Jacob Bender's Blog, page 9
September 6, 2015
Low's Ones and Sixes: A Fanboyish Review
(Low's new LP "Ones and Sixes" is currently streaming on NPR, so I'm giving my own private review of the disc ahead of its Sept. 11th release--in part because if I don't write about at least one thing that isn't Comps related, I'll go nuts!)So I have a bit of a thing for Low: they're the only band besides the Beatles of whom I own their complete discography; I've written obsessive primers for all their albums; and I've performed theological analyses of their aesthetics, as only a fanboy can.&...
September 5, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 14
And with this weeks' readings I finish every last novel on my reading list, just in time for Labor Day! There are still plays, poems, and criticism, but somehow I feel (I hope!) that the worst is now behind me. Sweet mercy, I might actually finish this insane list after all!
Room, Emma Donoghue.
Well this was something completely different. After so many texts on political revolutions, dictators, international politics, and massive jungles that can eat you alive, this 2010 nov...
Room, Emma Donoghue.
Well this was something completely different. After so many texts on political revolutions, dictators, international politics, and massive jungles that can eat you alive, this 2010 nov...
August 28, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 13
We now return to my regularly scheduled reading--and the end of all the novels on the Latin-American half of my historical list!
Rayuela [Hopscotch], Julio Cortázar.
1963 novel considered to be the masterpiece by the famed Argentine writer. The titular hopscotch is rendered literally by the text, as the chapters are shuffled all out of linear sequence; you must follow the directions at the end of each chapter in order to know where to "hop" to next. It's a sort of Choose Your Own Ad...
Rayuela [Hopscotch], Julio Cortázar.
1963 novel considered to be the masterpiece by the famed Argentine writer. The titular hopscotch is rendered literally by the text, as the chapters are shuffled all out of linear sequence; you must follow the directions at the end of each chapter in order to know where to "hop" to next. It's a sort of Choose Your Own Ad...
August 22, 2015
August 15, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 11
The Unicorn From The Stars and Other Plays, William Butler Yeats.
Yeats' reputation as a poet looms so justifiably large over the 20th century that it is easy to forget that he was also a playwright--that in fact that was how he actually paid the bills early in his career. Here are the selected plays of his included on my comps list:
"Unicorn From the Stars"
1907 three-act play co-authored with Lady Gregory. Young Martin falls into a trance, and awakened prematurely by Father John, a...
Yeats' reputation as a poet looms so justifiably large over the 20th century that it is easy to forget that he was also a playwright--that in fact that was how he actually paid the bills early in his career. Here are the selected plays of his included on my comps list:"Unicorn From the Stars"
1907 three-act play co-authored with Lady Gregory. Young Martin falls into a trance, and awakened prematurely by Father John, a...
August 8, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 10
Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930, Ed. Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane.
This massive 600-odd page collection from 1976 corrals together essays that cover the full spectrum of European Modernism, by country (with a primary focus upon the variations of Modernism found in England, France, Italy, Germany, and Russia, although Latin-America and North America all get a little more of their due this time around), by movement (the French Symbolists, Naturalists, Surrealists, and...
This massive 600-odd page collection from 1976 corrals together essays that cover the full spectrum of European Modernism, by country (with a primary focus upon the variations of Modernism found in England, France, Italy, Germany, and Russia, although Latin-America and North America all get a little more of their due this time around), by movement (the French Symbolists, Naturalists, Surrealists, and...
August 3, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 9
El recurso del metodo [Return of the Method, but usually translated as Reasons Of State], Alejo Carpentier.
When I initially groaned at how much Carpentier my Spanish professor put on my list, I didn't realize that he would become my new favorite novelist before the end of the summer. His failure to be awarded the Nobel is one more strike against the organization.
In yet another Dictator novel with a strong French connection, we get a sort of sarcastic third person omniscient narrative of a cen...
When I initially groaned at how much Carpentier my Spanish professor put on my list, I didn't realize that he would become my new favorite novelist before the end of the summer. His failure to be awarded the Nobel is one more strike against the organization.In yet another Dictator novel with a strong French connection, we get a sort of sarcastic third person omniscient narrative of a cen...
July 27, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 8
I've completed all but 3 novels on the Irish half of my historical list, and am now trying to similarly work down the Latin-American half. Sweet heavens, I might actually be making progress on this impossible list! This week: two Jungle novels and the biggest Dictator novel of all.
Los pasos perdidos [The Lost Steps], Alejo Carpentier.
My very first post on this silly blog over 5 years ago entailed a discussion of how certain books need to hit you at just the right age; you need to...
Los pasos perdidos [The Lost Steps], Alejo Carpentier.
My very first post on this silly blog over 5 years ago entailed a discussion of how certain books need to hit you at just the right age; you need to...
July 18, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 7
A Goat's Song, Dermot Healy
Healy is sometimes called the "Celtic Hemingway," and his spare, meandering prose and stoic, broken male characters certainly belie that characterization. Shoot, if Hemingway himself hadn't already used the title, then Men Without Women would have also been an apropos title for this novel, wherein a sad-sack Irish playwright named Jack Ferris relapses into alcoholism after his lover Catherine Adams leaves him. Such a pariah has he become that the very th...
Healy is sometimes called the "Celtic Hemingway," and his spare, meandering prose and stoic, broken male characters certainly belie that characterization. Shoot, if Hemingway himself hadn't already used the title, then Men Without Women would have also been an apropos title for this novel, wherein a sad-sack Irish playwright named Jack Ferris relapses into alcoholism after his lover Catherine Adams leaves him. Such a pariah has he become that the very th...
July 11, 2015
The Comps Reading Project part 6
L'Irlande et l'Amérique latine. This past week especially I've realized that the more I read of Irish and Latin-American literature, the more I have to account for France, of all countries. But first, let me get William Trevor out of the way:
Fools of Fortune, William Trevor.
Trevor's reputation is primarily that of a short-story writer and, well, it shows. This 1983 novel, as well-reviewed and critically revered as it may be, reads more like a collection of Trevor-esque short...
Fools of Fortune, William Trevor.
Trevor's reputation is primarily that of a short-story writer and, well, it shows. This 1983 novel, as well-reviewed and critically revered as it may be, reads more like a collection of Trevor-esque short...
