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What Are We Reading? 15 March 2021
Bill wrote: "I follow the Twitter feed @CanadaPaintings and today saw this by C. W. Jeffries:and I was reminded of this:
"
And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!...
Hushpuppy wrote: [66] "@Flint/Vasco/Slawks: I have finally watched The Darjeeling Limited! I’ve really liked it; any Wes Anderson brings me joy, but this one particularly did so, despite its bitter sweet, and even melancholy moments, especially with the aftermaths of the river rescue.."I'm glad. It's a very nice flick. BTW, one of the secondary roles - the dead child's father - is played by Irrfan Khan, an Indian actor who died last year. He was more famous in South Asia but he attained a modicum of celebrity in the West after starring in The Warrior , an Anglo-Indian independent production that received a BAFTA.
AB76 wrote: "i suspect its a casper david freidrich"Yes, Friedrich -I should have identified the artist. For more Friedrich (and one Spitzweg), see my review of Sartor Resartus
Tam wrote: "And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!..."From the landscape, I don't think they're in Kansas anymore. (Hey, no one mentioned the Oz books among favorite children's books.)
Slawkenbergius wrote: "I'm glad. It's a very nice flick. BTW, one of the secondary roles - the dead child's father - is played by Irrfan Khan, an Indian actor who died last year."Yes, I didn't know he was in that film, but I immediately recognised him and felt yet a bit sadder. I haven't watched The Lunchbox but it's definitely on my (virtual) TBW list. He was in Slumdog Millionaire too. Bottle Rocket is last on the Wes Anderson list now!
Tam wrote: "And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!..."Oh yes, it looks like it could be the sleeve art for this record. I love this song...
Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i suspect its a casper david freidrich"Yes, Friedrich -I should have identified the artist. For more Friedrich (and one Spitzweg), see my review of Sartor Resartus
[book..."
i love Friedrich, his painting of Griefswald is my favourite, it was on the cover of a Goethe novel i was reading 20 odd years ago
Machenbach wrote: "Thanks MK, but I'm too ignorant and generally rely on recommendations (or, frankly, gifts)."Very nice review. Ware had written an article on it a few years ago.
Re comics recommendations, might as well repeat this here... Of all the ones I've liked, I think you'd be more likely to enjoy the ones by Jirō Taniguchi. I've read Le Journal de mon père, Quartier lointain and L'Homme qui marche (the latter has no plot and is very contemplative). The middle one hadn't been translated into English yet, or at least this was true when I had a discussion on TLS about it a few months ago (other manga suggestions on that thread by Cardellina/Miri too). Edit: I can see now however that all 3 have been translated and are available from Blackwell's.
Wonderful description of a Frost Fair in London, 1684, from the King George 3rd collection, hope the link works:https://www.flickr.com/photos/british...
Like the previous link, this too big to attach as a photo but this is for Andy and anyone else ofcMap of Broadwater aka Brothers Water(Lake District) in 1788-1800 by Peter Crosthwaite
https://www.flickr.com/photos/british...
AB76 wrote: "i love Friedrich, his painting of Griefswald is my favourite, it was on the cover of a Goethe novel i was reading 20 odd years ago"I have a copy of Elective Affinities, unread of course, in the Penguin edition I think you're referring to.
Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i love Friedrich, his painting of Griefswald is my favourite, it was on the cover of a Goethe novel i was reading 20 odd years ago"I have a copy of [book:Elective Affinities|37642064..."
yep thats the one, mine is more black bordered version, possibly a later published edition, circa 1990s
Machenbach wrote: "Richard McGuire, Here
I only read perhaps 1 or 2 graphic novels or comic books a year, and that’s mainly because a mate of mine invariably buys me one"
Nice review, Mac. It reminds me I should read more graphic novels...
Hushpuppy wrote: "Tam wrote: "And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!..."Oh yes, it looks like it could be the sleeve art for this record. I love this song..."
There's a slight problem with the landscape ...
Bill wrote: "There's a slight problem with the landscape ... "😂
Bah, Wichita Schwichita!
(Yes, I saw your previous comment about Kansas too late; true that I have no idea what this state in general looks like! The painting was just obviously of linemen in a country with a vast expanse of rolling evergreen hills.)
Bill wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Tam wrote: "And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!..."Oh yes, it looks like it could be the sleeve art for this record. I love this s..."
Many years ago I stopped on the other side of San Francisco bridge from the city, where there is a sort of 'services' place to try and ring a friend as to which exit I should take to get back to his flat, as I had forgotten. There was a public phone but I didn't have the right change. I asked a nearby chap if they could help with exchanging money for the right change. They replied with "I'm sorry I cant help you, I'm from Kansas".... which I think rests my case in that Kansas does not follow normal rules of either geography or human conscientiousness... so I think that my 'imagined' landscape still stands...
