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Weekly TLS
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What are we reading? 25th October 2021
Mach wrote:Is that named after The Gun Club song? If so, is that the "specific time in pop" that the book is about?Yep! Sexbeat's title alludes to the Gun Club song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-GAa... Diedrich Diederichsen is a professor now, but in this 1985 book describes the wilds and wiles of music and drug culture (from 1972 to mid-Eighties). He is a non-distanced participant and very observant narrator despite the - then - various drug hazes. I was intrigued to read descripions of Regent's Park squat villa bohemian scenes.
To me, especially his dept vignettes of the times and the times a-changing were of interest: his wry descriptions of the various ways of trying to counter the former counter culture, the sped-up absorbing of the music that came before and the eventual trend to quotation and irony - and how it felt, sometimes, just going through the motions.
There's also a chapter ("Attempt at an Apologia of Sound") where he tries to describe how sound works, starting with "My cats always liked The Residents and some intros of early The Human League albums."
I should add that I know very little of comparable English-language books (Diederichsen's is German-language), so maybe this is not new or interesting to you at all?
Edit: Hm. I think my "specific time in pop" is misphrased...
Russell wrote: "Tam (#448) wrote: "... 'Hope and the Gates of Dawn'..."Well, Tam, that is all very interesting, and I liked the poem too. There must be something in my childhood that makes me think of gates prim..."
I have ordered 'The Facts of Life' (there is quite a lot of competition for that title, to my mind) by Graham Joyce off of WOB books, so, very much looking forward to reading it. £2.99, second-hand, and free posting... thanks for the tip... less than a pint of lager in my neck of the woods. Jan Morris's book on Trieste is why I managed to divert the family into visiting Trieste in the first place. I am forever meandering along the border-lands it seems. Anyway glad you enjoyed the digression....
scarletnoir wrote (#380)It's not that I consider 'The Gambler' to be a bad book - anything by D. is worth considering - but it is far less interesting (to me) than several other of his works, probably in part because I find gambling, and stories about gambling, extremely boring.I can see why that would not appeal to you, then! And yes, there is a lot to discover with this author. Excepting one person, who always wants to read "beautiful love stories" and to whom Dostoevsky seemed "too dysfunctional" (tcha...), and one person who had very bad luck with the translation, they are all keen on more.
I hope, though, that as your group approved of 'The Gambler', they may move on to tackle more Dostoyevsky...
Regarding the translation, that one really was terrible. When we read the first page aloud, she read us her version and said that she felt she had read a different book! The language was very flat. (I had recommended a specific edition, but if you have an edition at home already, you don't buy that one, of course.) We had the same with Austen's Persuasion, which one member of the reading group declared as "boring from the start", leading to lots of ????? faces. Once she read some parts from her version, we knew why. Jane Austen does not deserve this, and neither does Dostoevsky!
It's not quite fitting, but my brain just came up with a scene from the Muppets Show, featuring Waldorf and Statler, because on hearing the better translation, our group member became quite keen on reading more of Austen.
Statler: Boo!Yep, easily amused tonight. Enjoying it, though.
Waldorf: Boooo!
S: That was the worst thing I’ve ever [read]!
W: It was terrible!
S: Horrendous!
W: Well it wasn’t that bad.
S: Oh, yeah?
W: Well, there were parts of it I liked!
S: Well, I liked a lot of it.
W: Yeah, it was GOOD actually.
S: It was great!
W: It was wonderful!
S: Yeah, bravo!
W: More!
S: More!
W: More!
S: More!
@ Mach (#387): Your mention of Summer in Baden-Baden reminds me of a book that, unfortunately, has not been translated (aaah! That seems to be my involuntary refrain today): Uniklinik., an acidic satire alluding to Thomas Bernhardt's work in all sorts of ways. It is also a campus novel (set in Duisburg-Essen, Ruhr) featuring axes and a - to me - funny leitmotif of Hegel's Phänomenologie des Geistes, which, at some stage, ends up in a wastepaper basket. It is a very weird book. Loved it.
@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:
That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluvian Macbook (I know this is not historically correct!) to search for the photos of my brief trip there. I have none at all from the Cathedral, as it would not have felt right to me to take any, but I remember it well, and your descriptions brought it back to me even more. I liked the atmosphere, and I loved to see what they had salvaged and recreated. Hope, as Russell wrote. It felt uncomfortable being in this city as a German person, you still notice on almost every corner that so much was destroyed. However, these reminders are important.
I liked the various exhibitions in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museums, especially the ones on industrial history and historic ads for consumer goods (feminists unite!) And not least, George Eliot. https://www.theherbert.org/collection...
The museum, in a special room, also presented many variants of the Lady Godiva story (which can be traced back to the 1100s) next to a painting by Adam van Noort. https://artsandculture.google.com/ass...
I only learnt about the origin of "Peeping Tom" in that context!
Looking at my old photos (I had to search for a bit, as I thought I had been to Coventry in 2009, not in 2010) made me feel a little maudlin, I have to admit. Also, I looked so b***** young then...
But then I saw your post, Mach. Many thanks, this cheered me up a lot! And I have good memories of Leeds and Sheffield (though more of clubs than concerts), so thanks for mentioning these cities, too.
Some of Diedrichsen's books have been translated, but not these Pop ones, I am afraid. https://diedrich-diederichsen.de/publ...
