Nathan "N.R."’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2012)

Nathan "N.R."’s comments from the Completists' Club group.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I came back to this because of the 2015 title, so instead of waiting around for Volume One to strike my fancy, I'll just add that one to my wish list immediately. "

Yeah, no problem starting with the new one. I've been hearing good things about it.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Help! I'm confused about this:

Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes (series)"

The seven Dreams are thematically and symbolically connected, but not narratively. So the order you read them is not so important ; but, yes, they are ordered chronologically. The unpublished Dreams are :: (#4) The Poison Shirt ("concerning the Puritans vs. King Philip of Rhode Island," or Captain Cook's voyage to Hawaii. [17th or 18th cent.]) & (#7) The Cloud Shirt ("Navajo vs. Hopi (or possibly Navajo vs. oil company) in Arizona." [20th cent]).

Welcome, PostModernist! There's not many Mano fans come dropping by, as you can imagine. Nevertheless, his Take Five seems to be slowly gathering a new enthusiastic audience here on gr. Jonathan and I both got through all or most of his nine novels last year. Time well spent to say the least.

The link Jonathan mentioned to The BURIED Book Club ::
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You're most welcome there as well.

aidan wrote: "seems like this hasn't been mentioned in the thread yet...Finn's Hotel anyone familiar?"

A peculiar piece, I'm sure. I'll read it if I ever run across it. Also, perhaps in the same category, is A First-Draft Version of Finnegans Wake. But it gets esoteric pretty quickly, this Nachlass of Joyce!

BUMP!!!

I might get my above list of novels/etc completed soon ; but I've still not determined what's going to count for my Federman Completionism. I'll at least need a few of his essay/non-fic books. Given the Federman factor, and if I can locate them, I'm tempted to include a few of his poetry books.

2014 got me to Completionism on Vollmann and Mano and Young ; 2015 will see a begin again from the Vollmann zero point for a second Completionism over the coming years.

Otherwise, my GOALS for 2015 Completionism look like a recuperation of my past year's failures ::
Joseph McElroy
William H. Gass
Robert Coover
which should be modest enough.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Is it too early to start thinking about 2015?"

Not at all. I've gotta take stock of my plentiful failure from Fourteen ; then I'll take stock of potential inCompletionisms for Fifteen. I'll be back.

Should you find yourself in that kind of situation, there's a place where we Vollmanniacs hang out. You'd be welcome to join :: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8...

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Ok, put on my "wish list". Are there supposed to be seven titles in the Seven Dreams series? "

There will be. Volume the Fifth is scheduled for next summer :: The Dying Grass. Nor were they written in order.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "If one were to dip one's toe in the Vollmann waters, which to choose, and, just as importantly, why?"

I had great luck myself beginning with The Ice-Shirt. It's the first volume of his projected seven volume Dreams of American Landscapes project and that for which I believe he will be longest remembered. It's also fantastic!

Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that a dipping is possible ; it's usually either a high dive into the deep end or one gets totally shut out. Seems to be.

Jim wrote: "All that's left for you now is to have Bill's love-child..... "

That contract has already been signed!!

Vollmann Completionized ::
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Done.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Friedrick wrote: "Thomas Mann,
James Joyce,
Cormac McCarthy,
John Banville,
Vladimir Nabokov,
William Faulkner,
Willa Cather,
Sebastian Barry, and
David Mitchell, although I'm not so sure after Bone Clocks."


I think you're in the right place!

So there are Six Really Great Chinese Novels. Why not do a completionization upon them? I'm about 100 pages into the stack at this point. Several thousand pages to go.

Briefly, they are ::

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Water Margin
Journey to the West
The Plum in the Golden Vase
The Scholars
The Story of the Stone/ A Dream of Red Mansions(/Chambers)

For readers in the English language, there has never been a better time to read these Great Works. Modern, scholarly, well translated editions are now available of all six. I've outlined these on my 'Review' of Hsia's study :: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

All six are of course treated in Moore's Novel book.

Faber and Faber is repub'ing a bunch of Tutola's stuff this year in both pb and e- :: http://www.faber.co.uk/catalogsearch/...

My score ::

The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1946, published 1952)
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954)
Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1955)
The Brave African Huntress (1958)
Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962)
Ajaiyi and his Inherited Poverty (1967)
The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981) -- to=read
The Wild Hunter in the Bush of the Ghosts (1982)
Yoruba Folktales (1986)
Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987)
The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories (1990)

The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1946, published 1952)
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954)
Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1955)
The Brave African Huntress (1958)
Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962)
Ajaiyi and his Inherited Poverty (1967)
The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981)
The Wild Hunter in the Bush of the Ghosts (1982)
Yoruba Folktales (1986)
Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987)
The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories (1990)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Tut...

My score (I'm just starting out!) ::

Novels
Ghost Dance (1986)
The Art Lover (1990)
AVA ((1993)
The American Woman in the Chinese Hat (1994)
Defiance (1998)
Mother&Child (2012)
The Bay of Angels (forthcoming)

Short Stories
Aureole: An Erotic Sequence (collection) (1996)

Other
Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire (2000)
The Room Lit by Roses: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth (2002)
Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo (2002)


(I don't really count those multi-author'd collections for completionalizationalism, but perhaps you may ; because why not competionalize on the basis of all writing instead of my wont to go mostly towards the Book-shaped completionalizationalism.)

I think I just might announce myself for the Complitionizationalism of Dalkey author Carole Maso's work. The words which begin the wikipedia article :: "known for her experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives often called postmodern" point in the correct direction.


Novels

Ghost Dance (1986)
The Art Lover (1990)
AVA ((1993)
The American Woman in the Chinese Hat (1994)
Defiance (1998)
Mother&Child (2012)
The Bay of Angels (forthcoming)

Short Stories

Aureole: An Erotic Sequence (collection) (1996)
Tasting Life Twice (Contributor)


Other

Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire (2000)
The Room Lit by Roses: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth (2002)
Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo (2002)
Tolstoy's Dictaphone: Technology and the Muse (Contributor)


She's at home : http://www.carolemaso.com/
and the usual at wikipedia :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Maso


And for that extremely personal touch, I was pretty much convinced the first thing I read by her. It was something called "Rupture, Verge, and Precipice / Precipice, Verge, and Hurt Not" in the DFW-edit'd The Future of Fiction.