|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0316920045
| 9780316920049
| 0316920045
| 4.25
| 94,189
| Feb 01, 1996
| 1996
|
CRITIQUE: How Does It Feel? Most generations produce some authors and novels that try to boldly explore the world, if not the universe, sometimes in its CRITIQUE: How Does It Feel? Most generations produce some authors and novels that try to boldly explore the world, if not the universe, sometimes in its entirety. “Ulysses”, “The Recognitions”, “Gravity's Rainbow”, “White Noise”, “Infinite Jest” (I so wanted to add “Harry Potter”, “Twilight”, “The Hunger Games”). Increasingly, as the world and our perception of it have become more diverse and complex, so have the ambition and complexity of these novels. Not everyone likes them, either. James Wood has criticized novels such as “Infinite Jest” (“IJ”) for their “Hysterical Realism”. Inverting an analogy used by Zadie Smith, he argues that the role of writers is to tell us “how it feels”, rather than “how the world works”. While I believe that David Foster Wallace (DFW) wrote a lot about feeling and how to feel better in and about this world, he was undoubtedly interested in how the world works. The System and the Broomstick There is another school of critics that places “IJ” within the category “Systems Novels”. I’m not a great fan of the critical concept of “Systems Novels”, partly because every novel defines a System of some sorts, it’s just a matter of the size and complexity of the System that differentiates them. Besides, the term is used by many critics as a pejorative term to deride novels that appeal to me. It’s probably best to return to Zadie’s original comment about David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers: “These are guys who know a great deal about the world. They understand macro-microeconomics, the way the Internet works, math, philosophy, but...they're still people who know something about the street, about family, love, sex, whatever. That is an incredibly fruitful combination. If you can get the balance right. And I don't think any of us have quite yet, but hopefully one of us will." The Psychological Novel I don’t want to denigrate novels that are preoccupied with how characters feel. It is a major (perhaps, the greatest) preoccupation of humanity to seek out love and happiness. However, I do want to say that most “how does it feel” novels are prefaced on a world that was originally, possibly, much different to the world of today. The outside world (and the world of literature) at the time was concerned with the individual and how the individual met certain challenges. The individual had to detect, define, wrestle with and overcome the challenges. To use Aristotle’s analysis, a writer could build a whole (consisting of a beginning, a middle and an end) around the character and how they felt about and dealt with their challenges. However, the world was very much constructed as a stage for the character and the audience to act upon. In an era of Imperialism, the world was little more than a prop for the Hero’s Journey or the Hero’s Conquest. I will describe this type of fiction as “Psychological”. I don’t mean in the sense of understanding how the mind works, but in the sense of describing what is happening in the protagonist’s mind. This type of novel tells us how the character felt during their Hero’s Journey. We witness the protagonist exercise their Free Will. We witness characters exert power and impose themselves successfully on the world. Everything is very self-centred. The world is centred on each Self. Each Self is centred and symmetrical and well-ordered. The protagonists are mentally healthy. The plot is a challenge, but it all ends happily. Sanity prevails. All’s well that ends well. The Socio-Political Novel In contrast, the subject matter of a so-called “Systems Novel” is: “ ‘that systematized and disembodied nightmare’ of contemporary life, depicting a world in which human beings are formed, informed and deformed by ideological systems that compete, collide and collaborate across a novelistic canvas that can sometimes seem as vast as the world - or even the universe.” Brian Oard: “The Systems Novel: Some Thoughts Toward a Definition” (citing Fredric Jameson's book, “The Prison-House of Language”) http://mindfulpleasures.blogspot.com.... When the protagonist is totally overcome by the world or the system, then the concerns of the Novel can become Psycho-Pathological. Where the aim of the author is to protest or draw attention to the underlying reality of this world, then the Novel takes on a Socio-Political dimension. What I will call the “Socio-Political Novel” sees the world as more than just a stage for the individual to act upon. It has a “Socio-Political” dimension, that might be bigger and greater than the individual and therefore potentially or probably beyond the control of the individual. The individual might still be capable of emerging as a Hero. Or the world might make a Victim of the individual, or a Mess. In other words, within the framework of a particular novel, there might be No More Heroes Any More. It’s up to the author to choose. All the World’s a Stage Nowadays, the protagonists can still act or strut upon the stage, but don’t expect the stage to be level or the character to prevail. This is a metaphor for modern life. People still “feel” in this world, but they can feel “powerless”. This is a feeling that needs to be written about. It’s a mistake to suggest that we are still in control and our characters will inevitably prevail in all circumstances in Act Three. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the implication is that, not only might there be “no Second Acts in American Lives”, there might be no Third Acts. We might just dwell in a world First Acts from which we can’t escape or progress. We might not be able to reach a resolution or perfection. We might have ceased to be perfectible. Philosophers have been telling this to us for ages. Only most of our novelists haven’t been paying attention. Though perhaps the ones who ignore their counsel are mounting a defence (a Self-Defence) and counter-attack. Why Is It So? When I hear the question “how do you feel”, I always think of “60 Minutes”-type current affairs. I always feel that the program somehow misses the point, the real underlying cause of the problem. Some of the writers who James Wood criticizes for their "Hysterical Realism" want to go beyond "60 Minutes" enquiries and ask "why is it so?" This appeals to the part of me that wants to solve problems, not just at a micro level, but at a macro level. But it also reflects my views about how the world has changed. Not everything in the world is within the control of the individual, strutting on the stage. This was made apparent a reasonably short time after the publication of “Infinite Jest”. 9/11 and then the GFC showed that there are macro-political and macro-economic forces at play. It would have been very tempting to focus on the grief at these events. However, sooner or later, we had to start asking, why did it happen, why is it so, why? This is the purpose of history, of our story, to prevent the recurrence of a Tragedy as a Farce. Events like this affect the world of the individual, because they affect society as a whole. I don't see why they can't come within the province of the writer. If we restrict ourselves to "how it feels", we run the risk of being like a single cell organism that keeps bumping into something that gives it a strange sensation, yet isn't able to work out "why is it so" and avoid the same life-threatening sensation in the future. The ability to ask and try to answer the "why is it so" question is part of what makes us uniquely human and different from other organisms. Hence, we should be able to write about it. The form of writing is ultimately personal to the author. Black humour is just one of many legitimate literary responses. However, it is possible to write of this world with total seriousness. The End of the Systems Novel? Some critics argue that 9/11 spelt the end of the Systems Novel. I believe that they are more important than ever. They are just very hard to write. In a world where someone can know a little about a lot, a Systems Novel requires knowledge of a lot about a lot. The Incandescent Mind of David Foster Wallace DFW wanders through the darkness of the modern world, holding a candle, recording everything he witnesses in minute, helmet-cam detail. He isn’t just preoccupied by or satisfied with the absurdity and comic potential of the world. He wants to scrutinise it, diagnose it and cure it. Out of the minutiae comes meaning and illumination. It’s up to the reader to sift through the minutiae, to discard the mullock and the fool’s gold, and to find the gold that DFW has placed there for us to find. His works are incandescent, deeply philosophical, deeply socio-political. Dare I say it, his message is deep and meaningful. As is the custom in America and elsewhere, he was brought up and made to feel vaguely ashamed of his depth and the seriousness of his prescription. This is the Catch 22 he wanted to define: that we lived and worked within a socio-economic system that was very efficient and/or effective at making things for us to consume, but was very bad at making us happy (or actually made us unhappy, in the same way our food makes us fat). He felt that, to point this out, to declare that the Emperor (and his Subjects) had no clothes (in the spiritual sense), was to risk being declared a traitor to capitalism and society. Still, somebody had to put up their hand and reveal how it really felt. The great American fiction could not go on forever. So, is DFW the one who can tell us how it really feels? In Which the Author Assembles an Ensemble So whose feelings are we talking about? First, there is the Incandenza Family, originally from Boston: Jim (“Himself”), an educator, founder of the Enfield Tennis Academy and independent film maker (deceased). Avril (“the Moms”), an educator, formerly married to Jim, now engaged in various affairs, very intelligent, tall and beautiful. Orin , oldest son, former talented tennis player, now successful football player, serial womanizer, previously engaged to Joelle Van Dyne. Mario (“Booboo”), middle son, deformed, possibly fathered by Charles Tavis, filmmaker following in Jim’s footsteps. Hal (“the Inctser”), youngest son, talented tennis player, drug addict and slacker, attempting to gain entry to the University of Arizona. Other characters include: Joelle Van Dyne , Orin’s former fiancée, actress in most of Jim’s films (including “Infinite Jest”), radio announcer on MIT Station WYYY (also known as "Madame Psychosis", "the Prettiest Girl of All Time” and “P.G.O.A.T."), former cocaine addict, patient at Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House, member of U.H.I.D. (Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed) and wears a veil to hide possible facial deformities. Don Gately, a formal Demerol addict and burglar, AA Member and resident counselor at Ennet House. Remy Marathe , member of a Québécois separatist group, “Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents” (A.F.R.), also known as the “Wheelchair Assassins”. Hugh/Helen Steeply , an agent with the Office of Unspecified Services (“O.U.S.”, a successor to the FBI) who assumes a transsexual identity, including as a female journalist with “Moment” Magazine, with whom Orin Incandenza becomes obsessed. The Set Up Jim made a film “cartridge” called “Infinite Jest” or “The Entertainment” which featured Joelle. It is believed that no copy has survived Jim’s suicide. However, copies start turning up, and anybody who watches it becomes obsessed and incapacitated. The A.F.R. learns about it and wishes to find the Master Copy, so that it can disseminate it to the people of the United States (now part of the Organization of North American Nations (“O.N.A.N.”)). Its goal is to undermine the US economy and society, to such an extent that the USA will punish Canada unless it allows Quebec to secede. The A.F.R. thinks it will be able to obtain a copy from a member of the Incandenza Family or Joelle at Ennet House. The O.U.S. wishes to defend the U.S.A. against the terrorist attack, so begins a race to get access to the Master Copy. Meanwhile, Hal resolves to try out a powerful drug called DMZ a few days before playing in the Tucson, Arizona WhataBurger Tennis Tournament. It has all of the hallmarks of a post-modern comic drama. Does It Matter if the Author Loses the Plot? One of the elements of “Infinite Jest” that frustrates many readers is its plot (or the apparent lack thereof). Most of us are comfortable with a plot that unfolds chronologically. Many of us can handle a plot that jumps around between the present and the past. However, most of us expect a plot of some description, so that at the end of the novel we can piece together what happened over what timeframe. It’s tempting to say that “Infinite Jest” has no plot. However, it’s probably more accurate to say that the plot is secondary. Though, if it’s secondary, it begs the question: to what is it secondary? What is primary? Plot is a product of fiction or story-telling. It does not occur naturally. No life reveals a natural order or plot, at least while it is being lived. Individuals might try to impose an order or a plot or a direction on their own lives, but ultimately there are things that the individual cannot manipulate or control. The absence of plot thickens, when multiple lives are involved. The purpose of these assertions is to argue that we should not expect or demand plot in creativity, except perhaps as a condition of entertainment. Within entertainment, we have become accustomed to witnessing the Hero’s Journey. We don’t just want things to happen or to occur. We want to observe the protagonist’s self-discovery, we want to witness things “occur” to the protagonist, not just in terms of happening, but in terms of them “coming to mind”. We want things to be real and we want the protagonist to realise themselves. This is the demand of entertainment. The Moral of the Story If you return to the origins of literature (e.g., the Bible and similar works), it had a didactic intent. It was designed to communicate wisdom or a moral (or morals). Plot and description were adornments designed to make the wisdom or moral more memorable. In an oral tradition, they helped the wisdom or morals to be communicated down the line and across time. They illuminated the content, they cast a spell over it, they embodied God’s Spell and became Gospel truth. The moral of the story is that people remembered. The moral of the story is what people remembered. To some extent, “IJ” is a secular bible. Therefore, there is a sense in which it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have a plot. In Which the Characters Bury the Plot At one level, “IJ” is a novel of character. In a post-modern novel, there should now be some flexibility in how an author can construct (and build an affinity for) a character or an ensemble of characters. Readers don’t need detail about a character to be assembled chronologically. Equally, it needn’t be added by way of plot. When we meet someone new in real life, we meet them in one moment of time. They don’t come attached to any particular chronology. We take a snapshot of them, we analyse it and then we build on it over time. Or eyes move all over the place, north to south, east to west, and back again. We determine what we perceive and remember. Bit by bit, we form a picture of the person, and we test and add to it over time. The same occurs in “IJ”. Increasingly, I started to think of the process in terms of a sculpture, in which the author fashions a character out of clay. Think of Giacometti. Initially, the person starts out as a primitive figure. http://www.moma.org/collection_images... Slowly, the author adds detail and complexity. The sequence in which the sculptor sculpts the limbs, the torso and the head makes no difference to the outcome. The fullness of character accrues over time, as it does in real life. Then, we start to see the individual in the context of others. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DX8drEIV750... http://funandlearning.files.wordpress... There is something about the sculptor in how DFW fashioned his characters and built them over the course of the novel. We readers have to work on the assemblage to get the most out of it. However, our effort means that we relate to DFW’s characters. It might have taken a while, it might have tested our patience, but by the end of the novel we care about these people and, most importantly, we want to know more about them. Their lives continued, and we wish that we’d been able to be there with them. In Which the Author Sets Out Novel Ideas At another level, “IJ” is primarily a novel of ideas, ideas about political philosophy and psychology. An explication of these ideas doesn’t need a plot. It simply needs a comprehensible logic. Here, we have the added benefit of characters. “IJ” is not an empty exercise in post-modern formalism. It cares about these characters and the ideas that apply to them. On Constructing and Deconstructing An Infinite Jest Just as DFW builds characters, he uses ideas as the building blocks with which to construct knowledge and wisdom. Again, his technique involves the accumulation of detail. If we’re prepared to go the distance, he takes us on a journey from ridiculous detail to sublime knowledge and wisdom. He constructs 1,000 pages; we have to make an effort to reduce it by interpretation and understanding. He presents his subject matter as found, it’s up to us to distil it (though Jim doesn’t like the word “deconstruct”). He specialises in “found drama”, drama that appears to be there in the real world, but in fact has been carefully selected and arranged to give the impression of reality. He passes it on to us for our delectation. We have to chew, we have to digest, we have to sleep on it. We have to process, refine, emerge with our own meaning. How Long Should An Infinite Jest Be? DFW could have edited it, he could have made the experience shorter, but perhaps when you really get into these people, he would have reduced the pleasure and the fulfillment. OK, so it could have been shorter, but so what? Some things are made to last, some things are meant to last a little bit longer, some pleasures are worth prolonging. ... ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