When I get to reading Über Pop-Musik, I will be happy to share the odd thought and quote.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluvian Macbook (I know this is not historically correct!) to search..."
You feel old? Coventry Cathedral - I went there on a school trip when it was first opened in 1962. We visited Chedworth Roman villa on the same trip.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Regarding the translation, that one really was terrible ... The language was very flat."I don't think you can pin that one on the translator. That's a fairly common criticism of Dostoyevsky, including in Russian (especially from Nabokov). Actually, you might even hear Russians say that his writing is 'rustic', or that he writes 'like a peasant'. Apparently Dostoyevsky deliberately cultivated a simple style, a sort of 'people's voice'. I very much like Notes from Underground just the same. I believe it's possible sometimes for a plain style to sometimes be good in intangible ways.
I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called
When we cease to understand the World by Benjamin Labatut which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021Yesterday I read the first chapter - the book is about various scientists and mathematicians but so much more - it’s about a scientist called Fritz Haber plus a mountain of information about cyanide and other poisons.
Haber was the strangest man, a giver and taker of life. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the Haber-Bosch process which synthesizes ammonia from nightrogen gas and hydrogen gas, a process which is used in industry to make fertiliser. This process is still used today for most production and it’s use had led to more food and an increase in the population.
But he also was responsible for the poison gases which killed so many men in WW1. The first time it was used was at Ypres in 1915 and it is recorded how everything died as well as the men, rats mice, birds fell from the air, even all the insects, terrifying. Haber is known as the father of chemical warfare for turning chlorine into a weapon of war.
The next chapter is about an astronomer called Schwarzchild and his solution to Einstein’s Theory of relativity but told in a fictional way to make it easy to understand and bring him, like Haber, to life.
Peter Schlemihl (Schlemiel), a man of "no great consequence", it appears, even to himself, visits a rich merchant with a letter of introduction and on this occasion drifts along on an outing with present company. Weird things start happening very soon...[...] not a soul deemed me worthy of notice. The company was extremely cheerful, jocular, and witty; they spoke seriously of trifles, and triflingly of serious matters; and I observed they unconcernedly directed their satires against the persons and the circumstances of absent friends. I was too great a stranger to understand much of these discussions; too much distressed and self-retired to enter into the full merit of these enigmas.(1861 translation by Sir John Bowring, full text see https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21943...
We reached the rose-grove. The lovely Fanny, the queen, as it seemed, of the day, was capricious enough to wish to gather for herself a blooming branch; a thorn pricked her, and a stream, as bright as if from damask roses, flowed over her delicate hand. This accident put the whole company in motion. English court-plaister was instantly inquired after. A silent, meagre, pale, tall, elderly man, who stood next to me, and whom I had not before observed, instantly put his hand into the close-fitting breast-pocket of his old-fashioned, grey taffetan coat, took out a small pocket-book, opened it, and with a lowly bow gave the lady what she had wished for; she took it without any attention to the giver, and without a word of thanks. The wound was bound up, and they ascended the hill, from whose brow they admired the wide prospect over the park’s green labyrinth, extending even to the immeasurable ocean.
It was indeed a grand and noble sight. A light speck appeared on the horizon between the dark waters and the azure heaven. “A telescope, here!” cried the merchant; and before any one from the crowds of servants appeared to answer his call, the grey man, as if he had been applied to, had already put his hand into his coat-pocket: he had taken from it a beautiful Dollond, and handed it over to Mr. Jones; who, as soon as he had raised it to his eye, informed the company that it was the ship which had sailed yesterday, driven back by contrary winds. The telescope passed from hand to hand, but never again reached that of its owner. I, however, looked on the old man with astonishment, not conceiving how the large machine had come out of the tiny pocket. Nobody else seemed surprised, and they appeared to care no more about the grey man than about me.
You do not need to wait for the passage where the grey man pulls three horses out of his pocket to realize that something is very strange!
Peter Schlemiel: The Man Who Sold His Shadow, after an elaborate editorial and authorial framework set up, takes you right into the midst of things: The main protagonist feels awkward in company, is not sure about his place in the world, and all this while observing (and feeling various smarts) keenly.
The subtitle "The Man Who Sold His Shadow" does not leave you guessing what will happen next. This bargain is not at all a pat exchange, though, and, intriguingly, it becomes never quite clear what the shadow stands for (the author, Adelbert von Chamisso, always refused to be "pestered with this question"!). It is not the soul, as we know it from Faust, that's about the only thing stated clearly about the shadow's essence.
Yet a shadow is irreplaceably significant in the society depicted, as Schlemihl finds out immediately, and worseningly after his dubious bargain with the grey man.
I looked round—an old woman was calling after me;—“Take care, sir, take care—you have lost your shadow!”—“Thanks, good woman.”—I threw her a piece of gold for her well-meant counsel, and walked away under the trees.The schoolboys mark Schlemihl down as a victim at once. The following passages, as well as many others in the book, reminded me strongly of Frankenstein: The 1818 Text: Schlemihl comes to the gradual relization that he is an outsider, completely removed from humanity as soon as his lack of a shadow is noticed.
