What are you reading?

[Mail-Moth]

Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, translated by Koltès. Young Mamilius is the only one to die, a short time after he whispered in his mother's ear a sad tale about winter, from which we only know the first words. Then comes Leonce's madness and the rest. At the end of the play - if we except Antigonus, who was weak enough to sacrify innocence and for this reason rightfully punished - Mamilius alone is dead. We did not even hear about him again since he did.

For me that is genius. And deeply moving. For all that happens from the moment he tells the unheard story and then is said to be dying thus appears as a dream, a tale, a blurry vision taking root either in childhood's fantasies or in ghastly shadows bordering death. Those tribulations, in the end, ar as unreal as the merry conclusion that comes to redeem them : nothing ever happened - but this child disappearing in his own narration.

[Faust]

Never read this one, Mail-Moth. Sounds like I must.

[Mail-Moth]

The first time I did - that was years ago already - I was in a reading frenesy and because of that hardly noticed the death of this child Mamilius ; or rather, I didn't feel the importance of those few lines where the title of the plays finds its sense. So the whole thing sounded to me as a mere tragicomedy, rather annoying in its second half.

I was just going out of Hamlet then ; that may be an explanation.

[Faust]

/\ Ha! So, a few minutes after you posted I picked up Humboldt's Gift, and what do I read on the page where I left off yesterday?! "He knew the jealousy of King Leontes in The Winter's Tale." Don't you love these coincidences that knit the universe together?!

[Mail-Moth]

Sure I do !

[crckhs]

though that doesn't really stand up to all those classics posted by you guys I'm pretty excited to start dfw's infinite jest.

[Fade to Black]

read the title story of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, finally. Had to stop reading the book after that one for now, it was too much. One of the best short stories I've ever read, though.

[Faust]

/\ Word! The other ones are not as good, but definitely worth reading.

[reborn]

just picked up "Seeing" by J. Saramago. I've read "Blindness" and "All of the Names"...hoping "Seeing" is as good.

[Faust]

What did you think of Blindness? Have it on the shelve, but haven't gotten to it yet.

[reborn]

It's a great read...simple, yet sophisticated.

[Tumnus Truck-Tour]

reading the csound manual.

[Tyler]

I'm reading House of Leaves at the moment.

[galia]

ha. the story of house of leaves was ok in a sort of stephen king way, but the pretentiousness of the whole concept was slightly gross. I guess it's a page-turner and knows how to keep you interested so I read it to the end, while being incredibly annoyed. odd book

I just finished reading German Autumn by Stig Dagerman. the man is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. This book is the result of a series of articles SD wrote as a correspondant in Germany in 1946. It's a bit like Germany Year Zero in book form, incredibly haunting and sad. However, it's probably more devoid of partisanism than rossellini's film, which makes it more interesting to me. Dagerman isn't defending nazis, far from it, but he denounces the suffering of the whole people and the utter and shocking mismanagement of the country by the allied forces. a truly interesting and beautiful read.

[todestrieb]

^ I desperately need to re-visit some Dagerman.

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