Hushpuppy wrote: "Bill wrote: "There's a slight problem with the landscape ... "😂
Bah, Wichita Schwichita!
(Yes, I saw your previous comment about Kansas too late; true that I have no idea what this state in ge..."
I drove through Kansas lengthwise at least 15 or 20 times. It's so flat that if go to the second floor of a building, you can see the curvature of the earth. Just corn and taciturn folks
Paul wrote: "I drove through Kansas lengthwise at least 15 or 20 times. ""I've seen you fire up the gas in the engine valves.
I've seen your hand turn saintly on the radio dial.
I've seen the airwaves pull your eyes towards Heaven.
Outside Topeka in the phone lines, her good-teeth smile was winding down.
Engine sputters ghosts out of gasoline fumes.
They say "You had it, but you sold it..." You didn't want it, no.
I'm half-drunk on babble you transmit through your... true dreams of Wichita."
Soul Coughing, True Dreams of Wichita
Slawkenbergius wrote: "Paul wrote: "I drove through Kansas lengthwise at least 15 or 20 times. ""I've seen you fire up the gas in the engine valves.
I've seen your hand turn saintly on the radio dial.
I've seen the air..."
I enjoyed that.. quite spooky... I'm not sure I will be putting Witchita on my dream destination list though...
AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Bill wrote: "I follow the Twitter feed @CanadaPaintings and today saw this by C. W. Jeffries:and I was reminded of this:
"
Wow, I love that second picture."
i suspect its a ..."
Thank you:
https://www.caspardavidfriedrich.org/
AB76 wrote: "Does anyone else have a certain kind of book which helps relaxation? If so, which kind?"I'm like you, I think - if I can't get going with a more 'literary' book, then crime fiction can usually speed things up significantly. Of course, it doesn't work if the crime novel itself is no good! I've had a few disappointments in the last year or so, as well as many successes... currently much enjoying the very well written, and often funny, Dancing Bear by James Crumley. I'll review when it's finished.
Tam wrote: "Bill wrote: "I follow the Twitter feed @CanadaPaintings and today saw this by C. W. Jeffries:and I was reminded of this:
"
And suddenly 'The Witchita Lineman' sprung into my mind... and now I'm humming it!....."
Haha! As I saw the first image, and before scrolling down to the second, that is exactly what I was thinking of...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIYvH...
To start the day with a laugh and a thought:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaq3g...
Michael Rosen Don't
In the discussion of cover art, I was reminded of this edition of Nietzsche's last two books which must date from the late 60s or early 70s:
I wonder if any of our experts can identify the artist? I have forgotten who it was, and can't find the book!
In the Guardian they were discussing movies about Coming Out and I went into the comment section, to see if someone mentioned Broadback Mountain. I found another comment, instead, in which a commenter (probably sarcastically so, but being German I missed that) mentioned that :
"My favourite queer films have been made by straight folks (Toni Morrison demanded her students write about what they don’t know, thus giving birth to empathy):"
That is simply incorrect. We now understand that we should stick to our own lane and not try to imagine the lived experience of people who are diffetent (sic!) to us.
I disagree, or we would not be able to read a work of Science Fiction, most Crime Novels could not be written (or all Crime authors needed to be jailed) - and we would not have the Genre of Fantasy ..
what are you thinking? Should authors have credentials in their topic to be allowed to write about said topic?
Machenbach wrote: "Pomfretian wrote: "can anyone recommend a volume of Cornish tales and legends please?"
Perhaps not exactly what you're after, but The Living Stones: Cornwall is cool if you don't mi..."
Thanks. Will try my library now that they are open for collection.
Perhaps not exactly what you're after, but The Living Stones: Cornwall is cool if you don't mi..."
Thanks. Will try my library now that they are open for collection.
Bill wrote: "... books they first read as children and then re-read as adults or whether they discovered them for the first time as adults. I would tend to distrust such (re)evaluations in the former case. ..."I'm late joining the conversation, but I've both re-read and come to some books as an adult.
The Wind in the Willows was one of my all time favourites as a child, especially after I was a mouse carol singer in a production of Toad of Toad Hall. I've read it since and to quote Georg, "There is eternal beauty in his descriptions".
Another that I occasionally re-read as part of The Once and Future King is The Sword in the Stone, but I find Arthur's childhood less engaging as an adult, preferring TH White's study of the elderly menage-a-trois. I'm a sucker for the Arthurian legends tho'.
