The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
General Non-Book Discussions
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Café Quito: 'pub' thread for general discussions
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Posting this in case anyone else happens to be interested in [some of] this report from 2016 (NB 45-page PDF),
Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place
BAME authors, who, despite the successes of a few ‘popular stars’ such as Dorothy Koomson and Dreda Say Mitchell, continue to be better represented in the smaller, less lucrative literary genres rather than the high selling genres that reap the greatest financial reward and publication longevity
I thought I just knew of more literary authors because I read and hear about more litfic, but actual research showed there were proportionally more being published.
"In the words of Paul Struzl, who is managing director of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt (ADEVA), one of the globally renowned Austrian firms working in the publishing business, books are becoming popular once again as people rebel against electronic reading."https://tribune.com.pk/story/1848448/...
I hoped that books would make a come back and have had faith that they would become “cool,” like artisanal cheese, micro beers, and specialty coffees. Now we need to make subscriptions to indie presses as popular as beards and flannel shirts with millennials.
Wrong thread? Too political for M&G? I'm sure you'll tell me. Consider it a glomarization of any political disposition.@davidfrum
David Frum Retweeted Donald J. Trump
"Trump's wall is like an image from a Jorge Luis Borges story. Sometimes it must be built; sometimes it already exists. Sometimes it is called a wall; sometimes it must not be so called. Sometime it is free; sometimes it costs billions. It is always changing; yet always the same."
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Tsundokuhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/st...
If that word has been discussed at M&G before, it didn't appear in my search of discussions, and it doesn't apply to Paul or GY.
Did you read that Karl Lagerfeld's estate includes 300k books?
Yes I have the opposite of tsundoku - a strong aversion to a TBR pile of more than 10 books. Toobigtbrpileaphobia I think it is called. I am not a fan of letting books I read pile up in my house either. I actually think Maria Kondo has a point on that, although my twitter timeline a few weeks back seemed to be filled by people showing how much they loved books by tweeting photos of tottering piles of them.
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I have enjoyed some of the comebacks to the Kondo-books misunderstanding:
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/...
https://twitter.com/orcshapeshifter/s...
Getting rid of even items that *do* spark joy, for space reasons and to to sell, is a painful process but there are times when it needs to be done. Vernon Subutex 1 is one of the few times I've seen this addressed well and with sufficient rawness in a book.
Not sure where to put this but I just made a Booktube video about the 4 current literary prizes that include at least some translations. https://youtu.be/wvgy2Ov9NnM. All but 1 are new in the last few years and the selections are much easier to find and read! Am I correct that the Johnson is elegible for the MBI? ( though as you can see I have big plans to read it anyway!)
Anniversaries? No I am afraid not: doubly ineligible as the author is dead (which definitely rules it out) and I don’t think it has a UK publisher. Seems also to be ineligible for the Best Translated Book Award in the US as a retranslation (albeit the previous one was a cut-down version, so the ineligibility is a little controversial).
Oh my, I was really off the mark on that one!🙀Some in our reading group do not want to carry it around and would you believe that the Kindle version costs MORE than the boxed set (by almost half again). So will you read it?
I am not sure. I am hoping they will bring out in a more sensible version split into more portable chunks.
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But was posting on the thread to ask if anyone knows whether the Irish Times puts all articles on its website. I was looking at Tilted Axis' Twitter page, and there was a retweet from 2 weeks ago mentioning an article about novellas apparently called 'The Greatness of Shortness'. The tweet had no link and I can't find anything on the paper's website. (Also tried searching novella/s)
Antonomasia wrote: "Actually, I have Audible tsundoku from the autumn and I hate it. I want to return all but one or two, but that's too many to get away with. The books all still look quite interesting individually b..."Thanks for this. I have well over 100 books Audible to read and I keep meaning to suspend my account till I have caught up and then finding some excuse for not susping the account. I am going to use your post as motivation.
I have been thinking today about authorial intent as a result of JK Rowling's new revelations about the lives of her characters. (If you have not heard the news, it's all over social media today.) Years ago, when she first revealed that she had conceived of Dumbledore as gay I didn't have a problem with that, but I took the view that authorial intent does not matter and if it ain't in the book, then it ain't in the story. I think most people here take a similar view in general of authorial intent.But here is the question: When an author, as in Rowling's case, does not just write one book and not just a seven book series, but writes books, plays, and films (or, in the latter cases, at least officially authorizes them) the issue of when authorial intent becomes authorial inclusion is not always clear. The question I am wondering about is to what extent a reader should take information provided in subsequent books to be authoritative about previous books. On the one hand, it would seem strange to insist that with any series of books that none of the information given in a later book counts as part of the story of the earlier one, while at the same time it does seem to open the door for any writer to turn unwritten authorial intentions into official realities just by writing a sequel and including the new information in that.
