What Are We Reading? 14 Dec 2020

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 (260) wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "AB76 (256) wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "AB76 (248) wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Storm (241) wrote: "Reply to Pale Fire re Japanese Literature

So it isn’t just me then! The..."

the idea of a new alphabet fascinates, like learning russian or serbo-croat(although croatia uses the western alphabet, due to its Austrian empire days)

[Greenfairy]

Storm wrote: "https://youtu.be/K9CqZ952y8c

A review of Grass, a graphic novel depicting the life of Lee Ok Sun, one of the many Korean « comfort women ». Something I definitely have an issue with.
I am not sure..."

Justine wrote: "In Elmer Gantry, published in 1927, Sinclair Lewis has created a double satire: one on religion in the United States from the beginning of the 20th century to his own time, the other o..."

Burt Lancaster portrayed Gantry very well in the 1960 film.

[FrancesBurgundy]

Re Japanese literature (well not quite)

A book I really enjoyed is L'honorable Partie De Campagne by Thomas Raucat . Raucat was a Frenchman who lived in Japan for a couple of years and wrote this funny and informative novel about the clashes of culture between Japan and the west in 1924.

Thomas Raucat was not in fact his real name – that was Roger Poidatz - but Thomas Raucat apparently sounds like the Japanese for ‘Shall I stay overnight?’.

The book has been translated into English by Leonard Cline, entitled The Honourable Picnic, which to me is about as wrong as you can get seeing as it concerns an overnight stay in the country, so I can’t vouch for the translation. Nor can I guarantee that you’ll be able to find a copy in English at a reasonable price. But it’s definitely worth a read should you come across it.

[Storm]

Ooh, thank you to Frances Burgundy. I was intrigued by your recommendation and checked out the usual suspects for a copy (a tad pricey in English and mainly all from the States) but found the French version on TheGreatSatan.fr and have ordered it. Will report back.....eventually.

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "
Wolfgang Koeppen’s Pigeons on the Grass (tr. Michael Hofmann) is remarkable for its lacerating depiction of German society in the immediate..."

i'm a Koeppen fan, i loved "The Hothouse" set in Bonn and i have "Death In Rome" on my TBR list. i will seek this novel out now, thanks Mach

just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i'm a Koeppen fan, i loved "The Hothouse" set in Bonn and i have "Death In Rome" on my TBR list. "

He's entirely new to me. In the introduction, Hofmann suggests that it forms - with ..."

yes i think they were intended as post-war "state of the nation" kind of trilogy. "The Hothouse" is about Bonn politics when that small town by the Rhine became the capital of the BDR, i havent read "Death In Rome" yet but it looks at nazi guilt within a family

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!"

In the recent NY Times holiday round-up of Historical Fiction, the Koeppen and Lenz novels were the only ones that sounded appealing to me, maybe because neither one is actually historical fiction.

[Georg]

Machenbach wrote(272): "Alwynne wrote: "And Wasabi is particularly good at this time of year."
I've recently discovered the unlikely joy of wasabi-infused mashed potatoes."

For those of us who cannot afford wasabi (around 300-400 GBP/kg) plain horseradish (around 8 GBP/kg) will have to do :-(

[Storm]

Thank you, Alwynne. Quite a lot to work through there! 👍

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!"

In the recent NY Times holiday round-up of Historical Fiction, the Koeppen and Lenz n..."

The post war german stable is pretty good if you add Boll,Rein and Andersch to those two. I would include Grass but in the end only 2 of his novels i found readable or likeable

Bolls "Billiards at half past nine" is a very good novel about the post-war german situation, i recommend that alongside "The HotHouse" by Koeppen, both set in 1950s West Germany

[Hushpuppy]

Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English nationalists of particular stripes. Not all English people are taken in by the jingoistic nonsense. "

At least, I did make the effort of qualifying by specifically saying 'England' in my post. And while not all English people lap up the jingoistic bullshit, it seems to be the prevalent approach these days, perhaps - wrongly? - suggesting that it is the view of the majority. See also the imbecilic Hancock and his pride at being English for a vaccine developed by two Turkish-German scientists, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, from a German company, with funds from an American one, to be produced in fucking Belgium. Simply because it got approved faster by the English medical authorities. I mean, you cannot make this up.

