Michael’s Comments (group member since Mar 07, 2009)

Michael’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Jonathan wrote: " . . . deep down i like faulkner, really, i do! . . . love his themes, love his stylistic verve, courage, etc . . .he just gives me fits sometimes . . . and they're usually those occasions when i c..."

Yeah, sure you do JE. Deep down he sounds like Foghorn Leghorn to you. Admit it! I'll give you a cold one, no questions asked, if you just admit he sounds like a rambling old southern drunk who is way too full of himself and love the sound of his own voice!

Jcamilo wrote: "As Borges, do not forget he is an atheist that mistrusted his atheism, so...

But he certainly didnt believed in god or a creation power, just the chances of something happening all the time."

Interesting either/or proposition here “Oro”. What exactly would be the difference between:

1. Creative power
2. The chance of something happening all the time.

The Borgesian sense that the divine is an imminent ground of possibility, that it is near, rejuvenative and surprising; how does not stray a lick from Catholic theology? Borges has his doubts, but I don’t think his fruit fell that far from the Catholic tree which bore him. That said, he claims Judeo-Hispanic roots, and often talks of the Caballa. He has also on multiple occasion referred to God as a lesser God, a temperamental brat of a lesser God. I need to consult my notes, but Borges wrote often of the Heresiarchs and their intricately steeped heavens, containing level within level of divinities; the God of the Christians being way down on this hierarchy, a pawn to the higher powers.

But, we digress.
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Jonathan wrote: "Michael wrote: "
Dewey is actually the index to the v2 Fiction Files (after MySpace dropped the group's home page somehow). I know as well as anyone, that the original v1 Fiction Files is where th..."

I was actually back in there recently (Melissa, 17, is studying Phil 101 and I was trying to find some of the "bonus feature" Will Miller essays you did for us on Backspace) and it is inspiring what went on in there. Not to denegrate what we have now, but MAN something was def cooking back in late 2006 - first half of 2007. Real golden age. It had me thinking, is there any way possible to grab this off of the internets so that we could edit it, format it, and friggin publish it?! Then, should we publish the threads in chronological order to get the feel for the excitement and hurry of what was being posted?

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Jonathan wrote: " . . . lovely passage, but how exactly does one smell the curves of a river? . . . does a river smell different at a bend? and if so, can one smell multiple curves at a great distance? . . . and wh..."

Ah, we have triggered once again JE's great animadversion to Faulkner! But hark? There seems to be more to this thread already. I shall read on...

Finishing off the taxes this afternoon, which is somehow appropriate to the topic of infinitely tedious and incomplete bureaucracies.

- The proof, below, that “Jcamilo is Oro” is maybe the best part of this thread. I think it would be entirely within the spirit of Kafka to continue to doubt this proposition, and to require more and more proof from Jcamilo of his existence as Oro.

- BTW, did anyone notice the questionnaire that passengers had to fill out at the Kafka International Airport?

3. Is it true that you are whoever we say you are? Yes/No
4. You are disgusting? Yes/No
5. Have you lied to us? Yes/No
6. Have you lied to us? Yes/No
7. Have you lied to us? Yes/No
XX. Will you lie to us? Yes/No
28. We believe you have lied to us. Does it matter whether you’ve truly lied to us? Yes/No
28. Have you renounced your God? Yes/No

- RE: Borges is the guy who is amazed with the unknown. There is something we do not know, we will never know.

Quite right; but further that the existence of antinomies in logic are a clear message from a higher order of it’s, the higher order’s, existence. That paradox and confusion is the language of god, and more importantly, that there is a clarity to paradox which provides a path to higher spiritual ground. This should go over to the Borges thread.
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Too bad Pavel is en route to Ukraine. I am sure he would have much to say about our hero K,, but this has been a great discussion so far and I’d love to hear more from others on their readings of K.

M.

Jcamilo wrote: "Not having ever compared any originals, I developed a small idea. I think Kafka is something like the greatest short story writer ever. Even his longest books (with maybe the exception of America),..."


Oro – if that is who you are! – this is a great post. The move to Goodreads has really sparked your creative juices, man. Just love this post. A couple comments:

There is one, the original title I have no idea, about an emperor who sents a courrier to the most unlikely man in the realm when he was dying and the courrier will never reach this man.

I was thinking, “Yes, Oro is very right here. K. is a writer of parables!” And then you say,

He was writers of parables

True. The greatest of these I think is embedded within The Trial. I call it the parable of the gatekeeper. But searching for it now, I see it is generally called the Before The Law parable. It is worth reading here,

Before The Law

I think Kafka wrote the Epitaph for the end of the XIX century, not exactly the first lines for the XX century

But yet, he gets credit for somehow presaging the rise of fascism, the communist state, Nazism, the whole 1984 drama.