not set
|
not set
|
Apr 16, 2024
|
Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1785658573
| 9781785658570
| 1785658573
| 3.52
| 1,016
| Apr 16, 2019
| Apr 16, 2019
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: An Idea for a Book Review (That Just Came Out of Nowhere) [Apologies to David Quantick] This novel is so well woven together, its themes and na CRITIQUE: An Idea for a Book Review (That Just Came Out of Nowhere) [Apologies to David Quantick] This novel is so well woven together, its themes and narrative so neatly combined, that it is difficult to find a part that doesn't contain a necessary revelation or a major plot twist. "All My Colors" is a tour de force. But it's more than that. Tours de force come and go. This book is special. Find it. Buy it. Read it. First editions of this book are going to be valuable. "All My Colors" is the book of the year, if not the decade. It combines a modern attitude to life and society with an almost arch 1950s feel, almost as if David Quantick's novel has been transported from an earlier time, with a frank contemporary take on the war between men and women running through it like a seam of antiquated yet still valuable ore. Move over, Saul Bellow, and let David Quantick (1) take over. [image] The Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel FOOTNOTES: (1) I recall David Quantick as a music journalist who wrote for New Musical Express (NME) in the early 1980's. He often wrote about one of my favourite bands, the Jesus and Mary Chain. This novel is named after a song by another one of my favourite bands, Echo & the Bunnymen, whom I was lucky to see live twice in the early 80's. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ [Dedicated to Echo & The Bunnymen’s drummer, Peter de Freitas] Echo & the Bunnymen - "All My Colours" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQUcz... Echo & the Bunnymen - "All My Colours" [Live on Dutch TV, 1981] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmCau... Echo & The Bunnymen - "All My Colours (Turn to Cloud)" [Peel Session 1980] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKqjO... The Jesus And Mary Chain - "Just Like Honey" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EgB_... The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Just Like Honey" (Feat. Phoebe Bridgers) [Live at Glastonbury, 2022] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOgkV... David Quantick's Soundtrack on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/user/21cpmnd... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 06, 2024
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 01, 2024
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0330300822
| 9780330300827
| B0006R0AJS
| 3.97
| 11,632
| 1987
| 1988
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Beautiful, Yet Transgressive As I was reading this work, I couldn't help but feel that it was at once both beautiful and transgressive. Beautif CRITIQUE: Beautiful, Yet Transgressive As I was reading this work, I couldn't help but feel that it was at once both beautiful and transgressive. Beautiful, because of the lucid use of (the English) language. Transgressive, because it sought to translate, explain and reveal secret stories of indigenous tribes or mobs, without their permission. Knowledge is Sacred The stories of the Songlines are part of the culture and spirituality of these mobs. They've been kept secret over long periods of time (tens of thousands of years), they may only be passed on to other members of the mob when they undergo formal initiation ceremonies, and the punishment for disclosing them to other mobs or strangers is often the death penalty. Bruce Chatwin (since deceased) purported to respect this tradition and context, yet he nevertheless went on to reveal the meaning of Songlines, if primarily from an anthropological and literary point of view. Paradoxically, I would not have gained any knowledge or understanding of Songlines (to the extent that I might have), if I had not read his book and googled my way around the internet. So I'm placed in the same dilemma: do I have the personal right to communicate what I have learned, or should I respect the privacy and secrecy of indigenous peoples and their traditions? Stand Up and Be Counted A similar dilemma arises with respect to the representation of indigenous peoples, which is the basis of the Voice Referendum (to be held on Saturday, October 14, 2023). Is it enough that indigenous peoples be represented by other people's politicians, public servants or lobbyists? If they obtain a Voice, should there be any conditions on its exercise? Should whites have to listen to their message? Should we have to agree with it? (Do you only have freedom of speech, if we agree with what you say?) Freedom of speech is not merely the right or obligation to agree with everybody else. It's the right to have your own say. Songline Objectives Chatwin sets out to achieve three objectives in his work: 1) he documents several stories or songlines; 2) he loosely defines what a Songline is; and 3) he argues that Songlines are a universal concept that transcends different peoples, cultures and times. I'll confine this review to the last two objectives, which I'll try to discuss at a more abstract or conceptual level. I won't comment on any specific Songlines. The Nature of Songlines Indigenous peoples regard Songlines as the "Footprints of the Ancestors" or the "Way of the Law":
Their Ancestors were totemic beings or mythological characters, not gods. Chatwin believed that indigenous peoples had an "earthbound philosophy":
As an Ancestor walked down a Songline, he gave features in the landscape (like rocks and creeks) a name in song:
Life, the Universe and Everything In a way, the Songline acted as an inventory of resources of value to the Ancestors. An Ancestor was "forever naming the contents of his territory." For Aboriginals, the country didn't exist until they could see and sing it. Only then can it be said to exist:
Aboriginals didn't conceive of the country as a block of land locked in by frontiers or boundaries. Rather, they saw it as an "interlocking network of 'lines' or 'ways through':
A man's "own country" was "the place where I do not have to ask permission to go through", whereas a man had to ask permission to go through a neighbour's country, i.e., he had to ask for a right of way. A stop marked where a man had got to the end of his own country, and a neighbour's country had started. [image] Gunbarrel Highway Human Restlessness and Wandering Chatwin describes his ultimate objective, "the question of questions" as "the nature of human restlessness". Why was Man, originally, a "wanderer in the scorching and barren wilderness of this world"? This objective isn't integrated into the body of the narrative about his vehicular trip through the Outback (via the Gunbarrel Highway). Instead, it's addressed in extracts from Notebooks that he's collected over time, as he read and researched books in libraries around the world (pre-internet). The question applied to all of humanity for all of time, at least until we started to live in cities. Chatwin believed that the walking or wandering started with migrations out of Africa as the climate changed. He describes a migration path or track as an "area of territory spun out into a continuous line, as one would spin a fleece into yarn". By analogy, Aboriginal creation myths suggest that a mob or totemic species is born at "one particular point on the map, and then spreads out in lines across the country." Ancestors mapped their way out of their place of origin, as well as their way back when they wished to return to link up with their mob and take them to their new home. A Songline wasn't just a map, but a mnemonic, an aide memoir. It told a story that could be memorised. It was just as much a story line. Like a song on a vinyl record album, it's also called a track. In Love With This World One of the anthroplogists Chatwin meets defines a true naturalist as "a man who is in love with the world". By this standard, Chatwin was a true naturalist, and his book a work of true naturalism. The same can be said for our indigenous peoples. I hope they gain a Voice and that we listen to it. We have much to learn from them. SOUND TRACKS: (view spoiler)[ Dr Lynne Kelly - "Songlines of Aboriginal Australia" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5_KO... Dr Lynne Kelly, author of The Memory Code (2016), talks about Aboriginal songlines and how oral (non-literate) cultures around the world embedded vast amounts of knowledge and information into the landscape to act as a memory aid. Josie Alec - "What is a Songline?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_kyG... Aunty Munya - "What are Songlines?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoMGa... Rhoda Roberts - "Songlines Explained: A 360 Experience" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33O08... Margo Neale - "Seven Sisters Songlines Tour" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3f1A... Neil Young - "Walk On" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cby46... The Church - "Under The Milky Way" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA54N... Jimmy Little - "Under the Milky Way" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JET_y... Midnight Oil & Warumpi Band - "Blackfella/Whitefella / The Dead Heart" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ErJb... Midnight Oil - "The Dead Heart" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16bFB... "We carry in our hearts the true country And that cannot be stolen We follow in the steps of our ancestry And that cannot be broken"... Midnight Oil - "Gunbarrel Highway" [Live] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXA6y... Midnight Oil - "Gunbarrel Highway" [Studio] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ58l... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Oct 02, 2023
|
Oct 08, 2023
|
Jul 19, 2023
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0312389426
| 9780312389420
| 0312389426
| 3.74
| 21,735
| Oct 27, 2009
| Apr 27, 2010
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: First Person Invisibility This is the first Auster novel I've read since I finished "Man in the Dark", which left me vaguely disappointed. CRITIQUE: First Person Invisibility This is the first Auster novel I've read since I finished "Man in the Dark", which left me vaguely disappointed. In contrast, this novel excited me from the first page to the last. "Man in the Dark" was a stylistic experiment in the juxtaposition of two stories. From a structural point of view, "Invisible" is more concerned with the perspective, style and stages of story-telling: * Part I is an apparently non-fictional memoir about various events in 1967 surrounding Rudolf Born related by the principal protagonist (Adam Walker) in the first person singular. * Part II purports to be a rewrite by Walker of text that he had originally written in the first person, but felt didn't work. His college friend, James (Jim) Freeman, now, in 2007, a successful writer, suggests that he change the perspective of the narrator, and it solves his writer's block, even though Walker uses the second person, rather than the third person perspective. Walker's text is framed by text purportedly written by Jim from his own point of view. * Part III is again framed by text written by Jim, but contains incomplete notes written by Walker before his death. Jim tells us that, in the final version, he fleshed out Walker's notes. * Part IV is also framed by Jim's perspective, but contains diary entries by a relatively minor, but Lolita-like, character, Cecile, which describe her interaction in 2007 with Rudolf Born after her mother, Helene's, death (when he reveals the real reason he had wanted to marry Helene and become Cecile's step-father). Walker's identity has been segmented, and then reconstituted from different perspectives. Thus, it seems that identity is not just the product of the one protagonist or narrator, but an amalgam of the points of view of different characters/ narrators. In Part II, Jim explains his own experience of a writer's block, which he overcame by a change of narrative perspective:
Identity is a composite, which benefits from a little separation and distance. Too much first person proximity leads to the invisibility of the title. A Monstrous, Nabokovian Transgression Not only does this approach to narrative reflect Nabokov's interest in identity and narrative structure, but much of the subject matter recalls Nabokov's "Lolita" and "Ada". Part II describes a sexual relationship, of a type that is widely regarded as transgressive ("rather brutal stuff, I'm afraid. Ugly things I haven't had the heart or the will to look at in years..."). It commences as a "grand experiment", an "adolescent frolic" on a one off basis in 1961, when the participants are fifteen (the female, Gwyn) and fourteen (the male, Adam). Despite the mutual compact between them, the participants indulge in the same activity (an "incestuous rampage", an "unholy matrimony") over a period of 34 days in 1967 before Walker flies out to Paris. They're "trapped in the throes of constant, overpowering lust - sex beasts, lovers, best friends: the last two people left in the universe." Gwyn is on the pill, so it's assumed that she can't fall pregnant. They're both aware that society defines their relationship as a "monumental transgression, a dark and iniquitous thing according to the laws of man and God." Yet, they justify the relationship as "real love":
"Pure Make-Believe" When, 40 years later, Gwyn is shown a copy of Part II of the book, she responds that the relationship was a fantasy of Adam's, "a [salacious] dream of what he wished had happened but never did". Even if they might both have wished for it to occur, Gwtn says it never eventuated:
