What are you reading?

[laika]

Re: What are you reading?



Interesting to hear the discussion around Sebald....I have read The Emigrants and Austerlitz and found them both too academic for my tastes (although I very much wanted to like them)! I can see how one might easily put him to work for critical theory, though.
</p>

Maldoror, are you a literature student?</p>

I am finishing The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon while I await The Lazarus Project in paperback.</p>

I also pulled Pastoralia off the shelf, after reading dbc's endorsement.</p>

And I got a copy of the Red and the Black, at long last. </p>

Thanks, SZ. [51]</p>


</p>

[qnc.hst]

Re: Speaking of Genius

[quote user="maldoror"]

[quote user="Real Real"]

I finished McCarthy's Suttree a month or so ago (took a couple of passes to get through the first 150 pages, and then it took off), and it's now one of my favorites of his novels. It's more laid back and more comic than any of his other books that I've read, even if Suttree still hits on the same basic theme McCarthy's been working since Blood Meridian.[/quote]</p>

The prose in Suttree may be McCarthy's finest. It's one of those books that's just so well written it's more dismaying than inspiring, at least with regard to technique. Overall, I think Blood Meridian is a far greater variation on the theme, and probably the best book he will ever write, even if the language doesn't achieve the same poetic pinnacles of certain other books in his oevre (e.g., Suttree, The Crossing).</p>

On the subject of sickeningly good writing, I just finished reading Tree of Smoke. This text redefines "epic." (even if it's not as plain enjoyable as Jesus' Son) </p>

Currently dividing my time between:</p>

Alain Badiou - The Handbook of Inaesthetics</p>

&amp;</p>

W.G. Sebald - Austerlitz.</p>

The combination of the two is causing me to entirely rethink my thesis (for better or worse . . . )
</p>

[/quote]</p>

I love both of these. Just finished Tree of Smoke about a month ago. I'll have to pick up Jesus' Son soon... I also enjoyed Already Dead. His writing makes me feel... different... than other writing. Wish I could expand on that, but I'm sluggish and articulate right now.
</p>

Man, I haven't checked this thread in too long. I actually think this is my favorite thread on SZ. My library list is so huge because of you folks posting all this stuff I just ain't ever heard such talk of before.
</p>

I'm keeping it boiled right now with Richard Price's Lush Life. Enjoying the dialogue so much + the total lack of taxing on my brain that I've polished off 400 pages in the past 3 days. Brainsugar.</p>

</p>

EDIT: IN-articulate. To really send it home.</p>

[laika]

Re: Re:

[quote user="BECOMING-INTENSE"]

A danish translation of ...</p>

Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert Walter Benjamin</p>

[51]</p>

[/quote]</p>

This is a really lovely one of his...I've been reading it in fragments here and there all summer. [51] </p>

But, i thought you found the members of the frankfurt school too depressing??? [66]</p>


</p>

[deleuze]

Re: Re:

I've always thought of Benjamin as somewhat of an outlier somewhat paralleling Margiela's relation to the Antwerp 6

[Faust]

Re: Re:



[quote user="deleuze"]I've always thought of Benjamin as somewhat of an outlier somewhat paralleling Margiela's relation to the Antwerp 6[/quote]</p>

Hahaha, nice!</p>

[maldoror]

Re: What are you reading?

[quote user="laika"]

Interesting to hear the discussion around Sebald....I have read The Emigrants and Austerlitz and found them both too academic for my tastes (although I very much wanted to like them)! I can see how one might easily put him to work for critical theory, though.
</p>

Maldoror, are you a literature student?</p>

I am finishing The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon while I await The Lazarus Project in paperback.</p>

I also pulled Pastoralia off the shelf, after reading dbc's endorsement.</p>

And I got a copy of the Red and the Black, at long last. </p>

Thanks, SZ. [51]
</p>

[/quote]</p>

was a philosophy student (just graduated). the current thesis work is redux for publication.
</p>

how is the hemon?</p>

[quote user="qnc.hst"]</p>

I also enjoyed Already Dead.
</p>

[/quote]</p>

GREAT book. still has me dreaming about gualala . . .
</p>

[BECOMING-INTENSE]

Re: Re:

[quote user="laika"][quote user="BECOMING-INTENSE"]

A danish translation of ...</p>

Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert Walter Benjamin</p>

[51]</p>

[/quote]</p>

This is a really lovely one of his...I've been reading it in fragments here and there all summer. [51] </p>

But, i thought you found the members of the frankfurt school too depressing??? [66]</p>

[/quote]</p>

</p>

[83]</p>

Now since you're winking at me, I think you would agree, that Benjamin is slightly different creature to Adorno, Horkheimer, Habermass, etc. I don't know if you have read The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction(1936), where he somewhat misleading meditates on the destruction of what he calls "Aura of art", but despite this he does share a much constructive enthusiasm with the likes of Cerra, Cage etc.,for radical experimentation when he posits that a "changed technological standards" is the very precondition of "any new art form". Even though depressing, Benjamin opens up for creative possibilities ...
</p>

But most of all, I enjoy reading his "urban observations" and more poetic endeavors such as the Passagenwerk, Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert, etc. ...
</p>

And we should not forget that Gilles Deleuze was right when he notes that Benjamin made a decisive step in our understanding of the Baroque.</p>

[51]</p>

</p>


</p>

[philip nod]

Re: Re:

finished the road. most depressing thing i've read in years. i hate the summer.

[kira]

Re: Re:

reading this now. it is very sad.

[AKA*NYC]

Re: Re:



[quote user="philip nod"]finished the road. most depressing thing i've read in years. i hate the summer.
[/quote]</p>

Okay I'm sold. I'm going to go out and get a copy today. You should follow it up with Knut Hamsun's Hunger. That will really put you in a mood.</p>

[mamaboy]

Re: Re:

"the official filthy rich handbook"----is it ok to like it ?

[mamaboy]

Re: Re:

anybody knowes a good book of yves saint laurent queenish sayings ?or something like that ?

[Boki]

Re: Re:



at the moment about to finish notes from underground - dostoyevsky, and starting the double by him aswell straight after, just because its a 2 in one book.</P>
<P mce_keep="true"></P>
<P mce_keep="true"></P>

[Faust]

Re: Re:

[quote user="Boki"]

<p mce_keep="true">at the moment about to finish notes from underground - dostoyevsky, and starting the double by him aswell straight after, just because its a 2 in one book.
</p>

[/quote]</p>

[Y]</p>

The Twelve Chairs [&lt;:o)] For the Nth time.
</p>

[Real Real]

Re: Re:

Reading Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent.



One of, if not the, worst accepted-as-a-classic novels that I've ever read. So predictable, torturously overwritten, good lord.