Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

What are you reading?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • MJRH
    Senior Member
    • Nov 2006
    • 418

    Originally posted by Faust View Post
    I can only go by The Tropic of Cancer and it was all nihilism and muck and darkness, whereas Hesse is all about enlightenment.
    i love Hesse, and he is more overtly concerned with the theme of enlightenment, but the beauty of Miller is that he finds enlightenment in all the aforesaid. a quote of his from Karl Shapiro's intro to Tropic of Cancer:

    At no time in the history of man has the world been so full of pain and anguish. Here and there, however, we meet with individuals who are untouched, unsullied, by the common grief. We say of them that they have died to the world.* They live in the moment, fully, and the radiance which emanates from them is a perpetual song of joy.

    if all you read into Tropic was really muck and darkness and nihilism, i'd highly suggest revisiting it with this quote in mind, because there's a redemptive Rabelaisian jouissance that shines through all of that, and makes Miller so lovable

    *this isn't nihilism, it's enlightenment
    ain't no beauty queens in this locality

    Comment

    • Fade to Black
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2008
      • 5340

      Borrowed from library today:

      Don DeLillo - The Body Artist and Great Jones Street

      Mark Strand - New Selected Poems
      www.matthewhk.net

      let me show you a few thangs

      Comment

      • Faust
        kitsch killer
        • Sep 2006
        • 37852

        Originally posted by MJRH View Post
        i love Hesse, and he is more overtly concerned with the theme of enlightenment, but the beauty of Miller is that he finds enlightenment in all the aforesaid. a quote of his from Karl Shapiro's intro to Tropic of Cancer:

        At no time in the history of man has the world been so full of pain and anguish. Here and there, however, we meet with individuals who are untouched, unsullied, by the common grief. We say of them that they have died to the world.* They live in the moment, fully, and the radiance which emanates from them is a perpetual song of joy.

        if all you read into Tropic was really muck and darkness and nihilism, i'd highly suggest revisiting it with this quote in mind, because there's a redemptive Rabelaisian jouissance that shines through all of that, and makes Miller so lovable

        *this isn't nihilism, it's enlightenment
        Well, Shapiro and I must have been reading different books, because the main character's search does not extend beyond a next meal, next bottle of wine, and next pussy. Even his intellectual labors are just another form of prostitution, which he himself acknowledges.
        Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

        StyleZeitgeist Magazine

        Comment

        • Majax
          Junior Member
          • Jan 2010
          • 17

          Originally posted by Faust View Post
          Well, Shapiro and I must have been reading different books, because the main character's search does not extend beyond a next meal, next bottle of wine, and next pussy. Even his intellectual labors are just another form of prostitution, which he himself acknowledges.
          He can't "acknowledge" something in a novel, even if the one who is speaking is "I", as if it was an interview.


          Well I don't know much Miller but I've almost finished Sexus today, it's an ode to life.

          Comment

          • trentk
            Senior Member
            • Oct 2010
            • 709

            sixledge - try nick land's the thirst for anhillation. closer to bataille then anything else, but land does call henry miller base materialism's patron saint if I remember correctly. http://www.amazon.com/Thirst-Annihil.../dp/041505608X
            "He described this initial impetus as like discovering that they both were looking at the same intriguing specific tropical fish, with attempts to understand it leading to a huge ferocious formalism he characterizes as a shark that leapt out of the tank."

            Comment

            • Faust
              kitsch killer
              • Sep 2006
              • 37852

              Originally posted by Majax View Post
              He can't "acknowledge" something in a novel, even if the one who is speaking is "I", as if it was an interview.


              Well I don't know much Miller but I've almost finished Sexus today, it's an ode to life.
              He = "main character." Did you fail reading comprehension in high school?
              Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

              StyleZeitgeist Magazine

              Comment

              • Majax
                Junior Member
                • Jan 2010
                • 17

                @Macro and MJRH: thanks for the advice and especially the list from Barthelme ! (already read some US contemporary authors he mentionned in interviews but did not know this list).

                Maybe I'll go back to Selby Jr some day (it did not work for me some years ago). The Tao Te King: yes, had a look but did not really get "into" it or was not "absorbed". And I was a bit dubitative considering the differences in the text from one translation to another... (same for Chinese poetry, by the way) (now I want to look at it again but can't find it... damn)


                @sixledge: I should have mentioned also Hunger from Knut Hamsun, an author Miller admired by the way as you may know.

                Comment

                • Majax
                  Junior Member
                  • Jan 2010
                  • 17

                  Originally posted by Faust View Post
                  He = "main character." Did you fail reading comprehension in high school?

                  He = main character, yes, and so what? What does-it change to what I wrote?

                  Comment

                  • sixledge
                    Member
                    • Dec 2011
                    • 59

                    Thanks guys, I added Hunger and Thirst for Annihilation to my list.

                    A friend had a copy of the The Picture Of Dorian Gray laying around and I started reading through. A little bit different from what I would usually read but ok so far.

                    Also, why is Thirst for Annihilation so expensive?
                    Last edited by sixledge; 02-07-2013, 10:07 AM.

                    Comment

                    • trentk
                      Senior Member
                      • Oct 2010
                      • 709

                      because it's out of print and by a (semi-retired) philosopher with a strange cultish following.
                      "He described this initial impetus as like discovering that they both were looking at the same intriguing specific tropical fish, with attempts to understand it leading to a huge ferocious formalism he characterizes as a shark that leapt out of the tank."

                      Comment

                      • Caffiend
                        Junior Member
                        • Feb 2013
                        • 3

                        Impressed by J.Lakoff's "Metaphors we live by".

                        Comment

                        • modalsaliency
                          Senior Member
                          • May 2010
                          • 120

                          Rereading Mieville's The City & The City.

                          I'd forgotten how good he was at beginnings and how flat at endings.

                          Comment

                          • inconduit
                            Senior Member
                            • Jun 2009
                            • 125

                            story of your life and others by ted chiang. a really excellent collection of short stories that are science fiction but not too science.

                            Comment

                            • robertwalser
                              Junior Member
                              • Dec 2012
                              • 2

                              I am finishing up the English translations of Robert Walser. Currently reading The Tanners.

                              Comment

                              • AKA*NYC
                                Senior Member
                                • Nov 2007
                                • 3007

                                Originally posted by robertwalser View Post
                                I am finishing up the English translations of Robert Walser. Currently reading The Tanners.
                                nice first post
                                LOVE THE SHIRST... HOW much?

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X
                                😀
                                🥰
                                🤢
                                😎
                                😡
                                👍
                                👎