One that I'm often tempted to re-read but hold back on is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's the sentence, "There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill" that I remember. This takes me back to a very early time and place. I love this sort of single, minute detail.
As for books I've discovered as an adult, I read White Fang and enjoyed it. It didn't strike me as a children's book.
Similarly True Grit, which I think is often included on children's readings because the protagonist is 14 years old. Portis's book is now a favourite, especially the language. Here's the opening line:
People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.
I also read Moonfleet not so long ago and thought it was a great story, if a little old-fashioned. But Falkner's ability to induce vertigo and excitement in one memorable scene was masterful.
To paraphrase someone else on the thread, if the book is written well, it should be a great read whatever the age of the reader.
Cover art:this cover for the Forster novel i'm reading is by edwardian artist William Strang, its sort of hints at many things, the face of the waiter is a joy..
FranHunny wrote: "In the Guardian they were discussing movies about Coming Out and I went into the comment section, to see if someone mentioned Broadback Mountain. I found another comment, instead, in which a comme..."
Hi Fran, I loved Brokeback Mountain, the novella and the film. Broadback would have been a fitting title too! I think you might be right about the sarcasm, and I agree with you that if people only wrote about what they had direct experience of, it'd be dull indeed. Granted, there are things one would need to research but one wouldn't have to go full method on it.
A death in The Longest Journey by EM Forster occurs on the football field, in a sudden and rather abrupt paragraph to start a chapter, it seems very un-Forsterian and suprised meFootball isnt a lethal game and it reminded me of blackadder and the "freak yachting accident" gag....
Reen wrote: "FranHunny wrote: "In the Guardian they were discussing movies about Coming Out and I went into the comment section, to see if someone mentioned Broadback Mountain. I found another comment, instead..."
I think a clever workaround is to use as main character a "narrator" - an outsider to the things you are to talk about, so that "mistakes" are character-coherent. A non-minority friend/sibling/relative to a minority person who describes the suffering of the minority person as perceived by them, so any mistakes are character coherent.
Not quite like "Reader, I saw her hungry eyes eagerly soaking up the shining beauty of her gorgeous sister-in-law*" or some such - do not break the fourth wall. It is not the 19th century anymore.
*Yes, terrible, I know, sorry, English is not the language I write stories in, for a reason, and I made it extra terrible by adding some more adjectives and an adverb - just to prove my point that this is not what one would write.
But the character who tells the story could still be an on-looker. Mildly involved on-looker like in helping the minority character or taking their side, but still not involved enough to experience the sub-culture (sub as in subdivision, not as in "lesser than") themselves.
It’s eye injection day today, this afternoon. One would think that after thirty or more I would find it easy but I do not, the sinking cramp of trepidation gets me every time.It’s still quite eerie attending hospital during a pandemic for there are so few people about and those that are there, all covered in gowns and masks. One walks along almost empty corridors, reminds me of that empty hotel in The Shining, the Overlook and almost expect Jack Nicholson to emerge.
How foolish I am, the injections save me from blindness. When the whatever it is goes into my eye, cascades of bubbles dance and then it is almost over again. The doctor waves fingers to check how many I see, the gadget that fixes my eye open is removed, the chair tips back up and I am free until the next time.
I scuttle out, hand over eye to try and find someone to work my phone to call (I cannot read it) my ever patient husband waiting outside.
CCCubbon wrote: "It’s eye injection day today, this afternoon. One would think that after thirty or more I would find it easy but I do not, the sinking cramp of trepidation gets me every time.It’s still quite eeri..."
its good you are going to the appointments CCC, i fear there are many shunning hospitals with illnesses and disabilities right now, though i'm not saying this from a tory backbencher "unlock everything" angle
one of the day centre ladies, aged 91 fell ill in Janaury, was admitted to hospital and inevitably caught covid, her sons didnt tell her she had it till after she was discharged and on the mend, she seems fine, a tough character. But i was suprised to see a 29yo ex colleague of mine have a much more stringent hospital visit for wisdom teeth removal, she was on a ward where admittance was only allowed via negative tests, i wonder if this is the case in every hospital?
AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "It’s eye injection day today, this afternoon. One would think that after thirty or more I would find it easy but I do not, the sinking cramp of trepidation gets me every time.It’s..."
I believe that negative tests are compulsory for most visits although not mine. A limited eye clinic has remained open throughout the pandemic, cannot praise them enough.
