I finished Moss Hart's autobiography "Act One" and am about to start a biography of jazz tenor player Ben "The Brute" Webster." It is called "His Life & His Music: Ben Webster" and it was penned by J. de Walk.
Originally posted by vitunkrapula: I like to think of Vonnegut as like Pynchon in miniature. Pynchon loves the zoom in, Vonnegut the zoom out.
I meant to, but I'm bogged down in DF Wallace's Infinite Jest, which is currently taking up the '5 lbs or heavier' category in my reading diet.
My current reading list:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace the Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
The list looks forbidding to me now. It makes me realize I am much better at starting books than I am at finishing them.
I think you're spot on in your characterization of Vonnegut as a miniaturist. I also think he was a satirist first, and "literary" second. In some ways, he was the opposite of Wallace, who I think is all about technique, and only later does he bother to figure out what it's all about. I especially felt that way about Infinite Jest. I thought it was all pyrotechnics. I enjoyed it, but given that there is no real narrative arc, and no actual conclusion, I felt you could almost choose a section at random, read as much of it as you wanted, and get as much out of it as reading the whole book. Tin Drum was a monster. Almost 30 years later, eels still give me the willies. If you haven't yet gotten to that scene, I think you'll know what I mean when you get there. Have you ever read Umberto Eco? Looking at your list, I suspect you'd like him.
--------------- I wonder if you're mythologizing me, like I do you
Posts: 1429 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
quote: Originally posted by vitunkrapula: If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
His best.
Good to hear - I have a really tough time picking favorites with Calvino. I'm afraid this one might have a little too much 'meta' in it, but I'm sure I'll be in the mood for that sooner or later. I adored Invisible Cities - read it in one sitting. Baron in the Trees and Cosmicomics were both also wonderful.
quote:
...I also think he was a satirist first, and "literary" second. In some ways, he was the opposite of Wallace, who I think is all about technique, and only later does he bother to figure out what it's all about. I especially felt that way about Infinite Jest. I thought it was all pyrotechnics. I enjoyed it, but given that there is no real narrative arc, and no actual conclusion, I felt you could almost choose a section at random, read as much of it as you wanted, and get as much out of it as reading the whole book. Tin Drum was a monster. Almost 30 years later, eels still give me the willies. If you haven't yet gotten to that scene, I think you'll know what I mean when you get there. Have you ever read Umberto Eco? Looking at your list, I suspect you'd like him.
I completely agree about Vonnegut and Wallace. I read the Broom of the System quite a while ago, but all I really remember from that was a hilariously inappropriate comment by somebody's parrot. Some bits of Infinite Jest are amazing though - like the section describing the nuclear holocaust game the tennis kids play. The thing is that not all of the storylines keep my attention - for some reason the AA circuit wasn't entertaining enough. I'm such a heartless bitch.
I watched the Tin Drum for my German language lab last semester, so there's no huge plot surprises coming. So far, I'm amazed at how well the film adaptation was done. There are a couple differences but all are totally understandable from a film perspective. And the tone is captured so well. and I don't want to eat fish anymore either.
I studied a smidge of Eco in a seimotics class, so I've been a little hesitant to pick up his fiction. Not that I don't like his theory, but for some reason I'm afraid the theory and fiction won't be mixed well and it will leave a bad taste in my mouth. I have Foucault's Pendulum around here somewhere...I'll get to it.
"Il Basket d'Italia" by Jim Patton. I don't even remember buying this one so it has been sitting on my shelf for awhile. It has a copyright of '94 and I bought it somewhere for $3.99. Basically, a journal of a free-lance writer from the U.S. who spent a year in Italy following the Italian basketball teams. So far it is shaping up as an interesting read. It is kind of structured as a travelog.
Originally posted by vitunkrapula: I studied a smidge of Eco in a seimotics class, so I've been a little hesitant to pick up his fiction. Not that I don't like his theory, but for some reason I'm afraid the theory and fiction won't be mixed well and it will leave a bad taste in my mouth. I have Foucault's Pendulum around here somewhere...I'll get to it.
