false1855280MThe United States01/200912/2009216749James P. Othmer1083757Jonathan Evison182538Keith Dixon921938Nick Hemsley27874David Liss879Plato55137true5704241read2true4069535currently-reading4true4069534to-read0true4686442re-read
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/206543-edgar-allan-poe
http://photo.goodreads.com/groups/1236055416p2/15336.jpg1855280Michaelhttp://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236453131p2/1855280.jpg
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Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:06:29 -0700
Martyn wrote: "Kris wrote: "Few people know that Poe wrote a novel. I highly encourage everyone to seek out the brilliantly disturbing The Narrative of the Life of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket which is the opti..."
I actually like this rambling work. There is a sense the author himself doesn't know where he is going with it, but the <spoilers!> stow-away/buried alive parts, and the ghost ship, and the cannibalism, all add up to a series of great episodes, even if the story eventually falls off the face of the map. The litany of latitudinal markings is hypnotic...
I've said it before here: Lovecraft must have thought very highly of this work in that he tried to rewrite it as his At the Mountains of Madness. Martyn; I would DEFINITELY recommend you read this HPL novel and then reapproach Pym.
Great ending too!
"March 22d.-The darkness had materially increased, relieved only by the glare of the water thrown back from the white curtain before us. Many gigantic and pallidly white birds flew continuously now from beyond the veil, and their scream was the eternal Tekeli-li! as they retreated from our vision. Hereupon Nu-Nu stirred in the bottom of the boat; but upon touching him we found his spirit departed. And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasm threw itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow."
But, finest hour? No. Many finer hours to be sure.
mm
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/156524-d-h-lawrence
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Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:47:32 -0700 Thought of you. If you ever get a chance you should visit the American Southwest. Get a hat, the sun is something else on baldies like you and me. But you should definitely come out to New Mexico someday. The people actually talk with you on the bus.
mm
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/196917-james-joyce-s-the-dead
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Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:54:25 -0700 Perhaps she had not told him all the story. His eyes moved to the chair over which she had thrown some of her clothes. A petticoat string dangled to the floor. One boot stood upright, its limp upper fallen down: the fellow of it lay upon its side. He wondered at his riot of emotions of an hour before. From what had it proceeded?
Our author explains himself very well in Ulysses at one point saying, "Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot."
I.e., the signature of his wife's petticoat string dangling to the floor. And to what extent Gabriel feels insignificant to the quiet, eternal, beauty of such things. Rather on the outside looking in.
mm
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/195781-on-hysterical-realism
http://photo.goodreads.com/groups/1236055416p2/15336.jpg1855280Michaelhttp://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236453131p2/1855280.jpg
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1855280-michael
Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:17:59 -0700
Martyn wrote: "Austerlitz is one of the best books ever written. Period - as you Americans say."
I think that would be "quote period unquote", and we would wiggle our fingers in mimical quotation marks. Just to be clear on Yankee usage. ;)
Lastly,.
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/123297-david-foster-wallace
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Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:03:35 -0700
Shel wrote: "Wow. Life witnessing death. All framed by degradation.
So you've been reading Joyce then...
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The Devil's Company: A Novel by David Liss]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63619736
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Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:06:13 -0700Infinite Jest: A Novel (Paperback) by David Foster Wallace]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53746862
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Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:49:34 -0700The Autumn of the Patriarch (Paperback) by Gabriel García Márquez]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53746793
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Fri, 22 May 2009 09:47:44 -0700Wittgenstein's Mistress (American Literature (Dalkey Archive)) by David Markson]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/51788196
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Fri, 22 May 2009 09:47:22 -0700