9 bucks at amazon and I ordered it. I have no idea what I am getting into, it proofs my trust in you! 

[karlhenning]

Well, if you imagine that Allen Ginsberg was a scruffy rock group in a poorly-lit nightclub in Greenwich Village in the early '60s, you get some idea, perhaps, of the Fugs 

[uffeviking]

Sounds fascinating, Karl! Nostalgic memories of the Beat Time!

What surprises me though is, your knowledge or familiarity with this period in our history. You are too young, Karl! 

[Don Giovanni]

Just finished Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - wonderful, of course. I've just started reading The Canterbury Tales and I must say I'm really enjoying it. I thought it was time I tackled some good ol' 14th century literature.

[Maciek]

John, I'm impressed!

For the past couple of months I've been mainly reading, re-reading, and re-rereading Black Torrent by the Polish author Leopold Buczkowski. This is one of the best Polish novels of the 20th century but it certainly is not an easy text... But extremely rewarding. Though also quite disturbing (it's about World War II). I'd recommend it to anyone who likes avantgarde prose (Robbe-Grillet and the like, Joyce too) - I think it's been translated into several languages.

Maciek

[Florestan]

I've read yesterday The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, by Rainer Maria Rilke. If you like poetry, try it. It's a masterpiece.
(I don't know, though, if the English translation is any good. I 've read it in a bilingual German / Romanian version.)

[uffeviking]

Translating Rainer Maria Rilke from the original German into any other language is always an extremely difficult task, and seldom successful. Of course this can be said of most, if not all creative writings. William H. Gass wrote a very informative book Reading Rilke subtitled Reflections on the Problems of Translation, concentrating his studies on Rilke's Duino Elegies. Fascinating reading how many variations of the original text he comes up with.

[Harry]

Sounds fascinating, Karl! Nostalgic memories of the Beat Time!

What surprises me though is, your knowledge or familiarity with this period in our history. You are too young, Karl! 

Karl has a old soul!

[George]

You can bet 71db will be reading this baby next month:



 

[Choo Choo]

Explains better than any other I've read, how the Afghanistan of A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush turned into the Afghanistan of today.

[Bogey]

Preferring my eggs reading hardboiled:

The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

[btpaul674]

FANTASTIC