At the gate I was again condemned to hear from the sentinel, “Where has the gentleman left his shadow?” and immediately afterwards a couple of women exclaimed, “Good heavens! the poor fellow has no shadow!” I began to be vexed, and carefully avoided walking in the sun. This I could not always do: for instance, in the Broad-street, which I was next compelled to cross; and as ill-luck would have it, at the very moment when the boys were being released from school.
From the concern of the first people he meets without his shadow, to feeling ostracized and hardly ever daring to leave his lodgings, we witness his chilling encounters with others.
Yet, through his bargain, he has become immensely rich, even a confident talker after a while, and a part of good society - after a move and only as long as his lack of a shadow remains unnoticed. Reader, you might suspect already that it can't remain that way... I have to say, however, that the ending surprised me a lot on my first read, though I get why it was written this way. Don't want to spoil the ending for potentially interested readers, so I will just say that the book is not as strongly Romantic as it may appear - as the author of the afterword has it: "While the Romantics of the period looked for the Blue Flower, von Chamisso became a Botanist", leaning more towards Enlightenment.
This novella made me think about difficult choices that haunt you, the role of money (excellent insights on this), belonging, othering, and possible ways out of an intolerable situation.
If you liked the passages I quoted so far, I recommend it.
Sydney wrote (#479): I don't think you can pin that one on the translator. That's a fairly common criticism of Dostoyevsky, including in Russian (especially from Nabokov). Actually, you might even hear Russians say that his writing is 'rustic', or that he writes 'like a peasant'. Apparently Dostoyevsky deliberately cultivated a simple style, a sort of 'people's voice'. I very much like Notes from Underground just the same. I believe it's possible sometimes for a plain style to sometimes be good in intangible ways.Thanks, Sydney, I did not know this about Dostoevsky's style! That's important information. I still think the translator of the passage our exasperated group member read to us is to blame, though. I was not too clear with my remark on "flat language", I am afraid.
The Gambler starts in medias res with brilliant and subtle indications of the narrator's position and various relationships between the characters:
At length I returned from two weeks leave of absence to find that my patrons had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg. I received from them a welcome quite different to that which I had expected. The General eyed me coldly, greeted me in rather haughty fashion, and dismissed me to pay my respects to his sister. It was clear that from somewhere money had been acquired. I thought I could even detect a certain shamefacedness in the General’s glance. Maria Philipovna, too, seemed distraught, and conversed with me with an air of detachment. Nevertheless, she took the money which I handed to her, counted it, and listened to what I had to tell. To luncheon there were expected that day a Monsieur Mezentsov, a French lady, and an Englishman; for, whenever money was in hand, a banquet in Muscovite style was always given. Polina Alexandrovna, on seeing me, inquired why I had been so long away. Then, without waiting for an answer, she departed. Evidently this was not mere accident, and I felt that I must throw some light upon matters. It was high time that I did so.(Translation C.J. Hogarth, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2197/...)
I was assigned a small room on the fourth floor of the hotel (for you must know that I belonged to the General’s suite). So far as I could see, the party had already gained some notoriety in the place, which had come to look upon the General as a Russian nobleman of great wealth. Indeed, even before luncheon he charged me, among other things, to get two thousand-franc notes changed for him at the hotel counter, which put us in a position to be thought millionaires at all events for a week! Later, I was about to take Mischa and Nadia for a walk when a summons reached me from the staircase that I must attend the General. He began by deigning to inquire of me where I was going to take the children; and as he did so, I could see that he failed to look me in the eyes. He wanted to do so, but each time was met by me with such a fixed, disrespectful stare that he desisted in confusion. In pompous language, however, which jumbled one sentence into another, and at length grew disconnected, he gave me to understand that I was to lead the children altogether away from the Casino, and out into the park. Finally his anger exploded, and he added sharply:
“I suppose you would like to take them to the Casino to play roulette? Well, excuse my speaking so plainly, but I know how addicted you are to gambling. Though I am not your mentor, nor wish to be, at least I have a right to require that you shall not actually compromise me.”
I thought that an excellent exposition (and, hotels again! Fourth floor was not a good place to be in, at the time...) In the translation our exasperated group member read to us, the translator somehow managed to make all this sound uninteresting and unsubtle, there was no flow.
The translation we favoured is by Swetlana Geier, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetlan.... I think that she captured his style very well, especially as the more classics- reluctant readers of the group thought that it was flowing nicely along.
giveusaclue wrote (#478):
You feel old? Coventry Cathedral - I went there on a school trip when it was first opened in 1962. We visited Chedworth Roman villa on the same trip.You are right, give - my share of ridiculousness, I suppose. (Though I feel less old when thinking of my schooldays than the 2000s, weirdly enough.) Roman villa, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ched... Oh, I missed out on that one! I can see that I should visit one day.
Machenbach wrote (#476):
I saw The Gun Club in 1987 somewhere oop North (Leeds or Sheffield probably) and it was a very strange night.Strange in which ways, Mach? I am intrigued.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluvian Macbook (I know this is not historically correct!) to search..."
I love the Godiva scaffolding!... Thanks for that. We didn't get to see the Herbert Art Gallery, though it was on our visiting list. It had gone 3 o'clock by the time we emerged from the Cathedral and then found out that the Herbert closed at 4 PM, but Dave declared that lunch was needed!... So might well be a reason to return... I feel that 'being sent to Coventry' is taking on a new meaning to me somehow, but perhaps I will leave the next visit until after I have read Graham Joyce's 'The Facts of Life'.