Fantasy and/or Reality This raises a question about the relationship between fact and fiction in literary fiction. If 75% of a novel is written in a realistic, non-fictional style (which we assume to be "true") and 25% is written in the style of fiction or fantasy, is it tempting to assume that the other 25% is also true? Is this the premise upon which both Nabokov and Auster play their narratological games with us readers? SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Big Star - "Thirteen" [Alternate Mix] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnEzk... David McComb - "Lover Sister #1" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6PmR... Oasis - "My Sister Lover" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dqKb... Steely Dan - "Do It Again" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1cX... Jenny Lewis - "Psychos" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlNVt... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 08, 2023
|
Jun 14, 2023
|
Jun 07, 2023
|
Mass Market Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 007036494X
| 9780070364943
| 007036494X
| 3.75
| 8
| unknown
| Jan 01, 1972
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: The Scope of the Title The title of this thoroughly researched work doesn't quite do justice to its scope. It actually analyses in detail (1) t CRITIQUE: The Scope of the Title The title of this thoroughly researched work doesn't quite do justice to its scope. It actually analyses in detail (1) the perspectives of American liberals on, and the relationship of American liberals with: * World War One; * the Russian Revolution (the February Revolution); * the Russian/ Bolshevik Revolution (the October Revolution); * the Russian Civil War; * the recognition of the Soviet Union; and * the League of Nations. The Definition of "Liberals" This study was published in 1962 and concerns the period between 1914 and 1933. The term "liberal" doesn't necessarily mean what it means (in America) now ("progressive"), or what it might have meant in 1962. It doesn't necessarily mean that a liberal is a socialist or social democrat, let alone a Marxist or communist. In the first decade of the 20th century, liberals believed that "it would be possible in the not too distant future to substitute the rule of reason for the rule of force in the relations among men, in international as well as domestic affairs." Before the outbreak of World War One, liberals opposed war as a vehicle for solving problems at an international level. However, the War exposed a cleavage within liberalism between: * the [pro-] war liberals (who could justify the conduct of a war, if it was effectively a "war to end all wars"); and * "anti-imperialists" (who opposed wars to the extent that they were vehicles to further the interests of a participant nation's imperialism). Both groups required a precise definition of their "war aims". Wars and Revolutions These characteristics were not just important in the case of a war between nations, but in the case of a revolution within a nation:
Anti-Bolshevism wasn't an automatic response of the liberals. The war liberals were primarily concerned that the revolution would distract attention from the struggle against Germany. (There was a widespread conspiracy theory or suspicion that the Bolsheviks were somehow in cahoots with the Germans.) The Self-Determination of Nations Christopher (Kit) Lasch argues that "no principle was dearer to anti-imperialists than the inalienable right to 'self-determination'." This principle implied that:
One American liberal argued, "The Russian people have the same right to establish a socialistic state as we had to establish a republic." In other words, there was an analogy between the Russian Revolution and the American War of Independence. It was argued that "a people's right to revolution is one of the most sacred that there is, and no outsiders have a right to interfere with it." Another liberal asserted, "If they want a Bolshevik form of government, a monarchy or anything else, they should have it." At this early stage, it wasn't generally known or suspected that Bolshevism was a threat to the governments of other nations, i.e., that the Soviet Union might have intended to export revolution to other nations (e.g., by way of the type of permanent or world revolution advocated by Trotsky). The anti-imperialists countered that "the United States [in particular] would have nothing to fear from international communism if it eliminated the poverty and misery on which communism thrived." [image] Allied Intervention in the Civil War Notwithstanding the principle of self-determination, the Allies in World War One sent armed forces into Siberia, ostensibly to prevent Germany from accessing Russia's military resources and using them against the Allies back on the western front. In contrast, the liberals believed that:
Instead, the Russian anti-Bolsheviks ("the White Russians") (led by Alexander Kolchak) pleaded for Allied intervention in what would soon become the Russian Civil War. At the same time as agreeing to intervene on the side of the White Russians, the Allies rejected the Bolsheviks' request for economic aid "designed to eliminate the poverty and misery in which Bolshevism presumably took root." The Bolsheviks were effectively fighting for their lives. As one journalist wrote:
Lasch concludes that the suppression of self-determination abroad would lead to its suppression at home:
Moreover, the Allied intervention against the Bolsheviks resulted in them assuming "an attitude more or less permanently antagonistic to the West." Tricked Into Oppression Lasch doesn't expressly say as much (he was, after all, writing in the middle of the Cold War), but it can be inferred that the immoderate and oppressive nature of the Soviet regime was a product of the Allied support of the anti-Bolsheviks and the refusal to supply economic aid at the end of the War (against the wishes of the American liberals). In other words, the regime's systemic oppression might have been an act of (disproportionate) self-defence against real and tangible enemies, working both inside and outside the Soviet Union. FOOTNOTES: (1) Via contemporary articles, correspondence, journals, memoirs, and official reports. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Wire - "I Should Have Known Better" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxigN... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 29, 2024
|
Mar 09, 2024
|
Apr 11, 2023
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1788738632
| 9781788738637
| 1788738632
| 4.00
| 21
| Aug 24, 2021
| Aug 24, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Lectures into Essays This volume contains ten lucid essays on political economy and culture by Raymond Williams, and an excellent introduction CRITIQUE: Lectures into Essays This volume contains ten lucid essays on political economy and culture by Raymond Williams, and an excellent introduction by Phil O'Brien. The essays were originally delivered as lectures, hence their lucidity. Some of them were written and delivered shortly before they were published as chapters in a larger work. Some were edited substantially before incorporation in the later work. Thus, the essays in this volume reveal some of the changes in mind during the course of writing, as well as nuances in the exposition that resulted from extended reflection and audience response. Cultural Studies instead of Political Economy I must confess that I read these essays with a number of motives in mind. I wanted to assess: (1) the extent to which Williams could claim, or be said, to be a Marxist; (2) whether Williams prioritised society and culture (e.g., literature and art) over economics (or political economy) as a subject for academic study or political activism; (3) whether Williams' theory had contributed to the fact that, in my belief, the New Left had moved the focus of the Left away from economic, labour or class issues, and towards cultural issues. The most useful essay for the purposes of answering these questions is "Marxist Cultural Theory", an earlier version of which was written and published as "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory". 1. Marxist or Socialist? The best source of information about the first question can be found in the autobiographical content of the Introduction to the book "Marxism and Literature" (1977), which extrapolates on the essay, "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory". I would say that, having been born into a working class family and therefore the labour movement, Williams started life as a socialist with a hostility towards "avoidable poverty", but was exposed to Marxism through fellow students (rather than lecturers), when he went to university to read English at Cambridge in 1939. He claims that his position as a "socialist student of literature" between 1939 and 1941 constituted a discourse in which "a confident but highly selective Marxism co-existed, awkwardly, with my ordinary academic work, until the incompatibility ...became a problem... for myself and for anything that I could call my own thinking." Up until this point, he described his development as "my own long and often internal and solitary debate with what I had known as Marxism." In the early seventies, he was exposed to more recent European Marxist writings, e.g., by György Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Lucien Goldmann, Antonio Gramsci, Walter Benjamin, Louis Althusser, and Pierre Bourdieu. Of these philosophers, he felt the greatest affinity with Lucien Goldmann. From this point on, his development "now took its place in a serious and extending international inquiry" into Marxism. Although Williams would always describe himself as a Socialist rather than a Marxist, his thinking and writing during this period was clearly Marxist-influenced, if not necessarily conventionally Marxist (but which truly individual thinker can be said to be completely Marxist? Not even Karl Marx himself). [image] A Young Raymond Williams Source: 2. Base or Superstructure? In the essay, "Marxist Cultural Theory", Williams proceeds on the basis that "any modern approach to a Marxist theory of culture must begin by considering the proposition of a determining base and a determined superstructure." Personally, he would have preferred to start with the proposition that "social being determines consciousness." This proposition can be broken down into a number of sequential steps: * base determines superstructure; * superstructure determines society and culture ("social being"); and * society and culture (social being) determine consciousness. Williams then proceeds to examine the meaning of the terms base, superstructure and determination more closely. He explains his approach in the following terms:
This makes sense, if and when it is acknowledged that the base is the ultimate determinant. However, it's interesting that the purpose of his inquiry is to better understand "cultural process". Thus, it's arguable that his interest in the base is secondary or subordinate to his interest in the superstructure. Williams explains the base as "the real relations of production corresponding to a stage of the development of material productive forces" or "primary economic activities". In other words, the base is "a mode of production at a particular stage of its development." At a more abstract level, "the base is the real social existence of man." In contrast, Williams doesn't specifically define the term "superstructure". Instead, he refers to it variously as a "cultural superstructure", "real cultural activities", and "certain kinds of activity in the cultural sphere". He sees an analogy with "the social apparatus...in the area of social and political and ideological activity and construction." The term "determinism" has traditionally caused the greatest difficulty in interpretation. Williams argues that "[The] language of determination, of determinism, is in fact inherited from idealist and theological accounts of the world and of man...[It suggests] the notion of that external cause which totally predicts or prefigures, totally controls, a subsequent activity...[It implies a process in which a subsequent content is essentially prefigured, predicted, and controlled by a pre-existing external quality." Instead, Williams confines the term to the notion of "setting limits, exerting pressures in very firm ways." "Corporate Culture" Williams also adopts the concept of a "social totality" or "totality of social practices" developed by Lukacs, although he considers that the concept must be "compatible with the notion of consciousness determined by social being". At this point, he goes beyond the concepts of base and superstructure, in order to rely on Gramsci's concept of hegemony. Williams continues:
"Alternative, Oppositional, Residual and Emergent Culture" In contrast to corporate culture, there might be practices which are "alternative" or "oppositional". Oppositional involves "articulated opposition" or resistance. Williams also refers to aspects of culture which are "residual" (i.e., "they're practised on the basis of some previous social formation"). Similarly, he refers to "emergent" culture (i.e., "new meanings and values, new practices, new significances and experiences, are continually being created"). All of these terms reveal that Williams sees culture and the superstructure as dynamic, not static. He doesn't believe in a primitive or simplistic economic determinism, which rigidly dictates the nature and content of society and culture. That said, Williams expressly acknowledged the primacy of the base as an influence or limit, even if it appears that his personal academic interest was in the structure and practices of the superstructure (e.g., society, culture, art, film, and literature). 3. Old Left or New Left? It seems that Williams never abandoned his fundamental belief in Socialism and a Socialist agenda, even though he resigned (or lapsed) his membership of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (1941) and the UK Labour Party (1966) at different times and for different reasons. It's arguable that his interest in culture and society was founded in his interest in politics and political economy. In a later essay on Bourdieu, Williams suggests that cultural studies are "a marginal sub-discipline" of historical materialism, the Marxist critique of political economy. However, early in his career, E. P. Thompson accused him, like the New Left, of a "culturalist tendency", which implicitly diminished the significance of traditional Old Left politics and economics. My personal view is that, even if this criticism isn't strictly correct with respect to Williams, in many ways it applies to the New Left, at least the New Left as it portrayed itself after what is often called "the First New Left" formed in 1956. It certainly applies to the American New Left, which subsequently morphed into the assemblage of interest groups that orchestrate the reception of Post-Modernist literature (especially of the maximalist variety) (to the extent that they aren't simply Christian Hegelian Anarchists, and not of the Left at all). SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ John Lennon - "Working Class Hero" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D77db... Marianne Faithfull - "Working Class Hero" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbbPA... Tin Machine - "Working Class Hero" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqvr_... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 04, 2023
|
Mar 12, 2023
|
Feb 19, 2023
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| unknown
| 4.11
| 1,434
| 2023
| 2023