@Tam (and @Mach), while voting is the very first, and most important act, as I've said multiple times on TLS, I cannot comprehend of a world where an entire young generation that was against Brexit, and 48% of those who voted in general, accepted just such a shocking result and didn't take to the streets. Yes, the French overdo it, but there is no need to be farmers or gilets jaunes, there are some enlightened and massive demonstrations in France, either as a show of strength and unity (against Le Pen, against terrorism), or to protest against some lamentable laws (see the recently scrapped Article 24). Writing to your MP is also a good approach. While it perhaps would not have or should not have reverted the Brexit process, this would have given pause for thoughts to those in charge, and made them aware that this winner-take-all approach where 48% of the population gets disregarded is at their own peril. But noooo, we had a few polite and sorrowful head shakes, and - wait for it - Boris 80,000-deaths-from-Covid Johnson put in charge instead.

[SydneyH]

Justine wrote: "In Elmer Gantry, published in 1927, Sinclair Lewis has created a double satire."

Thanks for this. I have Babbitt on my radar, I think I'm likely to start with that one.

[AB76]

Gladarvor wrote: "Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English nationalists of particu..."

the vaccine jingoism was totally infantile and nobody in my sphere bought it for one second, a solid remain voting circle of friends and family etc.

the problem is that jingoism matters to the left behinds whose only source of pride is some misplaced vision of England as a major power. they enjoy cheap tub thumping and veiled xenophobia, to them there is some strange emotional tie to the vision of the St George, of a mystical exceptionalism bestowed on being born english

its nauseating but i think we all looked past this up to 2016 and couldnt quite see how resonent this myth was with 52% of the population, stacked with lies and mis-information

When i was reading Becketts book on 1970s England in november, he made the point that Teddy Heath was quite radical in his approach towards joining the EEC. This foul 4 yrs of stagnation means it now looks radical to want to join again.....or it will be framed that way for decades

[Georg]

AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!"

In the recent NY Times holiday round-up of Historical Fiction, the Koepp..."

Who is "Rein"? Serious question, I've never heard of him.

As far as Andersch is concerned: he divorced his half-Jewish wife to assuage the Nazis, pretended she was still his wife to assuage the Americans when he was a PoW. Styled himself as an anti-Nazi later on. "Sansibar or The Last Ground" ...makes me want to vomit....

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!"

In the recent NY Times holiday round-up of Historical Ficti..."

Heinz Rein, whose Berlin Finale was re-published in 2019, an account of the vicious last days of 1945 in the great capital

I liked Sansibar by Andersch, i was aware he had a questionble past too, so did Grass.

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 (282)wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i'm a Koeppen fan, i loved "The Hothouse" set in Bonn and i have "Death In Rome" on my TBR list. "

He's entirely new to me. In the introduction, H..."

its on my pile and yes, thats what i referred to, i think it looks like a very interesting study of the total collapse of a socierty

[Andy]

Anastasia wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "I'm not especially bothered or surprised if people mainly want to read books written by authors of their own country "

Funnily enough this rarely applies to Ukrainians. The book..."

I see Kurkov has a new translation out, , which I’m keen to read.
I recently discovered Glagoslav Publications also, having lots of fun with ..

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Storm (241) wrote: "Reply to Pale Fire re Japanese Literature

So it isn’t just me then! There is so much to admire about Japan and the culture. I love the early literature, have re..."

Just checked.. I’ve read 6 Japanese novels this year, and enjoy them similarly AB.
Highlights have been , and the best, .

[Justine]

Gladarvor (285) wrote: "Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English nationalists of particu..."