Its odd the feeling guilt about stuff that was done by a generation long before one's own. I used to feel very negative about my dad's role as a pilot in WWII, knowing that he was part of a team that dropped bombs on factories and the like, which must have included people as well. But at some point I realised that he was just a cog in a 'war' machine, and not the person who issued the decisions, and that it was pointless for me to hold him, personally, and emotionally, responsible. I guess I'm saying that the chain of 'responsibility' is a long one, and it's those who decide the policies who are those who should be held to account... As he said to me "we did what we were told to, and just hoped for the best"...
Tam wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluvian Macbook (I know this is not ..."
Might it be easier to blame Hitler? My dad was not as high in the chain as a pilot, but he was a radio operator who was employed "bending" signals for homing beacons for German planes. The theory being that the returning planes went off course and ran out of fuel.
Would it help to ask what would have happened to Britain if it wasn't for your dad and the rest of the armed forces? And your dad's contribution indirectly stopped British towns like Southampton, London, Coventry and Hull from being bombed.
I always say let the politicians and their children be the ones who had to be in the front line and there would be far fewer wars.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "You are right, give - my share of ridiculousness, I suppose. (Though I feel less old when thinking of my schooldays than the 2000s, weirdly enough.) Roman villa, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ched... Oh, I missed out on that one! I can see that I should visit one day.."You really should, I visited again around 10 years ago and much more work had been done on the excavations. A friend I was visiting with and I got the giggles when we viewed the communal latrines with a plaque saying how they used sponges instead of loo paper and hoping they weren't communal too! Very juvenile.
giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluvian Macbook (I know ..."
In the Luftwaffe Diaries, there is remorse expressed by many bomber crews about the Coventry bombing, it doesnt seem to have been celebrated by the actual fliers(by Hitler and co, maybe) and was an interesting part of the section on the non-London bombing of that period
CCCubbon wrote: "I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called When We Cease to Understand the World"This novel has been getting a lot of mentions (relatively speaking) in the US literary press and social media. The author was interviewed on a recent NY Times Book Review podcast ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/bo...
It was at the height of the Cold War, when I was in my most 'peacenik' phase, when I felt most awkward about my dads RAF past. I guess not helped by having the government sponsored 'protect and survive' leaflet being so prominent in the various media of the time. So advice on how to hoard water in pans and shelter under the kitchen table in the event of a nuclear war actually made me feel that there was a lot wrong with the human race and the way it did most things... Anyway I have written about this (my dads experience) in my Book of Hours... perhaps it is time to feed it into my blog... it took quite a long time for me to come round to thinking that "The past is another country: they do things differently there", and that he was not to be blamed as such, as defending yourself from attack is a justified position to take, and I then realised that I would have done the same, if I had been in that position... and yes they were brave... in that most believed that each mission was quite likely to be their last...
It also caused my dad to fall in love with poetry... and that is the story I tell..... an outcome he was not expecting I think...
AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:I think it was the same with 'bomber' Harris and the bombing of Dresden. Does it give a rationale as to why Coventry was chosen, as a target?
That's a 2010 photo from Coventry.
I just rebooted my antediluv..."
Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote: "Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "@ Tam: Coventry memories under construction - Godiva scaffolding:I think it was the same with 'bomber' Harris and the ..."
the exact line in the Luftwaffe diaries is as follows :
"on this night every bomber formation that Luftflotten 2 and 3 could muster was thrown against Coventry (an important centre of the enemy armanementds industry). 449 bombers dropped 500 tons on the city. the planes were guided by a "knickebein" transmitter on the french coast to the target"
a german bomber pilot reported in the diares of his group:
"the usual cheers that greeted a direct hit stuck in our throat, the crew just gazed down at the sea of flames in silence. was this really a military target?
Bill wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called When We Cease to Understand the World"This novel has been getting a lot..."
I was unable to access the link unless I paid for it but sure there will be other reviews. The second chapter that I read, the one about Schwarzchild the astronomer whe solved Einstein’s equation while serving in the trenches.
Haber and Schwarzchild, both German Jews, had relatives killed by Hitler later,.
Schwarzchild couldn’t believe that the singularity ( black hole) that his results predicted could be correct and he spent his short remaining time trying to find another solution. Einstein , too, did not believe they could exist and it took another twenty years before Schwarzchild was proved correct in his calculations.
CCCubbon wrote: "I was unable to access the link unless I paid for it"Supposedly you should be able to listen to these podcasts for free, but since I’m a subscriber, I don’t know how the paywall works. These are the instructions from the Times on “How to Listen to the Book Review Podcast” – don’t know whether this would help or not. The podcast is available on Google podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/search/in...
You want the Oct 22 podcast for Labatut.
From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button at the top of each podcast article.To be honest, for me the take-away from the Labatut interview was a “STAY AWAY” warning: the interviewer, whose review of the novel was extremely positive, spent what I recall as a good deal of the time asking some version of the question, “What parts of this novel really happened and what parts did you make up?” That’s a question I never want to have to ask after finishing a novel, which is why I have, by and large, given up reading historical fiction.
Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series.
1. Open your podcast app. It’s a pre-loaded app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon.
2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “Inside The New York Times Book Review” and select it from the list of results.
