what are you reading now?

droid

droid

Well-known member
Found it pretty annoying myself. Interesting comparisons to certain events in Fletchers' "there is a light that never goes out' though.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
But speaking of dishing the dirt on other musicians - Brian Eno gets a real bashing in jah Wobble's book, and Tony Visconti doesnt have many positive things to say about Marc Bolan in his autobiography.
 
empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
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G

griftert

Well-known member
droid said:
As for the kindly ones. it is brilliant, obscene and infuriating. Falls to pieces a bit towards the end unfortunately, but I think he'd said everything he need to say by then.
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I think the ending is key to the work... The promise of a 'meaningful conclusion' to the novel (I think) Littell is saying is something of an obscenity, something inappropriate. He's playing about with readers expectations about what they can take from such a work. To end in such a fragmentary/ridiculous/laughable way is entirely appropriate. The end replicates the kind of truth of what he has done, which is to say, it eludes anything like 'meaning'.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Sure, I can appreciate that, but I felt there was a change in the writing as well. It seemed more frantic, less considered, like he was impatient to get it finished.

Still a fantastic accomplishment regardless.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
"the deliberate touristy feature of stupid faux Victorian lampposts topped with globes full of blurry soft boiled eggs"
 
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CrowleyHead

Well-known member
I just read Ruiz' "Poetics of Cinema" a few days ago. It was really abstract, but definitely thought provoking; I've been meaning to investigate his films for a minute, and his reading definitely has me convinced I should work on it to see if he lives up to his ambitions. Reading "Poetics Of Cinema II" as well rn.

Also about a third into Donald Fagen from Steely Dan's book. He's kind of an essayist, writing about whatever... Jazz, Science Fiction, Radio DJs. Its cute, y'know.
 
you

you

Well-known member
Not sure if I can finish Ishiguro's latest. Just drags. Unbelievable.

Picked up Kelly Link's short stories. Amazing. Those on the Laird Barron - Ligotti tip check her out.
 
C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
I finished "Poetics of Cinema II" by Ruiz, "The Sickness Unto Death", "Like Punk Never Happened" by Dave Rimmer, read Beckett's "Echo's Bones", and finished "19 Necromancers From Now" which is edited by Ishmael Reed and has stuff by Amiri Baraka, Calvin C. Hernton, Charles Stevenson Wright, David Henderson, Cecil Brown, and a bunch of other writers I either liked or disliked. This was within the last week or so.

Suffice to say, the kid is on fire.

(the kid being me)
(I'm the kid)
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
well into my latin american boom writers atm, following up on some of bolaño's influences has proved very fruitful (though his style is actually quite different).

as well as the donoso above, all of these short stories/novellas are incredible

julio cortázar - la casa tomada (the house taken), la segunda vez (second time around)
mario vargas llosa - Los cachorros (the cubs)
juan rulfo - Pedro Páramo & llamo en llamas (the burning plain)
borges - aleph (labyrinths)

these take all the formal experiments and uncanniness of magic realism to some extremely dark places. like, garcia marquez and isabel allende were good writers, but if you only follow that line starting from '100 years of solitude' you end up with drippy crap like 'life of pi'.

haven't found many peninsular spanish writers i like much, but eduardo mendoza is funny (out to faustus for that tip) and javier marías seems worth investigating further.

i haven't read a single book in english for two years now
 
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