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: 2023 Reviews My 2023 reviews are here. 2023 Goals My 2023 goal was to read 45 books, which I was grateful to achieve, if I count my review of "2 CRITIQUE: 2023 Reviews My 2023 reviews are here. 2023 Goals My 2023 goal was to read 45 books, which I was grateful to achieve, if I count my review of "2023 on Goodreads". I also had a number of sub-goals, which mainly involved completing the works of a number of individual authors: (1) Kathy Acker I read two Kathy Acker novels: "Blood and Guts in High School" "Great Expectations" This more or less finishes my plans for Acker's work, though I have some secondary materials that I'd like to read in the next couple of years. Overview: "Kathy Acker embraces the content of her metafictional novel, without embarrassment, shame or guilt, let alone any self-conscious Vollmanian affectation or delight in the transgression of others." "She does so in the name of fiction, of literature, and of poetic licence. The novel is an expression of her own freedom. She's able to live out her fantasies in writing. Janey is the vehicle for this act of liberation, rather than the victim of systemic or male oppression of Acker in real life." "Ultimately, the narrator needs love, so she can de-fragment her self and consciousness, and perceive and understand the world around her." (2) Paul Auster I read two Paul Auster novels, which got me up to date up to the point of "4 3 2 1", which is big enough to intimidate me a little. "Invisible" "Sunset Park" Overview: "Walker's identity has been segmented, and then reconstituted from different perspectives. Thus, it seems that identity is not just the product of the one protagonist or narrator, but an amalgam of the points of view of different characters/ narrators." (3) John Banville I read four more John Banville novels, which at this stage leaves three to go, "The Infinities", "The Blue Guitar", and "Mrs Osmond". "Eclipse" "Shroud" "Ancient Light" "The Sea" Overview: "The third level of estrangement is Cleave's estrangement from himself. He ends up alienated from himself and, as a result, the whole world outside. He loses touch with reality, and ends up seeing ghosts around the family beach house to which he has retreated." "As beautifully written as [this] work is, we don't know whether it is genuine or whether it is the product of a truly unreliable narrator." (4) Peter Carey I decided to re-visit some of Peter Carey's works, resuming with the short stories in "War Crimes" and his first novel, "Bliss". "War Crimes" "Bliss" Overview: "These stories demonstrate Carey's ability to take something normal, ordinary or straightforward, and subtly tweak or twist it into something abnormal, extraordinary or exotic that enhances our understanding of our own normality, and the normality or difference of others who might not be quite like us. Ironically, Carey's ability gives us enormous pleasure as well." (5) Percival Everett I read another three of Percival Everett's novels, which means that I've broken the back of this sub-goal. "Erasure" "Telephone" "The Trees" Overview: "Percival Everett's argument as a novelist is less with individual racists than with the ultimate cause of racism: language and culture." (6) Vladimir Nabokov I caught up with three Nabokov novels. This should clear the way for his short stories, which might end up being a long-term project. "The Enchanter" "Laughter in the Dark" "Pnin" Overview: "Sometimes, the protagonist's revulsion toward the mother, and preference for the daughter, seem to be an aversion for the natural process of aging. "If the daughter can't be preserved as an adolescent girl, then the protagonist believes he can at least witness (and imprint himself on) her metamorphosis, as if she were transforming from an egg to a caterpillar, and then from a chrysalis to a butterfly. "You have to wonder whether Nabokov's interest in butterflies reflects his fascination with metamorphosis or their aesthetic beauty." (7) Geoff Nicholson I read two novels by the English author, Geoff Nicholson, "Bleeding London" "Flesh Guitar" Overview: Nicholson's novels were a welcome change of style and subject matter:
2024 Goals My primary goal in 2024 is to read and review the last two novels of Javier Marias: "Berta Isla" "Tomás Nevinson" Unfortunately, I expect that I'll have to share a lot of reading and reviewing time with my interest in American politics and justice. Happy New Year! Happy New (and Rewarding) Reading and Reviewing Year! I hope you achieve your goals, and I look forward to reading your reviews. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
Jan 02, 2023
| |||||||||||||||||
| 3.61
| 4,392
| 1939
| 1986
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Two Works From the One Source Despite common opinion, this novella isn't a blueprint for, or a precursor to, Nabokov's "Lolita". Instead, i CRITIQUE: Two Works From the One Source Despite common opinion, this novella isn't a blueprint for, or a precursor to, Nabokov's "Lolita". Instead, it simply shares a source of inspiration, without necessarily adopting or arriving at the same perspective on, or literary approach to, it. Nabokov thought he had destroyed his only copy of the novella, when he started writing "Lolita". He didn't find a copy, until after he had finished writing the later novel. What the two works share is a narrative in which an older male marries a widow in order to have a sexual relationship with her adolescent daughter from a previous marriage. In "Lolita", Humbert Humbert was 37 years old, while Lolita was 12. In "The Enchanter", none of the three principal characters is named, but the male protagonist is 40, while the daughter is 12. Step-Father as Sorcerer The girl's mother is already ill when the protagonist meets her, and it doesn't take long for them to get married and, then, for her to die of her illness, notwithstanding the protagonist's plan to murder her. The daughter doesn't live in Paris with her mother or her new husband. Only after her mother's death does it become possible for step-father and daughter to live under the same roof. His plan is that they go on a holiday in the French Riviera. They are only there for one night before the novella comes to its conclusion. Hence, Nabokov avoids the need to describe the ongoing sexual relationship and the rise, decline and fall that characterised "Lolita". Here, there is only a rapid, pre-emptive fall. Paedophilic Aesthetics The protagonist appears to have had five or six conventional relationships (he calls them "normal affairs") in his lifetime. However, he found them unsatisfactory, and asks, "How can one compare their insipid randomness with my unique flame?" His answer: "It's not a degree of a generic whole, but something totally divorced from the generic, something that is not more valuable but invaluable.". He grants himself "a licence to grow savage", to circumvent the generic norm, which casts this novella as both savage and enchanting. He proceeds with what he calls a "refined selectivity...:"
This admission suggests that his taste is determined by an aesthetic ideal: other girls or women don't necessarily comply with this ideal. For example, he describes his wife as if he finds her repulsive. She is described as his "monstrous bride", a giantess, a "cumbersome behemoth"... she is -
He doubts his ability to -
He regards their relationship as "a joke", which he hopes to share with the girl - it's a vehicle within which he plans "to meld the wave of fatherhood with the wave of sexual love". Unlike Humbert Humbert, there's no suggestion that there is any genuine emotional love. The protagonist's yearning is wholly physical. For him, she is just "that absolutely unique and irreplaceable being". Until now, he has felt "the perpetual ripple of unsatisfied desires, the painful burden of his rolled-up, tucked-away passion - the entire savage, stifling existence that he, and only he, had brought upon himself." He has enchanted nobody but himself. He's a victim of his own fantasy. At the mother's funeral, a distant relative cautions him:
Meanwhile, he was guffawing to himself, as if he knew he would beat these boys to the prize. [image] Photo of Vera Nabokov (Credit: Jean Vong) (Source:) The Metamorphosis of an Adolescent Girl Sometimes, the protagonist's revulsion toward the mother, and preference for the daughter, seem to be an aversion for the natural process of aging. In contrast, he seems to want to preserve an image of the daughter as the girl she was when they first met:
If the daughter can't be preserved as an adolescent girl, then the protagonist believes he can at least witness (and imprint himself on) her metamorphosis, as if she were transforming from an egg to a caterpillar, and then from a chrysalis to a butterfly. Butterflies and Beauty You have to wonder whether Nabokov's interest in butterflies reflects his fascination with metamorphosis or their aesthetic beauty. While the portrait of the protagonist is more obviously hostile than that of Humbert in "Lolita", this novella is as perfectly written and satisfying as the later novel. I highly recommend it, although some readers might take offence at some of the content, if not the fate of the protagonist. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 12, 2023
|
Feb 14, 2023
|
Dec 20, 2022
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1838110127
| 9781838110123
| 1838110127
| 3.98
| 412
| 1959
| Sep 01, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Timeframe This is the second of two Charmian Clift memoirs about family life in the Greek Islands. The first was set on Kalymnos. This is set o CRITIQUE: Timeframe This is the second of two Charmian Clift memoirs about family life in the Greek Islands. The first was set on Kalymnos. This is set on an island that isn't named for the whole of the book, although it's known to be Hydra (pronounced "EE-thra"). The Clift and Johnston family stayed on Hydra from the winter of 1955/1956 until 1964, when they returned to Australia. This memoir purports to deal with only the nine months from February to October of their first year on the island. Thus, one thing it doesn't do is deal with the time (1960), when Leonard Cohen first visited the island and formed part of their peer group. Instead, "Lotus" documents the purchase of "the house by the well", Charmian's pregnancy and the birth of their son (who is temporarily called Booli, but would eventually be named Jason), as well as the chaos that accompanied the shooting of the film "Island of Love" (released in 1963) and a small earthquake on the island. [image] Sidney Nolan - "Hydra" Source Friends and Family In contrast to "Mermaid", Charmian focusses on her own family and the community of foreigners, made up mostly of Australian, Irish, American, Swedish, Austrian and French visitors. The other Australians aren't identified as such, but it is known that the characters Henry and Ursula Trevena are actually based on the Australian painter Sidney Nolan and his wife, Cynthia Nolan, who "have been friends of ours for many years [and] came here last November largely on our recommendation of the island as a place of great beauty which was cheap enough and quiet enough for Henry to put in an undistracted winter's work". It's Henry who advises an aspiring writer who wishes he could fly, at least metaphorically, through his writing: "Fly, then! Bloody well soar, why don't you?" It's up to us alone to capitalise on our ambition and our talent. You have to pull your finger out, if you want to succeed. The foreigners have one thing, at least, in common:
They mutually support "the fundamental rightness of our way of living", no matter how debilitating it is at times:
Charmian compares her way of life with that in England:
Charmian gains comfort and a sense of pride from their children:
"The Bare Truth of Things" Charmian's language is at once simple, descriptive, aesthetic and metaphysical. The place defines the people (and vice versa), at least temporarily:
Creativity, like being, is an imperative. Charmian and George are determined to fly, even if they take the risk of falling, whether or not in the same manner as Icarus. [image] Hydra Source Nomadic Tribes of Young American Men Charmian also encounters a type of young man that seems to be replicating the Lost Generation between the wars:
They might have been prototypical Beats. One of the Greeks calls them "bums and perverts", while another friend labels them the "creative poor". Charmian refers to them variously, in her acutely observant way, as "the smart, penniless, immoral, clever young people", "the intellectual hoboes", "the decadents", and "the poste restante boys". They wear "cropped-hair, blue jeans and bright shirts." She suspects they must read "Film Weekly", "Encounter" and "Partisan Review", to "keep in touch with information sources":
"Apres Nous Le Deluge" No matter how objectionable the poste restante boys are, they are no comparison with the cast and crew of the American film production which arrives one morning, almost without warning, but with the promise of generating enormous income for the inhabitants. The producers walk around the village, calling out "Ruin that house...antique that store!", superimposing Hollywood authenticity on what is actually there already, albeit genuinely distressed and alarmed. They fabricate "a make-believe waterfront" and a "weird dream-world" where "everyone slips into A Role". Soon, "they apologise in hushed voices for Spoiling Our Paradise...Apres nous le deluge!" SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Charmian Clift and George Johnston's House on Hydra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex4lb... Clips from the Film "Island of Love" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=028kh... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnIGg... Behind the Scenes of the Film "Island of Love" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LwCF... Actress Anna McGahan Speaks About Playing the Role of Charmian Clift in the Play "Hydra" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkplb... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 27, 2022
|
Dec 02, 2022
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1838110135
| 9781838110130
| 1838110135
| 4.07
| 486
| Jan 01, 1958
| Sep 01, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Your Beauty Broken Down Charmian Clift, her husband George Johnston, their son Martin (1) and their daughter Shane left Australia for George's CRITIQUE: Your Beauty Broken Down Charmian Clift, her husband George Johnston, their son Martin (1) and their daughter Shane left Australia for George's appointment as head of the Associated Newspapers' London office in 1951, where they stayed for three years. By 1954, they had tired of the Fleet Street treadmill, "the impossibility of writing anything worth while when your only time for creative writing was at night and then you were too drunk or too tired", and living in their small flat in Bayswater Road, despite the relatively sophisticated lifestyle they had enjoyed. At the same time, they had heard a BBC radio documentary about a group of Greek sponge-divers who had been invited by the Australian Government to come to Australia and dive for pearls in Broome and Darwin. This cemented their decision to move to the Greek island of Kalymnos, where there were about 1,500 sponge-divers. Their aim was to buy "a slice of time" within which to write one or more novels. Within hours of their arrival in December, they decided to rent "a spindly yellow house on the waterfront". It sounds idyllic, but was in fact quite modest: it had "a little cast-iron balcony overhanging the plateia and four staring windows that looked down the broad harbour road with its row of coffee houses under the ragged casuarina trees and across to the small coloured cubes piled higgledy-piggledy at the base of the mountain." George and Charmian resolved to jointly write a novel while they were on the island ("The Sponge Divers" was finished in April, 1955 (during Lent), before the children's first summer holidays on Kalymnos, and their New York publisher agreed to publish it [under the title "The Sea and the Stone"] in Autumn, 1955). The original plan was that Charmian would do background research, and George would do the principal writing. However, Charmian soon found this arrangement untenable. When she reviewed her notes, she realised that there was enough substance in them for her to develop a travel journal or memoir, which eventually became "Mermaid Singing". Charmian and the kids (the Greeks called them their "darlinks") had the closest contact with the island community, while George remained indoors, writing. Only at the time of their departure for Hydra (the subject of "Peel Me a Lotus") did George even consider learning Greek. [image] "The spindly yellow house on the waterfront" Source The Enchantment of Kalymnos Charmian documents the environment, lifestyle, ceremonies, customs and idiosyncrasies of Kalymnos. She's invited to and witnesses weddings, baptisms, birthdays, anniversaries, and funerals. "It was a time of pure enchantment." She paints her portrait with carefully chosen words. While life is quite different from Australia and London, she is never condescending or judgmental. She conveys the sense that things have been like this for centuries, that they have emerged naturally out of the insular geography of the island. She writes of the Lenten Carnival:
Elsewhere, she writes that "all practices [are] traceable more easily through 'The Golden Bough' than through [the] Holy Bible." One day, her housekeeper, Sevasti, wakes her up long before dawn so that they can walk up the mountainside to see the sun rise ("huge and jazzy orange") out of "a sea as white and thick and still as milk". When she asks Sevasti why, she replies "Because this is what we do in Kalymnos. This is what we have always done." Charmian infers that "it was necessary for the whole populace to reaffirm its faith in the daily miracle on a set occasion every year...like examining one's safe deposit." The Bitter Thraldom of the Sea The sponge-divers worked off the north coast of Africa (e.g., Libya and Tunisia). Fleets of small boats took them there for up to six months at a time. Thus, they were largely absent from their families over summer. They borrowed large sums of money for a year's living expenses before they departed, and repaid the loans out of their income when they returned. Unfortunately, they squandered much of their income on gambling and drinking retsina and ouzo. Ten percent of the population were divers, and one percent of them died or were crippled by the bends every year. Walking sticks were everywhere, especially in the coffee-houses and tavernas. Charmian also highlights how the culture of the island derives from its relationship with the sea:
She observes that, perhaps because of the precariousness and inherent danger of sponge-diving -
Women potentially have greater financial security if they lose their husband to the sea or the temptations of the taverna. Songs of the Sea and Solitude Charmian was impressed by the songs of the sea, many of them ancient poems:
Many young wives were widowed on their husband's first diving trip. Unfortunately, they didn't learn of their husbands' fate, until the boats returned. Charmian also makes insightful comments about different attitudes to privacy and community:
The children are the first to adjust to and become integrated into the community. The local children follow them through the alleys, calling out "Martis, Say!" Their end of year school reports awarded them 10 out of 10. They're just as popular with their teachers as they are with their school friends. Charmian's reward was to write this book independently of her husband, and to hear her own, rare mermaid singing. She deserves comparison with Virginia Woolf. She continued her memoir of life on the Greek Islands in "Peel Me a Lotus". VERSE: Mermaid Singing [In the Words of Charmian Clift] If I stay for a moment, Just a moment, Perhaps I might hear it too - That one rare mermaid, singing. FOOTNOTES: (1) If I recall correctly, I briefly met Charmian's son, Martin Johnston, a poet, in the early 1980's. I had flown down to Sydney to spend a weekend with my friend Sally Wagg (who, perhaps, ironically lived in Johnston Street, Annandale, which was named after Lt.-Col. George Johnston, who led the Rum Rebellion in 1808). Sally had her ear to the Sydney ground, and was always au fait with whatever was happening, whether it was a concert, an opening, a protest, or a party. This weekend, it was a pub crawl. Most of the crawlers had something to do with writing or music. It started at a pub somewhere close to the University of Sydney. We caught a cab to the pub at about 10am, and Sally led me into the public bar, where she introduced me to Martin. He handed to each of us a folded pamphlet that contained a hand-drawn map of inner south-western Sydney (e.g., Glebe, Annandale, Balmain, Rozelle, and Darlinghurst in the inner south-east). The map linked all of the pubs we were going to crawl through (about ten in all), as well as containing a box beside each pub that listed some detail of its history and notoriety. I think Martin had created it. It clearly involved a lot of research, creativity and hard work. I know, because I brought the map back to Brisbane on my return, and twice replicated it for pub crawls I organised here. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Phillip Adams interviews Nadia Wheatley on the recent publication of this book in Greek https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/... "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" – Official Re-Release Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TU9... The title of this film, like the book above, is based on a line from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". "Poseidon God of the Sea" [Assassin's Creed Odyssey (OST)] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRenC... Greek Shanties [Assassin's Creed Odyssey] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhQ51... "Song for a Young Girl" - [Assassin's Creed Odyssey (OST)] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ypY4... Poem by Anacreon (c. 582 – c. 485 BC) (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
Nov 21, 2022
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 4.13
| 973
| Aug 18, 2020
| Aug 06, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: So a Pint of Export is Your Only Support This fictional memoir (or is it a memorable fiction?) comes across as a Scottish-American mix of Flan CRITIQUE: So a Pint of Export is Your Only Support This fictional memoir (or is it a memorable fiction?) comes across as a Scottish-American mix of Flann O'Brien and J. P. Donleavy. The narrator is a graduate student from Pennsylvania named Jay Parini, who, in 1970, undertakes a Ph.D. in literature at St. Andrew's University in Scotland, largely to avoid the draft into service in the Vietnam War. At age 22, he's asked to accompany the elderly (71 year old) blind Argentinian author, Jorge Luis Borges, on a road trip around the Scottish highlands. (1) Borges and Parini stay at various bed and breakfasts, hotels, and pubs, where Borges asks to drink a pint of Scottish Export ale for the first time, just so he can experience Scotland at its best. I've previously read two of Parini's novels, and adored his word perfect fiction. This book, whatever its nature, embraces the same style. The reader can never be sure whether it's a memoir (that's been dug up) or a novel (that's been made up). Parini explains the link in this manner:
"Say Only What Seems True" The work purports to be based on real events, although it was written fifty years after these events occurred. The real Parini kept journals and notes at the time, but he also seems to have spent a lot of time remembering and reconstructing an imaginative and authentic-sounding record of what happened, in the style of a novel. One of the characters Parini visits on the island of Orkney (without Borges), the Scottish poet, George Mackay Brown (who was supposed to be the subject of Parini's thesis), comforts him in words that could apply equally to both the thesis and the book:
Borges asks of Parini only that he be his eyes, that he describe what he sees, and for that he's eternally grateful, because "description is revelation," especially to the blind. Likewise, both fiction and memoir are a revelation for the reader. [image] Jay Parini [Source: Oliver Parini] "Parini and I" Although Parini admits that he had never heard of Borges or read any Borges before they met, he adverts to Borges' story "Borges and I" several times. In it, there are two Borges characters. One is "Borges", the character who appears to be the subject who acts in the story. The other is Borges, the narrator. At the end of the story, the narrator confesses, "I do not know which of us has written this page." He can't tell who is the first person or who is the author. Readers of Parini's story find themselves in a similar plight. There is both an author and a narrator. But who knows which one wrote the story? And who would have guessed it would be this amiable, this romantic, this much fun and this unflaggingly wise? VERSE: On Getting Out of Her Bed [In the Words of Jay Parini] Her white bed sheets Almost sighed With the absence Of her body. FOOTNOTES: (1) In 20019, FM Sushi and I did an unknowingly similar road trip around Scotland, which passed through: * Edinburgh; * Inverness; * Loch Ness; * Culloden; * Skye [including Uig, the Fairy Glen and Portree] as opposed to Orkney [including Stromness]; and * Glasgow. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ T. Rex - "Lean Woman Blues" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWrOF... Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - "Rattlesnakes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSc46... Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - "Perfect Skin" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDoJQ... Orange Juice - "Blue Boy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qz9U... Simple Minds - "Love Song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wp6J... Michael Silverblatt Interviews Jay Parini on "Bookworm" https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bo... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Mar 14, 2023
|
Mar 21, 2023
|
Aug 02, 2022
| ||||||||||||||||||
| 014021612X
| 9780140216127
| 014021612X
| 4.15
| 68
| 1969
| Feb 22, 1973
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: A History of the Radical American Left This history of the radical American Left was first published in 1969. Its title ("The Agony of the Amer CRITIQUE: A History of the Radical American Left This history of the radical American Left was first published in 1969. Its title ("The Agony of the American Left") and sub-title ("One Hundred Years of Radicalism") reflect some of the ambiguity of Lasch's approach to, and definition of, the subject matter. On the one hand, the title implies that the subject is American Socialism (if not Social Democracy), while, on the other, the subtitle suggests that the subject matter is a broader concept of radicalism than socialism. The latter approach implies that all radicalism is left-wing, which ignores the possibility that radicalism can be right-wing or libertarian. On the other hand, I personally question whether political philosophies like anarchism can be said to be truly left-wing, especially when, as now, it seems to share more with right-wing libertarianism. Overall, Lasch's focus is three "mass-based radical movements": populism, socialism, and black nationalism. The Agony of Failure The other aspect of the title that deserves comment is the reference to "agony". This contrasts with two earlier studies of Socialism which highlight its failure as a political philosophy: "The God That Failed" (1949) and "Failure of a Dream?" (1974). The titles of the first two individual essays in the collection highlight and paraphrase this sense of failure: "The Decline of Populism" and "The Collapse of Socialism and the Isolation of the Intellectuals". The third essay is a short history of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a body which aimed to frustrate attempts by the Soviet Union to establish support in the Western cultural sphere. The CIA used the Congress to indirectly and clandestinely fund various magazines like "Encounter", "Dialogue" and "Problems of Communism" (1), in the first case, without the knowledge of the publishers, editors and contributors. The relevance of this essay is that the Congress was an arena in which American intellectuals fought a battle between Communism and anti-Communism (or anti-Communism and anti-anti-Communism) following the McCarthy hearings. The result was a decline in the profile and influence of left-wing (i.e., Socialist and Marxist) academics, in both academia and the cultural sphere. The fourth essay deals with the relationship between the radical Left and the Black Power movement. The fifth essay explores "The Revival of Political Controversy in the Sixties", largely between the Old Left and the New Left. Why Did the Left Fail? Lasch doesn't make the responsibility for the failure of the Left the primary subject of any one essay. Instead, he scatters a trail of clues along the path of his story. In the preface, he cites Paul Goodman's view that the reason America finds itself in an unprecedented crisis, without a programme for change, is "the failure of the intellectuals during the late forties and fifties", who "allowed themselves to be 'co-opted' by the CIA, the Rand Corporation, [and] the universities". The Failure of the Intellectuals There's a sense in which, once the intellectuals (primarily academics, managers and executives) acquired membership of the "corporate elite" and achieved their own material ambitions, they ceased to fight, or support the fight, for anybody else's rights. As a result, the poor (workers and black people) would find themselves "locked into poverty, left behind in decaying cities from which earlier proletarians, together with the industries that employed them, had fled." Lasch almost suggests that intellectuals confined their role to theory, rather than practice, action or organisation:
These intellectuals need "an ethical sense, a sense of injustice, a reawakened sense of the indignities and humiliations which men have permitted themselves to accept as normal, inevitable, proper, and moral". In retrospect, it's not difficult to see how the failure to develop and maintain this ethical sense allowed many people in the American working class and lower middle class to believe that they have been ignored by an amorphous elite who they associate with the Democratic Party rather than the GOP, capitalism and corporate America in its own right. Centralised Power After World War II, Socialism was portrayed as a solution to the problems of post-industrial society:
The example of the Soviet Union was the greatest deterrent to support for Socialism. [image] Revolutionary Romanticism Ironically, Communism appealed to "revolutionary romanticists" who proposed to stage a revolution, which only alienated it from the average American:
Political Sectarianism The destruction of the Left was achieved by splintering it, and segregating theory and practice:
The attempt to "fuse radical politics and cultural modernism" which had defined the mission of the magazine "Partisan Review" would inevitably come to an end. Theory and Practice Theory was severed from practice, and vice versa. To the extent that Marxist theory survived, it was confined to small sectarian organisations and cultural criticism. It was no longer popular as a critical theory or diagnosis of the problems, nor did it form the platform of any radical, democratic movement. Even the New Left was divorced from the Old Left and conventional Marxist premises:
Not surprisingly, the Democratic Socialist movement associated with Michael Harrington and Irving Howe were equally critical of these notions, as well as the "militant tactics" and "nihilistic tendencies of the New Left". The Democratic Socialists saw the embrace of revolution and violence as heading down the same path as Soviet Communism. What is needed to address the cultural, economic, and political problems is a theoretically based programme of action and social change. Social Democrats and Welfare Liberals Lasch is critical of social democrats or welfare liberals:
Radical Liberalism and a New Politics Lasch also refers to the scope for a "New Politics" and "radical liberals" which "envision a new coalition of middle-class reformers, enlightened labour unions, students, and the poor, united behind a programme of social change that would substantially alter American institutions while stopping short of revolution". Lasch suggests that some lessons have been learned from the New Left:
He concludes:
As at 2022, the American Left is still asking the same questions, and whether to work within the Democratic Party and the electoral process. (2) FOOTNOTES: (1) The last two of these magazines were distributed outside the U.S. by the United States Information Agency, which was usually attached to its embassies. In 1977, I went to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, and asked if I could get a free student subscription to these magazines. The official said that they were no longer issuing free subscriptions because of budget cuts, but went out the back and found some back copies. He was a bit apologetic that the issue of "Problems of Communism" was two years old, but he said, "That's OK, because the problems of communism haven't changed since then." (2) Lasch reviews two books, one by Staughton Lynd (who argues that the New Left has "rebelled precisely against Old Left parties which began by formulating 'analysis, plans, program, theory')," the other by Michael Harrington, in the New York Review of Books, together with two letters to the editor, in 1968: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1968... https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1968... SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Bob Dylan - "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CJHb... Bob Dylan - "Tombstone Blues" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-Es... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 2022
|
Jul 13, 2022
|
Jul 01, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 164445064X
| 9781644450642
| 164445064X
| 4.06
| 33,613
| Sep 21, 2021
| Sep 21, 2021
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Southern Trees The titular trees of Percival Everett's novel refer to the "southern trees" that "bear a strange fruit" in the song "Strange Fr CRITIQUE: Southern Trees The titular trees of Percival Everett's novel refer to the "southern trees" that "bear a strange fruit" in the song "Strange Fruit" written by Abel Meeropol (1) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. It's not clear whether the omission of the word "southern" from the title is supposed to suggest that the problems of racism, white supremacy and lynching are now common to the whole of the United States rather than confined to the southern states. Emmett Till "Truth, crush'd to earth, shall rise again." (Hymn by William Cullen Bryant quoted by Mamie Till-Mobley) "The Trees" is in many ways a tribute to Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy, was murdered by white supremacists in 1955 in the town of Money, Mississippi. The culprits were acquitted by a local all-White jury, even though they later admitted to the murders in a magazine interview. [image] Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley (Source) Towards the end of Trump's presidency in the novel, a number of Whites from the families of Emmett's accuser (Granny Carolyn Bryant) and killers (Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam) are found killed, ostensibly by Blacks and Asians. It seems that they are belated revenge killings. The white supremacists inevitably go into overdrive, as if their ideological cause now had some new legitimacy:
Every Black person is called a "nigger", as if they're not quite human. However, to demean one Black is to demean all Blacks; and to demean all Blacks is to demean every single Black:
Pretty soon there are burning crosses and reprisals, not to mention copy cat crimes. One of the bureau agents says of Granny C:
About two-thirds of the way through, I started to investigate the story of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley. The images of Emmett's severely beaten face are confronting, but ample evidence that his faux-religious murderers have no right to claim that their acts were justified by law, etiquette, morality or religion. Instead, they prove that white supremacy is a false claim to virtuosity and status, as well as a false inference of inferiority. Hillbillies, Rednecks and Bumpkins Despite the brutality of Emmett's beating and murder, Everett weaves his fascinating plot with both sensitivity and humour. He assumes the risk of describing the white supremacists as what they are. Often the derogatory words come out of their own mouths:
After attending a Trump rally, one of the supremacists concludes:
The Public Lynching Written and first published in 2021, the novel relates to a time when Trump was still in the White House, complaining that "Good White Americans are being targeted for violence, killed like animals." [No mention of the violence and killing to which non-Whites are being (and have been) subjected.] Percival Everett parodies Trump with a word-perfect fictional Trump, who says:
Needless to say, having been caught out in a live recording, Trump steadfastly denies that he used the "N" word. This lampooning of Trump recalls the treatment of Nixon in Robert Coover's "The Public Burning". Everett's novel is to the 2020's what "The Public Burning" was to the 1970's. FOOTNOTES: (1) Abel Meeropol and his wife Anne adopted the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Michael and Robert, who were orphaned after their parents were convicted and executed for espionage. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Mamie Till Mobley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeTb-... Mamie Till Mobley - "Emmett's Body" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_BL8... Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bckob... Andra Day - "Strange Fruit" https://youtu.be/aMqB5V-UqOg?si=dTiQH... Jimi Hendrix - "Peace in Mississippi" [Original Recording] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OImSm... Jimi Hendrix - "Peace in Mississippi" [Re-recorded and Re-mastered] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2_1... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Dec 28, 2023
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
Feb 09, 2022
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0679723412
| 9780679723417
| 0679723412
| 3.89
| 25,923
| 1957
| Jun 18, 1989
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Exercises in the Style of the Exile Five points of interest caught my attention in this comical, almost picaresque Russian American émigré cam CRITIQUE: Exercises in the Style of the Exile Five points of interest caught my attention in this comical, almost picaresque Russian American émigré campus novel. One was the circularity of the narrative. Another was the identity of the narrator. The third was the presence of twins, at least metaphorically. The fourth: a youthful love affair. The last was the role of memory (as opposed to the imagination) in fiction. Literarily Lost on the Wrong Train The novel has seven chapters, the first of which describes Pnin's disorienting train trip supposedly on the way from Waindell College towards a lecture to the Cremona Women's Club, while the last of which concludes by stating that the character, James Cockerell, is going to tell you, the narrator, "the story of Pnin rising to address the Cremona Women's Club and discovering he has brought the wrong lecture", which is round about what happens in the first chapter (except that Pnin actually has three different papers with him). While Cockerell (the Head of the English Department) is not a totally reliable source of biographical detail, he is known for his entertaining and convincing impersonations of Pnin. The Narrator's Placement of First Person Pronouns Bit by bit, throughout each of the seven chapters, we're exposed to a narrator who is ostensibly an omniscient third person narrator, but who occasionally reveals his existence (by the placement of pronouns) as a first person narrator, though not necessarily the protagonist, Professor Timofey Pavlovich Pnin, himself. I originally suspected that the narrator was Dr. Hagen (the Head of the German Department), although it is generally accepted that it is actually his twin, the author and "fascinating lecturer", Vladimir Nabokov, both of whom want to renew his academic position in the Russian Department at Waindell. Whassap Pnin? Pnin fled St Petersburg after the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, via Germany and France, before arriving in the United States, where, like many other Russian émigrés, he obtained a modest academic post, below his qualifications. Pnin might be a fish out of water, in regard to both the language and the location of America. Pnin's physical description and mannerisms reminded me somewhat of the cartoon character, Mr. Magoo:
[image] Pnin as Mr. Magoo (without his tortoise-shell glasses)(Source) Pnin is an object of fun who is often scorned or belittled by those around him, who lack respect or fondness for him. This perspective recalls Nabokov's comments about Cervantes' cruelty towards Don Quixote. The novel displays far more empathy with Pnin, even though (or because) it supposedly reflects the perspective of a narrator in his close peer group. This empathy is especially evident in the party scene in chapter six, which seems to have birthed party scenes written by William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon and Michael Chabon. The Discreteness of Émigré Life Each chapter is a discrete story, which was actually written and published separately in the "New Yorker", then assembled into one novel. The narrator comments on discreteness in general:
The Duplication of One (An)other The concept of a twin arises in relation to Professor Thomas Wynn, Head of Ornithology, who at times "graded, as it were, into somebody else, whom Pnin did not know by name but whom he classified, with a bright foreigner's fondness for puns as 'Twynn' (or, in Pninian, 'Tvin')." The narrator refers to Wynn as having a "double" or "duplication":
Memories of Mira The "youthful love affair" involves Mira Belochkin, a Jewish girl who had died in Buchenwald. As in "Lolita" (which was written contemporaneously), fate took away Pnin's first love, compromising his ability to form a conventional relationship forever after. Rememoration The narrator suggests that the novel has been an exercise in "rememoration":
In the case of "Pnin", the work is not so much a work of recalled memory, but a work of fabrication or the imagination, and, inevitably, in the case of Nabokov, a work of play. As has become customary, the author (or their narrator) has made it all up. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Mr Magoo - "Opening Theme" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8GTH... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 05, 2023
|
Jul 15, 2023
|
Dec 11, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 9780578884936
| 4.65
| 31
| 2021
| 2021
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: My Back Story I was late to the party when it comes to Robyn Hitchcock and his first band, the Soft Boys. I don't remember reading or hearing a CRITIQUE: My Back Story I was late to the party when it comes to Robyn Hitchcock and his first band, the Soft Boys. I don't remember reading or hearing anything about them when they first formed in 1976. I only discovered them in the 1980's, when I messaged someone (hi, Mahky!) who maintained a fan club and website called Tarot about the Australian band, the Church (this is when fans used to trade live recordings and bootlegs). On the site were pages about the Dream Syndicate (which I already loved) and Robyn Hitchcock. I started looking for his CD's on Ebay and in second hand stores around Australia. I think there are only one or two legit albums I don't have yet (I actually thought I had them - my database and filing system might also be out of date). Robyn's Back Pages Some facts about Robyn Hitchcock: He taught himself how to play guitar. He is now so proficient at lead guitar, that Peter Buck (the guitarist from R.E.M.) is relegated to rhythm guitar when they play as members of the Venus 3. Hitchcock is an accomplished visual artist. He draws in very clean lines. Some of the drawings from the book are published here. His father was an English science fiction writer in the 1960's. Hitchcock has been influenced by the English folk and psychedelic music scenes, especially by Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd. He has also covered lots of Bob Dylan songs (including "Not Dark Yet"), a smaller number of John Lennon songs, and a couple of Nick Drake songs. There's something absurdist and playful that sets most of his music and lyrics apart. He's fascinated by crustaceans, insects, spiders, reptiles, frogs, fish, balloon men, kebabs, mummies, dead wives, and aliens. The dust jacket describes Hitchcock as "a rock and roll surrealist", which correctly identifies his musical and literary influences, and his drawing style. About the Lyrics The lyrics are listed in chronological order by year. The albums aren't listed, but you can track them down on a good discography. The most heavily represented albums are from 1987 - 1989, which coincides with the release of the Egyptians' "Globe of Frogs" (1988) and "Queen Elvis" (1989). I have to say that the lyrics don't read as well as verse as they sound when sung as song lyrics. Even two of my favourite Egyptians' songs, "Madonna of the Wasps" and "One Long Pair of Eyes", failed to impress sufficiently to mark them up. Not many lyrics made me want to mark them up, but "Glass Hotel" did:
Plus there's "Sinister But She Was Happy":
[image] Jeanne Moreau (Source) And I mustn't forget one of my later faves, "No, I Don't Remember Guildford":
As much as I love the lyrics, they mainly sent me searching for YouTube or my playlists (this isn't unique to Hitchcock, it applies to most lyrics - in fact, it's why lyrics are different from verse), so I could listen to the songs and read the lyrics at the same time. The above three songs (as well as "Not Dark Yet") feature in the Soundtrack below. [image] Final Thoughts The only complaint I could possibly conjure up is that Hitchcock should have selected more of his lyrics. But the volume's subtitle, "Selected Lyrics 1977 - 1997", was warning enough that this is not a complete collection of lyrics from his entire career. He's been equally prolific between 1997 and now, plus I hope he has a few more years of writing in him yet (hopefully, these lyrics will be published as volume 2, and one day there'll be a volume of complete lyrics???). When I sat down to assess the book as a whole, though, I couldn't help thinking - The book is beautifully designed and printed, from cover to contents. The illustrations are stylish and well-executed. I expect to dip into it regularly, just because it makes me feel good when I open the book on any page. But I will still put on the music. I hope you find a song or two or three that you like. PASTICHE/ PISTACHE/ PISSTAKE: Somewhere Apart (From You) [Art, Kitsch and Sink] [Apologies to Robyn Hitchcock] I often dream of you When we're somewhere apart. If your love wasn't true, I'd have a broken heart. I'm sure that I'd be blue, If you stopped making art. Remember [Apologies to Robyn Hitchcock] Remember when our abode Was half way down Jenner Road It was many years ago When you looked like Jeanne Moreau. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Robyn Hitchcock - "Glass Hotel" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ME1X... Robyn Hitchcock - "Sinister But She Was Happy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOTBm... Robyn Hitchcock - "No, I Don't Remember Guildford" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJScQ... Robyn Hitchcock - "Not Dark Yet" [Bob Dylan cover] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQup... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Feb 27, 2022
|
Feb 27, 2022
|
Nov 23, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 4.15
| 6,692
| 1930
| 1989