My own thinking (for now) is that a reader should feel free in these cases to include as much as they like and exclude as much as they like. There might be good reasons on some occasions for seeing a book that is a part of a series entirely in isolation from all other books, but to see books and their sequels as part of a related whole is also appropriate. What do others think?
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I think I have a very similar view as you, but I hadn’t thought of it much in terms of Rowling’s ongoing story making. Here I think we get into some of the stuff that is in, say, comic books or Star Wars or any other long series. It probably boils down to “canon,” rather than authorial intent. These stories are ongoing, and there will be (and we’re even in the first books) inconsistencies, but I think all revelations that come from the authorized/authorial source are incorporated in. Of course, we don’t have to agree with her and can take what we loved from the originals without making them grow.
Trevor, you don't need to know the details of Rowling's revelations to think about the issue. In fact, I would not want the discussion to focus too much on the ongoing world-making creations like comic books or Star Wars. I had trouble coming up with a literary example to use, but maybe this will work:When Go Set A Watchman was published it was controversial for a number of reasons, but one of them was that it might infect our reading of To Kill A Mockingbird to see a more racist version of Atticus Finch. Assuming one accepts that Harper Lee really approved the publication of the second book (and that's its own other controversy), it would seem a reasonable question whether we can ignore the second book in our reading of the first. I am inclined to think it is reasonable to do so. The logical extension of that is that we can always exclude the facts of subsequent books from our readings of previous ones. Yet with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn I would be more reluctant to do that.
I am not up to date on this but isn’t Go Set A Watchman widely regarded as being the first book.
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On the Rowling debate the thing that had most bemused me (certainly from Twitter stuff) is the concept of a ‘canon’ of facts about Harry Potter world which has more authority than and exists independent of the author’s views.If there is a canon then JK Rowling is sole deity and her word gospel: or one simply allows each reader to form their own beliefs from what was in the books. But to have, as seems to exist, a view that there is an official ‘theology’ which exists irrespective of Rowling’s beliefs, seems very odd to me.
That said, and making the counter argument: when she wrote the original six (?) books they were carefully plotted, she knew exactly where the story was going and had a carefully constructed ‘theology’. Now she does seem to be putting retrospective interpretations on things that people suspect were not her intention when she created the world. In theological terms - what happens if an omniscient god changes their mind?
The Star Wars etc analogy is a little different since they have had other filmmakers come in to write the sequels/ prequels - so the new films are themselves more like fan fiction and no more valid artistically (as opposed to in copyright terms) than anyone else’s.
Disclaimer: I have never read Harry Potter nor watched and other than the original 3 Star Wars films, nor closely followed the debates, so there may well be errors in above.
7 books /10 films :) - what Paul said 😀
The fact that I can’t edit on a mobile is irritating (I’m in Valencia and I only have access to a phone) I mean I agree with what Paul said
You perhaps should have an auto-complete on your phone set up for 'I agree with what Paul said', indeed I recommend it for everyone as it so often comes in handy :-)
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I edit on the mobile quite a lot but I use the browser not the app and switch it into desktop mode temporarily for anything the mobile version can't do (and there are a lot of those!). For me the worst thing about using the mobile is my tendency to brush the back button with my hand while typing...
Paul wrote: "You perhaps should have an auto-complete on your phone set up for 'I agree with what Paul said', indeed I recommend it for everyone as it so often comes in handy :-)"I agree with what Paul said :D
I have no problem with Dumbledore’s sexuality and perhaps Rowling did conceive of him as a gay wizard, which I applaud. I do wonder if her reasons for pointing out now that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had a relationship are more politically motivated, that she is announcing something that is not in the books to show support for LGBT people in this era of stepped up hate speech and violence.
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Paul wrote: "On the Rowling debate the thing that had most bemused me (certainly from Twitter stuff) is the concept of a ‘canon’ of facts about Harry Potter world which has more authority than and exists indepe..."
This is a hallmark of fandom cultures in general.
