Now Reading

oe is a fairly western writer. read a personal matter if you like that one, it's probably his best book. if you want a really japanese writer i suggest yasunari kawabata. of course they all suffer in translation.

  On 2/7/2013 at 10:42 PM, dese manz hatin said:

I love Nausea. Especially the scene in the park where the character kicks against the roots of a tree and it triggers the whole "existence" experience for him (hope I remembered that right). Even though Sartre's philosophy (generally Existentialism) is in no way my cup of tea, his novels absolutely belong to my favourite books. "Age of Reason" is another one of my all time favourites. I've read that one countless of times.

 

Same with Camus (though I like Sartre's style better). Maybe Existentialism works better as literature than as philosophy. It does so for me at least.

He is not literary kicking the root, but you could describe his mind outburst in the same way. I remember there was anger involved so I wouldn't be surprised:) The scene in the park is the key scene, I feel especially close to that section and the following (where he meets Anny for the last time and then leaving Bouville to move to Paris). I love the way he describes losing his past drop by drop, there are so many nice written passages, and it struck me how simliar I felt some years ago (and still do time to time).

I completely agree with you on existentialist literature. I've read some good stuff on this subject, like Hesse's Steppenwolf for example. If I compare the two, I'd say I like Steppenwolf more because of its deeper insight, but on the other hand, I found Sartre's attitude towards simliar subjects more likeable. He is more optimistic I suspect.

  On 2/8/2013 at 4:10 PM, zaphod said:

oe is a fairly western writer. read a personal matter if you like that one, it's probably his best book. if you want a really japanese writer i suggest yasunari kawabata. of course they all suffer in translation.

thanks, I'll look out for his

Finished Blood Meridian - wow. Loved it. The first half I wasn't entirely sure where it was going, but I persevered, and the second half (roughly from the seizing of the ferry crossing) was just unbelievable. I was gripped. Can't wait to track down some more McCarthy (will probably follow Iain's advice and check out Suttree).

I then read The Kite Runner because my gf wanted me to. I thought it was a good story and enjoyed it, although I wasn't particularly enthralled by the author's style. I really didn't like how he kept pointing out obvious symbols and explicitly referring back to earlier foreshadowing. Give us some credit, let us work this out for ourselves...

Anyway, now reading 1984, as I haven't read it in about a decade and yeah, why ever justify reading this masterpiece?

Very entertaining and interesting.

I was told the (true) story behind this by a friend when we went to The Hunterian Museum.

Being by Mantel I imagine it's well researched.

Have you read Wolf Hall? If so, what did you think?

  On 2/8/2013 at 4:10 PM, zaphod said:

oe is a fairly western writer. read a personal matter if you like that one, it's probably his best book. if you want a really japanese writer i suggest yasunari kawabata. of course they all suffer in translation.

How does Oe compare to say, Murakami Ryu?

  On 2/13/2013 at 12:21 AM, Ron Manager said:

Have you read Wolf Hall? If so, what did you think?

I have not.

I'm a total Mantel hipster. I bought a load of her books when I kept seeing them on charity shop trawls before Wolf Hall was published.

I do want to check it out though.

So far I've read the one in my last post, Fludd and Beyond Black. And maybe one more, I forget.

She also wrote a good piece for the guardian about a hospital stay for a routine operation and the hallucinations she experienced. Went to post the link but it's been removed as 'our copyright has expired.'

  On 2/13/2013 at 8:07 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 2/13/2013 at 12:21 AM, Ron Manager said:

Have you read Wolf Hall? If so, what did you think?

 

I have not.

 

I'm a total Mantel hipster. I bought a load of her books when I kept seeing them on charity shop trawls before Wolf Hall was published.

 

I do want to check it out though.

 

So far I've read the one in my last post, Fludd and Beyond Black. And maybe one more, I forget.

 

She also wrote a good piece for the guardian about a hospital stay for a routine operation and the hallucinations she experienced. Went to post the link but it's been removed as 'our copyright has expired.'

Ah OK. Wolf Hall is the only thing of hers I've read. Very mixed feelings about it on the whole, it was one of the most difficult books I've read in recent memory. And by that I mean it was literally difficult to work out who was saying what, if anything, and which Thomas did what thing... anyone else who's read it must know what I mean. At times it was incredibly frustrating.

On the other hand, the historian in me very much approves of looking at past events from different perspectives, and on the whole I like how she has used the novel to basically rehabilitate Cromwell as an historical figure.

Haven't read Bring Up The Bodies yet - I plan to, but I'll need to muster up the strength...

Just finished 2001: A Space Odyssey

now onto

Blue Movie by Terry Southern

I'm re-reading some Büchner stuff (Lenz, Woyzeck and others) and holy shit that man is amazing. Woyzeck is one of the best literary works of social criticism I've read I think, same goes for the Werner Herzog movie. And Lenz is simply awesome in every aspect.

  On 2/13/2013 at 7:20 AM, chenGOD said:

 

  On 2/8/2013 at 4:10 PM, zaphod said:

oe is a fairly western writer. read a personal matter if you like that one, it's probably his best book. if you want a really japanese writer i suggest yasunari kawabata. of course they all suffer in translation.