Foucault's Pendulum is a fabulous book, but Eco the semiotician is in full force here. He also makes no concession to those of us not fluent in Hebrew, and Ancient Greek, and with only a passing familiarity with Latin and French. I think Foucault's Pendulum is the book that Dan Brown would write if he were: a) smarter, b) better educated, and c) not writing for a broad popular audience. I would start with The Name of the Rose. It is still one of my favorite books of all time, with lots of ecclesiastical history and theological controversy wrapped up in a yummy historical fiction/murder mystery pastry shell. I wish I could read it again for the first time.
--------------- I wonder if you're mythologizing me, like I do you
Posts: 1429 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy I never really had a chance to read this so I picked it up... Plus, All the Pretty Horses is in my top ten novels of all time!
"Violence, she solved everything"
Posts: 1241 | Location: Nowhere | Registered: 31 July 2006
Which do you think was, EOAI? Since you said APH is on of your top ten of all time, I assume that's the one? I liked All the Pretty Horses. I liked the way it plays with conventions of genre novels. I also liked the tone and the pace. However, I felt that his attempt to make the characters archetypal was a bit strained, and rather than making them easier to identify with, actually distanced them from the reader. I think McCarthy has a bit of a problem with this, even in The Road, which I like the best of his books. The namelessness and relative anonymity of his characters works better in The Road, IMO, because he's working with a post-apocalyptic future where everyone is stripped of his/her humanity. Even then, turning the boy into a Joseph Campbell like, messianic Hero, wouldn't have worked if he hadn't invested us emotionally in the relationship of the boy and his father. Maybe it's because I'm a father, but I found the ending of the Road moving in a way that I never experienced in any other McCarthy books. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
--------------- I wonder if you're mythologizing me, like I do you
Posts: 1429 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
Yes, All the Pretty Horses is my favorite by McCarthy. However, I do agree with you about the Road... It'a very moving novel that is more emotional and poetic than APH. But with APH, I found it to be more interesting to have distance between the characters and the readers because it gives you space to accept the novel and the characters in it. Another reason I like McCarthy is because when he describes scenery, he gives it great depth and almost a life-like feel. With the Road, the enviroment is barren and demolished but with APH the enviroment isn't quite as disturbing. I love both books and think you've made some great points. I really can't relate to the Road but with All the Pretty Horse, I could. When I read that book, I was the same age as John Grady Cole. I could understand why he wanted to run away, I could understand his feelings about love and pain. Maybe, that's why I enjoyed APH more because it gave me more insight on what was to come in my life.
"Violence, she solved everything"
Posts: 1241 | Location: Nowhere | Registered: 31 July 2006
I understand what you're saying. Isn't it interesting how different books speak to you at different stages of your life? Cliche, perhaps, but also true.
--------------- I wonder if you're mythologizing me, like I do you
Posts: 1429 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
I've been trying to get into Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, but it's an extremely strange read. I find myself backtracking often to figure out what's going on, and a fair amount of the references are lost on me. Having some kind of companion would probably be helpful, but I'd rather read it one time through without any influence. I'm only 50 pages through, so I've got a long way to go. Anyone who's read this have any suggestions for how to get a better grasp on it?
Posts: 1376 | Location: Valparaiso, IN | Registered: 01 July 2006
I think most of Pynchon is a fairly tough slog. Gravity's Rainbow has over 400 characters. I'm currently reading Against the Day, and it seems to have only a few less than 400. I think the best way to read GR is just to read it, without trying to keep the pieces and threads straight. Almost let it wash over you. It's fairly episodic anyway. Over time, themes and characters start recurring, and those threads start to coalesce. Almost like looking at a painting. When you stand very close, all you see are splotches of color and texture. As you start moving away, the whole begins to come into focus, until you can finally see the cathedral, or the haystacks, or the little fluffy bunny. Or whatever.
--------------- I wonder if you're mythologizing me, like I do you
Posts: 1429 | Location: State of Disarray | Registered: 10 January 2007
I'm currently towards the end of David Mitchell's Black Swan Green; which I'm thoroughly enjoying as a kind of portrait of the artist as a young man. I would argue that his Cloud Atlas is so extraordinary that it is sui generis. Like John Kennedy Toole, he will have admirers, but few disciples.
'for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die.'
Posts: 2159 | Location: The ever silent spaces of the East | Registered: 12 February 2007
