What are you currently reading?

[Ken B]

Why the canary in the yours, buddy?

Selfishness. Pure, raw selfishness. All your subterranean tunnels are mine!

[Brian]

"An African in Greenland," by Tété-Michel Kpomassie, the memoir of - wait for it - an African who went to Greenland. (The longer summary is even better: he ran away from his home in Togo as a teenager because he was terrified of pythons and his family had promised him to join the high priesthood of a python cult. He chose Greenland because it didn't have any snakes.)

[pjme]

"I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  ."

"Au bonheur des dames" was at least used twice to inspire a film scenario.
In 1929/30 by Julien Duvivier ( a silent film) and in 1943 by André Cayatte. Duvivier has Dita Parlo as Denise, Cayatte has Michel Simon as Baudu.

I haven't seen these films.



Dita Parlo



Michel Simon

Zola uses a very rich language, full of detailed description. A goldmine for cinematographers, decorators, prop buyers & costume designers.

P.

[ritter]

"I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  ."

"Au bonheur des dames" was at least used twice to inspire a film scenario.
In 1929/30 by Julien Duvivier ( a silent film) and in 1943 by André Cayatte. Duvivier has Dita Parlo as Denise, Cayatte has Michel Simon as Baudu.

I haven't seen these films.



Dita Parlo



Michel Simon

Zola uses a very rich language, full of detailed description. A goldmine for cinematographers, decorators, prop buyers & costume designers.

P.

Thanks for the info, pjme!

Met vriendelijke groeten,

[kishnevi]

Preceding discussion motivated me to go looking for Zola here at the public library.  And found one offering in the general stacks



Which is how Penguin decided to issue its edition of  "The Ladies Paradise" translated by Ernest Vizetelly back in 1886.  It will be going home with me.

[Karl Henning]

That isn't Steve Martin's Shop Girl?...

[Karl Henning]

Thread Duty:

Just finished Guy Rickard's Hindemith, Hartmann and Henze (Oh, My!)

I was rather hoping that this would (in line with similar reading about this or that composer in the past) quicken more of a sympathy with Henze.  The absorbing reading about Hindemith and Hartmann I entirely counted on;  and on the whole, the intertwined, chronological narrative I found very well advised.  Perhaps the problem (for me) is simply, that Henze was determined to politicize art (a requiem to honor Che, for out loud crying);  this is, sadly, in line with a like problem in our day, the determination to favor (and support) art which is "socially relevant."

A kind of Eugenics in Art, it feels like.

As a result, and given the structure of the book, the last 50-ish pages were rather a chore.

I suppose I'll try to read it again, five years hence perhaps.  The tough break for Henze is, the book has whetted my appetite for Hindemith and Hartmann, but quite firmly put me off any short-term interest in Henze.  In fact, it rather has me feeling that the Henze in my library at present, is probably as much as I shall ever need.

This sort of thing is a large part of why slogging through the all-Henze-all-the-time section of the book was such a chore.

[SimonNZ]

Hmm. I guess I should be glad that I know very little about Henze's politics and can just enjoy his music (which I do). I've actually got the book you mention, but haven't read it yet - though I doubt it would bother me to the extent it does you, much in the way Boulez's rants don't stop me liking a large amount of his music.

OT:

the Zola talk here has reminded me that much as I love his work (The Debacle is one of my favorite novels) I haven't read anything of his in years. So have started L'Assommoir:

[Crudblud]

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Not bad. I find Atwood's prose style a little grating, it's a clumsy would-be witty style that doesn't flow all that well for me, and falls over into poetics too often, struggling to maintain the first person voice. It also suffers from the 1984 problem of clearing everything up with an epilogue, if it had ended where it seems like it should it would have been much more impactful for its ambiguity. Some of the Christian derived stuff seems silly to me, but maybe that's just a matter of contemporaneity, today it seems far more likely that unchecked growth of Islam would give rise to such a dystopia in the west. Overall I liked it, but I don't quite get the hype.

[Ken B]

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Not bad. I find Atwood's prose style a little grating, it's a clumsy would-be witty style that doesn't flow all that well for me, and falls over into poetics too often, struggling to maintain the first person voice. It also suffers from the 1984 problem of clearing everything up with an epilogue, if it had ended where it seems like it should it would have been much more impactful for its ambiguity. Some of the Christian derived stuff seems silly to me, but maybe that's just a matter of contemporaneity, today it seems far more likely that unchecked growth of Islam would give rise to such a dystopia in the west. Overall I liked it, but I don't quite get the hype.

Canadian writing is about lists. Her prose is full of lists. As you say, she's a clumsy writer.

[Bogey]

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.

[Ken B]

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.

High praise! Those are terrific books.

Reading something right now you might like Bill, Thick as Thieves by Spiegelman. A high tech heist novel from a few years ago. Little over half done.

[André]

The first in the Detective Erlendur series to be translated into English.  Reads a lot like Martin Beck novels only more present time.

I love Arnaldur's books ! Pretty sure he's partly responsible for all those tourists flocking to Iceland ! 

[Bogey]

High praise! Those are terrific books.

Reading something right now you might like Bill, Thick as Thieves by Spiegelman. A high tech heist novel from a few years ago. Little over half done.

Just book marked it on Goodreads, Ken. Thanks for the tip.

[Brian]

Canadian writing is about lists. Her prose is full of lists. As you say, she's a clumsy writer.

Alice Munro doesn't list iirc.

[Ken B]

Alice Munro doesn't list iirc.

She seems to have escaped the disease.

TD starting this
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Brian recommended it but I thought I'd try it anyway. 

[stingo]

The Captive, by Marcel Proust

[Jo498]

She seems to have escaped the disease.

TD starting this
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I gave it my brother as a present a year or two ago, it is supposedly lengthy but he loved it as he is something of a viking fan.
We also both loved Farley Mowat: Westviking, ISBN-13: 978-0771066924. A book by an experienced sailor about both the explorations of the viking in Greenland and North America and their sailing/navigation technique I don't know how up to date as far as historical research goes Mowat is, but it was a fascinating read.

[Ken B]

I gave it my brother as a present a year or two ago, it is supposedly lengthy but he loved it as he is something of a viking fan.
We also both loved Farley Mowat: Westviking, ISBN-13: 978-0771066924. A book by an experienced sailor about both the explorations of the viking in Greenland and North America and their sailing/navigation technique I don't know how up to date as far as historical research goes Mowat is, but it was a fascinating read.

Thanks for the Mowat tip: he was quite a popular Canadian author when I was younger. There's a good movie based on one of his books, Never Cry Wolf

I've had little time for reading but am liking The Long Ships so far.

[Ken B]

Jerry Pournelle has died.