Now she does seem to be putting retrospective interpretations on things that people suspect were not her intention when she created the world. In theological terms - what happens if an omniscient god changes their mind?
As Sunita mentioned, retcons are a frequent source of controversy in fandoms - especially (though not exclusively) comics and SFF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroac...
Also relevant here:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...
I saw Pieces I Am, the documentary about Toni Morrison, Monday and loved, loved, loved it. In the film she tells the story of her life and development as a writer. She is a joyful, strong, confident woman and I had a glimpse of what it might feel like to be in her presence. If you have the opportunity to see the film, do see it. She gives background to how she came to write Beloved and Song of Solomon, what she experienced writing Sula and Paradise and it made me want to shelve every other book on my TBR and read or reread everything she has written.
WndyJW wrote: "I saw Pieces I Am, the documentary about Toni Morrison, Monday and loved, loved, loved it. In the film she tells the story of her life and development as a writer. She is a joyful, strong, confiden..."I’ll look for it- Toni Morrison is one of my favorites. I have three novels of hers left to read, and lots of her essays and nonfiction.
I thought I knew all of her books, but there were a number listed in the film that I was unaware of. I need to remedy that because I do feel that she is one of the few most important American writers.
I also love Toni Morrison and I am eager to watch the documentary. I think I have read all of her work but her newest book, but I should double check.
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Antonomasia wrote: "Now I've read Bartleby the Scrivener - and noticed how canonical it is in the US - I'm incredulous it wasn't in the 2018 short story Mookse Madness. There are no search results for it..."Everyone preferred not to. ;)
I don't think the covers are that similar.
Someone in another group is looking for 'uplifting' books by Japanese authors, or ones with a happy ending.Does anyone have any recommendations please?
Sexism, Racism and Brexit (heard on the IOW ferry today).'... Oh, no, I always drive on. (to the ferry, presumably)
I wouldn't say I'm a better driver than my husband, but he fitted parking sensors to his last two cars, and I don't have them.'
'I booked a romantic weekend in Venice for our anniversary, but he wouldn't go.'
'Did you persuade him to go?'
'No, I took my daughter, (long pause) but I never booked a surprise holiday again.'
'You shouldn't leave your bag on the seat near him.'
'He just showed me camera equipment worth more than my car; he should be worried about me being a thief. (pause) I hope you're not saying that because he's black. (long pause) I bet you voted for Brexit as well - I hope your employer moves abroad so that they can continue to trade with the EU and you get food poisoning from Trump's chlorinated chicken and can't afford treatment under Trump's privatised NHS and die in agony yelling at least we protected our borders.' (turns on self-righteous heels and stalks off)
'But I'll lose my job too!'
(over shoulder) 'Blame him.'
My usual audience for amusing stories have either died, moved out or moved house, but I still make a note of them to pass on, sorry.I was about to post another one.
Reading about Brexit from the US, I'm always interested in hearing these kinds of stories, Val - post away! That sounds like quite a scene - and in public at that!BTW, if anyone is interested in doing a read or reread of the Tales of the City series, the Great American Read group is considering setting up a group for the whole series - but we want to see if there's enough interest first. If you don't want to join another group but have some interest, you can just message me, if you like. Thanks.
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It is not a very British thing to do, but these are unusual times. It amused me, and the ladies I had been chatting with at the next table cheered.
Anyone read this yet? Lie With Me by Philippe Besson? Translated by Molly Ringwald.I find the blurb interesting: The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson—“the French Brokeback Mountain” (Elle)—about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.
I listened to the audiobook a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. I don’t seem to be alone – my GR friends have rated it 5, 5, 5, 4, an 4. It’s elegant, emotional, and very French. I would recommend!
Tommi wrote: "I listened to the audiobook a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. I don’t seem to be alone – my GR friends have rated it 5, 5, 5, 4, an 4. It’s elegant, emotional, and very French. I would rec..."Oh thanks. Good to know b/c my library only has an audio copy (on CD oddly enough.) I shall request it immediately! Thanks.
Thought this was a fun little read:A Legendary Publishing House’s Most Infamous Rejection Letters
When Faber & Faber’s T.S. Eliot Passed on George Orwell (and More)
https://lithub.com/a-legendary-publis...
The Mookse and the Gripes
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The major Polish Angelus award for Central European literature now lists on its website all the qualifying books, http://angelus.com.pl/2018/03/9456/ (50 this year).
They call the longlist a semi-final.