What are you currently reading?

[Spineur]

That's quite a bold statement! Having read both LCDP and LRELN, I dare doubt it! 

Try it: 700 pages of pure happiness.

Here is a critique "Lucky Lucien" in english everybody can read

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v08/n03/stephen-vizinczey/lucky-lucien

[NikF]

That's actually a good question, NikF. Cocteau was someone who did many things in the arts (poetry, drama, novels, films, libretti, painting) in a rather dilettantish way, and one would be hard-pressed to come up with a work that really stands out or could be called a "masterpiece" (whatever that may be). His constant striving to promote himself, and to make his work palatable to the beau monde, often gives his output a patina of superficiality which masks what I think deep-down is an original and interesting voice.

I think Les Enfants terribles (The Holy Terrors), his short novel from 1929, would be a good starting point, and some of his plays based on classical themes (Antigone, La machine infernale) are quite accomplished. I also remember enjoying Maalesh: A Theatrical Tour of the Middle East, his journal of a tour in 1949 to Egypt and Turkey, where the chaos of everyday theatrical life is vividly depicted (in an appropriately exotic setting).

Then, there's Le Coq et l'Arlequin, important as a manifesto of musical aesthetics in France in the 20s (he being the "godfather" of Les Six). I really don't share almost any of his tenets there, but it does make for interesting reading.

Not something you can read of course, but I must correct myself: if anything of Cocteau's can be dubbed a "masterpiece", I'd say it's his film Beauty and the Beast. One of the most beautiful motion pictures I've ever seen. 

Yeah, La Belle et la Bête is indeed a thing of beauty. I'm really only familiar with his film work (and to a lesser extent, ballet) but what an output throughout his career. And the circles he moved in, both professionally and socially - how rich!

Those are thoughtful insights and a fine list of suggestions. I'll look into them.
I appreciate it you taking the time to put it together. Thanks.

[ritter]

Those are thoughtful insights and a fine list of suggestions. I'll look into them.
I appreciate it you taking the time to put it together. Thanks.

 votre service, cher ami .

I have read a number of Zola's books.  He started the realist style that inspired the Italian post-war cinema (Victorio de Sica,...)
A very strong book is Thérèse Raquin.  It has been adapted to the cinema by Marcel Carné with Simone Signoret as Thérèse Raquin.
IMHO both book and movie are worth it.

Another classic adaptation of Zola is La bete Humaine by Jean Renoir with Jean Gabin.  In spite of the cinematography and the great actors, I always felt Zola's story was dated.

Many thanks for that, Spineur. I might approach Zola through films (I don't know either of the ones you mentioned) and then perhaps aller à la source  .

Regards,

[Florestan]

Try it

I will, thanks for the recommendation.

[Ken B]

I will, thanks for the recommendation.

Let me know! You can be the canary in the mine!

[Florestan]

Let me know! You can be the canary in the mine!

It won't be very soon, so please be patient. 

[Karl Henning]

Why the canary in the yours, buddy?

[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 !