 

How does Oe compare to say, Murakami Ryu?

i might rephrase that to say that stylistically he is very western. his subject matter is heavily japanese, for the most part. a personal matter is about a father with a mentally disabled son, which is basically oe, since his son was born with brain damage and still lives with him at forty. that character, hikari, is in most of his novels.

ryu murakami is maybe the most western of the japanese writers i've read. i don't really like his stuff though. the other murakami, haruki, is pretty western too, although wind up bird does deal with japan's past.

so, maybe oe is the most socially responsible japanese writer but very western in terms of style. if you read mishima or kawabata, it's like reading prose poetry. kawabata kind of invented flash fiction with his palm of the hand stories, some of which are half a page and read like extended haiku.

Got a copy of this in the post:

Despite the keen red and black colour scheme - which my copy doesn't have - this isn't some sort of anarcho-syndicalist tract. Instead it's an examination of suicide, alcoholism and other self-destructive behaviour from a psychoanalytical perspective. It's quite old - from the 1930s - but I've heard it's very good. And I'm interested in getting to the root of my own self-destructive impulses and behaviours.

I've also made a start on this, which has been sitting neglected on my shelf since October:

I generally like Nabokov but this hasn't really grabbed me. But I feel the need to persevere with it because it was a present from my partner.

I just started to read Marcel proust's search for lost time. This will take a while, i think.

lol

  On 2/13/2013 at 10:12 PM, dese manz hatin said:

I'm re-reading some Büchner stuff (Lenz, Woyzeck and others) and holy shit that man is amazing. Woyzeck is one of the best literary works of social criticism I've read I think, same goes for the Werner Herzog movie. And Lenz is simply awesome in every aspect.

I read Lenz last year. Incredible book, and far ahead of its time.

Finished Dubliners and Libra. Also read Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicles and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia in the last couple of weeks.

Don't really do sci-fi very often. on the third one so far and still enjoying.

  On 2/18/2013 at 10:46 AM, mokz said:

Finished Dubliners and Libra. Also read Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicles and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia in the last couple of weeks.

Musicophillia, is it good? I would like more "in-depth" information about music and brain, and I've seen some reviews about that book and said a bit the opposite.

  On 2/23/2013 at 5:56 AM, logakght said:

 

  On 2/18/2013 at 10:46 AM, mokz said:

Finished Dubliners and Libra. Also read Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicles and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia in the last couple of weeks.

 

Musicophillia, is it good? I would like more "in-depth" information about music and brain, and I've seen some reviews about that book and said a bit the opposite.

It's mostly a sort of collection of patient histories regarding how neural disorders and damage affects musical perception, like tonality, timbre and rhythm either by heightening or by inhibiting them. Also some interesting notes on how music can be used as a tool for therapy for people suffering various neural disorders. It's not really an in-depth look into how music works in the brain. If you've read Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" then it's kind of similar but the cases are musically themed.

At one point he referenced Rouget's "Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations Between Music and Possession" which seems interesting. I'll be probably getting this sometime.

  On 2/23/2013 at 5:37 AM, VIII said:

 

  On 2/18/2013 at 10:46 AM, mokz said:

Finished Dubliners and Libra. Also read Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicles and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia in the last couple of weeks.

 

murakami has this certain feeling of dread permeating through parts of his books. the feelings get intense during the more surreal / dreamlike parts (the bottom of the well / dream hotel scenes come to mind in wind-up bird). his plots seem very direct and simplistic at first, but that adds to the atmosphere of wrongness. or something.

Heh, yeah. I find some of his work kind of Philip K. Dick-ian, like the Hard-boiled Wonderland and 1Q84 in a sense that there's two or more separate story lines or even different worlds that seem unrelated at first then start to converge towards the end.

Also the male protagonists in his books seem to be sort of "lost" or antiheroic guys who interact with a cavalcade of strange female characters and that leads to bizarre and surreal situations. Somehow I can relate with that.

Speaking of PKD, just started The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Only ever read The Man In The High Castle. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

  On 2/23/2013 at 4:49 PM, Ron Manager said:

Speaking of PKD, just started The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Only ever read The Man In The High Castle. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

I think I've read most of PKD's work in the last twenty years but probably I missed some novels. I can't remember exactly what I've read because there's so much of it over such a long period and I just read what I came across unsystematically. At least I know I haven't read his Exegesis.

As for "now reading" I'm currently reading Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories.

Just finished Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Interesting ancient history of Middle-earth and the lands across the sea to the west. Also has a good overview of the events just before The Lord of the Rings, going into a lil bit of detail about the origin of the wizards and the meetings of the White Council.

  On 2/23/2013 at 5:05 PM, mokz said:

 

  On 2/23/2013 at 4:49 PM, Ron Manager said:

Speaking of PKD, just started The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Only ever read The Man In The High Castle. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

 

I think I've read most of PKD's work in the last twenty years but probably I missed some novels. I can't remember exactly what I've read because there's so much of it over such a long period and I just read what I came across unsystematically. At least I know I haven't read his Exegesis.

 

As for "now reading" I'm currently reading Carroll's Alice in Wonderland stories.

Any tips? I've got Ubik and Valis in mind to check out soon, as they seem to get mentioned quite a lot. I guess Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is probably a should-read too.