I see him seeing a small thing happening, very mundane and transforming in the Castle. Perhaps Pizza delivery, who knows. The guy was funny.

So are you my friend. This is a very funny thought; pizza delivery gone terribly wrong; undiscovered work of Kafka, The Delivery.

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Ry wrote: "Ben wrote: "you're not going to tell us a little about these books? cuz i can't say you're gettin' me excited... "

Well, I know that Peter Selgin won a Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. ..."

Did someone say Flannery?

Jcamilo wrote: "Some do, but a guy have to finish something sometimes)... "

Even a well structured ending is just one of many possible randoms endings. I should read more of his short stories.

I also only read Kafka before bed. I tend to read very few pages at a time, can stop anywhere, and perchance dream.

There is an American composer, Charles Ives, sometimes called the greatest American composer, who had an interesting pastiche approach to composition. His music – sometime cacophonic – is dense, seemingly a rash collage, and often extrodinarily beautiful.

I am a big fan.

But the point here is that his endings, like K.’s, bear no sign of cadence or standard border, but rather bear the signs of edges being ripped, of cut and paste, and an unfinished dangling haunting quality. One has to say with Ives (I.?) that the affect is accidental; the aural results, however, are sublime, and you or I could not slap layers of notes on top of each other, and let the layers end as they will, and never make such a good sound.

I guess the point is twofold: 1) any other Ives fans out there? 2) Are Kafka’s endings, indeed what we like about his wandering stories, a product of chance editing? Or is there a purposeful construction to this Mittle Europe pastiche.

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Pavel wrote: "Leaving for Ukraine tomorrow morning, so I'll be finishing Voices on the plane. See you all in a couple of weeks."

Go well Pavel. Have a safe trip.

I have always been a fan of cumulonimbus. This is one raging mother of a thunderstorm, but the word itself connotes a curvaceous, pillowy, womanliness to me; something I’d like to nestle up between, but still implying a feminine power and elan.

But this is probably just the choirboy in me; I just grew up loving the Latin and its unparalleled vowelsomeness. Cu-mu-lo-nim-bus ex-al-ta-te. I could just sing it.

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Dan wrote: "I have been in a DFW state of mind recently. This started with his death last year. I have read many of his works before his death but never his magnum opus [b:Infinite Jest A Novel|6759|Infinite ..."

I got a lot of DFW up on the group's shared drive. Brian, can you post the link again?
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Michael wrote: This from the old FictionFiles v1 on the subject: Tainting The Brilliance"

And it's companion thread: Creating to the Brilliance

Jcamilo wrote: "He was a pervert, we should start with the brothels and the red light district...
"

So was Will Shakespeare. No need to blame the author's works just because the author is a bad familyman. ;)

This from the old FictionFiles v1 on the subject: Tainting The Brilliance

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Oro's post in the Borges thread got me to thinkin about the left handed master from Prague. Let's start here, at Prague's new international airport:

http://www.theonion.com/content/video...

Lets talk Kafka too.

Jcamilo wrote: "I think it is more a partnership that Borges will never acknowledge or Joyce. One takes the novel to its limit, writes maybe the definitive and impossible novel and the other digs the grave and thr..."

This is brilliant Oro. No longer the "twin pillars", but the "three mice". Kudos.

Borges.

Umberto Eco says the twin pillars of 20th century lit are on the one hand Joyce, and on the other Borges. They seem a strange pair to me. If Joyce is diarrheic in the out flowing of his words, Borges is the epitome of precision and brevity. Borges in lieu of writing a novel will pretend that the novel exists and write a review of it.

Borges (who like Joyce became blind) took to memorizing his pieces and reworking them in his head before dictating them to his staff. They are less than short stories, they are miniatures. And they are less stories than philosophical essays. Philosophy with a twist. One is missing Borges entirely if one doesn’t get his sense of humor, “a cake in every comma” indeed, but maybe more “a pie in the face with every comma”.

His writing is also, definitely, fantastic. If you don’t like the Twilight Zone, there is no reason for you to come this way. His stories involve time travel, doubles, plays within plays, hallucinations. The best site to go to for more complete information on him is here: http://www.themodernword.com/borges//.

Find the essay by Carlos Fuentes on him at this site and start there.

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Jcamilo wrote: "They are not? We must do something to change it. I demand that at least the Govern of Somalia or Fuji Island to watch over us. "

Fiji is it? I always wanted to be a Governor of an island...

Ben wrote: "Michael wrote: "Though I do think Ben could take on the group's description to good affect. "

the irony here was that i'd already redone the group description! i liked je's intro in the old FF, i ..."

Haha. Just itchin' for a re-write I guess. Laugh's on me.