What are you currently reading?

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Jaakko Keskinen

#8720
July 02, 2018, 10:05:10 AM Last Edit: July 02, 2018, 10:07:01 AM by Alberich
I have never read Cervantes yet, nor Spanish literature in general either. The closest I have ever got to reading Spanish literature is when I read Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", which is a portuguese-language novel, and Portugal geographically is close to Spain. And btw, I bloody hated that book! Also tries to take fame away from Ben Jonson's masterpiece of a play "The Alchemist" so that annoys me as well.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Florestan

#8721
July 02, 2018, 11:31:18 PM
Quote from: Alberich on July 02, 2018, 10:05:10 AM
I have never read Cervantes yet, nor Spanish literature in general either. The closest I have ever got to reading Spanish literature is when I read Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", which is a portuguese-language novel, and Portugal geographically is close to Spain.

But Brazil, where Coelho actually is from, is not.  :laugh:
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. — Claude Debussy

Jaakko Keskinen

#8722
July 03, 2018, 02:14:49 AM Last Edit: July 03, 2018, 02:18:33 AM by Alberich
Quote from: Florestan on July 02, 2018, 11:31:18 PM
But Brazil, where Coelho actually is from, is not.  :laugh:

I am well aware of that. ;) FWIW, portuguese and spanish are sister languages.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Karl Henning

#8723
July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

#8724
July 03, 2018, 09:11:26 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever.

Good gravy . . . I believe I just read the phrase "the single greatest musician of our time" . . . .
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

bwv 1080

#8726
July 03, 2018, 10:28:45 AM
Who wants to listen to virtuous music anyway?

Florestan

#8727
July 03, 2018, 11:00:17 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 10:17:08 AM
What a prat.

I wouldn't know, WaPo doesn't let me judge for myself without paying them.  ;D
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. — Claude Debussy

Ken B

#8728
July 03, 2018, 11:57:29 AM
Quote from: Florestan on July 03, 2018, 11:00:17 AM
I wouldn't know, WaPo doesn't let me judge for myself without paying them.  ;D

Pffft. You can take my word for it. I am reliable on prats. Also on twats, wankers, burks, pecksniffs, pillocks, flopdoodles, and pinheads.

Florestan

#8729
July 03, 2018, 12:05:28 PM
Quote from: Ken B on July 03, 2018, 11:57:29 AM
I am reliable on prats. Also on twats, wankers, burks, pecksniffs, pillocks, flopdoodles, and pinheads.

I certainly doubt not your expertise. And thank you for expanding my English vocabulary.
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. — Claude Debussy

Ken B

#8730
July 03, 2018, 02:37:32 PM
Another surprisingly unfunny book is The Divine Comedy.

Mahlerian

#8731
July 04, 2018, 04:37:00 AM Last Edit: July 04, 2018, 04:38:49 AM by Mahlerian
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2018, 09:07:40 AM
It's a cruel world. Here's why being a virtuous music listener feels harder than ever.

It's funny that when he's talking about separating the art from the artist, most of what he discusses is commercial product (buying CDs, paying through streaming revenue) rather than art.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

ritter

#8732
July 05, 2018, 11:33:28 AM
Starting tonight with what is widely considered one of the greatest novels written in Spanish in the 20th century:



José Lezama Lima's Paradiso had a long gestation (over 30 years), and once it was published in 1966, it was heavily attacked by the official critics in its author's native Cuba—with few exceptions, notably Alejo Carpentier—, due to its exuberant and hermetic style, and explicit eroticism (partly homoerotic). Abroad, Julio Cortázar and Octavio Paz championed the work, and a revised edition in Mexico in 1968 launched its international career.

Its 600+ pages of ultra-baroque prose (one reviewer says it's so baroque he couldn't figure out what it was actually about  ;D) apparently mix "normal" narrative with essay-like sections and poetry, and appear quite daunting. But I look forward to them...

NikF

#8733
July 05, 2018, 09:36:55 PM


For reading today while at the gym, between sets and perhaps even reps.
"You overestimate my power of attraction," he told her. "No, I don't," she replied sharply, "and neither do you".

SimonNZ

#8734
July 05, 2018, 11:24:19 PM

ritter

#8735
July 05, 2018, 11:48:38 PM
Quote from: SimonNZ on July 05, 2018, 11:24:19 PM


Quote from: ritter on October 14, 2016, 01:36:00 AM
Transcript of the deliberations of the Nobel prize committee:



- Let's give the prize to Haruki Miru...Huraki...
- It's Hikaru Makirumi
- Hariku Mukirami?
- Haiku...
- To hell with it, let Bob Dylan have it...
;D

Christo

#8736
July 10, 2018, 04:42:09 AM
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Florestan

#8737
July 12, 2018, 12:50:00 PM
Quote from: Christo on July 10, 2018, 04:42:09 AM
And good to know that you love the calvinist Daniel Defoe too.  :D https://www.christianforums.com/threads/robinson-crusoe-a-calvinist-tract.676850

I like Defoe as a writer. I had no idea he was a Calvinist (just how Robinson Crusoe can be interpreted as Calvinist propaganda is beyond me), but hey nobody's perfect, not even a great writer.  ;D
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. — Claude Debussy

Ken B

#8738
July 12, 2018, 07:03:20 PM
Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2018, 12:50:00 PM
I like Defoe as a writer. I had no idea he was a Calvinist (just how Robinson Crusoe can be interpreted as Calvinist propaganda is beyond me), but hey nobody's perfect, not even a great writer.  ;D
He couldn't help it, it was predestined.

Florestan

#8739
July 13, 2018, 01:11:39 AM
Quote from: Ken B on July 12, 2018, 07:03:20 PM
He couldn't help it, it was predestined.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. — Claude Debussy
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