Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

John,

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Robert Penn Warren is undervalued these days. First, I wonder if I am actually right about that. Second, if that's the case, why is that so? I think that his accomplishments were huge, but I wonder if it's because he wrote so much, it's possible to find some works that aren't of the first rank.

John wrote: " I have Gardner’s Grendel, which I would like to get to. . .."
..."

I've read that one twice. Marvelous. He successfully brings the story into the modern sensibility ... but not modern times. Just a huge accomplishment.

John wrote: "I would like see what that Penn Warren story is like, too. . .."
..."

John, go here: http://www.static.zhan.com/uploadfile...

pp.362-382

John, and this on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/385754061...

and this, also:

https://englishliterature-notes.blogs...

John wrote: "I was also impressed with two other schools and what I thought were excellent English programs. One was George Mason University and the other was Colgate University. .."

I guess that was during the time of John Gardner's period at GMU. I wish Gardner was more widely read ... it's not that he is unknown, but he still deserves more attention. From a few years before those days, you have this (from the Wiki):

"Gardner inspired and, according to Raymond Carver, sometimes intimidated his students. At Chico State College (where he taught from 1959 to 1962), when Carver mentioned to Gardner that he had not liked the assigned short story, Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter," Gardner said, "You'd better read it again." "And he wasn't joking", said Carver, who related this anecdote in his foreword to Gardner's book On Becoming a Novelist. In that foreword, he makes it clear how much he respected Gardner and also relates his kindness as a writing mentor. "

John wrote: "I must say that her school — the University of Georgia — where she majored in Classics must have a very strong program. She is very impressive when speaking about the classics. "

It's easy to accept that the very best universities, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge ... you know the ones ... have many of the best departments. But I think you're right John, in supposing that that is a strong department. Many excellent scholars have some good reasons is staying at schools that are not in the top ten or twenty in the rankings. John Ferling who stayed at the University of West Georgia for 39 years, is about as good as it gets when it comes to writing American histories of the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary times.

Every time I read a Stallings poem, I just get so caught up in the language that I'm not sure what to say. And I mean that in a good way.

Typically, I don't look at the FINANCIAL TIMES for poetry. This weekend's edition, however, has this one:

Autumn by Louise Glück

The part of life
devoted to contemplation
was at odds with the part
committed to action.

Fall was approaching.
But I remember
it was always approaching
once school ended.

Life, my sister said,
is like a torch passed now
from the body to the mind.
Sadly, she went on, the mind is not
there to receive it.

The sun was setting.
Ah, the torch, she said.
It has gone out, I believe.
Our best hope is that it’s flickering,
fort/da, fort/da, like little Ernst
throwing his toy over the side of his crib
and then pulling it back. It’s too bad,
she said, there are no children here.
We could learn from them, as Freud did.

We would sometimes sit
on benches outside the dining room.
The smell of leaves burning.

Old people and fire, she said.
Not a good thing. They burn their houses down.

How heavy my mind is,
filled with the past.
Is there enough room for the world to penetrate?
It must go somewhere, it cannot simply sit on the surface—

Stars gleaming over the water.
The leaves piled, waiting to be lit.

Insight, my sister said.
Now it is here.
But hard to see in the darkness.

You must find your footing
before you put your weight on it.

From ‘Winter Recipes from the Collective’ (Carcanet, £12.99)

Carol wrote: "Sher wrote: " I also hope I have not overstepped the mark concerning authors, Larry. However, as it is not yet published and probably never will be, I think I have probably not transgressed! .."

By no means. Even when it is published, we should feel free to discuss it here.

Sher wrote: "My husband is writing a book, well actually he is in the final stages working with his editor and publisher- what a long, long process! It's been so many years -- 10 plus in brining his project together.

"

Sher, so great about Bruce finishing that book.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "Carol wrote: "Yes, you have been very fortunate, John. My father became nearly blind and my grandfather became blind in their 70s, so I am always very conscious of eyesight and feel v..."

Glaucoma and macular degeneration robbed my mother of much of her eyesight over the last two years of her life. She was stoic and managed bravely. I wish she had been willing to change a bit and accept more help, but she was very stubborn.

Carol wrote: "Am waiting for a shopping delivery this morning. Fingers crossed that it will turn up. My staple breakfast is pain au chocolat and it keeps not being available as it comes from France. Had to heat up one from the freezer today and noticed that freezer also appears to be on the blink as it was soft instead of frozen. ..."

These machines seem to know when the worst possible time is.

Carol wrote: "Yes, you have been very fortunate, John. My father became nearly blind and my grandfather became blind in their 70s, so I am always very conscious of eyesight and feel very blessed that so far I ha..."

I am the same. I've had glaucoma for almost 25 years. While that's not great, diagnosed glaucoma with drugs to control the eye pressure is not so bad. Undiagnosed glaucoma robs a huge number of their sight every year.

Carol wrote: "Here in Britain there are starting to be bare supermarket shelves due to a lack of CO2 from rising gas prices and the closing down of two major fertiliser plants which produce CO2 as a by product. ..."

Panic buying over paper products has resumed in a small way in some parts of the United States. I don't expect it to last, but it does demonstrate that people's behavior can change rapidly.

John, are you taking a poetry class now? The same one that Sher is taking?

I have to say that the postings of John, Carol, and Sher and the consequent discussion are a poetry class in itself.

Sometimes a straightforward poem is just what I need. This was great, Carol.

Carol wrote: "Have just had my winter coal delivered so here is a somewhat 'coal' poem, John Masefield's 'Cargoes' much memorised by generations of British school children.

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant O..."

Carol,

I do not know this poem. Very simple so that I can understand why it would be introduced to British school children as you say.

Carol wrote: "Am busy cooking fish and chips- that favourite British staple! The above lines take me away from mundanity. (Hopefully there is such a word!)"

I haven't had really good fish and chips for decades ... well almost 20 years ago in Malaysia. We regularly got that meal the year we were in Australia (in 1980/81). I was excited a few years ago, when I saw an article in the Washington Post that there was a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia that had great fish and chips, so we went there the next weekend. Just mediocre. I bet if I looked really hard now I could find a good place in the DC area ... that seems like a worthy goal.

Carol, what are the best books on the French Revolution? It is really hard to argue with your two earlier recommendations of Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution or The Oxford History of the French Revolution. I do like the two lists from the Five Books site:

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/fren...

and

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/pere...

Carol, elsewhere in a message thread about the current situation in China, I had occasion to reference Zhou Enlai's famous quote about the French revolution. You may be interested in this story from the South China Morning Post:

"It was one of the most quotable quotes of the 20th century. When asked about the influence of the French Revolution, the late premier Zhou Enlai is reputed to have said: 'Too early to say.'

If that was what he really meant, it was a perfectly pompous answer. But somehow, coming as it did from China's foremost diplomat, it sounded profound. It became an example of the patient and far-sighted nature of Chinese leaders, who thought in centuries, as opposed to the short-termism of Western democratic politicians.

It now appears he was responding to a very different question. He was apparently not commenting on the French Revolution of 1789, but the much more recent French students' revolts in 1968. The misunderstanding appeared to be related to the French Revolution and the Paris Commune of 1871 because those were the historical references the Paris students used to compare themselves with. In this context, Zhou's answer was sensible but perfectly prosaic."

John, I agree with Sher on this matter of comprehensibility. But it is complicated. Meaning can be revealed or hidden in any number of ways with language, but when it remains totally unclear, then to me the frustration is just too much.