It's a master piece, and of course it's not necessary to read it all at once. just when you feel like to, you pick it up. I have the same with In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki, gems! completed them but always good to pick up again and read certain phrases etc. Faust
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Originally posted by bukka View PostA Barbarian in Asia by Henri Michaux. Absolute classic. Epitome of traveling book in french literature.
(Of course, to a certain extent, this is what any writer does in a travelling book, but some of those writers - amongst which I place Michaux - seem less successfull in maintaining the illusion of an objective outside world which wouldn't be a mere mind game.)Last edited by Mail-Moth; 04-16-2014, 12:53 AM.I can see a hat, I can see a cat,
I can see a man with a baseball bat.
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Originally posted by Mail-Moth View PostTry Nicolas Bouvier's L'Usage du monde or Le Poisson-Scorpion (not french either, though). I remember enjoying those - Bouvier's inner life being a bit less intrusive than Michaux's, which always seems to change any outer reality he evokes into some of his intimate sceneries.
(Of course, to a certain extent, this is what any writer does in a travelling book, but some of those writers - amongst which I place Michaux - seem less successfull in maintaining the illusion of an objective outside world which wouldn't be a mere mind game.)
Actually, that's not really what I'm looking when I'm reading travelling literature (the illusion of an objective outside world). I'm more interested in the impact of the foreign country on his inner being. The objective outside world is well related in the Lonely Planet and in Google Earth.
Also, Le Poisson-Scorpion is quite similar to Michaux's litterature, in comparison to L'Usage du monde. The last being his first book, it's maybe why he was still trying to give that illusion. In Le Poisson-Scorpion, written almost 25 years after he travelled in Ceylan, you have much more poetry and "intimate sceneries".
Btw, Czx, as you look interested in Japan, Bouvier also wrote Chroniques Japonaises, there you have a book about both travel and Japan (and it's already way different (better) than L'Usage du Monde)Eternity is in love with the productions of time
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Originally posted by bukka View PostThe objective outside world is well related in the Lonely Planet and in Google Earth.
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Originally posted by galia View PostI could not disagree with what you are saying more. I don't think that there is a way to create a rendition that would totalize "the objective outside world" (even if it did exist as such, which I'm not sure it does), but the lonely planet and google earth are eminently fragmentary and highly insufficient approaches to reality. They basically tell you nothing about the objective reality of a country, much like a map. They give you fragmentary spacial and / or cultural cues to help you navigate an unknown environment without getting irremediably lost. It's like saying that the objective reality of the north pole is sufficiently rendered by a picture of some snow and a compass. It's bullshit. That doesn't tell you what it feels like, or smell like, or sound like (all of which objective components of an experience of a place)
If you're arguing that the only way to know a place is to go to that place, then I agree. If you're just trying to take a statement out of his context (a discussion about subjectivity in travel books), and show how many arguments you have against it, that's not really interesting.
Edit: To Mail-Moth, it doesn't really look like it in my first reply, but I really love Bouvier, I just thought that L'Usage du Monde was a bit boring compared to the rest of his literature.Last edited by bukka; 04-16-2014, 09:12 AM.Eternity is in love with the productions of time
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Originally posted by bukka View PostIt's only in that regard that I replied to Mail-Moth complain about Michaux being too subjective.
Edit (in answer to your edit): what I was explaining above is probably the reason why I would open it again someday rather than Le Poisson-scorpion. I don't mind being bored.I can see a hat, I can see a cat,
I can see a man with a baseball bat.
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I don't mind being bored.
If you were only being sarcastic or provocative, then don't mind my question.Eternity is in love with the productions of time
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I was not. I like to read a book just for a few pages, even a few lines - not even the most notable / quotable ones, not even those that would capture the essence of the whole. The more I read and the less I care about being faithfull to the writer or understanding his purpose. I simply go through words. Some of them hit me, most of them don't - same goes for music.
I understand it is a very lazy way to do things, but as long as it is not a crime, I guess it is allright.I can see a hat, I can see a cat,
I can see a man with a baseball bat.
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Originally posted by bukka View PostIf you're arguing that the only way to know a place is to go to that place, then I agree. If you're just trying to take a statement out of his context (a discussion about subjectivity in travel books), and show how many arguments you have against it, that's not really interesting.
Also I hadn't realised your statement that I quoted was a joke, because I've heard similar things said in earnest and it annoys me to no end. So, sorry if I sounded abrasive or whatever
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Originally posted by galia View PostI'd argue that it is impossible to know a place where you don't live, and even when you live somewhere it can still surprise you, so nothing is truly knowable anyway. I especially don't think you discover anything by travelling, except things about yourself [...]
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All that is sold melts into air, by marshall berman
It's an analysis of modernity and marx and his relation to modern thought, with some literature criticism throughout. Section on Goethe's Faust was great.
Beautifully written devoid of trite academic squabbles and jargon.
Also reading Frederick Jameson's Signatures of the Visible. A marxist, frankfurt school critique of cinema.
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Originally posted by Magic1 View PostAll that is sold melts into air, by marshall berman
I'm reading Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
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AMAZING TYPO!!!Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde
StyleZeitgeist Magazine
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