If you'd been living in my corner of East London, you would not have found the response phlegmatic. People were very angry, but felt helpless. You can write to the papers, express yourself BTL online, contact your MP, but it changes nothing. And there was an attempt for a while, in which a few of my acquaintances were involved, to press for a second referendum. If anything, there have been constant complaints about 'remoaners'. The fact was that the government - and most of the media - chose to accept the results, preferring the 52% to the 48%; elections since then have reinforced this. And as I'm not prepared myself to organize a protest, I can't really blame others for not doing so.

[giveusaclue]

Bill wrote: "
Why Are There Dead Birds on Victorian Christmas Cards?"

They aren't dead, just resting.

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

Hello everyone,
very happy to read the many posts here. Have started reading Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower today and am still getting over the (to me) weirdness of reading about Germany and German personages in English...

Here's a short quote from No Bed for Bacon, which I have read recently:

In the green room the argument had reached a deadlock. Tempers had risen high. [Francis] Bacon had been telling Shakespeare how he would like the play altered and Shakespeare had been failing to agree with him.
“So you won't make your heroine a man?” demanded Bacon.
“No, I won't,” said Shakespeare.
“And you won't kill the clown?”
“Certainly not.” […]
Shakespeare sprang to his feet.
“Master Bacon,” he demanded passionately, “do I write my plays or do you?”
Bacon looked at him. He shrugged.
(p. 176)

I liked the book not least for such tongue-in-cheek references to the Baconian hypothesis of Shakespearean authorship. It is silly in many ways, but good fun.

Inspired, if you could call it that, by the memorable christmas cards posted by MachenBach and Swelter, today I reread a book on the uses of christmas for political propaganda (covering the time from the end of Kaiserreich up to 1968 and peace movements. Its title would be called, if translated, something like “Holy night? No way! The uses of Christmas in political propaganda”

Here is a title page of a German brochure from the First World War sent out to soldiers in the field (er, mud). https://www.europeana.eu/de/item/9200...
Bah.

And, much more amusing to me, the book also refers to attempts of GDR authorities to secularize christmas while upholding it as a festive occasion in order to keep people happy.
For example, here http://www.ddr-comics.de/froesi/kalen... you get an advent calendar with a festivity in front of a theatre, no church visible, and all activities involved firmly secular (dancing the polonaise,...). Also, the children wear their blue pioneer neckerchiefs – they would, of course.

Brexit and the debates and the vicious bumbling (as I see it), make me feel terrible even as a relative outsider. I can't always hear or read the news just now. I was on the fringes of a very big (too-late, thus, you could argue, pointless, but still) pro-Europe demonstration in London some time ago and I was bowled over by the creativity, the good ideas, the overall mood,... It was a very moving occasion to me.
I hope everyone is coping as well as possible with all recent... let's call them bouleversements.
Keep well.

[AB76]

Justine wrote: "Gladarvor (285) wrote: "Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English..."

Gov+ media= very true, they defined the agenda and most of media are anti-EU
never any need for a hard brexit or a50 trigger so fast but agenda was led by ERG/media and thats a tragedy

[Georg]

AB76 wrote(289): "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "just spotted that The Turncoat by Siegried Lenz has also been re-issued...more great german lit!"

The name is Heinrich Böll, or Boell. Not Boll. And Siegfried, not Siegried Lenz.

I think it should be a human right to have spelled your name correctly.
Sorry, seem to be in a cantancerous mood tonight

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 I thought it was clear which writers you were referring to, and there's no shortcut in Windows 10 for English-language users for things like umlauts, so a huge faff, unless of course one is wr..."

haha, dont worry Alywnne, i dont correct other people and i have never used an umlaut on my computer.

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 I thought it was clear which writers you were referring to, and there's no shortcut in Windows 10 for English-language users for things like umlauts, so a huge faff, unless of course one is wr..."

i dont have dyslexia or any disablilties.....but i agree, you never know how correcting people might offend them.
i'm not offended..lol

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "After today's thread, I'm starting to feel a wave of sympathy for the much-maligned Guardian moderators."

LOL

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "After today's thread, I'm starting to feel a wave of sympathy for the much-maligned Guardian moderators."

Alright, alright. I take back the “dude” if I must."

i did think that was out of order Mach....it caused me to have flashbacks......

