version

Well-known member
Finished that Laurent Binet book earlier, HHhH. Loved it. Really moving toward the end and the final shootout in the church is completely insane. Amazing to think it really happened and you can still see the bullet holes in one of the walls. Seven guys holding off 750 - 800 SS troops for eight hours or so... Incredible.

CyrilMethodious.JPG
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai

The atmosphere is great- each chapter is one unbroken paragraph stylized in that eastern european surrealist noir tradition. The story centers on a derelict town inscrutably dated- we get no historical index or revealing detail until 100 pages in: 'in the case of the moon landings.' The near entirity of the story takes place in the dark. The town is perpetually frozen but never snows. A newly arrived travelling circus that displays only a giant stuffed whale is center thought in each character's musings on chaos and determinism

"But there was something else: the silence, that stifled, unbroken, ill-omened silence in which not a single voice rang out, and hundreds of people waited, growing impatient, yet obstinately stoical and utterly silent, ready to stir once the acute suspense associated with such events gave way to the ecstatic roar of the ‘performance’, each individual isolated as if he had nothing to do with anyone else, as though it was of no concern to anyone why everyone else happened to be there, or, conversely, as if they were all part of an enormous chain-gang in which the ties that bound them negated all possibility of escape thereby rendering pointless any communication or conversation between them."
 
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craner

Beast of Burden
I can see that. I told you, I’m reading the Penman book that Jim sent me. I read the Frank Sinatra essay this morning.
 

jenks

thread death
I can see that. I told you, I’m reading the Penman book that Jim sent me. I read the Frank Sinatra essay this morning.
I enjoyed that book. I got to see him at an LRB event. Bobby Gillespie turned up and hung back like a total embarrassed fan. Penman had spent the previous 18 months taking the piss out of him on Twitter calling him ‘pawr bowbie’ I think.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
That book was one of the many I've read in recent years that have convinced me that you need to have a horrible childhood and ideally a horrible adulthood too to be a great artist. Also helps if you're a terrible person.
 

jenks

thread death
That book was one of the many I've read in recent years that have convinced me that you need to have a horrible childhood and ideally a horrible adulthood too to be a great artist. Also helps if you're a terrible person.
Certainly that Prince essay suggests as much.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai

The atmosphere is great- each chapter is one unbroken paragraph stylized in that eastern european surrealist noir tradition. The story centers on a derelict town inscrutably dated- we get no historical index or revealing detail until 100 pages in: 'in the case of the moon landings.' The near entirity of the story takes place in the dark. The town is perpetually frozen but never snows. A newly arrived travelling circus that displays only a giant stuffed whale is center thought in each character's musings on chaos and determinism

"But there was something else: the silence, that stifled, unbroken, ill-omened silence in which not a single voice rang out, and hundreds of people waited, growing impatient, yet obstinately stoical and utterly silent, ready to stir once the acute suspense associated with such events gave way to the ecstatic roar of the ‘performance’, each individual isolated as if he had nothing to do with anyone else, as though it was of no concern to anyone why everyone else happened to be there, or, conversely, as if they were all part of an enormous chain-gang in which the ties that bound them negated all possibility of escape thereby rendering pointless any communication or conversation between them."
Sounds very interesting
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I enjoyed that film.
I would like to know more about Hungarian culture and literature etc I have seen a few good films and they often seem to be based on books that in term look quite interesting. One day I intend to properly investigate some of those weird modernist novels and so on.
 

luka

Well-known member
I can see that. I told you, I’m reading the Penman book that Jim sent me. I read the Frank Sinatra essay this morning.
I just had a cycle into the city with Jim I was trying to get him back on dissensus but he says it's too brutal and bruising
 

catalog

Well-known member
I finished Dostoyevsky’s ‘Demons’. Very good. I might read another Dostoyevsky soon, possibly Crime and Punishment. He’s reminiscent of Dickens, but a bit narrower and deeper. Really enjoyed the feeling he gives you of late 1800s Russia, you can feel the mud in the streets and the dark gloomy rooms with a samovar boiling.

There’s a good speech in one of the conversations, where one of the ill-fated characters is explaining to the main guy, Stavrogin, why socialism is always doomed to failure and he basically talks about how it could never invoke any passion in people, and only things that can put you in the state of awe (the example he uses is nationalism, love for Russia) will win out. Very stirring stuff.
 
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