Mod
Any readers of Josephine Tey here? Yesterday, I listened to an enjoyable Backlisted podcast on Miss Pym Disposes, which coincidentally I re-read not so long ago. The 2 hosts were new to her books while their guest, Val McDermid, said she was a long-time fan. Tey's recurring hero, Inspector Grant, investigates a number of cases and in The Daughter of Time, while in hospital, turns his attention to Richard III - was he a murderer? The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar were inspired by real events
I think I'm going to go back and revisit her books.
Mod
Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "In the discussion of cover art, I was reminded of this edition of Nietzsche's last two books which must date from the late 60s or early 70s:[bookcover:The Twilight of the Idols/The Anti-Christ|685..."
I have the same edition and it’s a detail from ‘The Isle of the Dead’ by Arnold Böcklin. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_....."
Diolch yn fawr!
It's an evocative and haunting picture. I may have seen one of the several versions at the Met in NYC (but can't remember)... I certainly did not visit the cemetery in Florence which may have inspired the painting, having been 12 on my first visit, and having children of that age or younger on the second... unsuitable viewing, no doubt, but in truth I was not aware of it being a 'place of interest'. Probably a missed opportunity in this lifetime, then.
Your link led me down a rabbit hole, and then a warren which I intend to explore later... am a bit discombobulated to learn that Hitler bought one version... more interesting links are to various schools of art and culture, which I'll have to follow up (Symbolism and Parnassianism, for example). A very rich seam for further exploration.
Thanks.
(Thanks also for your earlier review of the graphic novel 'Here', which introduced me to some interesting grammatical terms - not my area of expertise. 'Diachronic' is worth remembering and using - if I can manage it! The way language evolves over time is fascinating.)
Gpfr wrote: " Any readers of Josephine Tey here?"The Daughter of Time was perhaps the most overrated book I've ever read (voted either best or one of the best mysteries by UK and US mystery writers, respectively).
Earlier, I'd also read A Shilling for Candles for my Hitchcock project; I thought it a fairly standard "Golden Age" mystery, a story padded with red herrings (or as Edmund Wilson termed it, "excelsior") to bring it to novel length. The film, Young and Innocent, was far better; it was only in a few cases that Hitch didn't manage to improve on his source material.
scarletnoir wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "In the discussion of cover art, I was reminded of this edition of Nietzsche's last two books which must date from the late 60s or early 70s:[bookcover:The Tw..."
I really don't think that picture of 'Mouse Island' just off Corfu Town peninsular, is the model for 'The Isle of the Dead' It is a lovely little place, and very gentle in spirit, and well worth a visit if you ever go to Corfu. It is much more likely to be ' a riff' on the island off Kotor. Symbolism, as an art movement, is fascinating. You might be interested in Odilon Redon, and of course Gustave Dore is always worth a look...
EM Forster can be a very rewarding read, after a youth of serial avoidance of what i mistakenly took for foppish nonsense, i have become a real fan of Forster and his styleTHE LONGEST JOURNEY(1907) by EM Forsteris remarkably, the only one of his novels not to be adapted for the lowest art form, the silver screen. So far, i have no reason why this should be the case, its an uneasy, downbeat read but filled with superb dialogue, narratives and thoughts of the world and life
Unlike A Passage to India, this feels much more like a biographical work for Forster, in its settings and the strong, consistent homosexual themes. The main character Rickie Elliott is realistically drawn as an insecure man about to leave the cloistered world of Cambridge University and go forth into the big world, he muses and frets on life and love, while not being very likeable at all
The total absence of female "equality of presence" is a sign of the times but reminds me of the freakish world it must have been when a flutter of petticoats created fear and tension and women/girls were seen as something ghastly to be avoided or tolerated. History Today had a good article on the first Oxbridge women, who were studying throughout the Great War and the changes this brought to these male worlds
i still find the football field death very odd...unless it was rugby football(now rugby union)...puzzling, rather comic and slightly strange
CCCubbon wrote: "It’s eye injection day today, this afternoon. One would think that after thirty or more I would find it easy but I do not, the sinking cramp of trepidation gets me every time.It’s still quite eeri..."
I hope it went well, CCC... my mother apparently needs ops on both eyes to fix 'wobbly lenses' (she says) - I'll speak to the consultant before her next meeting. Her eyesight has got a lot worse since Christmas.
Tam wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "In the discussion of cover art, I was reminded of this edition of Nietzsche's last two books which must date from the late 60s or early 70..."There are several theories about the 'inspiration' for the work... probably, the artist just took a basic idea and imagined the rest (I'd have thought).
I have seen works by Redon and Doré, but not for many years... daresay I'll see a few more when I have time to follow up the subject online. Thanks for the suggestions.
Mod
Sorry, MK, I missed this yesterday...thank you so much! That's very kind of you. I'm ok, for now, but will you let know if the situation deteriorates.