3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives.
4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, just tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode.
Yes it is, as I remarked before, treated in a fictional way but for me, that is the spur to look these people up and find out more about them and what they did.I have only read the first couple, one a day is plenty to think about.
CCCubbon wrote: "I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called When we cease to understand the World by Benjam..."Thanks for this, another book to add to my wishlist :)
The history of science (and medicine) is quite horrifying at times. The pursuit of knowledge has broken many ethical and legal boundaries.
Off the top of my head I can think of the retention of Henrietta Lacks' cervical cancer cells after a biopsy - no consent was sought from either the patient or her relatives; the derived HeLa cells were sent out to research laboratories. A rather excellent book by Rebecca Skloot - 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' discusses this in depth.
Before lockdown, I was in London and visited The Wellcome Centre - one of the displays was a test tube containing HeLa cells. I hope permission was sought from Henrietta's descendants to have them on display.
Burke and Hare, the infamous Edinburgh body snatchers who murdered people in order to sell their corpses to Dr Robert Knox who performed dissections at his anatomy lectures.
This happened at a time when Edinburgh was a leading centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century and corpses were in short supply - Scottish law dictated that corpses for anatomical study come from those who had died in prison, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans.
Dr Knox was cleared of malfeasance, as he claimed not to know that people were killed.
Was it you who mentioned Bad Apples by Will Dean? I've read a couple of his books (Dark Pines and Red Snow) and thought they were ok, a middling average. Sure, the great imposing cold and dark of rural Sweden sets the scene and Tuva Moodyson is a great character, but the depictions of the 'rural folk' being weird with all their idiosyncrasies makes them seem like caricatures.
Perhaps I've been reading too many crime/thrillers but when Tuva comes across the headless corpse I almost laughed. Off on a slight tangent here, but Will Dean has a head of lovely hair!
CCCubbon wrote: "... that is the spur to look these people up and find out more about them and what they did"My own feeling is that I shouldn't be required to try to re-trace the author's research in order to sort out fact from fiction. The author's already done the work, he knows what parts come from his research and which he made up: Why can't that be laid out in an afterword to the novel? I feel that something of that sort is not only playing fair with the reader but also with the real-life figures whose lives he's appropriated for his fiction.
Fuzzywuzz wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called When we cease to understand th..."Yes ‘twas. Dean’s earlier books are models of normality compared to Bad Apples!
Have you read his The Last Thing to Burn’? I found that hard to put down, wandered a bit towards the end but that was creepy. It’s not set in Sweden but in the Fens here.
Pnin is easily my favourite of the three Nabokov novels I’ve read. The narrative is very light, driven by the author’s comic portrait of Timofey Pnin, a Russian academic with sock garters. This is the sort of text that can seem a bit frivolous in comparison with heavier tomes, but the work is extravagantly well-written. Nabokov has quite a few short books, so I can see myself reading quite a few in the not-too-distant future.I’m going to now read Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis.
Bill wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "... that is the spur to look these people up and find out more about them and what they did"My own feeling is that I shouldn't be required to try to re-trace the author's researc..."
I like to look things up, it always leads you on to other things, gives you other questions, other considerations. These chapters are introductions to people I did not know. It’s the incidentals like the music played at the last concert in Berlin and children handing out suicide pills from baskets on the way out that stick in my mind.
‘ The National Socialist party elite received similar capsules at the end of the last concert given by the Berlin Philharmonic before the city fell on April 12, 1945. Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production and official architect of the Third Reich, organized a special programme that included Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, followed by Brückner’s Fourth Symphony—The Romantic—and ending, appropriately, with Brünnhilde’s aria, which closes the third act of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung,’
CCCubbon wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "I came across a reference to a marvellous book (so far) in this week’s newscientist called When we ceas..."You're going to have to stop recommending book to me, I'm so easily swayed :)
scarletnoir wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "A friend of mine sounded surprised when I told her I still use an I-Pod. It's still working, so why get rid of it...although the battery isn't holding it's charge as well, so it m..."I imported my CD's onto itunes, then onto the ipod. I suspect I may well be heading into Spotify territory soon. It's just another step in the evolution of music.
I've owned a Discman and a Walkman and my mum used to have a Hi-Fi with turntable and double cassette decks. What luxury! I've got some fond memories of my brother and I changing the speed setting on the turntable - the sound of Beetles' songs sung by chipmunks is still funny to this day....
My parents bought me a radio cassette player for my 10th birthday - I can still remember the look of horror on my mum's face when it chewed her cassette of Queen - Greatest Hits, the first time it was used.
Regarding music influencing books and vice versa, I don't think I've read anything penned by a musician or read books about bands.If I wanted to have music on in the background whilst reading, what I am reading might just influence what music to select. For some reason, jazz music is a great accompaniment.
I find it really hard to read if there is complete silence, there always need to be some kind of white noise going on. Fridge and tumble dryer noises are great as is the background clatter of cups and the hum of chatter in cafe's.
I'm going book shopping tomorrow. Having a coffee and some kind of sweet treat will put the icing on the cake, so to speak.
CCCubbon wrote (494): but for me, that is the spur to look these people up and find out more about them and what they did.Yes!