[Justine]

Y'all want cantankerous? I've been caught up in a not-so-funny comedy of errors between Virgin Media and BT, as I try to switch my 'broadband package' from the former to the latter. It now looks likely that I will lose my internet service entirely for about a week in January. OK, nobody died, and I lived for more than half a century without any of it, but ... feel like growling nonetheless.

[Tam]

Gladarvor wrote: "Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English nationalists of particu..."

Pre-referendum polls consistently pointed to a majority for Remain, even up to some polls on referendum day causing the UKIP leader to conceded defeat, that was until the results came in showing, ultimately, a 3.8% lead for Leave. The final tally is well known: the electorate was 46,501,241, Leave was 17,410,742 and Remain was 16,141,241.

But polls taken a week or so after reversed that picture completely (see www.no2brexit.com). For example the BMGResearch poll, on June 29th gave Remain a 10.5% lead, well outside any suggestion of polling error. Since then most polls (so far 11 out of 13) have shown the UK electorate's preference to Remain. Although the Remain majorities are not as great as in the first weeks after the referendum, they are stable and likely to grow.



Since the referendum about 10% of both Leave and Remain voters have either changed their minds or cannot now decide whether their original vote was right. Certainly some of those who had voted Remain are now content to accept the Brexit train is on the track, whilst some Leave voters have the view that they wanted to give the government a good kicking over, for example, immigration, but actually quitting the EU and leaving the economy to float, or sink, may not, in their minds, be the best way to deal with the issue.

72.2% was an excellent turnout compared to a general election, but general elections are for five years, before you are guaranteed another vote, the Brexit referendum is for life, all the more so because to join the EU would mean joining the euro and that is not palatable to the UK. Only 26.5% of the UK population actually voted for Brexit. Some key groups had no vote such as the two million EU residents in the UK, despite having a vote in the Scottish referendum, paying taxes to the UK government and despite the question being one that could require them to leave.

The week before the polls said that remain was a virtual certainty. Many young people who could have voted didn't because they didn't think that the 'leave' vote would win.. It was the media that twisted the whole thing. I AM RESENTFUL.. I'm afraid towards all those people of mostly my age, who just wanted to give the 'elite' 'a good kicking'... No amount of writing to MP's would have made any difference to my mind.... I don't know where this article got the idea that we had to join the Euro though, but it might have been something put out by the dark forces of the leave campaign, like 350 million a week for the NHS!... on the side of a bus! I am as sick as a parrot about it all!... and though I have been reluctant to, I think I might go in search of my Irish heritage and become a 'plastic' paddy!....

[SydneyH]

giveusaclue wrote: "Bill wrote: "
Why Are There Dead Birds on Victorian Christmas Cards?"

They aren't dead, just resting."

Either that or they're pining for the fjords :)

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 (308) wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "AB76 I thought it was clear which writers you were referring to, and there's no shortcut in Windows 10 for English-language users for things like umlauts, so a hu..."

Justine wrote: "Y'all want cantankerous? I've been caught up in a not-so-funny comedy of errors between Virgin Media and BT, as I try to switch my 'broadband package' from the former to the latter. It now looks li..."

Thats fustrating, but very common i think.

[AB76]

Tam wrote: "Gladarvor wrote: "Storm wrote (#251): "While there are numpties in every corner of the UK, can we perhaps put the blame where it lies, mainly with English nationalism. And to be fair, English natio..."

26.5% is the devil in the detail Tam and something i always refer to. if one third(roughly) voted leave and one third didnt vote, how the f**** is that anything like the will of the people???

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "Justine (313) wrote: "Y'all want cantankerous? I've been caught up in a not-so-funny comedy of errors between Virgin Media and BT, as I try to switch my 'broadband package' from the former to the l..."

its ridiculous how difficult private competition makes pay tv. i actually had a good result in sept when i added sky sports, sky atlantic, sky docs and sky arts to my BT TV package for £5 less than i was paying before, all in HD. A rare win on the pay tv lottery

Prices always go up, services rarely expand to match it though