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Exercises in Style Dashiell Hammett wrote 37 short stories (if you count the unfinished story, "Three Dimes") featuring the unnamed Continenta CRITIQUE: Exercises in Style Dashiell Hammett wrote 37 short stories (if you count the unfinished story, "Three Dimes") featuring the unnamed Continental Op(erative). All of them are featured in "The Big Book of the Continental Op", but only seven appear in the earlier volume that I read (and am reviewing here). Fortunately, this incompleteness didn't reduce my enjoyment of this volume. In the Introduction, Steven Marcus reminds us that Hammett wanted to combine the values of literary fiction with the appeal of hard-boiled crime fiction. Often, when an aspiring novelist resorts to the short story format at the beginning of their career, they're consciously developing a writing style. Their experiments are "exercises in style". While this might or might not have been the case with Dashiell Hammett, these seven stories show that Hammett had already developed a fully-fledged literary style that didn't detract or distract from the essence of crime fiction. [image] Exercises in Substance If anything, Hammett's exercises in style seem to have been focussed on developing story-lines that appealed to readers. Thus, each story reveals Hammett trying his hand at telling a particular type of story. I haven't tried to investigate whether any of these story lines were unique to Hammett (I would guess not, given the sheer bulk and diversity of crime fiction), but my gut reaction is that Hammett was successful in the seven exercises in style and substance in this collection. The stories all stand alone, and appear to be well constructed and complete. They don't seem to lack anything that might have tempted Hammett to cannibalise them and rewrite them into one of his later novels (as he did with the novels "Red Harvest" and "The Dain Curse"). Teasers and Trailers Below is a short (hopefully spoiler-free) impressionistic teaser/summary of the story line of each of these stories: The Tenth Clew Two people who are said to be a brother and sister (but really aren't) try to blackmail a wealthy retired businessman (they're "working a fancy sort of badger-game" on him), but the "sister" develops a genuine affection for him and the scheme collapses. The list of nine clues (apart from the victim's name and address) is phony - they're "nine bum steers". The investigation has to proceed on the basis that all of the evidence has been faked. The Golden Horseshoe A man assumes the identity of another man (who is now deceased) and becomes responsible for a crime he has committed, when he destroys a letter that contained his alibi. The House in Turk Street A gang of thieves is caught when they mistakenly believe that the Continental Op is on their trail (when in fact he is investigating another crime altogether). The Girl with the Silver Eyes The Continental Op unravels a crime as it is happening, when he recognises a beautiful femme fatale from the previous story. "You’re beautiful as all hell!" he exclaims, under pressure, but he still makes sure she goes to prison. The Whosis Kid A femme fatale creates a sweet mess when she attempts a double crossing (or is it a quadruple crossing or a sextuple crossing?) of her criminal accomplices. She was just too greedy to share a cut. The Main Death A maid passes on information about her mistress' affair with her husband's employee to some crooks who rob him of a large sum of money belonging to the husband. The Farewell Murder A carefully constructed alibi exonerates the most likely suspect in the murder of the patriarch of a family, while most of the family seem to have a motive for killing him. Stories About a Detective Attacking a Puzzle This is how Hammett described his writing goal:
Source The story-lines are Hammett's test of his short, fat op, all of which he passes admirably. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ The Lemonheads - "Big Gay Heart" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnxTj... "Take a look into some big grey eyes and ask yourself You wanna make 'em cry? Lookin' out of them it's just as well But you're gonna live to see I'm gonna ask you why Either way you got a bone to pick, can't you leave that to somebody else? I don't need you to suck my dick or to help me feel good about myself Big gay heart, please don't break my big gay heart Big gay heart, please don't break my big gay heart..." Rory Gallagher - "Continental Op" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vzfq... Rory Gallagher - "Continental Op" [Live] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QW8P... Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - "I Love You, You Big Dummy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0ee... The Beatles - "You Never Give Me Your Money" https://youtu.be/BpndGZ71yww Prince & The New Power Generation - "Diamonds And Pearls" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwUKR... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Nov 21, 2021
|
Nov 25, 2021
|
Oct 18, 2021
|
Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0099555646
| 9780099555643
| 0099555646
| 4.07
| 26,132
| Jan 13, 2010
| Jan 03, 2013
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: The Narrator as a Double Agent This is an amalgam of fiction and non-fiction (i.e., history). The narrator constitutes the fictional element. H CRITIQUE: The Narrator as a Double Agent This is an amalgam of fiction and non-fiction (i.e., history). The narrator constitutes the fictional element. He purports to be the author, who gives an overview of his research into Operation Anthropoid (the plot to assassinate the Nazi SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, known variously as the Blonde Beast, the Butcher of Prague, and the Man with the Iron Heart) and the difficulty of differentiating between truth and falsity. He's meticulous in his research and writing, yet there must equally be a doubt about his own veracity. We can't assume or infer he's a reliable narrator. Every author has an ulterior motive, if only to make their work successful. Does this judgement apply to this particular narrator? This issue becomes more significant in the context of secret or intimate scenes where there are no witnesses capable of relating the story accurately:
He describes this making up as a "fanciful practice". It occurs when he knows that a meeting took place, but he's uncertain what took place exactly:
Slave to the Facts (or Not) In other words, fiction doesn't respect the facts, i.e., it doesn't restrict itself to known facts. It's important for the author to do what is necessary for the reader to imagine, or convince themselves, that they know what happened in the meeting. The narrator has not just read historical documents, but previous novels about the assassination, as well as well-known examples of historical fiction (such as Flaubert's "Salammbo"). Flaubert tried to avoid writing "a novel...as boring as a scientific book":
The narrator closely examines David Chacko's Anthropoid novel, "Like a Man":
He concludes:
[image] The car in which Heydrich was mortally wounded (Source:) Slave to My Scruples Towards the end of the novel, Binet admits:
The narrator fills these holes with himself. The result is a subtle metafiction. Perhaps, the reason for his indecisiveness is that he's become enamoured of his story and the people who inhabit it:
Up until the assassination, I felt the same way. Before I read the novel, I had watched a number of documentaries about Operation Anthropoid on TV, and the assassination itself was still so fresh in my mind that Binet's description of the events made me think he'd novelised what I (and perhaps he, too) had watched. In other words, his novelisation was his way of achieving, documenting or recording a visualisation. Later still, he admits to something I had started to feel as well:
There's such a wealth of documentaries and films about Operation Anthropoid that I want to immerse myself in them, in some cases, for a second or subsequent time. I doubt whether I would have felt this obsessive, if I hadn't read this fascinating novel, and wondered about how Binet had wrestled so artfully with his subject matter and the mechanism of fiction. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Operation Daybreak (Trailer) [1975] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTfHh... Operation Daybreak (Ambush and Assassination Scene) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhpSa... "Anthropoid" (Official HD Trailer)[2016] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgR1j... Anthropoid (Assassination Scene) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8FXE... "The Man with the Iron Heart" (Trailer)[2017] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18bjd... This film was based on the novel, "HHhH". Reinhard Heydrich: Was Operation Anthropoid Worth It? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK0FB... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 29, 2023
|
Sep 05, 2023
|
Oct 03, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1925052141
| 9781925052145
| 1925052141
| 4.01
| 176
| Nov 01, 2015
| Nov 01, 2015
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Spiny Wonder This is one of the most fascinating works of modernism/ post-modernism that I've read in recent years. It's all the more appealin CRITIQUE: Spiny Wonder This is one of the most fascinating works of modernism/ post-modernism that I've read in recent years. It's all the more appealing that the author is an Australian woman, rather than a white male American. My copy was published by a small Australian publisher called Spineless Wonders (which sounds more suited to the name of a publisher of e-books). However, the novella has now been picked up by Zerogram Press, a small independent American press that has been acquired by author/venture capitalist/ wine connoisseur, Jim Gauer. It's dedicated to contemporary literary fiction written in English. It claims to "have the resources needed to amplify new voices, and to ensure that [the] status quo does not go unchallenged." To date, apart from "Panthers", it has published two books by Steven Moore (the tireless promoter of maximalism) and one by Jim Gauer himself. It'll be interesting to see what value this press can add to the exposure and success of this unique book. Mysterious and Alluring Title As well as the title of the novella, "Panthers & the Museum of Fire" is the title of a manuscript that has been lent to the narrator of the novella (also called Jen Craig) by the sister (Pamela) of an old school friend who has recently died of undisclosed causes (Sarah). Pamela originally intended to obtain an opinion from Jen with respect to the manuscript, because she was aware that Jen herself had a "literary flair", even though she seems to have been plagued by a decades long writer's block. Like us (the readers), Jen finds the title of the manuscript "rich and suggestive", as well as "mysterious and alluring". Jen also describes the title as "a trap, a deliberate trap, a lure - or [potentially] just a provocation," which could equally be said about the real Jen's novella. Unlike most non-Sydney readers, Jen realises that the title is a transcription of the wording of a road sign outside the city of Penrith (apparently, it's no longer there, so it has become ephemeral, apart from its existence in this book). Jen describes the literary strategy of having the wording of a road sign as a title as a "coup," of which she is both "a bitter and envious enemy". "Panthers" is the name of a rugby league club and its facilities. The Museum of Fire is literally a museum about firefighting in New South Wales. Jen had first seen the sign years before when she was driving to the Blue Mountains in order to search for actual panthers. [More than 560 people (including National Parks rangers, doctors, solicitors, and police detectives) have reported sightings of a large black panther in the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, and Lithgow area in the 20 years since 1998.] Unpublished Manuscript We learn nothing about the manuscript, apart from its title, and the fact that it has a life-changing effect on Jen. For some reason, it unblocks her writer's block (she describes it as a breakthrough), and inspires her to start writing her own book/ novel, which might or might not be the novella that we're reading. We can't determine whether or to what extent it (Jen's fictional novel or real Jen's actual novella) is indebted to Sarah's manuscript. Consciousness and Memory The novella doesn't utilise conventional narrative technique to tell this story. Instead, knowingly or unknowingly, it reflects a theory of consciousness and memory that is quasi-Hegelian, if not authentically Hegelian. Jen's mind grabs or grasps external objects, images and facts, and stores them as data in her brain. Thus, the outside world forms part of her mind or brain. The reading experience, just like the writing experience, is located in Jen's head, until it emerges onscreen at her fingertips. Jen's mind has ingested experiences, facts and thoughts, where they are stored internally, without necessarily being digested, organised and structured. Jen refers to "all the pictures of Sarah in my head". Her narrative co-opts and assembles parts of this mental database when they literally "come to mind". This process of assemblage seems to be improvisatory, which has given rise to suggestions that the novella uses stream of consciousness. However, this doesn't recognise the extent to which the narrative is quite structured and deliberate. Jen goes searching for what she needs to "tell her story", just as she goes searching for black panthers. Narrative Structure Jen Craig (the real author) uses four techniques to create a framework for her story that preserves or imitates some element of narrative structure. First, she walks from her flat in Glebe via Glebe Point Road and Central Station to a cafe on the corner of Crown Street and Foveaux Street, Surry Hills (possibly the now defunct Fifi Foveaux's), where she plans to return Sarah's manuscript (supposedly unread) to Pamela. This walk takes her about two and a half hours or a morning on Monday. [image] Fifi Foveaux's Second, on the previous Sunday night, she and her best friend, Raf (in whom she cautiously confides her story), make a prawn and melon salad in her kitchen. Third, she recalls past interactions with both Sarah and Pamela, that reveal the tangentiality of their relationships (including at school and a house party), as well as their rivalry, their mutual envy, and, unknown to Jen, the fact that they both had eating disorders and literary ambitions. Fourth, the novella is divided into six almost identical sections of exactly 20 pages (my copy totals 120 pages, not 130 pages). Movements of My Mind These techniques anchor the narrative, prevent it from spiralling out of control, and manage to persuade the reader that there is an order behind the design of the novella:
Veracity of the Memory Jen doesn't specifically and distinctly remember anything external to herself. Instead, she remembers the content of her mind, even if it has been derived from external objects, others or events:
Thus, Jen herself questions the veracity of her memory and her thought processes. It isn't enough that the data is apparently stored in her mind. It is vulnerable to being contaminated, which makes Jen herself potentially an unreliable narrator:
Excess of Self The content of her self is excessive, so much so that -