The first thing I did after reading your post was brushing up on my (somewhat embarrassingly) faint knowledge of Fritz Haber. Which led me down a rabbit hole. What I learned (a lot) provided (a lot) of food for thought.
If a work of fiction can trigger that I'll happily overlook any faults in style. story or whatever.
My first association was that this would be a good tandem read with Dürrenmatts The Physicists.
I first read it (or, rather,was forced to read it) when I was 17. I was so impressed.
It have never forgot it, it has stood up well to time. So many ethical and philosophical questions about the responsibility - and, to a degree - the lack of agency of scientists condensed in a such a short play (let me whisper it: I think it is a masterwork).
By the by my journey down the Haber rabbit hole has also unearthed the story of his wife, Clara Immerwahr, the first German woman who was awarded a PhD in Chemistry in 1900.
She took her own life in 1915. A victim of her times and her husband who represented them.
Found an interview with Labatut (in English) on the site of his German publisher:
https://media.suhrkamp.de/mediadelive...
Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote (494): but for me, that is the spur to look these people up and find out more about them and what they did.Yes!
The first thing I did after reading your post was brushing up on my ..."
Thanks for this Georg. Exactly one of my favourite kind of rabbit holes... another book to order it seems...
I wrote about Haber many years ago, I think mostly accusing him, through the Haber-Boshe process of allowing into the world exactly the sort of planet destroying processes/science that was going to poison us all in the end, by using up planetary resources that the earth could ill afford to lose... But, odds-on, if he hadn't come up with the theory someone else would have, further down the line...
"The fault dear Brutus lie not in the stars, but in ourselves"...
Am loving the first 50 pages of Occasion For Loving by Nadine Gordimer, the world of Johannesburg in the early 60s is coming to life...Set in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg a liberal family take in a young couple as lodgers, there are visits to mine dances, jazz clubs and engagement with charities for the local black people. Gordimer must have been testing the Afrikaner censors with a lot of the content, it would have certainly stuck in the craw of any pro-apartheid government official...
Occasion for Loving
Nadine Gordimer
I imagine that scientists on some new discovery must question the ethical use of the same but it must be so difficult to stop should you consider that the results would be harmful. It would keep nagging away at you for you would be unable to forget.
As is my custom, today I was reading the capsule descriptions of upcoming "holiday movies" in the NY Times (even though I ultimately never see any of the movies) when I realized that for years I've been thinking that Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson were the same person.
Tam wrote (504): But, odds-on, if he hadn't come up with the theory someone else would have, further down the line...Dürrenmatt said (paraphrased): "There is no chance to keep the conceivable in check. Every thought process is replicable."
Only a matter of time.
To be fair: 100 years ago hardly anybody would have doubted that fertilizers were a god-send for humankind.
scarletnoir wrote: "
('Is Superman Circumcised?')
Maybe, maybe not... but it is the front-runner to win this yea..."
Some people do think that Superman's creators, Seigel and Shuster, were trying for a secular version of the Moses story.
I've been reading Philippe Sands' "The Ratline," the story of Otto Wachter, an Austrian lawyer who rose to power in the Nazi Party, and vanished into hiding in Italy. The author develops an odd friendship-- well, usually-- with Wachter's youngest son, Horst, who lives in a mostly abandoned castle. Good characterizations and well-written, but I hit a real clinker today.Our author is describing the situation in 1943: "In September, as Germany and Italy and the allies signed an armistice which was followed by the division of the country...."
Huh? One, the Western Allies entered into no such armistice; two, there was no division of Italy during the war; three, even if Sands meant Hitler's allies instead of the Western Allies, it makes no sense.
This sort of observation troubles me.
Machenbach wrote: "I was entirely unsurprised that almost the very first face we should see there was my mate Biffo ...That's not so unusual when there's only a few hundred people, but there must have been 6 or 7 thousand at this one.In 1975, I was at Murrayfield with a few mates to see Scotland v Wales, along with another 104,000 people - a world record attendance for a rugby match at that time. As we pushed our way forward on the massive terrace to get a better viewpoint, imagine our surprise when we bumped into another small group of friends from Aberystwyth - the odds against must have been significant. (Oh, and we lost 12-10 - the Scots deprived us of the Grand Slam that year.)
SydneyH wrote: "That's a fairly common criticism of Dostoyevsky, including in Russian (especially from Nabokov). Actually, you might even hear Russians say that his writing is 'rustic', or that he writes 'like a peasant'. Apparently Dostoyevsky deliberately cultivated a simple style, a sort of 'people's voice'. I very much like Notes from Underground just the same. I believe it's possible sometimes for a plain style to sometimes be good in intangible ways."The point about Dostoyevsky is that he manages (through his characters and their actions) to raise profound questions about life, morality, God... you name it. He is the very opposite of the kind of 'fine writers' who use a lot of fancy words to say... very little. (I have a contempt for that style of pretentious writing.)
Interesting that Nabokov is a critic...
Edit: I have now seen some of Nabokov's comments, including this one: Nabokov judges Dostoevsky "not a great writer, but rather a mediocre one... and states that Dostoevsky's characters do not develop: "We get them all complete at the beginning of the tale and so they remain."
