What are you reading?

[Faust]

This thread would be more interesting if people would post the impressions after reading the books.

[trentk]

trentk - you may be able to help here, I remember reading somewhere that he hinted at his range of interests being crazy to what we have seen so far.... lists some of the stuff he's looking at and has yet to write about - anyone know where that snippet is?

It was in the interview at the end of Harman's book on Meillassoux.

"GH: Surprise is perhaps one of the greatest cognitive tools that humans have. What do you think would be the most surprising thing about Quentin Meillassoux as a thinker or person that your readers might never expect?

QM: I think no one can imagine the number of works I have in progress, or their frequent incongruity with respect to what is commonly viewed as the center of my interests. They are works on Hegel, Nietzsche, Mallarme, Marcel Duchamp, Darwinism, Pyrrho… My ‘hidden’ works may be very different from my ‘public’ works, and I hope one day to be freed from this ‘double identity’ – this gap between what I do and what people think I do. (p.173 – 174)"

The Mallarme book was published in september, but only in french. Here's Harman's english overview: 1, 2.

[eleven crows]

This thread would be more interesting if people would post the impressions after reading the books.

there's a few reasons it's not so interesting aside from that.

anyways, i've just knocked over child of god by cormac mccarthy, labyrinths by jorge luis borges, and love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez.

marquez is the fucking worst. took me six months to get through the piece of junk. he manages to moon over the same theme for over 300 pages in a plodding manner so banal that i was hoping he contracted cholera by the end. speaking of the end, fuck that ending. i won't spoil it for those who haven't read it.

labyrinths had ups and downs. the man clearly has a passion for forgery, identity displacement and using himself as the narrator. not that i have particular issues with this. the running theme of "labyrinths" throughout his work is interesting if a bit of a stretch at times. frankly, and this may sound plebian to some, i'd like a straight out story from time to time, as a few of them start as interesting as all hell and then dissipate to whatever metaphysical tangent he chooses. as far as latin american writers go, he slays old marquez.

mccarthy always delivers (of the three i've read). child of god is one of those ones that picks up a social misfit and twirls us round in his life till we're all wrapped up in decay. survival for one who's piece doesn't fit in with the rest of the jig. not particularly new. the thing is it's written so well and simply that i can't fault him, and it's written in such a way - excuse my lack of fluency in describing it, but i'm tired as hell - that it conveys more than the minimalist language would expect. damn, i even felt a little sorry for old ballard as it goes.

well, that's me for now. currently halfway through trainspotting. would've been a real bastard if i wasn't versed in a chunk of scottish slang. bloody great so far. i'll probably chime in later with my closing thoughts.

[obsi]

reading hitch 22 atm

[nictan]

11 crows: I'm starting on trainspotting too, but that scottish slang is a real pain. probably better once i get used to it, but goddamn.

[eleven crows]

a quick primer for some of the slang:

bairn - child
git tae fuck - get to fuck/fuck off
ken - know (used as a question in statements as well kinda)
nonce - pedophile
radge - idiot (general derogatory term i guess)

probably helps to know that hearts and hibs are rival football teams, both from edinburgh. i think they reference celtics and rangers too - which are two teams from glasgow.

it's a bloody miracle that anyone outside of scotland can read the thing.

[Faust]

reading hitch 22 atm

abcde

[Lane]

the collected works of Schopenhauer.


I'm pretty sure I'm never going to leave my house or speak to another human being ever again.

mmm


reading some kierkeagaard

[Czx]

^I loved reading Schopenhauer, especially when I read in classes I don't care about, couldn't help it but felt so detached from all the people around me.
I need to pick up Kierkegaard myself, had few lessons about him in philosophy class lately, really got into it but didn't had time to read it yet.
Oh how I love and hate depressing philosophy at the same time. Reading Pessoa at night as of late tears me apart.