Mod
Yes I am taking the Empire Builder. Tha..."
I'm jealous - I would love to be going on a trip - and I love travelling by train.
Travelling by train in the US makes me think of Jenny Diski's book, Stranger on a Train : she took 'a trip around the perimeter of the USA by train'.
Since I mentioned a musical connection with Rackham, let me do the same twice over for Böcklin: Rachmaninoff wrote a tone poem inspired by The Isle of the Dead, as did Max Reger in the third of his Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin's pictures.
There's also a Val Lewton-produced horror film of that title, starring Boris Karloff.
CCCubbon wrote: "It’s eye injection day today, this afternoon. One would think that after thirty or more I would find it easy but I do not, the sinking cramp of trepidation gets me every time.It’s still quite eeri..."
I went out at night, in the car, last week, first time I have been driving at night since the covid hit. I was diagnosed with the beginnings of cataracts a few years back, but did not see any particular deterioration, until I drove at night. Suddenly all the other car headlights were bursting out into spiking halos high into the sky. Its odd to see how much can change without noticing, as long as its done slowly!...
Hope your injections give you a new boost, to life, and reading!... take care
Tam
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor is a gem of a book. Into its 194 pages is crammed a cast of characters with whom one is inclined to greater or lesser degrees of empathy. This is the second of Taylor’s novels I have read, the first – A View of the Harbour – also on Justine’s recommendation. I liked this one even more. I’ll avoid any spoilers for any who may yet pick it from Alby’s list but it’s a glorious way to pass a few hours as I did between bed and park bench in the sunshine (the bench not the bed) yesterday to celebrate the feast of our native saint. It’s poignant without being tear jerking, gloriously witty and superbly observed.Taylor writes people really well; you’d think that might be true of most authors but hers is a rare gift of letting you know someone within a couple of paragraphs as if they are standing there in front of you, and layering character masterfully over subsequent pages. There are enviable dialogue sequences that verge on farcical and other passages of remarkable brevity describing heartbreaking loneliness.
I tittered often, frightening a nearby blackbird at one point. I was sorry to be self-aware enough to see something of Mrs Arbuthnot in myself and perhaps not enough of Mrs Palfrey's better characteristics. Strangely, though, it was a Mr Osmond I came to feel for most by the end of the book … but I’ve said too much. I’ll leave you with this teaser: “He had a glass of wine on the table beside him, but did not touch it. He sat patiently still, with his hands on his knees, as if waiting for the drink to drink itself.”
And now, I turn my attentions for the first time in a long time to A Single Man.
Our next reading group choice will be Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's a favourite of quite a few TL&Sers, as I recall. And my favourite Austen.I look forward to rereading it.
My cover image (OUP World's Classics) looks like this - with the man removed, though (make of that what you will).
Edit: The painter is Henry Raeburn and the painting is titled "John Johnstone, Betty Johnstone, and Miss Wedderburn".
Yesterday, up to short reads only, I enjoyed a 97-page novella by Swiss author Urs Widmer, The Blue Soda Siphon,
. If you are open to the idea of time travel resulting from watching a film in the cinema, it might be for you. I should add that it's not science fiction. I will definitely have to read it again, as I think that the intricacies of the shifts will get a full reveal only then.Great posts and reviews again this week. I will reread everything once the weekend has started. (Brain not quite back yet.)
Regarding graphic novels, I am not knowledgeable at all about them, but I loved the Persepolis and Maus volumes, The Complete Persepolis and The Complete Maus.
Best wishes to CCC and Tam for your eyes.
@reen: any Thursday evening feeling yet? Almost there, as you said recently.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Our next reading group choice will be Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's a favourite of quite a few TL&Sers, as I recall. And my favourite Austen.I look forward to rereading it.
My cover ..."
Hi Bl...
I'm having a very easy week by standards. Bank holiday yesterday and I was on leave today. No hardship - I finished a book and I also "supervised" some gardening; that is to say I sat on a wall sporting a green cardigan and my snake earrings (on their annual outing) and directed the placement of some stones and seeds. More demanding than you'd think. I've said before that we are not natural gardeners so if anything grows, it'll be a plus. We also have two raised beds and a cold frame in the back garden ... nothing in them yet but lengthy discussions about what may get tenure; by the time a decision is made, snow may be falling.
Nearly there...
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
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Eric C. Higgs (other topics)
E.M. Forster (other topics)
Jirō Taniguchi (other topics)
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and I was reminded of this:
"
Wow, I love that second picture."
i suspect its a casper david freidrich, bill...am i right?