That is an astonishingly stupid remark - I do wonder whether Nabokov ever read D.'s novels cover to cover. For example: Why Dostoevsky abandoned his initial version remains a matter of speculation. According to Joseph Frank, "one possibility is that his protagonist began to develop beyond the boundaries in which he had first been conceived".[18] The notebooks indicate that Dostoevsky became aware of the emergence of new aspects of Raskolnikov's character as the plot developed, and he structured the novel in conformity with this "metamorphosis".
Anyone who thinks that Raskolnikov is the same at the end of Crime and Punishment as he is at the beginning is - how to put it - just a little bit dim?
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote #482: "I still think the translator (of Dostoyevsky) of the passage our exasperated group member read to us is to blame, though.There are definitely good, bad and indifferent translations of Dostoyevsky and many other authors - and it makes all the difference to our ability to enjoy those authors in languages we don't 'have' ourselves.
(Bad translation can also occur in subtitling of movies and TV series... my French is pretty good, but I also use the subtitles if there is a lot of mumbling, very rapid dialogue, or slang... and at times, there are LOL moments where the subtitler has either misunderstood or mis-heard a word or passage.)
As for 'The Gambler' - I don't remember if I mentioned this before in our last exchanges about that novel, but it's not surprising that FD dived straight in to the narrative, as he was desperate to complete the book to avoid losing control over his subsequent output as the result of a contract he had agreed after losing all his money gambling!
Fyodor Dostoevsky then agreed to a hazardous contract with F. T. Stellovsky that if he did not deliver a novel of 12 or more signatures by 1 November 1866, Stellovsky would acquire the right to publish Dostoevsky's works for nine years, until 1 November 1875, without any compensation to the writer.[2][4] He noted down parts of his story, then dictated them to one of the first stenographers in Russia and his wife-to-be, young Anna Grigorevna, who transcribed them and copied it neatly out for him.[1][4] With her help, he was able to finish the book in time. (Wikipedia)
I'm pretty sure that D. had to pause his writing of Crime and Punishment in order to complete The Gambler on time.
Bill wrote: "I realized that for years I've been thinking that Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson were the same person."Haha! So did I, for a long time - I wonder if this is a common confusion?
Fortunately, my reaction to both directors' work is the same - dislike - which simplifies things if I am considering a viewing.
Dostoevsky preferences: Yesterday evening, I asked my knowledgeable friend about his style and she agreed with Sydney on the stylistic characteristics yet enjoyable quality of the works. She said when she studied Russian at uni and later, she always liked to read Dostoevsky because these were great reads as well as comparatively easy to understand! ("Comparatively" meaning that she had to study Old Church Slavonic, too... just sayin'. Monotonous lectures at 8:30 a.m. twice a week, to make it worse.)scarletnoir wrote (#513):
it's not surprising that FD dived straight in to the narrative, as he was desperate to complete the book to avoid losing control over his subsequent output as the result of a contract he had agreed after losing all his money gambling!Yeah, that's quite the backstory. The group member who was unhappy with her translation said she had been pissed off because she felt, after reading of this, and coping with the bad quality of the writing, that she was the only one to put in any effort there! I am glad to say she was ready to revise her bad impression, at least of D.
We also know that he had made copious notes of an outline well before he had to rush the job, don't think it would have been manageable otherwise (and not least, without his partner taking on the dictation, transcription etc.).
Tam wrote
It also caused my dad to fall in love with poetry... and that is the story I tell..... an outcome he was not expecting I think...That is one lovely outcome. All poetry, or more war poetry-oriented? I cherish my The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry still. Reread it along the The Regeneration Trilogy.
Anyway, a story I would love to learn more about.
giveusaclue wrote (#485)
You really should, I visited [Roman villa] again around 10 years ago and much more work had been done on the excavations. A friend I was visiting with and I got the giggles when we viewed the communal latrines with a plaque saying how they used sponges instead of loo paper and hoping they weren't communal too! Very juvenile.Ha. These plaques can often add an extra layer of fun - not to talk of the translations!
I will try. It looks great. In my schooldays, the first Roman villa I encountered was Römermuseum Schwarzenacker, https://www.homburg.de/index.php/tour.... The guide impressed upon us how very special underfloor heating was at the time and how it worked. We were not too interested at first (stupid kids, eh), but then, in the "House of the Ophthalmologist", they showed us the skeleton of a poor dog who had been trapped in there in Roman times. Oh no! Well, we were impressed then. I will always feel for him/her/ it - and be impressed by heating systems.
https://www.homburg.de/images/homburg...
Having finished the superb The Hotel Years by Joseph Roth i am now moving onto a book i am very excited about:The Ideal World of Dictatorship: Daily Life and Party Rule in the GDR, 1971-89
This is a translation of a 1998 German language study of the DDR between 1971-1989, am amazed i hadnt spotted it before as it was published 18 months ago. Its a good size and covers the later period of the DDR leading to its collapse in 1989. The cover is a wonderful photo of slushy snow bound, deserted Berlin tenements with trabants parked and in the haze a distant church spire...
