what are you reading now?

[slim jenkins]

re Conrad - Under Western Eyes and The Secret Agent, plus Apocalypse Now! (I think that's the title), otherwise, struggled with the others.

Yes, I chatted about Bill on Resonance recently with a fellow Dissenter. It should be available as a podcast soon...don't think I made too much of a fool of myself, being more of a fan than an expert.

Despite not having read On The Road for over twenty years I still think it's an amazing piece of work, although it was 'Typing, not writing', according to Capote -

 

[IdleRich]

I watched a film based on a Conrad book the other day called The Shadow Line. I kinda know what you mean but I still really enjoyed it even though effectively nothing at all happened.

 

[Sick Boy]

My favourite Conrad is Nigger of the Narcissus. I like Heart of Darkness as well. Lord Jim has been sitting on my shelf trying to get my attention for the last three years, but I'm anxious about starting it. I just can't really see how Conrad taking 500 pages to tell a single story could be anything other than agony. Craner has now confirmed my fears.

 

[bandshell]

Heart of Darkness is fantastic but extremely dense. Often found myself reading some bloated description and getting to the end with no clue what he was talking about.

Wonderful book, though.

 

[slim jenkins]

Reading The Quiet American, yeah, you know it - returning to Greeneland after many years having promised myself to do so at some point. I'm pleased to say that the power and the glory of his writing still remains for me.

 

[IdleRich]

Is Lord Jim really that long? It must be fifteen years or so since I read it but I remember it as quite a slight book. The Secret Agent is great and, allowing for my dodgy memory, an easy read. Very depressing though.

"Reading The Quiet American, yeah, you know it - returning to Greeneland after many years having promised myself to do so at some point. I'm pleased to say that the power and the glory of his writing still remains for me."

I read England Made Me the other day and after a couple of pages I was, as you put it, straight back in Greeneland. I love his books, pretty much every one I've read has been great in that slightly low-key and miserably British way. Travels With My Aunt maybe less so but it's still fun in its own way.
Somebody was recommending to me the other day the short story he wrote about a sick man returning to a garden he dimly remembers from childhood to find out if his memories of another world or something are real or not. What would that be called?

 

[faustus]

My favourite Conrad is Nigger of the Narcissus. I like Heart of Darkness as well. Lord Jim has been sitting on my shelf trying to get my attention for the last three years, but I'm anxious about starting it. I just can't really see how Conrad taking 500 pages to tell a single story could be anything other than agony. Craner has now confirmed my fears.

almayer's folly is a tiny and early novella of his which has a similar colonial setting, must have read it more than ten years ago but it was great. don't like his 'city' ones so much: secret agent yes, but under western eye's was pretty dire imo

 

[Mr. Tea]

Dear William S. Burroughs:

enough about the musky scent of adolescent ejaculations, already. I mean, it's great, but it's getting a bit tiresome.

 

[Benny Bunter]

 

[Mr. Tea]

Spffffttt....

 

[bandshell]

Rectal mucous

 

[Mr. Tea]

That's another good one. And don't forget the shiny black leg-hairs.

 

[BareBones]

on a similar note, i got seriously tired with all the hard-ons in 'inherent vice'. i mean what the fuck is it with pynchon and erections, all the time?

disclaimer: i mean his characters always getting erections, not that i get this exhausting stream of erections when reading pynchon.

 

[Sick Boy]

Is Lord Jim really that long? It must be fifteen years or so since I read it but I remember it as quite a slight book.

lol, I actually went and looked at it and it turns out it's actually 250 pages and the rest is a glossary and essays. Fancy that.

Though I still reckon even 250pgs is too long for Conrad. He gets a bit too excited.

 

[slim jenkins]

I read England Made Me the other day and after a couple of pages I was, as you put it, straight back in Greeneland. I love his books, pretty much every one I've read has been great in that slightly low-key and miserably British way. Travels With My Aunt maybe less so but it's still fun in its own way.
Somebody was recommending to me the other day the short story he wrote about a sick man returning to a garden he dimly remembers from childhood to find out if his memories of another world or something are real or not. What would that be called?

I don't know that story. I've read most of his novels. As you say, they all have a low-key atmosphere somehow, the doomed Catholicism, world-weariness, duplicity, being damned one way or another, affairs of the heart, the political machinations etc. What astounds me most is his ability to convey these things in such depth with so few words.

 

[slim jenkins]

Dear William S. Burroughs:

enough about the musky scent of adolescent ejaculations, already. I mean, it's great, but it's getting a bit tiresome.

Yes, love or loath it, repetition is part of his repetoire. That what comes of constantly recycling material.

 

[IdleRich]

"What astounds me most is his ability to convey these things in such depth with so few words."

Yeah exactly, he eschews clever literary flourishes in favour of apparently simple phrases that do so much more than you would expect.
The story is called Under The Garden apparently - I'm gonna have to check it out.

 

[Gregor XIII]

Any Barthelme fans? I read The King the other day (yup, it's so short that I read it on a single day. Can't remember the last time that happened). It was a fine retelling of King Arthur, set in the 1940s. Good, sad and funny. But as a Dane, I don't really get what he has against Denmark:

"True dragons are Danish and speak Danish, a tongue the Danes themselves describe as less a language than a throat disease" Well, true, but it still hurts...

 

[slowtrain]

...under western eye's was pretty dire imo

Yeah, just finished reading that one for class... I loved the uncanny and unsettling-ness of Heart of Darkness, but UWE was a real slog to get through...

The sorta book that you realise is actually very good when you've finished it and it's all 'tied together' (as much as Conrad can do that, heheh) but can be a real chore when you're in there.

 

[luka]

thats odd. other than heart of darkness under western eyes is the only conrad i have, started, finished and thouroughly enjoyed. i thought it was great. not hard work at all. i hav faild on 3 occassions wiht lord jim and once with nostromo.