[Acéphale]

█ Emilio Lascano Tegui, On Elegance While Sleeping

«

To live is the victory of the fetus. Being born is its only end. During its nine months of reflection, death doesn't seem at all the tragedy the Christian philosophers make of it. One doesn't think in the waiting room. For the fetus, just seeing the light is a triumph. It's everything. Think how long it's had to avoid the machinations of abortion, its various run-ins with all those methods enumerated by the penal code as excuses for depriving a citizen of her civil rights: the freezing shower to make the ovaries shiver, when it's clear there's no hope, the probing iron in some menopausal matron's hand, wielded with all the skill of a novice butcher or an ever-so-proper gentleman who considers it quite enough to expectorate near the spittoon, so as not to offend passersby. But in the end, at last, the fetus, triumphant, can exclaim: Toute la lyre!

Thus, despite its notable success, the face of a newborn reveals something about the precariousness of our life on earth. The womb was an uninterrupted series of threats. The triumph of the fetus can never be more than melancholy; see its wide forehead, as though its tiny frontal lobe has already begun to consider, despite itself, the likelihood of its eventual death by stroke...

»

[Acéphale]

me & miss mandible

[Denpatou]

wow, what a coincidence--i too am reading trainspotting, also about halfway through at the moment. regarding the language, i just finished reading a clockwork orange so i was fully prepared to check the back of the book every other paragraph for awhile. now it's like a second language, and i can officially say i know about 5000% more scottish slang than i did prior.

the passage entitled "traditional sunday breakfast" is my favorite so far, hahaha...

Eh, Mrs. Houston, I point to the sheets, in a bundle at my feet on the kitchen floor. ... Ah made a bit of a mess of the sheet and the duvet cover. Ah’m going tae take them home and clean them. Ah’ll bring them back tomorrow.

Aw, don’t you worry about that, son. Ah’ll just stick them in the washing machine. You sit down and get some breakfast.

Naw, but, eh ... a really bad mess. Ah feel embarrassed enough. Ah’d like tae take them home.

Dearie dear, Mr. Houston laughed.

Now no, you sit down, son, ah’ll see tae them, Mrs. Houston stole across the floor towards me, and made a grab for the bundle. The kitchen was her territory, and she would not be denied. I pulled it tae me, towards my chest; but Mrs. Houston was as fast as fuck and deceptively strong. She got a good grip and pulled against me.

The sheets flew open and a pungent shower of skittery shite, thin alcohol sick, and vile pish splashed out across the floor. Mrs. Houston stood mortified for a few seconds, then ran, heaving into the sink.

Brown flecks of runny shite stained Mr. Houston’s glasses, face and white shirt. It sprayed across the linoleum table and his food, like he made a mess with watery chip-shop sauce. Gail had some on her yellow blouse.

Jesus fuck.

God sake ... god sake ... Mr. Houston repeated as Mrs. Houston boaked and I made a pathetic effort to mop some of the mess back into the sheets.

Gail shot me a look of loathing and disgust. I can’t see our relationship developing any further now. I’ll never get Gail into bed. For the first time, that doesnae bother me. I just want out of here.

[eleven crows]

finished trainspotting and started marabou stork nightmares (it was the only thing in my bag at the time(i hate finishing a book and then not having another to read if i'm going to be out and about for a while).

trainspotting was awesome. not sure how i feel about a sequel. probably won't read it tbh. though i will be watching the movie again.

marabou stork is only just in the first few pages so i can't really comment. much the same of the ol' scottish lower class with a rather large twist of the fantastic so far.

Perhaps revisit the book later. It's quite lovely.

i just can't do it. his characters... i just hate them. in this and one hundred years of solitude. everyone is so fucking wistful and all the women are all fire brands. something about it gives me the impression he was patting himself on the back the entire time he's writing them.

my stance on borges may have been misinterpreted. i enjoyed labyrinths. detective stories colab is something i'll look in to.

[Faust]

/\ I concur. Doesn't beat Borges though :-)

[Acéphale]

Barthelme

"Every writer in the country can write a beautiful sentence, or a hundred. What I am interested in is the ugly sentence that is also somehow beautiful. I agree that this is a highly specialized enterprise, akin to the manufacture of merkins, say -- but it’s what I do."


"Any fool can cry wolf; to cry sheep is inspired, the work of a subtle, contradancing mind."