Aunts in literature often are quite the characters, aren't they? In Oscar Wilde, in Wodehouse, and in Travels with My Aunt, where you even get hotels and an aunt...Let me introduce you to Joe Sixmith's Aunt Mirabelle. Joe Sixsmith is a former lathe operator made redundant by "the economic miracle workers of the sick eighties". He now works as a private investigator, much to his god-fearing aunt's displeasure (the aunt also being well suited to put the fear of god in others):
She still regarded his post-lathe career in private investigation as a symptom of stress-induced brain fever which marriage to a good woman, plus regular attendance at chapel and the job centre, would soon cure. She'd reacted to the news that Joe had bought a mobile like a Sally Army captain catching a reformed drunk coming out of an off-licence with a brown paper parcel.(The book was published in 1999 - I suspect most of us "do the devil's work", as the aunt would put it, with mobiles now.)
Anyway, enjoying this comfort reread of Reginald Hill's Singing The Sadness. Finding myself well-entertained!
Pretty soon after the start of the book, Joe does involuntary heroics, saving a young woman out of a burning house. On waking up in hospital,
Joe looked towards the door and groaned, but only inwardly. Groaning outwardly at Aunt Mirabelle was never a good idea. In a hospital bed, it could have you on your belly receiving an enema. In her eyes, any treatment that didn't start with a good clear-out was doomed to failure.Any favourite aunts you can think of?
Glad you liked this Roth, too, AB! He is a brilliant writer, though I have only been able to take on his texts in small doses in recent years.Stefan Wolle does very good work, hope you will like the book!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_...
I quite like this cover version of the book (for its purposes), too: https://www.christoph-links-verlag.de... Yours brings some poignant reminders.
Mod
Betsey Trotwood
Auntie Mame
Tom Sawyer's Aunt Polly
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Aunts in literature often are quite the characters, aren't they? In Oscar Wilde, in Wodehouse, and in Travels with My Aunt, where you even get hotels and an aunt...."That's a good shout - that Greene is, indeed, great fun.
Thanks also for your responses about Dostoyevsky... when you write:
" The group member who was unhappy with her translation said she had been pissed off because she felt, after reading of this, and coping with the bad quality of the writing, that she was the only one to put in any effort there! I am glad to say she was ready to revise her bad impression, at least of D."
I do hope that by the 'bad quality of writing', your friend was really referring to the bad quality of translation ... it makes a huge difference. In any case, as I say - D. will appeal to those of us who value writing about life's moral and psychological issues, rather than those obsessed with long words. He proves - if proof was needed - that it is possible to consider extremely tricky moral issues without applying an overdose of 'vocabulary'.
If words are what matter to you - and I love words, absolutely! - then I advise reading a dictionary and/or pursuing any words unfamiliar to you when you encounter them in a text. It's no fun, though, to have to do that several times per sentence... draining and depressing.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Aunts in literature often are quite the characters, aren't they? In Oscar Wilde, in Wodehouse, and in Travels with My Aunt, where you even get hotels and an aunt...Let me introduce y..."
Aunt Ada Doom from Cold Comfort Farm!.. Impossible for me not to mention... and 'something nasty in the woodshed'!...
Mod
jane Austen: Lady Bertram and Mrs Norris in Mansfield Park; Anne in Persuasion and Emma are both aunts; Mrs Gardiner (aunt by marriage) and Mrs Phillips in Pride and Prejudice.
Machenbach wrote: "It's true that Dostoyevsky's novels do many of the things that Nabokov thinks they oughtn't to do, and don't do many of the things that Nabokov thinks they ought to do"I have the feeling that Nabokov was envious of Dostoyevsky. It's clear that Nabokov considered himself as a 'great novelist' - it must have been infuriating for him to see that Dostoyevsky - who wrote in a very different style - had survived over a 100 years, and was still read, discussed and revered - when he must have had some doubts about whether he, himself, would be accorded the same respect in another century.
Sometimes, people feel the need to draw attention to themselves - we've probably all seen those painful appearances by actors and 'celebrities' on game shows, where one or the other 'acts up' in a totally OTT and outrageous fashion: "Look at me! Look at ME!"
Authors don't get that sort of opportunity, but if they REALLY want to draw attention to themselves, what better way than to diss a monument?
"Look at me! I'm so great, I can criticise the so-called 'great' Dostoyevsky! I'm better than he is!"
Playground stuff, TBH.
I decided a long time ago that Nabokov was not for me... I finished 'Lolita', but didn't feel moved to take this any further - not bad, but not great. It's good that people can read and enjoy different authors and styles, as I have written many times.
I don't see why they need to try to show off by disrespecting others, though... isn't it a bit odd to be envious of a dead person? I'd rather be alive, any day!
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
Zofloya, or The Moor (other topics)The Big Sleep (other topics)
Travels with My Aunt (other topics)
Travels with My Aunt (other topics)
Singing The Sadness (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Reginald Hill (other topics)Nadine Gordimer (other topics)
Diedrich Diederichsen (other topics)
Jackie Kay (other topics)
Jackie Collins (other topics)
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The recurring Barbara Pym mentions seem to have an effect on me, by the way: Almost starting to get a nervous tick now when looking at the "P" space on the shelf and see there are none of her books there! That shall be redeemed.
Books written by musicians (good point, LLCoolJ):
Just Nick Cave, King Ink, apart from lyrics books (how I loved to pore over them - liked your k7 description, Hushpuppy!), and astonishingly many memoirs (I did not know we have that many): Alma Mahler-Werfel, Zoltán Kodály, Yehudi Menuhin, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marian Anderson, Thomas Quasthoff, Marianne Faithfull, Kim Gordon, Prince,...