what are you reading now?
luka
Well-known member
i am getting in touch with my teutonic side by readin rilke, holderlin and nietzsche
i am enjoying all of them though i am very familiar with the rilke (duino elegies)
the holderlin is the one that is newist to me, t is very much in tune with my current mood (ie triumphal, magisterial, heroic)
i am enjoying all of them though i am very familiar with the rilke (duino elegies)
the holderlin is the one that is newist to me, t is very much in tune with my current mood (ie triumphal, magisterial, heroic)
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Didn't know who Holderlin was, so I wiki'd him. This passage amused me - sounds like something Woody Allen would write parodying Kafka:
"Of an overly sensitive nature, Hölderlin's mental state deteriorated after 1802, partly due to his mother's incessant demands that he become a minister. He was interned briefly in 1806 and spent the rest of his life in the care of Ernst Zimmer, a carpenter living in Tübingen."
"Of an overly sensitive nature, Hölderlin's mental state deteriorated after 1802, partly due to his mother's incessant demands that he become a minister. He was interned briefly in 1806 and spent the rest of his life in the care of Ernst Zimmer, a carpenter living in Tübingen."
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
Whoah...it's not so big when you skip the descriptions of every whale...as I did...
Just picked up Sun Ra - The Immeasurable Equation...collected poetry and prose by Mr Blount - fascinating stuff.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
The White Hotel
Black Lamb, Grey Falcon (still)
The Balkans 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers
Misha Glenny
Private Eye (consistently enjoyable) and the Wire (giving up subscription, too obscure for me)
Black Lamb, Grey Falcon (still)
The Balkans 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers
Misha Glenny
Private Eye (consistently enjoyable) and the Wire (giving up subscription, too obscure for me)
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Craner - I haven't read that much Roth (loved Portnoy, was steadily bored by American Pastoral) but I think 'Everyman' is quite interesting. It's about the last year or so of a man's life - his diminishing health, his growing terror. Reminded me of Tolstoy's 'Death of Ivan Ilyich', but with a decidedly atheistic mental redemption at the climax. It's so pared down that I think it avoids the rhetorically shrill, chest-beating quality of some of his other stuff, which I find a bit hard to take. But then there aren't so many great dick jokes either...
My Mum absolutely loves his stuff and she recommended 'Patrimony', which is about his father. I think 'Goodbye Columbus', a collection of short stories, is supposed to be good too.
My Mum absolutely loves his stuff and she recommended 'Patrimony', which is about his father. I think 'Goodbye Columbus', a collection of short stories, is supposed to be good too.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
I read Human Stain at uni and really did not enjoy.
I always got the impression Roth wrote about all these grizzle middle aged writers shagging fit young impressionable women etc and it was really all about him...could be hopelessly wrong on that tho!
I always got the impression Roth wrote about all these grizzle middle aged writers shagging fit young impressionable women etc and it was really all about him...could be hopelessly wrong on that tho!
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Whoah...it's not so big when you skip the descriptions of every whale...as I did...
Sounds a bit like American Psycho, where you learn to skim-read every paragraph that starts "I/he/she was wearing..." or "We ordered..."
hucks
Your Message Here
At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien. The Third Policeman was a balance of lunatic and genius, this one's more tilter towards the former. It is very funny in parts, the language is fantastic, but you get the feeling you can skim entire pages, because it's all inconsequential meandering.
MrFence
Oh the humanity.
I'm reading Cyclonopedia, which I'm really enjoying and finding really interesting, though I really need to read more on number/sorcery. Anyone have any links or advice other than trawling Hyperstition & the CCRU?
I'm also dipping into Badiou; A Subject To Truth by Peter someone.
I'm also dipping into Badiou; A Subject To Truth by Peter someone.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
That's funny, I think the numerology stuff was actually one of the least interesting bits of the book, partly perhaps because it's such palpable bollocks. It almost seems to have been put at the start as a 'gatekeeper' to make sure you're dedicated enough to get through it before reading the rest - I found the stuff about demons, warmachines and 'strategies for communicating with the Outside' a lot more enjoyable. Plus the quasi-Aristotlean discussion of dusty dryness vs. 'alien' wetness in the form of oil/petrol.
slim jenkins
El Hombre Invisible
OK, not reading (yet)...but drooling over the Olympia Press copy of 'Ticket That Exloded' which has just arrived in the post......and taking great care when opening...
...and taking great care when opening...
grizzleb
Well-known member
Just read the new Iain Banks - 'Transition' which is the first of his I've read, was funny and politically on-point, but very ham-fisted. I liked it though, maybe read some more of his sci-fi.
Onto 'How to read Heiddegger' now, that series of books is really enlightening, crams lots of ideas into a small space. And Baudrillard - 'The Perfect Crime', looks pretty funny. Been a while since I've been in about any theory, been too long on the fiction. Too much after a while.
Onto 'How to read Heiddegger' now, that series of books is really enlightening, crams lots of ideas into a small space. And Baudrillard - 'The Perfect Crime', looks pretty funny. Been a while since I've been in about any theory, been too long on the fiction. Too much after a while.
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
is this super super long?
grizzleb
Well-known member
I'm currently reading Jonathan Littell's 'The Kindly Ones' - epic WWII story following a gay SS officer and his involvement in Nazi atrocities. Powerful and smart as fuck, it's a really tough read at times but Littell is a great writer. There's some shocking scenes that force you to put the book down and gasp. As a meditation on the causes of evil it's second to none.
jenks
thread death
I'm just finishing Dracula which I am reading for a book group I recently joined. Can't say I ahve enjoyed it much - overly plot based, all characters, except Dracula are priggishly good and almost no actual Dracula in it!
I was wondering of our 21st C reading of Dracula is actually more interesting than the book itself - the way we can use Dracula as a useful symbol for some dark Other - sexual, foreign, whatever.
Also I was thinking there can't be many novels where our knowledge of the conventions - garlic, crucifix, mirrors etc - (which wouldn't have been there for the original readers) mean that all of those plot surprises are blown for us now and make it even more predictable, and thus even less interesting! ( not sure i expressed that well but essentially we know all we are ever going to need to know about vampires now but he invents the idiom and all of its tropes but our knowledge blows a huge hole in the novel.)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to something a bit better tbh
I was wondering of our 21st C reading of Dracula is actually more interesting than the book itself - the way we can use Dracula as a useful symbol for some dark Other - sexual, foreign, whatever.
Also I was thinking there can't be many novels where our knowledge of the conventions - garlic, crucifix, mirrors etc - (which wouldn't have been there for the original readers) mean that all of those plot surprises are blown for us now and make it even more predictable, and thus even less interesting! ( not sure i expressed that well but essentially we know all we are ever going to need to know about vampires now but he invents the idiom and all of its tropes but our knowledge blows a huge hole in the novel.)
Anyway, I'm looking forward to something a bit better tbh