Taken by the Manuscript In contrast, "I had been so taken by the manuscript, not so much unable to put it down but unable to leave it alone, that at the end of the reading, and of the writing that proceeded from the reading, I had - and continue to have - no sense at all of what the manuscript is about. It has moved me...I had been moved by something in the manuscript that has got me to write. I have taken in every word, I know, but, in fact, I am aware that I cannot recall a single phrase or sentence, anything concrete." The abstraction of the mind, provoked by Sarah's manuscript, has overwhelmed and overtaken the concreteness of reality, and given rise to this breakthrough novella. [image] Route 66, Crown Street, Surry Hills AN HOMAGE: From the Puburbs Once I had a car, but I sold it after I drove down to Sydney and moved into Sally's flat above the hardware store next to the North Annandale Hotel. You could catch a 470 bus into the city from outside in Booth Street, and I got used to walking to and from the pubs in adjacent suburbs like Balmain, Glebe, Harold Park and Rozelle. The pubs were genuine locals, and I started to call these suburbs the "puburbs". (I liked to think on my walks. Though, to be honest, I was always more contemplative on the way to a pub than on the way home.) If you walked west further up Booth Street, you'd get to the old Valhalla Cinema (where I first saw "Betty Blue" and "Wings of Desire"), although it closed down in 2005. On the other hand, if you walked south down Johnston Street, you could turn left into Parramatta Road and eventually you'd get to Newtown Station and King Street. I liked Glebe, because that's where Gleebooks and Sappho were - in Glebe Point Road. They were right next to each other, and seemed to be direct competitors. Gleebooks sold new books. Sappho specialised in second-hand books and competed with Gleebooks' second hand store, further up the road between St John's Road and Bridge Road. Before I moved back to Bris Angeles, I'd often drop into the second hand store, then walk up the road to the AB Hotel, where I'd have a dark ale or three, before walking home with my stash. The last time I dropped in (it was on a trip from Bris Angeles), I took a photo of a copy of Martin Amis' "The Moronic Inferno", which I'd just bought. On one of these trips after I'd left Sydney, I realised that if I'd got to the city end of Glebe Point Road, turned left into Broadway, and then crossed over to the Central Station precinct, there was a bookshop that sold remaindered books called Basement Books. It was just at the entrance of the tunnel under the railway tracks. I rarely went over to Surry Hills in those days. We once saw three bands in one night at the Trade Union Club in Foveaux Street (I think one of the bands might have been The Birthday Party). They were on different floors, as if they appealed to totally different crowds or scenes. Sally introduced me to somebody at Route 66 in Crown Street, where I bought some American belt buckles that I still drag out occasionally. Not far away in Oxford Street, Paddington, we once saw Tav Falco's Panther Burns live. I can't remember the name of the club. It was downstairs and a huge fire risk. Much later, I drove up to the Blue Mountains, to the Clarendon Hotel in Katoomba, not to see black panthers, but to see Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF6... Prince - "Nothing Compares 2 U" (Live At Paisley Park, 1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NarD... Tav Falco's Panther Burns - "Once I Had a Car" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svoSf... John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong - "King Street" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trmMp... John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong - "Miracle in Marrickville" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awc9y... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 09, 2021
|
Jun 10, 2021
|
Jun 07, 2021
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1642250252
| 9781642250251
| 1642250252
| 4.33
| 167
| unknown
| Aug 10, 2018
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: Introduction What am I doing, reading and reviewing a book by an American basketball coach (Assistant Coach, Boston Celtics, NBA Champions 200 CRITIQUE: Introduction What am I doing, reading and reviewing a book by an American basketball coach (Assistant Coach, Boston Celtics, NBA Champions 2008) about champions and leaders? I've never even seen a live game of basketball. I've only ever watched the Australian Boomers (men) and Opals (women) games on TV. Whatever little I know about basketball just made me ripe and ready to learn from Kevin Eastman. But first, a declaration of interest: My first exposure to Kevin was on a webinar at the Gold Coast Elite Sports Conference hosted by RDK Sports International in 2021. One of our daughters works for this organisation, and introduced Kevin in the YouTube video below. I was captivated by Kevin, by both the precision and clarity of his presentation. I immediately googled Kevin Eastman to see if he had written a book, and, voila, I bought this one. I've read many management and self-help books over the course of my life and career, but this is the most profoundly insightful and useful. The Magic of Words As I suspected from the webinar, Kevin is a composite of a number of different, but related, skill-sets. He's an observer, a listener, a reader, a thinker, a writer, a speaker, a performer, a creator, a philosoph(is)er, a mentor, a leader, many of which roles reveal how much he values words:
Simple, Understandable Lessons For Kevin, words are the tools with which to make concepts or abstractions both comprehensible and actionable:
Power Words of Champions The core of the book is a list of 25 "power words of champions", all but one of which are nouns (the other being an adjective, "Unrequired"). Each word is the focus of a single sub-chapter. Each sub-chapter has a relevant quotation from a coach, player or manager, and is followed by a lesson of two to ten succinct pages. These words and lessons are Kevin's legacy, his gift to players, coaches, managers, readers, "those whose lives you touch." What becomes obvious as you read the book is how generous Kevin is. His most important goal is to cement a player within a team, so that they are not just preoccupied with their own selfish performance, but that they contribute to and lift the performance of their team mates towards the success of the team. Being a champion is not just about the Self, but the Other(s). This reminded me of my experience as a schoolboy cricketer. I was a leg spin bowler, and one of my class mates with whom I felt a rivalry was the wicket keeper. It seemed that the better I bowled, the more catches and stumpings he executed. I thought I was making him look good. But then I realised that if he didn't perform his role, I couldn't perform mine (taking wickets). If I didn't perform my role, not only did I not look good, but our team wouldn't enjoy success. I changed my attitude, we put our rivalry aside, and our team went undefeated for three years. This approach emphasises the value of an "assist" or a "goal assist" in basketball and football. It's important to recognise the contribution of a team mate to the player who eventually scores the goal. Team-ness This approach is behind power words like "Trust", "Truth", "Sacrifice", "Respect" and "Humility", all of which contribute to Teamwork or what Kevin calls "Team-ness". He refers to Doc Rivers' introduction of the South African concept of Ubuntu ("humanity"):
Kevin doesn't use the word in the book, but what stands out is his "empathy" with everybody he works with. As a coach, his role was to help players realise and achieve their potential as a person, a player and a team mate. In the Acknowledgements, he attributes this tendency and his success to his father:
Whether in sport, business, government or politics, Kevin's wisdom and perspective are both necessary and productive. This book will help you to succeed and to be a better team player. [I want to thank our daughter, Lily, for introducing me to the world of Kevin Eastman, and living up to his values every day of her life. She continues to inspire us, her parents and her team mates! Go Tiger Lily!!!] SOUNDTRACK: Webinar 2 with Kevin Eastman, Former NBA Assistant Coach, VP of Basketball Operations and Author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVyK... Ray Allen's AMAZING game-tying 3-pointer in Game 6, NBA Finals 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr6Xs... Ray Allen gets ready to receive a pass and take a shot following Chris Bosh's offensive rebound. Some spectators thought that Ray's move was just good luck. [Kevin reveals that "Ray had already been there thousands of times before in his practice workouts. He had taken that exact same shot over and over and over again. He knew what that moment would be like because he had prepared for it."] If you want to achieve best practice, you have to practise best. Kevin Eastman, Why The Best Are The Best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3JZN... ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jun 03, 2021
|
Jun 08, 2021
|
Apr 30, 2021
|
Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 039449802X
| 9780394498027
| 039449802X
| 4.29
| 7,370
| 1974
| Mar 12, 1977
|
it was amazing
|
CRITIQUE: (Family) Life During Wartime There were few pages or sentences in this novel that deserved to be singled out for attention. For much of it, I CRITIQUE: (Family) Life During Wartime There were few pages or sentences in this novel that deserved to be singled out for attention. For much of it, I was content to measure my progress towards the end, as if I too was enduring a war that surely had to come to a close. The last chapter seemed to plunge the characters into a state of mass hysteria, even though the war was over. Yet, paradoxically, this was the chapter that finally convinced me that the novel deserved five stars, not just four. Three of the characters are members of the one family - the mother Ida, older son Nino and younger son Useppe - actually, there are four members if you count the talking dog, Bella. (There's an element of magical wartime realism in this novel.) The bulk of the novel's action takes place from 1941 to 1947, although the text of the novel and each chapter is bookended by short historical summaries of the period from 1900 to 1967. These summaries are marked by left-wing prose and concerns that sound Marxist, sometimes even anarchist. (They represent the views of the resistance to Fascism.) As the title would suggest, History is both a concern and a context, perhaps even a character. The Story as Character I mention that History might be a character, because the novel has an unnamed narrator, a first person who never engages in the action (other than, apparently, to seek information about the characters), but was nevertheless someone (some one?) I was trying to identify throughout the novel. In the last chapter, for no clear reason, I started to wonder whether the narrator might be History itself. This is a history of the second world war in Italy, as revealed through the lives of the members of the fictional Ramundo/Mancuso family. The contracted public history is fleshed out by the private life of this family (and Bella). A History (Made) of Love Naturally, in this family, despite the fact that it existed and lived throughout the war, there is much love between the family members, and it is this love that finally convinced me of the novel's worth. Ida Mancuso (nee Ramundo) is a tiny woman, an elementary school teacher, who during the war discovers that she is half-Jewish (on her mother's side), when this becomes an administrative category of person or citizen, which category is in fact used by the Italian government's race laws to deny the citizenship or personhood of the half-Jew, not to mention the full-blooded Jew. Still, Ida's Jewishness remains a closely kept secret both within the family and within her school and community. The state-sponsored propaganda inculcates in Ida a racial guilt. At the same time, it perpetuates (capitalised) myths like -
To which the people and the partisans respond in song:
Nino is the son of Ida and her deceased husband, Alfio Mancuso. Despite some youthful Fascist sympathies, he ends up in the Italian partisan movement, where he meets a Jewish anarchist philosopher/poet, Davide Segre, who is also known as Carlo Vivaldi. Useppe is the product of a situation where Ida is raped in her home by a drunken German soldier called Gunther. Neither Ida nor the narrator knows his surname, although, unbeknown to Ida, the narrator learns that Gunther died three days after the rape. Thus, Useppe has never known the true identity of his father. He is simply his mother's son. Nino is about 14 or 15 when Useppe is born. Useppe idolises Nino for most of the novel, although Nino is often absent on partisan duties or in hiding, and is rarely able to comply with his promises to visit him regularly. Despite his origins, Useppe gets his ration of love from his mother, Ida. She loves him unconditionally, even if he is half-German/Aryan. Both Ida and Useppe suffer from an undiagnosed ailment that is variously described as attacks, fits and "grand mal" seizures. This condition seems to be symbolic of their alienation from the conventional Italian or Aryan community. The Persecution of a Half-Jew Ida suffers three instances of racial persecution in the novel. One results in her rape. Another involves her being terrorised by public announcements and notices about the new racial laws targetting Jews (and, by definition, her). This casts her into a Kafkaesque world where she fears being arbitrarily victimised by Italian police and officials, and the German Gestapo and SS. The third occurs when she encounters a train full of Jews departing to a concentration camp. From the platform, she witnesses the wife of one of the passengers declare that "I'm just as Jewish as you!...My family's in there!...I want to get into this train too!!" as if she can't justify or rationalise the fact that she, like Ida, has escaped being rounded up by the police. The state propaganda machine makes her feel guilty for being what she is. It strikes at her core, her essence, her role as wife and mother, forcing her to separate from her family. Ida also picks up a personal note from another passenger, so that she can deliver it to his family on his behalf. The least she can do is defiantly communicate from the dead (or soon to be dead) to the living. This, in turn, is what Elsa Moraine achieves with her novel. Ida doesn't end up in a concentration camp, but her personal and family experience of the Holocaust is just as tormented - it's sickening, heart-breaking and soul-destroying. Her family disintegrates before her very eyes. Her life collapses before ours. This History is no mere account of a war from a military perspective. It is overwhelmingly human. SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ Talking Heads - "Life During Wartime" (Live in Los Angeles, 1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jShMQ... Fonola Band - "Bella Ciao" (Italian Partisan Song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyh_O... Primule Rosse - "Bella Ciao" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bedvY... Il mondo canta "Bella Ciao" - (The world sings "Bella Ciao") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzF47... Modena City Ramblers - "Oltre il Ponte" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSfYs... A version of a poem by Italo Calvino. Primule Rosse - "Oltre il Ponte" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNQDy... (hide spoiler)] ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Apr 16, 2021
|
May 10, 2021
|
Apr 16, 2021
|
Hardcover
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 4.25
|
not set
|
Apr 16, 2024
|
||||||
|
| 3.52
|
it was amazing
|
Apr 09, 2024
|
Apr 01, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 3.97
|
it was amazing
|
Oct 08, 2023
|
Jul 19, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.74
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 14, 2023
|
Jun 07, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.75
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 09, 2024
|
Apr 11, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.00
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 12, 2023
|
Feb 19, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.11
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
Jan 02, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.61
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 14, 2023
|
Dec 20, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.98
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 02, 2022
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.07
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 21, 2022
|
Nov 14, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.13
|
it was amazing
|
Mar 21, 2023
|
Aug 02, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.15
|
it was amazing
|
Jul 13, 2022
|
Jul 01, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 4.06
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
Feb 09, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.89
|
it was amazing
|
Jul 15, 2023
|
Dec 11, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.65
|
it was amazing
|
Feb 27, 2022
|
Nov 23, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.15
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 25, 2021
|
Oct 18, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.07
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 05, 2023
|
Oct 03, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.01
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 10, 2021
|
Jun 07, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.33
|
it was amazing
|
Jun 08, 2021
|
Apr 30, 2021
|
|||||
|
| 4.29
|
it was amazing
|
May 10, 2021
|
Apr 16, 2021
|
Loading...
